Page 91 - Daniel

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of
Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king’s court.

Overwhelmed by the tremendous significance of the image and the
demonstration that Daniel’s God was greater than any god whom he
worshiped, Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid great honor to
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Daniel. The word for “homage” can denote the worship of a deity. It is
quite clear, however, from the king’s conversation with Daniel that
Nebuchadnezzar merely regarded Daniel as a worthy priest or
representative of his God and was honoring him in this category. In
other words, even the king understood that Daniel was the ambassador
and representative of God but not deity himself. It is probably for this
reason that Daniel permitted the king to do what he did.

An interesting parallel is found in Josephus, recording the instance
where Alexander the Great bowed before the high priest of the Jews.
When Parmenion, one of his generals, asked him why, when ordinarily

all men would prostrate themselves before Alexander the Great, he had
prostrated himself before the high priest of the Jews, Alexander replied,
“It was not before him that I prostrated myself, but the God of whom he
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has the honor to be high priest.” In view of the previous statements of
Daniel repeated several times and Nebuchadnezzar’s own statement of
verse 47, the record leaves no doubt that Daniel was not claiming deity

or any of the powers of deity.
Nebuchadnezzar paid a great tribute to the God of Daniel. It is most
significant that the king did not even mention his own gods that had

failed to produce a suitable revelation, except in the statement that
Daniel’s God is “God of gods”—that is, Daniel’s God is supreme over any
other gods commonly worshiped in a polytheistic system. Although
Nebuchadnezzar was short of true faith in Daniel’s God at this point in
his life, this was the first step on Nebuchadnezzar’s journey of faith. The
evidence that Daniel’s God could reveal a secret and may indeed have

been the author of his dream impressed Nebuchadnezzar with the fact
that no other god could be greater.
In keeping with the king’s desire to honor Daniel and also according to
his promise, Daniel was immediately promoted. Many valuable gifts

were given to him, and he was installed in the exalted position of ruler