By: Steve Wilmot
Edgerton, Ohio
There are gods everywhere calling out they can provide what we need to satisfy the deepest longings of our soul. Their names are success, health, money, status, marriage, friendships, sex, education, sports, video games, food, shopping.
But anyone who chooses one of these gods learns all they offer is bluster. False advertising.
Recently, I learned something important about putting and keeping God as the lone God of our lives. Not clinging to other gods.
Not sharing loyalty to God and a few other gods. But clinging to God alone. Stripping away all rivals to complete devotion to him.
In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar sent a letter to “the peoples, nations and men of every language who live in all the world” (vs. 1). In it he detailed an eye-opening experience he had that forced him to determine who he would acknowledge as the “Most High God” (vs. 2-3).
He had a dream; his magicians and wisemen couldn’t interpret it; Daniel entered to explain the meaning of the dream to him.
The punch line is Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom will crumble for a while, and he will wander among the animals and plants “till seven times pass by for him” (vs. 16). Many Bible commentators state that seven “times” is seven years.
The purpose for these seven years is “so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men” (vs. 17). It’s about leading Nebuchadnezzar and all peoples to…
•See God is the real God,
•Worship and follow him as God, and
•Reject the gods they’d been worshiping and following.
Verse 28 reveals God gave Nebuchadnezzar one year to correct the direction of his life. Instead, he continued to worship the gods he always had and to boast of his accomplishments and majesty.
“The words were still on his lips when a voice came from heaven… Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled” (vs. 28, 33). Driven away from people, he lived among the animals and ate grass for his food. His hair and nails grew so he even looked like an animal.
But after seven years, Nebuchadnezzar “raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever” (vs. 34).
Mission accomplished. It sounds like he came to the Most High God just in time too because in the next chapter, his son Belshazzar is king. Nebuchadnezzar is not mentioned again. It makes sense to assume he probably died shortly after the events of Chapter 4… perhaps as a genuine believer.
“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt the King of heaven, because everything he does is right, and all his ways are just” (vs. 37).
Wouldn’t it be interesting to hear “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey used to say? Did Nebuchadnezzar put aside all the gods he’d worshiped his whole life and devote his loyalty and obedience to the one true God?
Did he attempt to mix his allegiance between the Most High God and his other gods, shuffling from one to another depending on the day?
Did he forget the lesson of this experience over time and return to his pre-experience life where he had nothing to do with the Most High God and worshipped false gods and himself again?
We don’t know the answers because Daniel doesn’t tell us. What matters is your answer. Have you chosen God alone as the Lord of your life?
Are you ignoring him and making other things the chief pursuit to give your life meaning and purpose? Does God and other lesser gods get equal billing?
Jesus made it clear. “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6.24).
Like Nebuchadnezzar, you will pick God Most High as your God one day. “We will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written, ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God’” (Romans 14.11-12).
The only question is will you pick him while you’re still alive or after you’ve died. Will you willingly surrender to the lordship of God or be forced to at his judgment seat.
Timing is crucial because it will determine your eternal destiny. Choose God now while you still have time and become his fully devoted follower.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.
