the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 5 of 5
Daniel 4:1-18
This chapter gives us, without comment, a proclamation by Nebuchadnezzar – a speech truly quite different from those usually made by heads of state! It consists rather of a testimony rendered before all the inhabitants of the world. In our measure, let us not fear to tell aloud what the Lord has done for us.
The king begins by recalling his former condition. He was at peace (v. 4) – but it was a deceptive peace; he was flourishing – but a man’s life does not consist in his possessions (Luke 12:15); all that the Most High God had put into his hands had only served to feed his pride and self-satisfaction. To wrest him from his false security, a dream is sent to him which has the happy result of frightening and distressing him (v. 5). A salutary fear, this! Anxiety is often the first sign that God is working in the conscience. But once again it is only after having exhausted every human resource: magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans and soothsayers, and when their powerlessness has been demonstrated (2 Timothy 3:9), that Nebuchadnezzar is ready to accept Daniel’s interpretation. He discerns in him "the spirit of the holy gods" (vv. 8, 18; cf. Genesis 41:38). Only the Spirit of God can explain the Word of God (1 Corinthians 2:11).
