We can keep God's choices in the proper context

Maybe what we produce on our own will last for a little while, but it is only through God’s power that we can do anything that endures for eternity.

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?” (Daniel 4:35)

Context matters.

It may be one of the most important elements of effective Bible study. If you don’t understand the context of a verse or passage, you will interpret it incorrectly. There are promises made only to the nation of Israel in the Bible, and you shouldn’t apply those promises to the Church or to the Gentiles. There are statements made in Scripture that apply to specific cultural groups, and those statements shouldn’t be applied to every cultural group.

It matters who said it, who wrote it, who was it written to, when it was written, where it was written, and whether it was a direct quote or a reference from an older ancient work. Context is king.

And that’s one reason why this particular passage is such a shocking piece of content. Since it’s a verse out of the book of Daniel, you might assume it was written by Daniel the prophet himself. But it’s not. Daniel 4 is the only chapter in all of the Bible written by a “pagan” king, Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon.

So much of the context related to this verse is important, and we don’t really have time to go deeply into it. But if you have a chance to read all of Daniel 4, do it. It’s an extraordinary chapter. (Or if you have a bizarre sense of humor, you can also watch The Emperor’s New Groove, the animated Disney movie that released in 2000, which is practically based on this story… thus the header image … or did you think it was an error? lol)

Nebuchadnezzar got full of himself. He thought he was the end-all-be-all. He thought he was greater than God. So God taught him a lesson. God struck him with madness, and the once-great king wandered the world like an animal, eating grass and rolling in the dirt, until God gave him back his sanity.

And what did Nebuchadnezzar do after God restored his kingdom? Well, for once in all of history, Nebuchadnezzar stayed on the straight and narrow. He praised God. He worshiped him. He declared that God is the only God.

So when you read a verse like this, it’s more than just some God-follower waxing eloquent and poetic about how great God is. No. These are the words from the most powerful man alive who God humbled in an extreme way. God disciplined Nebuchadnezzar, and this was his response:

God does what He wants.

It’s pretty cool to see that this is the response of someone who God humbled so profoundly, but if you think about it from Nebuchadnezzar’s perspective, what other response can you have?

Even if you’re angry at God, can you change Him? Can you challenge Him? Can you stop Him? Do you actually think your protests will make Him change His mind?

God is the only Being who is worthy of Godhood. He is the only One who can be God. There is no one like Him who is self-sustaining, never changing, all-everything. For no other reason than He is Creator, He has the authority to do whatever He wants with what He created—and since He created everything, He has authority over every molecule in our entire universe.

When humanity screwed up, God had (and has) every right to squash us like the bugs we are to Him. But that’s not what He did. If you were God, would you redeem the world your rebellious little creations broke? Well, that’s what He did.

Can we truly wrap our brains around this? He is God. He does what He wants. And He wanted a family. He wanted to create a world full of people with the choice to be in a relationship with Him. He knew we would choose ourselves. And He did it anyway.

Don’t ever forget who He is. Don’t ever gloss over the fact that He is Sovereign. He is righteous. He is holy. He is good—He is the only One who is good. And if we ever get the idea that we have the right to declare His choices wrong, we need to ask ourselves where we got the last breath we took.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. That doesn’t make it fun. Living in a broken world full of pain and loss and grief and strife is never fun, but this world isn’t home. We weren’t built for brokenness, and our lives here are just a stepping stone to the destiny God has always planned for us.

Questions for Reflection

• When was the last time you got angry at God?

• Why do you think humans think we have the right to tell God He is wrong?

• Why does God sometimes allow bad things to happen in the lives of good people?

Weekly Memory Verse