Nebuchadnezzar's pride gets the best of him. His "mighty power" allowed him to
build Babylon for the "glory of his majesty." How many rulers have thought exactly those
thoughts? Some have died believing this
very thing, that they have been successful, completely on their own. This king is fortunate that the Lord cared enough
about him to correct that notion. It was
costly but in the end he was allowed to return to the throne. Nebuchadnezzar recognizes that the throne
belongs to the king of heaven, it was always due to the work of this God that
he was allowed to rule over this kingdom.
When he makes that realization his reason and his kingdom are returned
to him. It is easy for us to take pride
in what we have or what we do but we always need to give thanks to Him for
giving us all things.
Jesus wants no testimony concerning Him from demons. The "unclean spirit" gives witness
to who He is but the real testimony is Jesus' authority over the spirit. Naming was and is a way of gaining control
over someone. In some traditions the newly
baptized is given a name of one of the saints of the church in order that the
child might grow in those graces that their namesake had and also that the
particular saint might watch over the child.
Adam, as part of his exercise of dominion over the animal kingdom, was
given the right to name the animals.
Jesus did not mention the name of this spirit in the casting out, His
authority was not predicated on possessing the name of the spirit and it didn't
matter what its name was. His power is
inherent in His person, and the people saw and began to wonder about Him.
John certainly got the message at the Last Supper. He understood that the new commandment was
completely binding and that this loving one another was a key to the
identification of God's people. Francis
Schaeffer wrote a little book called The Mark of the Christian that every one
of us should read and re-read and "mark, learn and inwardly
digest." The love between
Christians is the sign to the world whereby they will know us. It is imperative that we set this above all
else in the church and if we would only do so those other things would find
their true place of importance. We would
see the beauty of the Psalmists word picture, "Behold, how good and
pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity." In that place, only God gets the glory
because the world sees us as different and then the question becomes, "What
makes this possible?" There is no
room for pride in the supernatural love of a community who abide in Christ.
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