Sometimes We Have To Eat A Little Grass

“He ate grass like a cow, and he was drenched with the dew of heaven.”
Daniel 4:33b


The visual of the high king of Babylon driven from society, having hair like an eagle’s feathers and nails like a bird’s claws eating grass makes me kind of sick. What happened to make such a harsh judgment fall on the king. Let’s press rewind.


Back in Daniel 2, Daniel, also called by his Babylonian name Belteshazzar, had just interpreted the king’s dream. Nebuchadnezzar declared praise to Daniel and Daniel’s God as well as promoted him to a high position. After declaration of praise to “the greatest of all gods,” he then builds a ninety-foot statue to himself. Fast-forward to today’s reading and its application.

There are times when we need a God-moment, times when we beg for God’s intervention. The God of Heaven pauses to hear and answer our request. We receive the God-moment, the moving of a mountain we requested. The pomp and circumstance of praise and celebration come quickly. Just as quickly our gratitude is forgotten and we return to our old ways forgetting our God is the greatest of all gods. We go about the business of our lives building ourselves up “higher and higher” producing “fruit for all to eat” thinking “we are all that and a box of chocolate, too.” (dark of course)

Then the Lord in his sovereignty comes and trims down our “height,” prunes our “fruit,” and sends us out to chomp on some grass. (I don’t want to try to make an analogy with the hair like eagle feathers and bird claws. Smile) He does all this for one purpose: until we learn that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone He chooses.

Does anyone besides me need a toothpick?