“When I get to heaven, I can’t wait to talk to [fill in the blank]!” Ever heard someone say something like that? Ever said that yourself? Will heaven really work that way? That anyone I choose to connect with I will be able to connect with? There’s gonna be a lotta people there. Am I going to know them all? Will I be able to do coffee (or whatever you do on the new earth) with anyone and everyone I choose? Maybe we talk that way because, even if it takes a thousand years to find and sit and chat with [fill in the blank], we’ve no less days to visit and shoot the breeze than when we first begun.

So, after reading in Daniel this morning I had the thought, when I get to heaven, I can’t wait to talk to Nebuchadnezzar. Yeah, the Neb man, the king of Babylon.

I think Neb’s gonna be there. And what seals the deal for me is not just God’s patient, persistent pursuit towards working one-on-one with one of the most ruthless rulers ever to walk the earth so that He could show him that “the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms, and He gives them to anyone He wants” (Dan. 4:17b, 25b, 32b), but that Nebuchadnezzar seems to have picked up on what God was so purposefully laying down.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and glorify the King of the heavens, because all His works are true and His ways are just. He is able to humble those who walk in pride.

(Daniel 4:37 CSB)

The King of heavens. That’s the phrase I’m chewing on. Not because it’s new to me. But because it was new to Nebuchadnezzar.

Up until this point, King Nebuchadnezzar had conceded that Daniel’s God was “indeed God of gods, Lord of kings, and a Revealer of mysteries” (2:47). Yet, Nebuchadnezzar still goes and sets up his own gods, issues his own decrees, and demands adherence to his own agenda (3:1-7). Only after the-four-men-in-the-fire incident, does Nebuchadnezzar refer to Daniel’s God as “the Most High God” (3:36). We’re making progress. But we’re not there yet.

For, a Most High God, while being a God above all other gods, is not necessarily the God over me. While He might be supreme in whatever realm He exists, He is not necessarily supreme over the domain I think to have built by my own power. So, let’s spend some time grazing like an animal in the field until I come to understand that the Most High who is ruler over human kingdoms is also, in reality, ruler over me. Only then is the Most High, says this king on the earth, the King over all.

I praise, exalt and glorify THE KING. For me, that’s evidence that whatever being saved by faith looks like prior to the cross, it might just look like this. God bringing someone who once boasted in their own mighty works to see and acknowledge God’s worthiness alone. God humbling someone who once walked in the pride of what they thought they had accomplished by their power to now worship and praise the One who unlike any other is to be acknowledged as having all power.

Talk to me about grace and tell me it isn’t seen in God’s dealings with the Neb man. While the main event in world history here is about a nation in a 70-year timeout for rebellion, God, in His sovereign purposes, elects to work a side thing in the heart of a despot ruler. Bringing the king of the greatest nation on earth to his senses, so that he might believe in and bow before THE KING over all the earth, the King of heavens.

Hmm . . .

When I get to heaven, can’t wait to talk to Nebuchadnezzar . . . if such things happen.

To talk together of God’s grace. To marvel together for God’s glory.