Deeper Reflection
God cannot be real to us in experience, unless God lets us experience Him in reality. We cannot know God, unless God makes Himself known to us – in the Scriptures where He has revealed Himself and in experience. Such divine revelation in reality is a gift of God’s grace. God continued to bestow such divine grace on Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4.In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar came to know that “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble”, and that when he humbles himself under the mighty hand of God, God may exalt him at the proper time (1 Pet 5:5-6). This “king of kings” (Dan 2:37) became a humiliated king in Daniel 4, who encountered God in this third time as the God who “is able to humble those who walk in pride” (v.37). Nebuchadnezzar had the issue of pride in his life which God would deal with. When God deals with the issues in our lives, His interest is not just on our issues. God wants us to know Him through His process of dealing with our issues – as with Nebuchadnezzar. But God’s dealings with us can be painful (cf. Heb 12:11).God wanted Nebuchadnezzar to know that He is the God who rules: “His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom” (v.3). God had already revealed this truth directly to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2:36-45. But Nebuchadnezzar did not get it. And so, in his pride he made a statue of gold (Dan 3:1). But now in Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar came to know this truth through personal experience as a humiliated king.