As we close out Daniel chapter four, we watch as God puts the powerful and proud Nebuchadnezzar on display as an extreme example of pride and humility. He goes from the palace to the pasture—and back again!

King Nebuchadnezzar had another unsettling dream about an enormous tree that gets cut down and stripped. Daniel is able to explain the dream in which the tree symbolized Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel ends with a warning and some Godly advice to the king.

Now twelve months have passed and has the king taken the advice? Has he humbled himself? Nope. In fact, he is more delusional and self congratulatory than ever. Guess what? Class is in session and Nebuchadnezzar has been enrolled—like it or not—in Reality 101. For him, it’s a seven year course of seminary study to learn the lesson. To enter the program he had to be stripped of everything, just like the tree in his dream.

I bet he would say it was worth it: the humiliation, the loss, the new perspective and revelation. Humility can really only be learned in the school of suffering. Nebuchadnezzar gets his seminary degree from Bovine University! He has a masters in the theology of God’s sovereignty! There is a remarkable ending to this incredible story. Listen in and see!