321. A King Eating Grass

A King Eating Grass

Dan_4:33 : ’93The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen.’94

Better shade your eyes lest they be put out with the splendor of Babylon, as some morning you walk out with Nebuchadnezzar on the suspension bridges which hang from the housetops, and he shows you a part of the vastness of his realm. As the sun kindles the domes with glistenings almost insufferable and the great streets sound up their pomp into the ear of the monarch, and armed towers stand around, adorned with the spoils of conquered empires, Nebuchadnezzar waves his hand above the stupendous scene and exclaims: ’93Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?’94 But in an instant all that splendor is gone from his vision, for a voice falls from the heaven, saying, ’93O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken: Thy kingdom is departed from thee: and they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven years shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.’94 One hour from the time that he made the boast he is on the way to the fields, a maniac, and rushing into the forests, he becomes one of the beasts, covered with eagle’92s feathers for protection from the cold, and his nails growing to bird’92s claws in order that he might dig the earth for roots and climb the trees for nuts.

You see there is a great variety in the Scriptural landscape. In several discourses we have looked at mountains of excellence; but now we look down into a great, dark chasm of wickedness as we come to speak of Nebuchadnezzar. God in his Word sets before us the beauty of self-denial, of sobriety, of devotion, of courage; and then, lest we should not thoroughly understand him, he introduced Daniel and Paul and Deborah as illustrations of those virtues. God also speaks to us in his Word as to the hatefulness of pride, of folly, or impiety, and lest we should not thoroughly understand him, introduces Nebuchadnezzar as the impersonation of these forms of depravity. The former style of character is a lighthouse, showing us a way into a safe harbor, and the latter style of character is a black buoy, swinging on the rocks, to show where vessels wreck themselves. Thanks unto God for both the buoy and the lighthouse!

The host of Nebuchadnezzar is pounding at the gates of Jerusalem. The crown of that sacred city is struck into the dust by the hand of Babylonish insolence. The vessels of the Temple, which had never been desecrated by profane touch, were ruthlessly seized for sacrilege and transportation. Oh, what a sad hour when those Jews, at the command of the invading army, are obliged to leave the home of their nativity! How their hearts must have been wrung with anguish, when, on the day they departed, they looked at the scarred and blackened ruin which had once been their beautiful Temple, from the top of which every morning the trumpet announced the hour for morning sacrifice, and the smoke of the altars ascended, for well they knew that in a far distant land they would never hear that trumpet call, nor behold the majestic ascent of the smoke of the sacrifice. Behold those captives on the road from Jerusalem to Babylon! Worn and weary, they dare not halt, for round about are armed men urging them on with hoot and shout and blasphemy. Aged men tottered along on their staves, weeping that they could not lay their bones in the sleeping-place of their fathers, while children wondered at the length of the way and sobbed themselves to sleep when the night had fallen. It seemed as if at every step a heart broke. But at a turn of the road Babylon suddenly springs upon the view of the captives, with its gardens and palaces. A shout goes up from the army as they behold their native city, but not one cheer is heard from the captives. These exiles saw no splendor there, for it was not home. The Euphrates did not have the water-gleam of the brook Kedron or the pool of Siloam. The willows of Babylon, on which they hung their untuned harps, were not as graceful as the trees which at the foot of Mount Moriah seemed to weep at the departed glory of Judah, and all the fragrance that descended from the hanging-gardens upon that great city was not so sweet as one breath of the acacia and frankincense that the high priest kindled in the sanctuary of Jerusalem.

On a certain night, a little while after these captives had been brought to his city, Nebuchadnezzar is scared by a night vision. A bad man’92s pillow is apt to be stuffed with past deeds and present forebodings which keep talking in the night. He will find that the eagles’92 down in his pillow will stick him like porcupine quills. The ghosts of old transgressions are sure to wander about in the darkness and beckon and hiss. Yet when the morning came he found that the vision had entirely fled from him. Dreams drop no anchors, and, therefore, are apt to sail away before we can fasten them. Nebuchadnezzar calls all the wise men of the land into his presence, demanding that by their necromancy they explain his dream. They, of course, fail. Then their wrathful king issues an edict with as little sense as mercy, ordering the slaying of all the learned men of the country. But Daniel, the prophet, comes in with the interpretation just in time to save the wise men and the Jewish captives.

