do you KNOW Him?

Have you read that new series...
I hear they are making it into a movie.
It's about a
dark and powerful king
who amasses great wealth and riches
as he sweeps across many foreign lands
destroying everything in his path.

But he is plagued by nightmares
that threaten his sanity.
He summons every magician
and sorcerer possible to make them cease.
Until finally, he hears of one of his captives
who is considered wise enough
to interpret his dreams
rather than make them stop.

This intrigues the king.
So in a private audience
he tells this young man his vision.
But what the captive now knows
causes fear.

And the king, sensing this trouble
must not rush the interpretation,
for now it is imperative to hear.

A great tree, strong, and bearing fruit...
able to feed the entire world,
will be cut down to a stump.
It will be banded by bronze
and left to feed on grass
like a beast for seven years.

How strange this vision.
How odd this dream.
What could it mean?

The wise young captive stands brave
and tells the king...
it is him, the dreamer himself
as the tree, to be severed from power,
bound and destined to be humbled.

Nothing more is said of this dream.
But within a year, as the king parades
about his palace surveying
all he has conquered,
accounting for all he has amassed,
he boasts of his own magnificence.

And in that very moment,
a heavy voice from the sky falls upon him.
And the king drops to his knees...
his mind is gone.
He wanders on all fours
to the fields and soon
is feeding off the grass of the field
like oxen out to pasture.

For seven years he stays there,
his kingdom not even a passing thought
through the mind of this beast.

And he morphs physically...
his hair as long as eagle feathers,
his nails like claws of a bird.
A wild man on all fours.

Once a king,
now a beast, wandering the wild,
no longer feasting on pride,

But of course this is not
a movie planned for the theatre.
Nor was it a book written in a series.
Sorry... I misled.

This to be sure is in the book of Daniel...
and the king, is honestly
a real person of history.

But it is such a fantastical story
that it almost seems like it should be
written in a series
or make for a movie...
right?

And Daniel was the wise captive
whom God used to interpret the dream.
His head must have been spinning
as it's almost like fiction.

In fact, it gets more unbelievable.

For the king was Nebuchadnezzar.
And here in this fourth chapter of Daniel,
the king seems to be doing the writing,
or speaking of his own story.

And he's almost bragging
about the whole crazy affair,
as if it's an event of the past.
And he's only doing so
as a testimony to others...
about the miraculous power and praise
of the Most High God.

And he concludes...
“After this time had passed,
I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven.
My sanity returned, and
I praised and worshiped the Most High
and honored the one who lives forever.
His rule is everlasting,
and His kingdom is eternal.
All the people of the earth
are nothing compared to Him.
He does as He pleases
among the angels of heaven
and among the people of the earth.
No one can stop Him or say to Him,
‘What do you mean by doing these things?’

When my sanity returned to me,
so did my honor and glory and kingdom.
My advisers and nobles sought me out,
and I was restored as head of my kingdom,
with even greater honor than before.

“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar,
praise and glorify and
honor the King of heaven.
All His acts are just and true, and
He is able to humble the proud.”
Daniel 4:34-37

God actually restored
all that was originally the king's
Even those things he had
in his days of boasting and pride.
But now, King Nebuchadnezzar
gave all glory to God.

I guess that's what seven years
of wild and crazy thinking will do
when you eat grass in the field like an ox.
#humbling

But that's not really what God wants
to do to us.
It's not really how God wants any of us
to end up.

He'd really rather
we never have to go through
anything that awful.
But He does want the same
end result.
A heart that lifts Him high
and gives Him glory...
for all of it,
for everything.

There is a phrase in the Old Testament
that is repeated, over, and over, and over.

Then they shall know that I am the Lord...
Just that verbiage alone,
searced in a concordance
will register
a count of 110 times.

Thats 110 places that God spoke
those words through someone to us.

In the book of Ezekiel alone
are 66 of them.

Now if we change the phrase a bit,
we can find the same sentiment in
the book of Exodus, as God
led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt
and into the Promise Land.

The point?
God want us to know He is the Lord.

And you may say,
Yeah... I get it, He's God.

But that's not it.
He wants us to KNOW He is God.

That word KNOW in Hebrew
is yada, or to learn from experience.
​(pronounced yaw-daw')

Like when you spend so much time
with a friend that you really KNOW them.
You can predict what they will say next.
You start dressing like them.
You laugh at the same things.
You want to hang out with them most.
You are in the middle of something and
they come to mind, like
it would be great
to share that moment with them.

That's KNOWing them.
You understand their character
because you spend time with them
and they have proven themselves to you
in more intimate ways.

THAT is what God means by...
Then they shall know that I am the Lord...
When He has shown us His character
and proven Himself to us.

For He often follows it with,
a personalized ending...
Then they shall know
that I am the Lord their God.
A
nd I just love that.

For He truly is MY GOD.
And I love to spend time with Him.
And He shows me more of His amazing
character everyday.

The more you get to KNOW Him,
the more you will want to KNOW Him.

There truly is nothing scary
or intimidating
about the God I love!

King Nebuchadnezzar
wrote of His great signs
and wonders because
that's how God revealed Himself
in the fantastical transition
needed to change that prideful king.

I too have seen
great signs and wonders
from God in my life,
but they have been more
personalized.
Because that's how God shows me
​that He truly wants to know ME.

He has become more than my God,
​He is my friend.
​
Word of God
train me today...
To know that You are the Lord, MY GOD!
To KNOW that You are the Lord, my God.