May 30: ONE STEP FORWARD, THREE STEPS BACK

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its width was six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. Daniel 3:1

Several years had passed after God gave Nebuchadnezzar the dream of the multi-metal image. By His prophet, Daniel, God had supplied the interpretation, so that the king would understand the temporary nature of his empire. Archeologists have unearthed bricks from the site of the city of Babylon stamped with these words in cuneiform: BABYLON - MAY IT LAST FOREVER. The successive empires represented in the great image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream also inform every king that follows of this fact: God’s truth is infinitely greater than human ambitions of imperialism.

Nebuchadnezzar had had some years to ruminate over the lesson of the dream. With Daniel as chief advisor and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah in their respective offices, things were going well. The king began to see himself as the power behind Babylon’s rise to grandeur and glory. Not wanting to cede to the idea of any sort of ending for his empire, rebellion against God’s revelation of inferior kingdoms to follow Babylon stirred in his heart and moved him to make an image [entirely] of gold – all the way down to the feet. He had convinced himself that a real image, all of gold and not just the head (see 2:38), would override the message of the dream’s image.

The description of the statue’s dimensions given, whose height was sixty cubits and its width was six cubits, point to the use of the sexagesimal system. This system of reckoning was invented by the Babylonians. It is based on the number 60. It has certain advantages over the decimal system and is still in use today for the measuring of seconds, minutes, and hours, as well as the degrees within a circle and the measurement of angles.

As for the location of King Nebuchadnezzar’s gold-from-head-to-toe image, the plain of Dura is the same area mentioned in Genesis 11:2 where the city and tower of Babel had its beginning under the leadership of Nimrod: a plain in the land of Shinar (see also Zechariah 5:11).

Although King Nebuchadnezzar had gained an awareness of the God of heaven (see 2:47), he did not yet have an understanding of the nature or need of regeneration. Like every one of us, the sin nature that he inherited was a nature in which he had no “say”. However, the LORD does give each of us a role to play in the decision to receive a new, uncorrupted nature. Jesus has the power to put His Spirit into you and me; but first we must become aware of the need for it. To learn of my limitations is a fantastic gift—one that leads me to be “Blessed…” (see Matthew 5:3). My faith must be invested unreservedly in the character of God. Otherwise, I will continue to act upon my own common sense or to make my decisions after confer[ing] with flesh and blood. Even if I have an idea about the truth of God, this is a far cry from the incomparable gift of God’s Spirit.

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood… Galatians 1:15-16