My friends, do you not see that pride and ruin ride in the same saddle? See Nebuchadnezzar on the proudest throne of all the earth, and then see him graze with the sheep and the cattle! Pride is commander, well plumed and comparisoned, but it leads forth a dark and frowning host. The arrows of the Almighty’92s quiver are apt to strike a man when on the wing. Goliath shakes his great spear in defiance, but the smooth stones from the brook make him stagger and fall like an ox under a butcher’92s bludgeon. He who is down cannot fall. Vessels scudding under bare poles do not greatly feel the force of the storm, while those with all sails set capsize at the sudden descent of the tempest.

Remember that we can be as proud of our humility as of anything else. Antisthenes walked the streets of Athens with a ragged cloak to demonstrate his humility, but Socrates declared he could see the hypocrisy through the holes in his cloak. We would all see ourselves smaller than we are if we were as philosophic as Severus, the Emperor of Rome, who said at the close of his life, ’93I have been everything, and everything is nothing.’94 And when the urn that was to contain his ashes was brought to him, at his command, he said, ’93Little urn, thou shalt contain one for whom the world was too little.’94

Do you not also learn from the misfortune of this king of Babylon what a terrible thing is the loss of reason. There is no calamity that can possibly befall us in this world so great as derangement of intellect; to have the body of man and yet to fall even below the instinct of a brute. In this world of horrible sights, the most horrible is the idiot’92s stare. In this world of horrible sounds, the most horrible is the maniac’92s laugh. A vessel driven on the rocks, when hundreds go down never to rise and other hundreds drag their bruised and shivering bodies upon the winter’92s beach, is nothing compared to the foundering of intellects full of vast hopes and attainments and capacities. Christ’92s heart went out toward those who were epileptic, falling into the fire, or maniacs cutting themselves among the tombs. We are accustomed to be more grateful for physical health than for the proper working of our mind. We are apt to take it for granted that the intellect which has served us so well will always be faithful. We forget that an engine of such great power, where the wheels have such vastness of circle and such swiftness of motion, and the least impediment might put it out of gear, can only be kept in proper balance by a Divine hand. No human hand could engineer the train of immortal faculties. How strange it is that our memory, on whose shoulders all the misfortunes and successes and occurrences of a lifetime are placed, should not oftener break down, and that the scales of judgment, which have been weighing so much and so long, should not lose their adjustment, and that fancy, which holds a dangerous wand, should not sometimes maliciously wave it, bringing into the heart forebodings and hallucinations the most appalling! Is it not strange that this mind, which hopes so much in its mighty leaps for the attainment of its objects, should not be dashed to pieces on its disappointments? Though so delicately tuned, this instrument of untold harmony plays on, though fear shakes it, and vexations rack it, and sorrow and joy and loss and gain in quick succession beat out of it their dirge, or toss from it their anthem. At morning and at night, when in your prayer you rehearse the causes of your thanksgiving, next to the salvation by Jesus Christ, praise the Lord for the preservation of your reason.

