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Nebuchadnezzar, God's Servant
Pastor Bill Farrow
Daniel 1:1
[1] In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.
(Verse 1) - One of the very difficult things about trying to understand history in terms of a high view of God is to try and make sense of the horror of what men do to one another without turning God into less than the Scripture presents Him as and declares Him to be. Nebuchadnezzar is an excellent case in point. He was one of the most vicious despots in tle ancient world and the Scripture declares trim to have been the instrument of God's judgments. Jer 27:8 puts it just so:
‘And it shall be, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish,’ says the LORD, ‘with the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
Je 25:9 adds this:
‘behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the LORD, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
Whether we view Nebuchadnezzar as a knowing or unknowing servant, willing or unwilling, the fact remains that he was God's servant. He served God's purpose in the course he pursued with regard to Judah. God had a purpose for Judah that He used Babylon to accomplish.
Servant implies an active and not a passive service. It was not that God wonted to do something in Judah, saw what Babylon was doing to her, and thought, hey! I can call what Babylon is doing My will and that will be that! No! Not at all! This is an active thing! God was sending Nebuchadnezzar to be the active hand of His chastening. It was God's idea, and He used Babylon to do what He had determined to do.
That God was going to do this thing and that He was going to use Nebuchadnezzar to do it was well prophesied and well documented in the Scripture. (Jer 21:7; Jer 21:10; Jer 22:25; Jer 25:9; Jer 27:6-9; Jer 32:28; Jer 43:10; Jer 46:13; Jer 49:30-33; Ezek 26:7-12). This was no coincidence or a happenstance of history. This was a deliberate act of God purposefully using a human agent to achieve His eternal purpose.
The beautiful part of all of this is that if God could use one such as Nebuchadnezzar to do His will (with no apparent difficulty) then He can use anyone! We can be assured that no one is beyond the reach of God's hand to use for His purpose if ever and when ever He desires to! Should God desire to accomplish a thing there is nothing and no one who can either prevent Him or stand in His way! That should be great comfort to believers. No unbeliever can frustrate the the plan of God. (Genesis 50:19-20; Exodus 3:19-20; Exodus 7:3-5; Exodus 9:13-16; Exodus 10:20; Exodus 11:1; Exodus 15:6-7; Joshua 11:20; Joshua 23:9; 1 Samuel 2:9-10; Job 5:12-13; Job 23:13; Psalm 2:1-4; Psalm 33:10-11; Psalm 76:7,10; Proverbs 16:9; Proverbs 19:21; Proverbs 21:30; Isaiah 14:24-27; Isaiah 40:21-23; Isaiah 41:4, 10-13; Isaiah 43:2, 3-7; Isaiah 49:25-26; Jeremiah 49:10-12; Luke 21:15; Acts 2:22-24; Acts 4:27-28; Revelation 17:16-17). What God desires to do in the lives of His children He will do, using whatever tools are needful to accomplish that purpose.
We need never be concerned about if God can do a thing. That is never the question. With men, the cost of a thing must be measured to see if it is achievable given the resources that are available to us. This is not an issue whatever with God. Resources are not on issue with Him. He has either (depending on your point of view) endless resource within Himself or no need if resource at all! How marvelous a God we serve!
When I am in situations where I am tempted to forget that God is supreme over all and that no man can stand against Him - I must think on the truth proclaimed by the Word of God and order my thoughts by what I know to be true and not by what seems to be so! If a man like Nebuchadnezzar could not overcome God but was, instead, a tool in His mighty hand; then no obstacle that I can face can possibly hinder His will in my life.