In the last podcast in this series, ‘How Do You Pray for A President You Don’t Agree With?‘ we referenced Cyrus, an ungodly leader, whom God allowed to ascend the throne. Cyrus was a man full of pride. He was a false god worshiper. He was not a lover of the only true Father God in heaven. He treated Him just like any of the other gods of the nations he conquered. God used his religious tolerance policies to His own advantage bringing Israel back to Jerusalem from Babylonian captivity. In this week’s podcast, we begin to take a look at a second king whom God allowed to come to power, Nebuchadnezzar.

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You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put into operation.
This week’s call is:

Adjustments must be made in our ‘prayer thinking’ when praying for the leaders of our nation. Being critical and opinionated about whom God sets up is dangerous territory. Humbling ourselves is always divine order.

Join the Conversation

Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
This week’s question is:

Question:  Please share your personal testimony of an adjustment you made which lead to an increase in the Presence of God in your life. Please share your comments, in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

You can find additional information on God’s Presence in the resources listed below.

1. #S1-049: How to Cultivate Gods Presence In Your Life [Podcast]
2. #S1-050: More How to Cultivate Gods Presence In Your Life [Podcast]
3. # S3:025: How Timely Adjustments Unlock The Presence of God [Podcast]
4. #S3-026: Why Successful People Allow the Lord to Build Their Life [Podcast]
5. #S3-027: How Do You Pray for A President You Don’t Agree With? [Podcast]

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

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Podcast Notes

A Second Bible Example of God Raising Up an Ungodly King: Nebuchadnezzar

Daniel 4:13–17 (NKJV) 13 “I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed, and there was a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven. 14 He cried aloud and said thus: ‘Chop down the tree and cut off its branches, Strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts get out from under it, And the birds from its branches. 15 Nevertheless leave the stump and roots in the earth, Bound with a band of iron and bronze, In the tender grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of heaven, And let him graze with the beasts On the grass of the earth. 16 Let his heart be changed from that of a man, Let him be given the heart of a beast, And let seven times pass over him. 17 ‘This decision is by the decree of the watchers, And the sentence by the word of the holy ones, In order that the living may know That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, Gives it to whomever He will, And sets over it the lowest of men.’

• The Hebrew word ‘lowest’ is an adjective and it’s a word which refers to ‘quality’ of what it’s describing. It means inferior in station or quality.
• God sets over the kingdoms of the world, the lowest quality of men according to Daniel.
• This is opposite way we think in America.
• Americans try to appoint the best candidate through our election process.
• But, understand that the best candidate may be the most inferior as far as God is concerned.

Who We Are Compared to the Most High God

• Would it be fair to say that in many aspects, we are all inferior to the Most High God?
• Mentally, we can’t even stand in the same room as God.
• Think about all the questions we have compared to Him who knows every answer.
• Think about all the unknowns which men are at this present hour trying to grapple with.
• Think about all the people, and institutions, and industries which are trying to find the cure to major diseases.
• God knows the answer.
• Think about world hunger.
• God knows the answer.
• Think about peace in the Middle East.
• God knows the answer.
• Think about any questions which span generations of men.
• God knows the answer.
• God knows how to cure every person of whatever is wrong with them.
• He knows every individual case.
• He knows how to obliterate every single disease completely from planet earth.
• Think about all the people trying to understand ‘quantum physics’.
• Quantum physics explain things like atomic energy levels, photons, and the wavelength of electrons ¹
• How are you in quantum physics?
• Yet, God is the designer of such systems.
• Men are using all their energies to discover the answers, spending vast millenniums and generations of time doing it, all the while the Creator of all of it sits on His Throne with the answer.
• How many thousands of years will it take a human mind to grasp what God created in a moment of time?
• It’s almost comical to see men trying to be so intellectual about what they have little clue about.
• Look at it from God’s point of view.
• Think about being locked up in a room with God and having a one on one conversation with Him about the human brain.
• Would you be able to hold up your end of the conversation?
• There was a man in the Bible named Job who thought he understood about a great many things.
• He thought he understood so well, well enough to bring accusations of unfairness against God.
• God was quiet and patient for thirty-seven chapters of the book which bears Job’s name.
• And then in chapter thirty-eight, God calls him on his words.