See also in this story of Nebuchadnezzar the use that God makes of bad men. The actions of the wicked are used as instruments for the punishment of wickedness in others or as the illustration of some principle in the Divine government. Nebuchadnezzar subserved both purposes. Even so I will go back with you to the history of every reprobate that the world has ever seen, and I will show you how to a great extent his wickedness was limited in its destructive power, and how God glorified himself in the overthrow and disgrace of his enemy. Babylon is full of abomination, and wicked Cyrus destroys it. Persia fills the cup of its iniquity, and vile Alexander puts an end to it. Macedon must be chastised, and bloody Emilius does it. The dynasty of the empire is to be destroyed, and corrupt Napoleon accomplishes it. Even so selfish and wicked men are often made to accomplish great and glorious purposes. Joseph’92s brethren were guilty of superlative perfidy and meanness when they sold him into slavery for about seven dollars, yet how they must have been overwhelmed with the truth that God never forsakes the righteous when they saw he had become the prime minister of Egypt! Pharaoh oppresses the Israelites with the most diabolic tyranny; yet the plagues descend, the locusts and the hail become destroying angels, showing that there is a God who will defend the cause of his people, and finally, after the Israelites have passed through the parted sea, behold, in the wreck of the drowned army, that God’92s enemies are chaff in a whirlwind! In some financial panic the righteous suffered with the wicked. Houses and stores and shops in a night foundered on the rock of bankruptcy, and healthy credit without warning dropped dead in the street, and money ran up the long ladder of twenty-five per cent., to laugh down upon those who could not climb after it. Dealers with pockets full of securities stood shouting in the deaf ears of banks. Men rushed down the streets with protested notes chasing them. Those who before found it hard to spend their money, were left without money to spend. Laborers went home for want of work, to see hunger seated in their chair at the table and miseries grouped around the hearth. Winter blew his breath of frost through fingers of icicles, and sheriffs with attachments dug among the cinders of fallen storehouses, and whole cities joined in the long funeral procession, marching to the grave of dead fortunes and a fallen commerce. Verily, the righteous suffered with the wicked, but generally the wicked had the worst of it. Splendid estates that had come together through schemes of wickedness were dashed to pieces like a potter’92s vessel, and God wrote with letters of fire, amid the ruin and destruction of reputations and estates that were thought impregnable, the old-fashioned truth, which centuries ago he wrote in his Bible, ’93The way of the ungodly shall perish.’94 As the stars of heaven are reflected from the waters of the earth, even so God’92s great and magnificent purposes are reflected back from the boiling sea of human passion and turmoil. As the voice of a sweet song uttered among the mountains may be echoed back from the cavernous home of wild beast and rocks split and thunder-scarred, so the great harmonies of God’92s providence are rung back from the darkest caverns of this sin-struck earth. Sennacherib and Abimelech, and Herod and Judas, and Nero and Nebuchadnezzar, though they struggled like beasts unbroken to the harness, were put into a yoke where they were compelled to help draw ahead God’92s great projects of mercy.

Again, let us learn the lesson that men can be guilty of polluting the sacred vessels of the Temple and carrying them away to Babylon. The sacred vessels in the Temple at Jerusalem were the cups and plates of gold and silver with which the rites and ceremonies were celebrated. The laying of heathen hands upon them and the carrying them off as spoils was an unbounded offense to the Lord of the Temple. Yet Nebuchadnezzar committed this very sacrilege. Though that wicked king is gone, the sins he inaugurated walk up and down the earth, cursing it from century to century. The sin of desecrating sacred things is committed by those who on sacramental day take the communion cup, while their conversation and deeds all show that they live down in Babylon. How solemn is the sacrament! It is a time for vows, a time for repentance, a time for faith. Sinai stands near, with its fire-split clouds, and Calvary, with its victim. The Holy Spirit broods over the scene, and the glory of heaven seems to gather in the sanctuary. Vile indeed must that man be who will come in from his idols and unrepented follies to take hold of the sacred vessels of the temple. O thou Nebuchadnezzar! Back with you to Babylon! They also desecrate sacred things who use the Sabbath for any other than religious purposes. This holy day was let down from heaven amid the intense secularities of the week to remind us that we are immortal, and to allow us preparation for an endless state of happiness. It is a green spot in the hot desert of this world, gushing with fountains and waving with palm-trees. This is the time to shake the dust from the robes of our piety and in the tents of Israel sharpen our swords for future conflict. Heaven, that seems so far off on other days, alights upon the earth, and the song of heavenly choirs and the hosanna of the white-robed seem to mingle with our earthly worship. We hear the wailing Infant of Bethlehem, the hammer-stroke of the carpenter’92s weary son in Nazareth, the prayer of Gethsemane, and the bitter cry of Golgotha. Glory be unto the Lord of the Sabbath! With that one day in seven God divides this great sea of business and gayety, so that dry-shod we may pass between the worldly business of the past and the worldly business of the future!

