LIFTED MIND AND HARDENED HEART

"But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him." (Daniel 5:20)

Nebuchadnezzar is one of the significant personalities of Scripture. His name is mentioned no less than sixty times in the Old Testament Scriptures. He is not, of course, a model of purity or virtue. He is, however, an example of how a person can be raised up by God, used by God, then cast down by God. In this Babylonian king, we find how a person can be blessed, then cursed: he can be given power, then lose it all. At one point, God referred to Nebuchadnezzar as "my servant." The Lord gave him "beasts of the field to serve him, also declaring that, by Divine decree, "all nations shall serve him"  (Jer 27:6). The reason for him being vaulted into power was that he might chasten the people of Israel–God's chosen people. Indeed, Nebuchadnezzar fulfilled the purpose for which he was raised up. He "came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged" (2 Kgs 24:10). He "burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire" (2 Kgs 25:9). It is written, "the LORD carried away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar" (1 Chron 6:15). He bound the king with fetters and "also carried of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon" (2 Chron 36:6). By sovereign decree, God gave Nebuchadnezzar "a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honor" (Dan 5:18). His kingdom ruled the world, and was counted the most glorious of all kingdoms.
But, alas, the heart of this favored king became infatuated with his own imagined greatness. Instead of glorifying God for his political prominence, he gathered the glory to himself. After twelve months of unparalleled prominence, he walked about his palace his palace and boasted, "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?" Before the words had fallen from his lips, heaven answered and he was stripped of his power, driven out to live with the beasts like a wild man. His words were not simply a "slip of the lip," so to speak. God tells his mind was "lifted up" – elevated beyond the boundary of humility. When this happened, "his heart was hardened." We learn from this that there is a correlation between the mind and the heart. When the mind is lifted up with pride, the heart made hard and impervious to Divine influence. When, therefore, we find people whose heart cannot be touched with the grace of God, we know that their minds have been "lifted up." They are thinking of themselves more highly than they ought to think.