Job 38:1–2 (NKJV) 1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: 2 “Who is this who darkens counsel By words without knowledge?

• ‘Who is this?’ That’s a rhetorical question.
• God knew exactly who Job was.
• He knew he was a righteous God-fearing worshiper of God.
• He knew he suffered great personal losses and was grieving because of it.
• But Job got of order with his mouth.
• And so God responds with the first of many questions to Job.
• ‘Who is this who darkens counsel By words without knowledge.’
• So, yes we are the righteousness of God in Christ.
• Thank God for it.
• Yes, we are joint heirs with Jesus.
• Yes, we are to rule and reign with Him.
• Yes, we are made in His image and likeness.
• But, all of these things are by the grace of our God who loved us and sent His Son to die for us.
• Job’s mouth got out of alignment.
• The word ‘darken’, in verse two, means to obscure.
• Job had obscured wise counsel by speaking words without having knowledge.

Job 38:3 (NKJV) 3 Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.

• So, God immediately put Job on notice by reminding him of his humanity in relation to His deity.
• Alright so you’re intellectual right, you have it all figured out right?
• Here’s God’s first question, right out of the box.

Question One References Infinity

Job 38:4-5 (NKJV) 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.

• The first question sets the tone for all the rest of the questions.
• God’s question references infinity.
• God says, “I have always existed. Where were you when I started.’
• Right away God confronts Job with his mortality.
• He brings him face to face with his vapor of smoke existence.
• God says, ‘Tell me if you have understanding.’
• Why did the Lord phrase this-this way for Job?
• Because for all this time Job has been speaking of God like he has understanding.
• So, God says if you have it, answer this question for me.
• Job can’t answer it and thousands of years later neither can man.

Question Two References Creation and Job’s Accumulated Knowledge

Job 38:5 (NKJV) 5 Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?

• The second question addresses Job’s accumulated knowledge bank.
• “Job, how much do you know about the creation of things?’ God asks.
• Do you know the measurements, not of the earth, but of the foundations of the earth?”
• ‘Surely, you know’, Job.
• ‘Since, you know so much about everything else give me the answer to this simple question.’
• It’s a simple question to God because He was there and He was the architect of Creation.
• God continues with question after question for a man who himself tried to put God on the hot seat.

More Stunning Questions for Job

Job 38:19–20 (NKJV) 19 “Where is the way to the dwelling of light? And darkness, where is its place, 20 That you may take it to its territory, That you may know the paths to its home?

• Thousands of years later, mankind still doesn’t know the answers to these questions.
• But, God knows the answer.
• This goes on for two chapters.
• That’s two chapters of questions that God asks Job to which he has no answer to any of them.
• The questions continue onward.

Job 40:1–2 (NASB95) 1 Then the LORD said to Job, 2 “Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer it.”

• Notice what the Lord calls Job.
• He calls him a ‘faultfinder’.
• The Hebrew word here means faultfinder someone who is critical of the motives of others.
• Job was a faultfinder BEFORE he lost everything.
• He was this before the trial.
• The trial just showed this critical mindset up.
• It brought it out into the open.
• To the charge of fault finding Job replies.

Job 40:3–5 (ESV) 3 Then Job answered the LORD and said: 4 “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. 5 I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.”

• Job begins to humble himself but God’s not finished yet.
• The words ‘small account’ is one word in the Hebrew and it means to be trivial or become of little substance or significance.
• So, Gods ‘big questions’ are having the proper effect.
• They are bringing Job to a place of humility.
• But, God’s not quite done with Job.

Job 40:6–7 (ESV) 6 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 7 “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. 8 Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? 9 Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?

• So, the Lord starts with yet another round of questions for Job.
• He tells him to get dressed for action like a man.
• The words ‘for action’ means to prepare for difficulty or gird the loins. The word is a verb meaning to prepare for effort, inconvenience, or trouble, conceived of as girding one’s loin garments.
• The Lord said to Job, ‘I am not done with making you uncomfortable yet.’
• ‘I will question you and you will make it known to me.’
• Do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like God?

Job 40:8–9 (ESV) 8 Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? 9 Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?

• These questions deal with power.
• ‘How much power do you have Job’, God asks?
• Let’s compare muscles.
• Is military might what you are trusting in?
• Job didn’t even have that.
• Who has the bigger muscle?

