Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar II was the greatest king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, reigning from about 605 to 562 BC. He conquered nations, built the legendary Hanging Gardens, and expanded Babylon into the most magnificent city of the ancient world. He also destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple in 586 BC, carrying the Jews into exile.

Daniel and his friends were among the first exiles taken to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar's encounters with these faithful Jews would gradually transform his understanding of God. When Daniel interpreted the king's dream of a great statue representing successive empires, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged Daniel's God. Yet when he built a golden statue and commanded all to worship it, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused. The king cast them into a fiery furnace heated seven times hotter, but a fourth figure appeared in the flames, and the three emerged unharmed. Nebuchadnezzar declared, "There is no other God that can deliver after this sort."

Despite these encounters, pride still ruled the king's heart. God gave him a warning dream of a great tree cut down, which Daniel interpreted as coming judgment. Twelve months later, as Nebuchadnezzar boasted of his glory, a voice from heaven declared his kingdom departed. He was driven from men and lived like an animal for seven years, eating grass until his reason returned.

When his sanity was restored, Nebuchadnezzar praised and honored the God of heaven, declaring, "Those that walk in pride he is able to abase." His testimony in Daniel 4 is one of the most remarkable conversion narratives in Scripture—a pagan emperor acknowledging the Most High God.