God Rules and Chooses for Eternity

This is another excerpt from my book that exemplifies the need we have for our walk with God to be of humbleness and continual search for wisdom, knowledge and understanding of His ways and of His will for our lives and the lives of those we are called to lead and influence. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, 

" 8 My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. NLT

Because of King Nebuchadnezzar's haughty attempt to steal God's glory, he was brought to a humble state and the understanding that God alone rules and chooses among people according to His own purposes to carry out His eternal plan for humanity and it is very dangerous and detrimental to try to obstruct or even stop what He chooses to do. It is not our place to determine the course of our lives or the lives of others around us or how we will see His promises for us fulfilled. His plan as the Great I Am (of purpose) was conceived from the foundations of the world and he has called us to be the vessels He can use to carry it through. 

The words inside the parenthesis in the excerpt are meant to explain that it took a long time for the king to come to this point of seeing the judicial hand of God against him. The  pride that grew to haughtiness might have started in other generations before him, but the cup of iniquity was not filled to the brim until the one last time King Nebuchadnezzar expressed it and thought to steal God's glory by failing to realize that apart from God we can do nothing (John 15:5C).

Genesis 15:16b says in the New Century Version, ".It will take that long, because I am not yet going to punish the Amorites for their evil behavior." It might take some time, even several generations of sinning for God to release His judicial hand against someone, a nation, or a group of people, but one of the reasons for this is to show that He alone is God and we do not call the shots if we call ourselves true believers, and He is slow to anger and abiding in love (Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 86:15; 103:8)

Only He knows how far He chooses to take us when we surrender and yield to His will and His way knowing that we could not take ourselves to the land of promise without His help. So in order for Him to obtain that complete surrender from us He shakes the wrong foundations through a period of trials and tribulations so that the things of His kingdom and of His ways that cannot be shaken may remain (Hebrews 12:27). 

"Daniel 4:29-37 explains how King Nebuchadnezzar was brought from a state of haughtiness to a humble and contrite heart, and the understanding of the ways of the Lord. It says, ²⁹ Twelve months later (at the time when the cup of iniquity was full and the apostolic judgment pronounced by God against him was due) he was taking a walk on the flat roof of the royal palace in Babylon. ³⁰ As he looked out across the city, he said, ‘Look at this great city of Babylon! By my own mighty power, I have built this beautiful city as my royal residence to display my majestic splendor.’

³¹ ’While these words were still in his mouth, a voice called down from heaven, ‘O King Nebuchadnezzar, this message is for you! You are no longer ruler of this kingdom. ³²You will be driven from human society. You will live in the fields with the wild animals, and you will eat grass like a cow.
Seven periods of time will pass while you live this way, until you learn that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses.’

³³ “That same hour the judgment was fulfilled, and Nebuchadnezzar was driven from human society. He ate grass like a cow, and he was drenched with the dew of heaven. He lived this way until his hair was as long as eagles’ feathers and his nails were like birds’ claws.

³⁴“After this time had passed, I Nebuchadnezzar,looked up to heaven, my sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High and honored the one who lives forever.

     His rule is everlasting,

         And his kingdom is eternal.

³⁵ All the people of the earth

           Are nothing compared to him.

     He does as he pleases

         Among the angels of heaven

And among the people of the earth.

    No one can stop him or say to him,

        ‘What do you mean by doing these things?’

³⁶ “When my sanity returned to me, so did my honor and glory and kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored as head of my kingdom, with even greater honor than before.

³⁷”Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of heaven. All his acts are just and true, and he is able to humble the proud” NLT (Emphasis mine)."

To Him alone be all the glory.