Becoming a Sinful Beast

“Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” We have all heard the famous and often quoted saying, though some may not realize it is from the Bible. It is Proverbs 26:11. We have all experienced it or seen it happen in somebody close to us. We go in cycles of devotion it seems like. One minute we are running from our sin and pledging eternal faithfulness to God. The next, we start sliding back into old ways.
The good news is that God each time raises us a little higher out of our former self and into greater conformity with who he created us to be. Because God does not weary of showing mercy, he sends judgment, humbles the proud, and punishes sin. He does it all because he desires us to see sin how he sees it. He desires us to return to him. One particular episode in the life of Nebuchadnezzar reveals how God works the cycle of redemption in the lives of both great and obscure people.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR PRAISES THE LORD VV. 1-3
This chapter starts off with Nebuchadnezzar giving praise to God. God has done a lot in the life of the king. It is important to notice that the king did not pause and give God praise, honor, and recognition for what he had done. Some may charge that the king was being insincere based on what followed. But it is more likely that the king was as human as the rest of us. Capable of true, sincere praise of God followed by collapse back into former sin. That is what happened.

THE VISION OF THE TREE AND STUMP VV. 4-18
Nebuchadnezzar has another dream. This time it is of a tree that grows and becomes large, and then an angel commands the tree to be cut down with only the stump remaining. The stump is surrounded with a metal band. Next, the image changes, and starting in verse 15 the stump is clearly revealed to be a man, who will become more like an animal. In verse 17, it reveals that the cause of this is arrogance. It is being done so that the man will know that it is God and not himself who is the source of power and authority.

DANIEL’S INTERPRETATION AND PLEAS VV. 19-27
Daniel tells the king a disturbing fact; the dream refers to Nebuchadnezzar and not his adversaries. The dream is a warning that because of his arrogance God is about to humble him. For seven years, madness will overtake him, and he will live like a beast in the field. What is significant in this section is verse 27: “break away from sin by doing righteousness.” Daniel tells the kind that it is not too late. He can avoid the dreams predictions if he will repent and act righteously.

FULFILLMENT OF THE DREAM VV. 28-33
The king is given a year. The one day he boasts arrogantly of the magnificence of his city. The dream is fulfilled, and Nebuchadnezzar went from being king of the most powerful nation on earth to being barely more than an animal in the field. The purpose of the punishment was to humble him and to show him who really was in charge. It was also to show what sin does to you…it dehumanizes you.

RESTORATION VV. 34-37
For seven years, Nebuchadnezzar lived like an animal. Then after the time appointed by God, it says the king raised his eyes to heaven, which is a form of plea or prayer. The king is longing for God to deliver him. And God does exactly that; he restores the king’s mind. Nebuchadnezzar demonstrates that he has learned his lesson by immediately praising God. God not only restores the king’s mind, but he returns him to a place of power and authority. Once he realized the true source of his strength, he was able to be trusted with power again.

In all of this, what can we learn from the way God dealt with the king? It is sometimes too easy to say that God in the Old Testament is a God of judgment. When we look at stories like this, we do see judgment. But if we will look closely and carefully, we will discern that the judgment is part of a larger cycle of redemption. God’s judgment is purposeful, and part of his plan to draw us back to himself. So, what is the larger story? Well, the story revealed at least five things that God gave Nebuchadnezzar. And I think, we are also to believe that God does these in all our lives as well.
1. God Gives Warnings – God does not smite Nebuchadnezzar out of the blue. He sends a dream to let him know what is coming. And he sends someone who can help him realize what the dream means. There are enough indicators to reveal that Nebuchadnezzar knew what God was going to do, and why he was going to do it.
2. God Gives Opportunity – What is even more amazing was that the plan could have been changed. In verse 27, Daniel advises the king that it is not too late to turn back from the path he has taken. Not only that, but God waits a full year before he follows through on the dream. God is patient; he is slow to anger and long suffering. It is never too late to repent and return to God.
3. God Gives Judgment – God does follow through. He is not doing this to be a bully or to vent his anger.
The biblical picture is that God’s judgment is acted out to draw us into repentance. In Chapter 4 of the Old Testament book of Amos, there is a list of calamities that God sent to the people of Israel. Each followed by a repeated refrain, “Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord.” All of this is followed by Amos 5:6, “See the Lord that you may live…” The book of Haggai similarly points to God working judgment to make us aware of the destruction of sin, and our need for God. Haggai 1:7 says, “Consider your ways,” and Haggai 2:17 says, “I smote you…yet you did not return to me.” But then in Haggai 2:19 says, “Yet from this day, I will bless you…”
4. God Gives Mercy – God’s judgment is not vindictive. He is not trying to get back at us. He is trying to restore us to life and keep us off the path that leads to destruction and death. God does not stay mad. Instead, he shows us mercy. Like grace, mercy is one of those church words that we sometimes do not do a good job defining. Put succinctly, mercy is: NOT getting a BAD thing we DO deserve. Grace is the opposite. Grace is: GETTING a GOOD think we DO NOT deserve. God shows Nebuchadnezzar mercy. He has what he deserves. He is getting what he should get. God gives him what he does not deserve. God ends the time of torment and gives him back his sanity.
5. God Gives Restoration – Sometimes, we can believe that God’s judgment is a part of his love. Maybe, we can believe that God is merciful. But true restoration is something that never bothers to enter into many of our minds. You can pull the nail out of the board, but there will always be a whole in it. You can glue something back together, but you can always see the crack. I think we often think this way about God.
Though he might forgive us and take us back, he still looks down on us, because we messed up. We think he assigned us lesser roles, because we are not worthy. In short, we believe that even when God forgives he is still sort of passive-aggressively punishing us for our sins. It is important to realize that this view is not biblical. Romans 8:1 says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” God restored Nebuchadnezzar not just his humanity, but to his place of power and authority. In fact, God increased his power so that his end was greater than his beginning. God does not just release us from the prison of our own sin. He restores us to the place he always had for us. In Luke 15, it is the prodigal son who thinks he only deserves to be a slave. The father treats him like the son he is.