Saturday, August 13, 2011

Not Only Restored but Enhanced

Nebuchadnezzar was a great and mighty king – God even acknowledged that to be true.  But he had a problem of taking the credit instead of giving the one true God the praise and glory.  God came to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream telling him that he would be driven from dwelling with man and would eat grass with the beasts of the field.  Nebuchadnezzar continued on his path of self-glory and one year after the dream he said, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?”  And true to the word of God, that very hour Nebuchadnezzar was driven from men and did eat grass with the oxen and his hair became as eagles’ feathers and his nails like bird claws.  It is obvious to me that God caused him to become crazy, insane, loony, mucho loco, however you want to describe it.  A sane person is not put out with the beasts of the field to eat grass.  Say I were an advisor of the king and he went wacko, he would be a total write off in my book.  We would install another king and move on.  If that king tried to come back to be re-installed as king – I would probably recommend that he be locked up – for his safety and those around him.  After all, what kind of respect can a man that was eating the grass with the oxen get?  Again as the king’s advisor, if asked about the possibility of him once again being the ruler of a great kingdom, I would tell you that there was no chance of restoration, no opportunity for redemption, absolutely none.  But God had other plans.  After a time, God came again to Nebuchadnezzar and restored unto him his understanding and reasoning.  It was then that he gave God the glory and praise.  Not only did God restore unto him his understanding and reasoning but also his honour, the glory of his kingdom, his counselors, and his lords.  Not only was all restored but EXCELLENT majesty was added to him.  Even his advisors who had written him off as a lost cause regained their respect for him.  The wise men of the kingdom sought him out for his brilliance.

I believe God reminded me of this because of things that have been weighing quite heavily on my mind.  There are things that I have been praying about and I have often wondered, “can it really be as God has shown me?”  “How is it possible to redeem and bring life out of a past that was filled with bad choices and poor decisions?” “Can a reputation really be restored?”  This story of Nebuchadnezzar tells me that God can redeem and bring life out of anything.  If he can cause the wise men, counselors, princes of a mighty kingdom to seek the council and wisdom of a man who had just gone insane, he can bring honor to any person who seeks to put God before all.  If he can add majesty to a man who ate grass with the cattle, he can restore a reputation.  It doesn’t matter what has happened in our past, what poor decisions we have made or even what people think of us, when we put God first and give him the honor and glory, he will restore unto us everything that we need to be an effective worker in his kingdom.  The key is, like with Nebuchadnezzar, to give God the glory, praise and honor and to put him before all. 

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