God is interested in the spread of the gospel. God wants every person in the world to hear about Him, about the plans He has for them, how He wants to save them, and how He's coming soon for them. God wants to use you and me to reach people.
I imagine that God's angels look at each of us and what we're doing, then say to us: "Hey, get with the program! Look! There's a person who's getting ready to walk by that could use an encouraging word or is searching for Christ, if you would just say something, you could move the game plan forward!". Sometimes we listen, but more often that we would like to admit, we get so self-absorbed that we miss opportunities that Jesus has.
God wanted Israel to share the gospel with Nebuchadnezzar
There were multiple ways God wanted to convert Nebuchadnezzar. God placed ancient Israel between three major continents. God set them up so they could be an example to other nations and thus spread the good news about God and His character. For example, in Leviticus 25, God established something called the Jubilee in which every 50 years, all debt would be forgiven. The other surrounding nations were very brutal, it's no wonder that God didn't want His people to be associated with them. Unfortunately though, ancient Israel didn't always cooperate in being the example God wanted them be to due to sin and selfishness. Though they weren't perfect, God tried some other things.
In the bible we learn about how Hezekiah gets sick, he prays for healing and God turns the time back as a sign. God had done something that the whole world could not ignore. It was the Babylonians that came up with sixty seconds in a minute and sixty minutes in an hour.. So then when the Babylonians heard about Hezekiah, they sent two ambassadors to go see him. However, instead of Hezekiah telling them about God, he shows them his stuff, which later gets stolen. This is another example of when God tried to do something big to let other people know about the plan of salvation, but because of pride and unbelief, it went nowhere.
God reaches Nebuchadnezzar through a dream
When you look at what historical records say about Nebuchadnezzar, you'll see he was feeling very unsure about himself and his kingdom. It was in that context we learn about the dream God gave him in Daniel 2. When we don't know what's going on, when we're struggling and depressed, God cares. Nebuchadnezzar was just about to have all his wise men killed because he couldn't find someone who could help him remember the dream and give its interpretation.
God reveals the dream and interpretation
Then comes Daniel who is given time to get the dream and interpretation from God and then tells Nebuchadnezzar about it. This became big news all over Babylon.
God is interested in the spread of the gospel and He has an advertising plan. He tried this various times before, but His people failed to cooperate because of unbelief. Daniel followed through with the adverting plan, thus everyone would know about him and his God. After Nebuchadnezzar is made known the interpretation of his dream, he promotes Daniel as a ruler, but God wanted his heart. There were a few things that Nebuchadnezzar had to unlearn before he could really be a follower of God.
Nebuchadnezzar ignores the interpretation and forces worship
Next, according to historical records, we find out that there was a rebellion in Babylon and this was the context behind the golden image of Daniel 3. Nebuchadnezzar had set up this image so that people would prove their allegiance to him by bowing down to it, but if anyone didn't, they were thrown into a fiery furnace. Daniel's three friends refuse to do this (Daniel wasn't present at the time), God spares their lives, and then Nebuchadnezzar makes a death decree against anyone who speaks against their God. The death decree wasn't what God intended though, God doesn't want anyone to feel forced to follow Him, He wants our hearts.
Nebuchadnezzar has another dream and forgets about God
Nebuchadnezzar's heart still hadn't changed, he became proud. In Daniel, 4 Nebuchadnezzar had a second dream and he goes back to the same source of knowledge that failed him in Daniel 2. Instead of going to God, he goes back to the same source that didn't help. That's an easy mistake for us to make too. Sometimes we have a problem in an area or something and instead of taking it to God and saying 'God what is your will, help me to be humble", we go to the same release that has been used of Satan before. And we're like, "let me try this, let me work on this, let me do something".
God wanted Nebuchadnezzar to repent
Daniel explained that God wanted Nebuchadnezzar to repent and to show mercy to the poor. Instead, Nebuchadnezzar becomes proud, as if to say "I made Babylon great again". In spite of Nebuchadnezzar's pride and sin, God was merciful. If God wanted to, He could have just said, "You know what Nebuchadnezzar? Your time's up, next!". We should be thankful that God is merciful to us because we're all sinners too.
God humbles Nebuchadnezzar for seven years
What God did next was to basically put Nebuchadnezzar in time out for seven years. After seven years of eating grass, he would learn to be humble before God. Now this isn't what God really wanted to do. Nebuchadnezzar should have learned about God's mercy to the poor (with the Jubilee), and to the sick (like with Hezekiah), and to people who are concerned about their future (like Nebuchadnezzar himself). God had a plan for Nebuchadnezzar and it took a little while for him to finally accept it.
The last we hear of Nebuchadnezzar:
Eusebius records these words of Nebuchadnezzar:
I, Nebuchadrezzar, announce to you the future calamity which neither Bel, my ancestor, nor our queen Beltis, can persuade the Fates to avert. There shall come a Persian, a mule, who shall have your own gods as his allies, and he shall make you slaves. Moreover, he who shall help to bring this about shall he the son of a Median woman, the boast of the Assyrian. Would that before his countrymen perish some whirlpool or flood might seize him and destroy him utterly; or else would that he might betake himself to some other place, and might be driven to the desert, where is no city nor track of men, where wild beasts seek their food and birds fly hither and thither? Would that among rocks and mountain clefts he might wander alone? And as for me, may I, before he imagines this, meet with some happier end!God has a work for you and me today
God has a work for you and me today. There may never seem to be a perfect time for evangelism, the enemy makes sure of that. But God can't bless a bible study that you don't give. God won't bless a door that you don't knock on. The gospel isn't just about getting to heaven, it's about the betterment of our lives here.
Remember how others reached out to help you get to know the gospel and think of how you can also do likewise by reaching out to others to know the gospel too. The enemy will try to make it seem like evangelism isn't important, that's his game plan. But Jesus also has a game plan and He's working in a thousand ways we can't understand.
God has a work you and me today, but you won't experience the blessing until you go forward into His work.
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