Daniel tells how, just before Nebuchadnezzar was stricken and humbled, the proud king walked up the terraces of his palace, saying, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?" (Daniel 4:30)
Memorials of Vanity
He not only spoke it, but engraved like sentiments in his inscriptions upon the royal tablets, now dug up and read. One of them says:
For the astonishment of men I built this house; all of the power of my majesty encompasses its walls. ... In Babylon alone I raise the seat of my dominion.
This vanity is the common frailty of the human mind.
The Mind of Christ
Contrast with this Christ's attitude as he came into the world to show men how to live for man. He had not built a pile of bricks and mortar, but the very earth and all living things upon it and the heavens were the work of His hands. Yet He said, "I can of my own self do nothing." (John 5:30) "I came ... not to do my own will." (John 6:38) "I have glorified You on the earth." (John 17:4)
Nebuchadnezzar glorified himself as the builder of a great city now buried in the sands. Jesus, in whom all things consist, glorified God. "Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus: Who...emptied himself." (Philippians 2:5-6,RV)--Present Truth, August 13, 1896--Daniel 4:30
E.J. Waggoner