“You say, ‘I
am rich; I have acquired wealth and
do not need a thing.’ But you do
not realize that you are wretched,
pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I
counsel you to buy from me gold
refined in the fire, so you can
become rich; and white clothes to
wear, so you can cover your shameful
nakedness; and salve to put on your
eyes, so you can see. Those whom I
love I rebuke and discipline. So be
earnest, and repent. Here I am! I
stand at the door and
knock….”
- Revelation
3: 17-20
God’s Agent of
Wrath
King Nebuchadnezzar
set siege to Jerusalem three times.
He finally destroyed the city in 586
B.C. because Israel refused to submit
to his “higher” authority.
Even thought the secular mind would
say that Jerusalem was destroyed
because of rebellion against
Nebuchadnezzar, the Bible indicates
that Jerusalem was destroyed because
Israel refused to submit to
God’s “highest”
authority. (See Jeremiah 25 and
Ezekiel 14.) The destruction of
Israel by Nebuchadnezzar teaches a
profound truth: God’s
longsuffering with Israel and His
wrath against Israel is mirrors
reflecting how God deals with all
nations. (Leviticus 18:28; Jeremiah
25:12; Acts 10:34) God preserved a
record of His actions in the Bible so
future generations could understand
why “He sets up
governments and takes them
down.”
In this particular
setting, God selected Nebuchadnezzar
to be His servant, His agent of wrath
against Israel. (Jeremiah 25:9; 27:6;
43:10) God empowered and enabled the
king of the north, Nebuchadnezzar, to
destroy His city and His people
because of their rebellion and
decadence. (Daniel 9) The role of
Nebuchadnezzar as king of the
north and the office of
Nebuchadnezzar as the king of
Babylon parallels the coming of
the Antichrist. During the Great
Tribulation, Lucifer will appear on
Earth masquerading as God. The devil
will be the “stern-faced
king” from the North (Daniel
8:23; 11:36) and the devil will be
the king of modern Babylon! We will
examine these profound parallels in
our study on Daniel 8.
Three Sins
God’s patience
with Israel ended because of three
persistent sins: a) Israel violated
God’s Sabbaths, b) Israel
engaged in sexual immorality, and c)
Israel chose to worship idols instead
of their Savior. (Do you see an
end-time parallel?) Thoughtfully
consider God’s words as He
lamented the apostasy of Israel: “Her
priests do violence to my law and
profane my holy things; they do not
distinguish between the holy and the
common; they teach that there is no
difference between the unclean and
the clean; and they shut their eyes
to keeping of my Sabbaths, so I am
profaned among them.” (Ezekiel
22:26)
Also consider
God’s comments about the clergy
of Israel: “’And among
the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen
something horrible: They commit
adultery and live a lie. They
strengthen the hands of the
evildoers, so that no one turns from
his wickedness. They are all like
Sodom to me; the people of Jerusalem
are like Gomorrah… For they have
done outrageous things in Israel;
they have committed adultery with
their neighbors’ wives and in my
name have spoken lies, which I did
not tell them to do. I know it and am
a witness to it,’ declares the
Lord.” (Jeremiah 23:14;
29:23) Therefore this is what the
Sovereign Lord says: ‘I myself
am against you, Jerusalem, and I will
inflict punishment on you in the
sight of the nations. Because of your
detestable idols, I will do to you
what I have never done before and
will never do again. Therefore in
your midst fathers will eat their
children, and the children will eat
their fathers. I will inflict
punishment on you and will scatter
all your survivors to the
winds.’” (Ezekiel
5:8-10)
We learn from Isaiah,
Jeremiah and Ezekiel why God’s
anger with Israel reached a boiling
point. His holy name had been
profaned among the nations of Earth
by Israel’s decadence. As
representatives of the Most High and
trustees of the everlasting gospel,
Israel degenerated to such a decadent
condition that God could no longer
use Israel as His representatives.
