If I believe that my wife is having an affair with our next-door neighbor, this will profoundly transform my life in every way. Likewise, what we believe about ourselves and God will severely alter our lives. The great King Nebuchadnezzar discovered this in a very dramatic way. He had built perhaps the greatest empire in the world at that time and Babylon, one of the marvels of the world. However, he had a disturbing dream whose message would transform his life. He therefore called for the Hebrew prophet Daniel to interpret his ominous dream:
Daniel 4:24–26 “It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king, that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed (returned) to you from the time that you know that Heaven rules.”
The king would go mad and believe himself to be an ox seeking pasture. This “psychosis” would prevail for seven years until he would learn a rare truth but needful truth about himself and God: that God ruled and not the king:
Daniel 4:29–32 At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox.
At the end of the seven years, God restored his mind and had profoundly changed his beliefs. (Interestingly, these events coincide with an archeological finding that this king had disappeared from his thrown for seven years.) What follows are the unlikely words of the king explaining his transformation, Scripture making room for a pagan’s testimony:
Daniel 4:34–36 “At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me…for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
The king had come to the very beliefs that God required. God is all-powerful. His kingship would prevail, as the Apostle Paul had preached on Mars Hill:
Acts 17:26–27 “And [God] made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.”
Paul even explained his own life and even nations in terms of the mercy of God:
1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
2 Corinthians 3:5–6 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant.
Isaiah 40:17, 22-23 All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness…It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
Galatians 6:3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
According also to Jesus, self-confidence is self-deception?
John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
What are the consequences of pride, the belief that we are morally superior?
Luke 18:9–14 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Pride and narcissism are destructive of all relationships. It’s an addiction that needs constant feeding. It takes many forms like always having to be right:
Proverbs 16:2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit.
How do we humble ourselves? We cannot! Our addiction to self-glorification is so powerful that only Jesus can undermine this malignant kingdom, and this requires healthy amounts of suffering:
2 Corinthians 4:8–11 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
The king had to first be humbled and so must we. Lest the Apostle Paul become proud because of the wisdom he had been given, God allowed Satan to afflict him and even refused to heal Paul:
2 Corinthians 12:9–10 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
This narcissistic addiction can return at any time if God stops pruning us back, but I trust that, by His mercy, we will abide.
