Waiting for a “Nebuchadnezzar Moment”.

I’m waiting for a “Nebuchadnezzar moment”. Since the evening of July 13, 2024 at around 6:11pm I have been waiting for it. I haven’t seen it yet. Still waiting.

Obviously, I need to explain myself.

     Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon from 606 BC to 562 BC.  He was the one primarily responsible for the deportation to Babylon of the people of the Southern Kingdom of Israel known as Judah in 606, 596 and 586 B.C. He figures prominently in the book of Daniel. It is in Daniel where we find the “Nebuchadnezzar moment”.

     In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream of a giant image of a head of gold, a breastplate of silver, torso and thighs of bronze, legs of iron and feet of iron mixed with clay.  Daniel alone is able to reveal and  interpret this dream to Nebuchadnezzar. When God shows Daniel what the dream and interpretation are Daniel blesses God and tells us that the Most High God selects and raise up leaders as He wills (Daniel 2:20-22).  The head of gold, Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar, is the kings himself.  In the end Nebuchadnezzar proclaimed   “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery” ( Daniel 2:47). This a powerful proclamation by Nebuchadnezzar about God’s existence but it is not the “Nebuchadnezzar moment”  I am speaking of.

     Regretfully, the interpretation of the dream goes to Nebuchadnezzar ’s head. He creates a great image based on the dream and requires everyone to bow to it or be thrown into a fiery furnace. Shadrach,  Meschach and Abenego, three Jewish men and colleagues of Daniel, refuse and are thrown into the fiery furnace. God delivers them causing Nebuchadnezzar to say “Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way” (Daniel 3:29). Amazing words but not quite the “Nebuchadnezzar moment”  I’m thinking of.

     When we get to chapter four of Daniel we have some high hopes for Nebuchadnezzar. Regretfully he gives an account of yet another dream whose interpretation he appears to ignore. In interpreting the dream Daniel admonished him saying  “Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity” (Daniel 4:27).

Sadly, Nebuchadnezzar’s two encounters with the Most High God don’t seem to have impacted him much for he says just 12 months after the dream:

 “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” ( Daniel 4:30)

     Though he knows that the Most High God is indeed the Most High and there is no God like this God, he has not humbled himself before this God. Nebuchadnezzar is still full of himself. He is self-reliant. He is arrogant. But God is still working on him.

     Daniel 4 goes on to record God’s extraordinary humbling of Nebuchadnezzar in accordance with the dream he had.  The king loses his sanity, loses his dignity and loses his position as the king. This occurs overnight and lasts for seven years. The text reads:

“Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws” (Daniel 4:33).

     At the end of this incredible season and lesson in humility when Nebuchadnezzar came face to face with his mortality and God’s sovereignty, he expresses genuine, life changing humility. He gives testimony to this saying: “And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honored him that lives for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation” (Daniel 4:34).  He goes on to say, “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase” (Daniel 4:37). 

     Wow. This is the “Nebuchadnezzar moment” I have been talking about. It is more than an affirmation of who God is. It is more than a recognition of what God can do. It is a personal public confession of what God is doing in the private life of one man, king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

     I don’t know Former President  Donald Trump, now presidential candidate Trump personally. I’ve never even met him casually. I don’t claim to know his heart. More than any other politician in my lifetime though, he reminds me of Nebuchadnezzar. He, like Nebuchadnezzar, created an empire which he boasts about. He, like Nebuchadnezzar, has held the highest office in the world. He like Nebuchadnezzar seems to be incredibly proud, self-sufficient, and arrogant. A victim in some ways of his own successes. He and Nebuchadnezzar have also both been formers.  Trump as president, Nebuchadnezzar, as king. And one more thing, they both have had an incredible moment of clarity regarding their own mortality and God’s sovereignty and mercy.  

     I have watched and listened closely over the last few weeks since July 13, 2024. In a field in Pennsylvania the 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump should have had his brains blown out not just his ear grazed.  God spared him. Mr. Trump came face to face with his own mortality and God’s sovereignty and grace. I have watched and listened for humility, for a personal public confession of a private change, for a “Nebuchadnezzar moment”. I’m still watching, I’m still waiting.

        On March 30, 1980, a would-be assassin’s bullet just missed the heart of President Ronald Reagan. It broke a rib and caused massive bleeding. Thankfully Reagan survived but just barely. He had come face to face with his own mortality and God’s sovereignty and mercy. In one of his first speeches after the attempt Reagan spoke about this saying “I have decided that whatever time I may have left is left for Him.” Those close to Reagan say he was a different man after that faithful day. He didn’t take his life for granted or his life’s mission casually. He experienced a” Nebuchadnezzar moment”, and he was never the same.

     I pray daily for former President now candidate Trump. I pray for his safety and the safety of his family. I pray for his personal salvation. I pray for him to have a “Nebuchadnezzar moment”, a personal public confession of a private change. Please watch and pray with me. God is still working on him.

Blessings,

Pastor Dave Watson

Calvary Chapel

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