Destruction was the only solution.
Therefore, God Himself raised up a
“servant-destroyer,” the
king of Babylon, to destroy His city
and His people.
The Vanished Vision
Daniel and his three
friends, Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego, were taken from Jerusalem
as prisoners of war during the first
siege of Nebuchadnezzar in 605 B.C.
Shortly after they arrived in
Babylon; God exalted Daniel and his
friends before King Nebuchadnezzar
through a curious turn of events. One
night, God gave Nebuchadnezzar a
vision that outlined the remaining
course of human history. (Daniel 2)
Essentially, the vision consisted of
a great statue of a man that was made
out of various materials. At the end
of the vision, a great rock that came
out of the sky smashed the statue to
pieces. When the king awoke, he
became agitated for two reasons.
First, Nebuchadnezzar knew that he
had received an important vision but
the could not remember what is was.
He thought it was from Marduk, the
god of the Babylonians. Second, as
the king fretted over the loss of
memory, he realized that he had no
other option than to ask the clergy
of Babylon for help. The king did not
have total confidence in the
“wise men” of Babylon and
he anticipated a skirmish with them.
To stop this before it started,
Nebuchadnezzar made it clear that he
would not tolerate any delay or
double talk on their part.
Behind the scenes, the
God of Heaven was unfolding a plan to
exalt His holy name throughout the
world. Nebuchadnezzar’s vision
was from the God of Heaven, not
Marduk, and it was the God of Heaven
who gave the king amnesia. By doing
this, God made fools of
Babylon’s clergy and at the same
time revealed the impotence of
Marduk. Even though the vanished
vision agitated the king, the
agitation by that vanished vision
became the means through which young
Daniel became exalted to a position
close to the king.
God Is So Clever
After rising from bed,
and I am sure, pacing the floor,
Nebuchadnezzar called an emergency
meeting for all the wise men of the
palace. Suspecting lame excuses and
weasel words, Nebuchadnezzar
confronted his wise men with these
words: “So the king summoned
the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers
and astrologers to tell him what he
had dreamed. When they came in and
stood before the king, he said to
them, ‘I had a dream that
troubles me and I want to know what
it means.’ Then the astrologers
answered the king in Aramaic, ‘O
king, live-forever! Tell your
servants the dream, and we will
interpret it.’ The king replied
to the astrologers, ‘This is
what I have firmly decided: If you do
not tell me what my dream was and
interpret it, I will have you cut
into pieces and your houses turned
into piles of rubble. Butt if you
tell me the dream and explain it, you
will receive from me gifts and
rewards of great honor. So tell me
the dream and interpret it for
me.’ Once more they replied,
‘Let the king tell his servants
the dream, and we will interpret
it.’ Then the king answered,
‘I am sure that you are trying
to gain more time [so that you
can create another one of your
incoherent riddles], because you
realize that this is what I have
firmly decided: If you do not
[immediately] tell me the dream,
there is just one penalty for you. [If
you do not tell me the dream, I will
know that] You have conspired to
tell me misleading and wicked things
[during past times], hoping the
situation will [favorably] change
[in each instance to fit your
predictions]. So tell me the
dream, and I will know [beyond
doubt] that you can interpret it
for me.’” (Daniel
2:2-9, insertions mine)
Nebuchadnezzar was no
dummy. Consider his speech to the
wise men. If the wise men proved to
be a bunch of clever liars, he would
destroy them. If they really did have
supernatural connection with Marduk, as
they had claimed, they would be
rewarded. The astrologers, magicians,
sorcerers and enchanters represented
Babylon’s diverse religion and
they claimed from time to time, to
have received visions from Marduk on
behalf of the king. Their claims
of contact with Marduk almost led to
their demise.
False Prophets
In ancient times,
kings often sought out the services
of clergymen as counselors and
advisors. For example, Jezebel
employed 450 prophets of Baal. (1
Kings 18:19) Even as late as the
fourth century A.D., Constantine
depended heavily upon the advice and
flattery of the theologian, Eusebius.
