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Thursday, 15 December 2016

Nebuchadnezzar survives the dream

Daniel - Chapter 4. 

Nebuchadnezzar's God/god affiliation is a puzzle to me. He talks about the Most High God and the wonders He has wrought. His praise is fulsome and yet he also talks about “my god.” This is where he tells of Daniel coming to interpret his dream “(his name is Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god...).” I find this hard to reconcile with the king's acknowledgement of the Most High God.

Oh! I think I get it! Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged many gods! The Most High God, to him, is the highest of many gods!

He saw that Most High God  do marvellous things for Daniel and his friends. As the chapter unfolds with the second dream and its consequences, we find the king acknowledging that the Most High God had delivered him from the dis-ease which had him “driven from men" and eating "grass like oxen". Further, "his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws" (Dan 4:33).


Anyway, Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar survive another dream experience. And it seems that Nebuchadnezzar finally gets the right idea of God as evidenced by his beautiful Poem in verses 34 and 35.
Joyce Voysey

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