Job 40:10–12 (ESV) 10 “Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. 11 Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him. 12 Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand.

• Of course, Job has no answer.
• Did you notice verse eleven and twelve?
• The key word for Job is ‘everyone’.
• God knows everyone who is proud, everyone.
• God asks Job, does he have personally have the ability to deal with every proud person on the planet?
• Can he look on everyone who is proud and abase every single person.
• Can he bring each individual person low?
• The implication is God can.
• Get this straight in your book.
• He is God, besides Him, there is no other.
• Then finally, God brings this discussion to an end with an entire chapter on Leviathan.

Job 41:1-2 (ESV) 1 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord? 2 Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?

• In the depths of the oceans today, there is a huge serpent-like sea monster known as Leviathan.
• Leviathan is mentioned six times in the Bible, most notably in Isaiah.

Isaiah 27:1 (ESV) 1 In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

Job 41:3-7 (ESV) 3 Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words? 4 Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever? 5 Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls? 6 Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants? 7 Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?

• We know this creature is still alive because God said, I am going to deal with him in ‘that day.’
• What day is that?
• It’s the last of the end-time when God deals with all iniquity.
• Leviathan is pleading with God. He is speaking soft words (gentle or tender) to the Most High God.
• He knows God can just snatch his breath.
• Notice what the Lord said concerning Leviathan.
• He said, ‘I play with him like a bird.’
• ‘I put him on a leash for my children.’
• Man hasn’t even found or been able to catalog this creature yet God said he plays with him whenever he wants.
• Now there are some scholars who have conjectured that the creature being described here is a crocodile of some sort.
• It really can’t be.
• It doesn’t fit the context.
• God is showing Job how big he is in comparison to him.
• No Leviathan is way bigger than a crocodile.
• At any rate, this was it.
• Leviathan was the last straw for Job.

Job 42:1–6 (NKJV) 1 Then Job answered the LORD and said: 2 “I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. 3 You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4 Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’ 5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. 6 Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.”

• Did you notice throughout all of this that God never directly addresses Job’s complaints?
• The questions he had were not the root of Job’s problem.
• Answering them would not have solved Job.
• So the, why did God ask all of these questions the way He did?
• It’s what it took to bring Job down to size.
• Every question knocked Job down a peg and got Him closer to ‘sackcloth and ashes.’
• The Lord was not trying to belittle Job.
• He was not trying to make Job feel small and puny.
• That’s what bullies do and God is no bully.
• Could it be that God was trying to get Job into position so He could bless Him?
• Move him off of his ‘high horse’ to where God was able to bless him?

Job 42:12–14, 16-17 (NKJV) 12 Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. 13 He also had seven sons and three daughters. 15 In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. 17 So Job died, old and full of days.

• God blessed Job with twice what he had before Satan attacked him.
• Seeing your children is a blessing. Job saw his children for four generations.
• Seeing your grandchildren is grand. He saw them for four generations.
• All of God’s dealings in trying to help Job was based on this principle.

James 4:6 (NKJV) 6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

• This doesn’t just work with humbling yourselves to God.
• You have to humble yourselves with one another also.

1 Peter 5:5 (NKJV) 5 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

• Younger must submit to older.
• The disrespect you are seeing in the media with children to their parents is huge ungodliness.
• The blatant disrespect of an older person by anyone younger is fiercely sinful.
• It goes on from there because all of us should out of humility submit to one another.
• Adjustments in these areas lead to increased Presence of God in your life.
• God gets big time involved with humility.

Numbers 12:3 (NKJV) 3 (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.)

• Moses, the most used man on the planet in his generation was the meekest.
• Do you desire to be used?
• Humble yourself to God and to one another.
• God knew that Job was hurting.
• Wouldn’t you be if you lost all your immediate family and then on top of it lost all your possessions?
• But, the Lord couldn’t help in his current prideful state.
• Even though he was grieving.
• Even though he was hurting badly.
• He had to reduce him to ‘sackcloth and ashes’, a picture of humility.
• Notice, it wasn’t the trial which reduced him to humility.
• It did the opposite.
• It showed up his pride.
• Humility is the position you take when you don’t understand what’s going on.
• You will never understand everything.

1 Corinthians 13:12 (NKJV) 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

• You trust that God does.

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