‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will send and bring Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will set his throne above these stones that I have hidden. And he will spread his royal pavilion over them."
Jeremiah 50:29
“Call together the archers against Babylon. All you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around; Let none of them [a]escape. Repay her according to her work; According to all she has done, do to her; For she has been proud against the Lord, Against the Holy One of Israel."
Matthew 7:22-23
"Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Above I have listed just a few verses which pertain to true versus false holiness. There are actually many more, but I felt these most succinctly make the point.
Several verse in the bible are dedicated to Nebuchadnezzar. In fact he gets more real estate in the bible than many "heroes of the faith" as it were. Several times in Jeremiah it's stated that Nebuchadnezzar was a servant of God and that Babylonia was enacting the judgement and punishment of God to the Israelites. There are very few gentiles listed as being called a servant of God by God Himself. However, it would be false to assume Nebuchadnezzar worshipped God, or at least God alone during the time of the campaign against Jerusalem. God has used satan many times to accomplish His will, but obviously satan isn't holy and doesn't follow the way. In Matthew we see that there are many people who do miracles and even preach about God, but don't know Him. The point is God will use the enemy and other people, even those opposed to Him to accomplish His will.
Never assume you are right with God based solely on an accomplishment or a miracle being performed through you. This is not the same as God saying "well done good and faithful servant". In fact the humble, when they stand before the almighty, will not even understand the depth of how much they are loved and all the wonderful things they have done because they did these things in secret or didn't think much of it at the time. They were only obedient in things they considered small or even insignificant.
Matthew 25: 37-40
“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’"
Better to be the obedient humble loving servant focused on the works and teachings of Jesus, seeing the raising of the dead to life in Jesus than someone who performs miracles but whose heart is far from God.
Luke 10:19-20
"Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
Now as it turns out I believe, based on Daniel 4, the redeemed will see Nebuchadnezzar again. It seems as though God was willing to take an extreme measure to humble Nebuchadnezzar. I also believe Daniel was a personal friend and likely prayed for his soul. (As a side note, never stop praying for the salvation of lost loved ones.) However, the point is Nebuchadnezzar was brought as low as a human being can be brought and for a long time until he was broken enough to humble himself before God. Are we being brought low, suffering, going through a trying time or trial? Are we humbling ourselves before the Lord? Are we seeking the counsel of His Holy Spirit and receiving the love of Jesus, His blood and resurrection? Are we seeking to be a friend of God?
Miracles and wonders are amazing things to behold, but better still is the glory of the Lord. Better to spend even one day in His courts seeing all our wretchedness before us than a thousand elsewhere. We need to get ourselves right with God and this is most easily done in serving and loving on others. We need to first seek out a real friendship with Jesus rather than seeking out a blessing or miracle. It's in this friendship we find that person we realize we should've spent more time with and listened to. The best friend any of us could ever hope to have. Closer than a family member, best friend or even spouse. It's the relationship we've always sought in our lives.
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