I dreamed I walked alone in a green valley, distant brown hills all around me. Suddenly I heard an eerie howl. I froze. Was it a wolf? A jackal? No, it was worse: it was a man—a wild man, the most dangerous of all wild things. I ducked behind a scrubby bush.
The hairy man was running toward me. Sometimes he ran on two legs, sometimes on four, a brute animal. I looked for a better hiding place, but there was nothing. I picked up a brick-sized rock to protect myself. Then he stopped and sniffed the air. He smelled me. He looked at me. He howled and ran faster, looking behind him. Men were chasing him—important men, servants of some royal house. As the madman got closer, I raised my arm to throw the stone.
“Stop! He won’t hurt you!”
“Don’t hurt him!”
But I’d seen madmen before. One rock was not enough. But as he came within range, he stopped, fell to his knees, and began eating grass, cropping it off with his teeth like a cow. The naked man’s head was covered in a mat of black hair, and his waist-length beard dragged under him, caked in filth. His smell was indescribable. Years without clothing had rendered him as hairy as an animal, his skin alive and moving—infested with fleas and lice. Bugs were in his eyes, nose, and ears. He did not notice. His fingernails were yellow talons.
“Put down the stone. He lost his mind, but he won’t hurt you.”
“But who is he? Why do you care?”
“You mean you don’t know? He’s Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the world.”
When I woke, I read the rest of the story: after seven years, he looked to heaven, acknowledged God in his heart, his mind was restored, and he had this to say:
“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and glorify the King of heaven, because all His works are true and His ways are just. He is able to humble those who walk in pride” Daniel 4:37.
Remember:
“God is OPPOSED to the proud, but gives GRACE to the humble” James 4:6.
Do you want God opposed to you? Do you really think you can win? Humble yourself!
God, humble us when we walk in pride. May we praise, exalt, and glorify YOU only.
ΑΩ
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