“Ears that hear and eyes that see – the Lord has made them both.” Psalm 20:12

Many times I ask fellow Christians about their thoughts on the nature of God and most often they either respond by saying their not sure what I mean or they completely misunderstand me. The scriptures are pretty clear about the unchanging truths and characteristics of God and if we are to walk with God like Enoch did than we must learn how to have faith in God for who He says He is and not just faith that He exists. Yet somehow many of us miss the significance of these truths about our God and instead worship a false version of Him. For example throughout the bible we read that God is merciful. But then many of us believe that God is upset with us every time we screw up, even after we ask Him to forgive us. If we believe He is going to stay mad and punish us than we clearly don’t believe that He is very merciful. None the less, we can spot His nature through both the scriptures as well as our encounters with Him in our relationship. That is, if we are actually looking.

Recently I was reading through the book of Daniel and noticed something interesting about the story of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon and he worshipped many god’s. He had surrounded himself with many enchanters and magicians and yet when he has a troubling dream he behaves in a very unusual way. Instead of telling the magicians the dream he demands them to tell him his own dream and interpret it! A closer examination of the scriptures reveals that Nebuchadnezzar wants the truth and these enchanters and magicians have been deceiving him (Dan 2:8-9). He even goes as far as threatening to have them dismembered if they can’t interpret it. I’m assuming many Christians know this story so I’m not going to go through every detail. If you haven’t read it then I recommend you go ahead and do that now.

Today there are many people who claim to be able to interpret dreams. There is no end to the books and websites of various psychics and spiritualist claiming to know what your dream symbols mean. But when it comes to having a dream from God, He can and often will speak to us in a way that is either very specific to us or in a way that no one can understand without Him giving us the interpretation. Hence why we have the gift of dream interpretation. It seems that Nebuchadnezzar had been dealing with a similar situation with his magicians, enchanters, and sorcerers.

The First Encounter

So Nebuchadnezzar was tired of the deception and wanted the truth about this dream. Daniel receives both the dream and interpretation from the Lord and gives them to the king. But what I found interesting was how the king responded. He says “Truly, your God is God of god’s and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.” (Dan 2:47)

The king in this moment recognized not only that the God of Israel was real but also spoke out a specific characteristic of His. He is a “Revealer of mysteries”. If Nebuchadnezzar had never gotten tired of his so called wisemen then Daniel may have never had this opportunity. He wanted the truth, and he got more than he probably expected. The king learned something about this God of the Jews and praised him as God of god’s and Lord of kings.

The Second Encounter

After this encounter however the king continued in his idolatry. He knew God was real, yet still didn’t worship Him alone. Daniel 3:1 tells us that the king then set up a golden image and required everyone involved in his kingdoms administration to bow before it. The scripture doesn’t tell us what exactly this image was of but the dream he had from God had depicted him as the golden part of the statue and the next thing he does is erect a golden statue. Perhaps the image was of himself, or at least what he had seen in his dream.

He commands all of his officials to bow to the statue or they will immediately be thrown into the fiery furnace. He then says “and who is the god that will deliver you out of my hands?”(Dan 3:15). Nebuchadnezzar thought too highly of his own power. After having Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the fire for not worshipping the golden image the king saw what looked like a “son of the gods” in the fire with the three men. His second encounter comes when God shows up and delivers Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace.  Nebuchadnezzar responds “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants, who trusted in Him, and set aside the kings command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own.” The king went from thinking no one could deliver from his hand to recognizing God as the Deliverer. Whether the statue was of himself or not, this encounter showed Nebuchadnezzar who the God was that could deliver from his hand.

The Third Encounter

Nebuchadnezzar’s third encounter is when he speaks haughtily of himself and is driven from the kingdom and lives with the beast. When his reason is finally restored to him, he lifts up his eyes to heaven and blesses God. His words are “I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored Him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and He does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand or say to Him “What have you done?”

And again he says “Now I praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are right and His ways are just, and those who walk in pride He is able to humble.” This is a beautiful expression of praise for who God is. And this came in response to the king being driven mad and sent out into the field with the animals! I hate to have to say it but Nebuchadnezzar responded to this discipline a lot better than many Christians do today. Many of us want to get upset with God when something bad happens. Nebuchadnezzar praised God and recognized Him for who He was. In these final words he expresses God as eternal, Sovereign over all of heaven and earth, that He obeys no one but His own will and that He is all powerful with no one to stay His hand. Then he points out that His works are right and His ways are just and He humbles the proud.

My prayer for all of us is that God will open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and our minds to recognize who He is. Through miraculous encounters and discipline alike we learn more about Him and proclaim praise of Him in response. And that like Nebuchadnezzar we grow in our appreciation of our God and His beautiful nature. Walking away from each encounter learning something new about God’s character.