But to many the Sabbath comes only as a day for neighborhood visiting, field rambling, hotel lounging, or political caucusing. This glorious Sabbath which was intended only as a golden chalice from which the thirsty should drink, is this moment being carried down to Babylon. I do not exaggerate the truth when I say that to tens of thousands there is no distinction between the Sabbath and the week days, except that on the Lord’92s day they do not work, while they eat more largely and dissipate more thoroughly. Sabbath-breakers are like hunters who compel their hounds to take rest while themselves continuing on the weary chase. Men on the Sabbath allow their bodies, which are merely the animal nature, sufficient repose, while their immortal nature, which should be fed and refreshed, is compelled to chase up and down this world’92s highway. How shameful to rob God of his day, when he allows men so much lawful acquisition, even of a worldly nature, on the Sabbath; for do not the corn and the wheat and the grass grow just as rapidly on the Sabbath as on other days, so that while men sit in the sanctuary they are actually becoming richer in worldly things? While you are doing nothing your bonds and mortgages are all accumulating interest for your estate just as fast then as on any other days. Men hired by the month or year are receiving just as much wages while quiet on the Sabbath as they are the hard-working weekday. How unutterably mean it is, when God is adding to your worldly estate on the Sabbath as certainly as on other days, that any should not be satisfied with that, but attempt to seize additional secular advantage from the Lord’92s day. Have you never noticed the curious fact that our worldly occupation frequently seems to be divided into sections of six days each? Every week we have just enough work given us to do in six days. God makes just enough breaks in our continuous occupations to thrust in the Sabbath. If you have not before noticed, observe hereafter that when Saturday night comes there is almost always a good stopping-place in your business. All things secular and spiritual in providence and revelation seem to say: ’93Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’94 When the six days of creation had passed God stopped working. Not even a pure flower or a white cloud would he make, because it was the Sabbath, and giving an example to all future times, he rested. He who breaks the Sabbath not more certainly robs God than robs himself. Inevitably, continuous desecration of the sacred day ends either in bankruptcy or destroyed health. A great merchant said, ’93Had it not been for the Sabbath I have no doubt I should have been a maniac long ago.’94 This remark was made in a company of merchants, and one of them said, ’93That corresponds with the experience of my friend, a great importer. He often said, ’91The Sabbath is the best day of the week to plan successful voyages.’92 He has been for years in a hospital for the insane, and will probably die there.’94

They also repeat the sin of Nebuchadnezzar who in any way desecrate the Holy Scriptures. There are men who use the Word of God as an instrument of angry controversy. Bigots at heart and zealots, in the advocacy of their religious peculiarities they meet other sects with the fury of a highwayman, thrusting them through and through with that which they consider the sword of the Spirit. It is a wonder to me that some men were not made with horns to hook with and hoofs to kick with and claws to grab with. What Christ said to rash Peter, when he struck off the ear of Malchus, he says to every controversialist: ’93Put up again thy sword into its place; for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.’94 Rev. William Jay met a countryman who said to him, ’93I was extremely alarmed this morning, sir. It was very foggy and I was going down to a lonely place and I thought I saw a strange monster. It seemed in motion, but I could not discern its form. I did not like to turn back, but my heart beat fast; and the more I looked the more I was afraid. But as I approached it I saw it was a man, and who do you think it was?’94 ’93I know not.’94 ’93Oh, it was my brother, John.’94 Then Mr. Jay remarked, ’93It was early in the morning and very foggy, and how often do we thus mistake our Christian brethren.’94 Just in proportion as men are wrong will they be boisterous in their religious contentions. The lamb of religion is always gentle, while there is no lion so fierce as the roaring lion that goes about seeking whom he may devour. Let Gibraltars belch their their war flame on the sea, and the Dardanelles darken the Hellespont with the smoke of their batteries, but forever and ever let there be good will among those who profess to be subjects of the Gospel of gentleness. ’93Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.’94

What an embarrassing thing to meet in heaven if we have not settled our controversies on earth. So I give out for all people of all religions to sing, John Fawcett’92s hymn, in short metre, composed in 1772, but just as appropriate now:

Blest be the tie that binds

Our hearts in Christian love;

The fellowship of kindred minds

Is like to that above

From sorrow, toil and pain,

And sin we shall be free,

And perfect love and friendship reign

Through all eternity.

Autor: T. De Witt Talmage