Clergymen were important because
ancient rulers believed their
prosperity and power depended on
staying within favor of “the
gods.” To earn their
“salt,” clergymen had to
walk a fine line. They had to say
things that flattered the ego of
their employer and they had to utter
prophecies that could not prove to be
embarrassing. For this reason,
“wise men” were notoriously
hard to “pin down.” By
using crafted “weasel
words,” they always had an
“out” hidden somewhere in
their riddles and prophecies.
In ancient times, the
highest rank among the clergymen was
that of a prophet. (Remember Balaam?
See Numbers 22.) Any person who had a
connection with “the gods”
was highly honored, respected and
paid well.
It is ironic that
God’s prophets in Israel
received the opposite fate.
God’s prophets were often stoned
or executed because Israel’s
kings did not want to hear the truth!
(Matthew 23:37) Babylon’s
prophets were well educated and they
presented their messages to
Nebuchadnezzar with such slippery
words that their prophecies always
seemed to come true no matter how the
situation unfolded. When Daniel stood
before the king, repeated the
forgotten vision, and declared its
interpretation, the king immediately
recognized the veracity of
Daniel’s words. Daniel was a
“true” prophet speaking
clearly and decisively. He did not
use weasel words! To keep Daniel
close, Nebuchadnezzar promoted Daniel
above all the prophets in Babylon.
Keep this thought in
mind. A false prophet is a person who
claims to speak for God when God has
not spoken to that person. Every time
Israel drifted away from God, she
became full of false prophets and
this made God angry. Men were saying
“God showed this to me,” or
“God said this to me,” when
in fact God had said nothing or shown
nothing. False prophets make God
angry because the predictions or
false prophets do not come to pass.
Therefore, it is only a matter of
time until God’s Word is defamed
and considered worthless when
falsehoods are uttered in His name.
God promises to destroy anyone who
uses His name for the sake of
credibility. (See Ezekiel 13.)
Lucifer is given the title,
“false prophet,” in
Revelation 19:20 for this very
reason. The devil will speak out of
his own evil imagination while
masquerading as God!
Therefore, in an
effort to stay within the king’s
favor (and earn their keep),
Babylon’s prophets made up
fables and riddles to please and
flatter the king. However,
Nebuchadnezzar was smart enough to
know that a dream cannot be validated
or studied by other people, and
although a false prophet can say that
he has received a vision, no one can
prove otherwise if the message is not
clearly stated. (See also 1 Kings
18:22 and 2 Kings 3.) Therefore, when
Nebuchadnezzar demanded the wise men
to reveal the vanished vision, he
turned the tables on them. There was
no room for deception. The king
reasoned that if his wise men really
had contact with the gods, if they
received visions as he had, and if
they had the ability to interpret
visions from Marduk, then they should
be able to describe and interpret the
vision that Marduk had given the
king.
Therefore, the king
called his wise men to his throne and
he confronted them as a request that
left no wiggle room. When the wise
men heard the demand of the king,
they knew they were in serious
trouble. They would not be able to
weasel their way out of this
confrontation. Consider their
defense: “The astrologers
answered the king, ‘there is not
a man on earth who can do what the
king asks! No king, however great and
mighty, has ever asked such a thing
of any magician or enchanter or
astrologer. What the king asks is too
difficult. No one can reveal it to
the king except the gods, and they do
not live among men.’ This made
the king so angry and furious that he
ordered the execution of all the wise
men of Babylon.” (Daniel
2:10-12) Can you imagine being
summoned to the palace for an
emergency meeting only to discover
that your execution is minutes away?
In the presence of Nebuchadnezzar,
all the wise men of Babylon were
forced to admit their deceitful ways
and failure. How clever of the God of
Heaven to have the wise men confess
with their own mouths the impotence
of the Babylonian religion. When the
decisive moment of truth came, the
clergy of Babylon were disgraced and
the king was justifiably furious with
them.
