The New Babylonian Empire ~ Part 2

In the last history article, I started writing about the Assyrian Empire. Then I got ambitious and tried to write about the New Babylonian Empire in half a post, but I got distracted by the book of Daniel. So, I saved the rest of the New Babylonian Empire for this article.

One other thing, since I am getting way ahead of myself in history articles, I will write about biblical history picking up from the Beginning of Time series. I haven't talked about biblical history since the Tower of Babel. Honestly, after Sumer I should have just started there. I will write about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph and then move onto Egyptian history to pave the way for the Exodus and Israel's journey to the Promised Land.

Hopefully, after all of that, I'll be left with writing about all those Israelite kings and eventually reach the Assyrian and Babylonian Captivity. After that, we'll get into the specifics of the latter part of the Persian Empire since it is so intertwined with the Book of Esther and some of the books of prophecy in the Old Testament.

I'm actually just writing all of that out for my benefit or I'll forget and soon be onto Greece or Rome by accident. Anyways, we still have Babylon and more of the Book of Daniel to discuss, so let's get to that.

We left off last time after Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream. (P.S.) I am really hating Nebuchadnezzar's name right now. Daniel 3 does not have Daniel as the main character, but his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego instead. Nebuchadnezzar had placed all three of them over a province as one of the verses explain.

Nebuchadnezzar was a very prideful person and did and said a lot of things that were to glorify himself and his works. This would cause him a lot of problems later in life. In this chapter, he decided to erect a golden statue to himself. This statue was about 90 feet tall! Some people think that he got this idea since his kingdom was the golden head from his previous dream.

Basically, his new law was that when the music played, everyone must stop what they were doing and bow down to this statue or else they would be thrown into the fiery furnace. Of course, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego remained faithful to God and refused to worship this statue.

Word got to the king, and he was extremely angry. He called them before his court and asked them if the accusations against them were true. And as any Christian should address their authority, they respectfully told him that they would not worship the statue and that they trusted God instead of being afraid of the king's punishment.

Nebuchadnezzar really didn't like that answer, so he told his servants to crank the fiery furnace to seven times hotter than it currently was. The servants threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the furnace. It was so hot that those servants died on the spot.

Then Nebuchadnezzar saw something that shocked him. He asked his servant to confirm that he only threw three men into the furnace. The servant confirmed his statement. But he saw four people inside the furnace and one of them looked like the Son of God. I don't know how he knew that, but that was his description.

He called for them to walk out of the furnace, and they did without a single hair on their head or thread on their clothes being burnt. Nebuchadnezzar immediately said that anyone who spoke badly about the one true God (although he didn't know that yet) would be mutilated and their homes destroyed. That's a little over the top for someone who doesn't even know who God is. And Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego got a promotion.

The next chapter (Chapter 4) is written by Nebuchadnezzar himself. It's a very rare occasion when secular history (I mean, history that agnostics pick and choose to tell to omit any sign of God) meets biblical history (I mean, history as told in the Bible). And of course, in this chapter, Nebuchadnezzar has yet another dream.

This time he dreamed about a tree that grew very tall and provided housing for all the animals and birds. Then a watchman yelled to cut down the tree to a stump and to give an animal's heart to a man. Nebuchadnezzar, not learning his lesson, decides to call all of his sorcerers and magicians. I would have thought that he fired them a long time ago since they are repeatedly useless. They couldn't interpret his dream this time also. I kind of doubt they were ever able to interpret anything in the first place.

Finally, Daniel comes in and interprets the dream. The tree is Nebuchadnezzar who has grown very strong, but because he is so prideful, he will be cut down for seven years and will become as an animal. Nebuchadnezzar was the king who really brought Babylon to its height. He built the Hanging Gardens for his wife as well. But because he never recognized God as the source of his success and gave all the glory to himself, he would be punished.

Surely enough, one day as he was looked about his city and began glorifying himself, a voice from heaven prophesied that he would be as an animal for seven years. And he was from the moment. His servants drove him away from the palace until he recovered his brain and praised God for his success. That would make a quick end to anyone's pride for sure.

That's it for today's article. The next article will be about the fall of Babylon and maybe a little bit of the rise of Persia as well. Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." Nebuchadnezzar had a very great fall. We should be very careful and check ourselves to make sure that we are giving all glory to God instead of to ourselves.