Twelve months
later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, he
said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my
mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” Daniel 4:29-30
God
had been trying to reach Nebuchadnezzar many times through Daniel, Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego. Through miraculous
dream interpretations and fire rescues, God was saying to the king, “I am
real!” However, Nebuchadnezzar never
fully surrendered all of himself to God.
When
the king said those prideful words in Daniel 4, God struck his sanity, tripping
a wire in Nebuchadnezzar’s head that made him go insane. He ran away and lived with wild animals, let
his hair and fingernails go and went from king to crazy man. What caused this?
Jesus
healed the demoniac, turning him from insane to sane. Can God do the opposite? Why not?
He knows how we are wired and what supports our senses, so He can bypass
and override our mental stability.
In
this case, the king needed to get to a place where his focus wasn’t on himself,
but on God. Our mental stability is tied
into our selfishness. If all we see in
this world is self, we have a hard time excelling in a selfish world. It wears us down and we give up hope.
At
the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my
sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him
who lives forever. Daniel 4:34
Our
mental health is tied into our worship of God not self. If we see Him clearly, we see the world
clearly, understanding truth, not lies, and find freedom through love.