Marduk Is Not a God
Before God exalted His
holy name throughout the empire, He
chose to demonstrate that Marduk was
“not a god.” It is amazing
how a forgotten dream turned the
world of Babylon’s clergy upside
down. Minutes before the vision took
place, the prophets of Babylon were
highly paid and widely respected as
“wise men.” After meeting
with the king for a few moments, the
clergymen of Babylon were forced to
confess their impotence and a death
sentence was hung over their heads. I
am reminded of Paul’s words, “But
God chose the foolish things of the
world to shame the wise; God chose
the weak things of the world to shame
the strong.” (1 Corinthians
1:27) Do you see an end-time parallel
here? (Few, if any of the 144,000
will be theologians; yet, they will
embarrass the clergy of the world.)
Remember, the point of
this story is that God wanted to
vindicate His holy name before the
nations of Earth. He wanted the whole
world to know that He was a God of
love and salvation, a God of mercy
and justice, a God of fairness and
truth, a God of compassion and
majesty. Unfortunately, the opposite
had occurred. The Jews had made
enemies of almost everyone on Earth.
They had slandered and profaned the
exalted name of God, trampled upon
His law, and rejected every prophet
He sent to them. Therefore, God
implemented a plan to restore His
good name and He chose to use the
mouth of a heathen king to do it! A
sovereign God can make a servant out
of anyone or anything.
The Death Decree
News of a sudden and
unexpected death decree for all the
wise men of Babylon flew from the
palace of Nebuchadnezzar as fast as a
horse could go. The “news
media” was on the story in a
heartbeat. The threat of death for
all the wise men of Babylon did
something that Nebuchadnezzar would
later regret. The king unwittingly
informed the whole world of the
impotence of Babylon’s wise men
by putting a death decree on their
heads. Even worse, the entire kingdom
became eager to know the contents of
a vision that had vanished from the
king’s memory.
Daniel Exalted
Through a series of
providential events, Daniel
eventually stood before the king. He
not only revealed the vanished
vision, but he also interpreted the
vision for the king. This pleased the
king more than words can express.
When the king heard Daniel’s
testimony, he was thrilled. “Then
King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate
before Daniel and paid him honor and
ordered that an offering and incense
be presented to him. The king said to
Daniel, ‘Surely your God is the
God of gods and the Lord of kings and
a revealer of mysteries, for you were
able to reveal this mystery.’
Then the king placed Daniel in a high
position and lavished many gifts on
him. He made him ruler over the
entire province of Babylon and placed
him in charge of all its wise
men.” (Daniel’s 2:
46-48)
A few hours later, the
king had a change of heart. He must
have grimaced as he faced three
sobering truths: First, Daniel had
informed the king that Marduk did not
give him the vision.
Nebuchadnezzar’s vision came
from the Most High God of the Jews,
those despicable captives from
Jerusalem. How could these captives
have a God greater than the god of
the Babylonians? Second, Daniel told
the king that the God of the Jews
was sovereign over the kingdoms of
the world, even Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar was told that God sets
up kings and He takes them down,
according to His sovereign
authority. Nebuchadnezzar may have
been somewhat flattered to learn that
the Most High God of Heaven who had
given him a throne. However,
the reality of Daniel’s words
did not sink in. Nevertheless, God
wanted Nebuchadnezzar to know that he
had not gained the throne of Babylon
by human prowess, but this lesson
would not be learned until after the
king spent seven years living with
animals. (See Daniel 4:16; 5:21.)
The third truth that dawned on
Nebuchadnezzar was the most chilling
of all. Daniel told the king that his
kingdom would be destroyed in days to
come and another kingdom would rise
to take its place. As the king
churned over the vanished vision and
the train of events that it produced,
he must have concluded his vision was
more of a nightmare than a revelation
from God.
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