Daniel 4:1

Daniel 4:1 says, Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.  Nebuchadnezzar himself was telling this story.  He was speaking, or more likely writing, about what had happened, not what might happen.  He wished peace for all the people who heard his story.  What he was to say did not make Nebuchadnezzar look good, but instead glorified God.  We need to always give God the glory, even if it shows our own weakness and failure.  Verse two adds, I thought it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me.  Just as Nebuchadnezzar said that he thought it good to relate the signs and wonders done to him by the high God, so must we tell the world about what God has done and is doing in our lives.  We are to witness for Christ, even if God has to rebuke or punish our actions.  Verse three continues, How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.  Nebuchadnezzar was shown the limited duration of his kingdom and came to realize the everlasting nature of God's kingdom.  No matter what nation we live in today, that nation is but temporary.  At the return of Christ, all nations will cease to exist.  Verse four states, I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace:  Nebuchadnezzar was at peace and flourishing in his palace.  We might say he didn't have a care in the world.  He was a powerful king.  We may be at peace in our position in the world today and feel that this is all we need, but if we are not living for God, then it is a false peace.  This is what Nebuchadnezzar was to find out.  Verse five adds, I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.  Once more, while Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in his house, God gave him a disturbing dream.  I believe that God is always at work attempting to call people to Him.  God had been at work in Nebuchadnezzar's life on more than one occasion, and He was still at work in Nebuchadnezzar's life.  God does not give up easily on people, and neither should we.  Verse six continues, Therefore made I a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they might make known unto me the interpretation of the dream.  Once more, Nebuchadnezzar called all the wise men to tell him what the dream meant.  Maybe he figured if they knew the dream they could tell him the interpretation.  Verse seven says, Then came in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers: and I told the dream before them; but they did not make known unto me the interpretation thereof.  Once more all the magicians, astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers, all those who claimed some special ability to tell the future, failed.  There are people today who go to those who are supposedly able to tell the future, and even if they are not correct in what they fortell, people still go back to them.  Nebuchadnezzar should have learned from his earlier experience, and so should people today.  Verse eight adds, But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and before him I told the dream, saying,  Nebuchadnezzar was still relying on his god, but he recognized that the Spirit of the holy God was in Daniel.  It is sad that many people are still that way today.  They cling to their own god while recognizing the power of the one true God in the lives of those who follow Christ.  Verse nine continues, O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no secret troubleth thee, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and the interpretation thereof.  Nebuchadnezzar called Belteshazzar, Daniel's Babylonian name, the master of magicians, but he was not.  Daniel was simply a man relying on the power of God to guide him.  At least Nebuchadnezzar got it partly right when he again said the Spirit of the Holy God lived in Daniel, but he was wrong because he said holy gods.  Nebuchadnezzar still did not acknowledge that there was but one God.  We cannot make God just one of many gods.