The great lesson, I think, that this book of Daniel teaches us is,
that God is not the Lord of the Jews only, or of Christians only, but
of the whole earth; that the heathens are under His moral law and
government, as well as we; and that, as St. Peter says, God is no
respecter of persons: but in every nation, he that feareth God, and
worketh righteousness, is accepted of him. For the history of
Nebuchadnezzar seems to me to be the history of God's educating a
heathen and an idolater to know Him. And we must always remember,
that as far as we can see, it was because Nebuchadnezzar was faithful
to the light which he had, that God gave him more. Of course he had
his sins; the Bible tells us what they were; just the sins which one
would expect of a man brought up a heathen and an idolater; of one
who was a great conqueror, and had gained many bloody battles, and
learned to hold men's lives very cheap; of one who was an absolute
emperor, with no law but his own will, furious at any contradiction;
of a man of wonderful power of mind--confident in himself, his own
power, his own cunning. But he seems not to have been a bad man,
considering his advantages. The Bible never speaks harshly of him,
though he carried away the Jews captive to Babylon.
Pages:
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360