This Week's Story
click here to play audioPOWER and a BIG HEAD sure have a mean grip on Nebuchadnezzar.
This Week’s Story relives American history and the Bible through brief inspiring stories presented on mp3 audio recordings and text for reading.
A Mean Grip! part four
POWER and a BIG HEAD sure have a mean grip on lots of fools. In Compton, California there’s the gang fools. Two of them are talking over there by the fire hydrant.
“Hey boy, you’a South Side Compton Crip, right?”
“Yah, another boy, just like you. Only you not as good.”
“Whoa, you got a mouth! Stuff the slams. We Ducky Hood Crips have the power here.”
“That’s so? Keep away from South Side.”
I listen to these two fools high on hot air. Sometimes they’re almost funny, but not when they’re on a drive-by. Then they can hurt most anyone and feel nothing.
You can’t get away from POWER and BIG HEADS, if you follow the news. Like ISIS warriors, for instance. They say, “We bring righteousness.” They bring cruelty to thousands of targeted people, among them Christians from Syria and Iraq.
Christians who escape are afraid to return to their homes. Some report, “ISIS terrorists put the red stamp of death on every home in our town where Christians live. The stamp warns us that anyone who returns to his home will be killed.
“Warriors order their captives, ‘These are your choices. Pay a fine! Leave your homes! Convert to Islam! Or, be killed.’ Sometimes captives pay fines and still are killed. Some are taken to slaughterhouses and slashed apart. Children have been beheaded.”
We Americans may like violence, but prefer to keep it on a big screen, but ISIS butchery refuses to stay on Youtube. ISIS celebrates public displays of torture.
About 2500 years ago there was another power storming Iraq. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon built a grand nation with brutal battles, slaves, thousands of statues representing gods and goddesses, opulent palaces, and magnificent gardens. No Six Flag roller coaster had more terrifying or appealing surprises. King Nebuchadnezzar’s fist penetrated every day of his people. Prisoners of war became slaves and were commanded to pray to idols.
Nebuchadnezzar had some strange experiences with dreams and captured Hebrews. A Jewish prince named Daniel was given power by the king. Daniel insisted on believing in one he called God. He declared, “God reveals deep and mysterious things. He knows what is hidden in darkness, but He is surrounded by light.”
In a dream Nebuchadnezzar saw a tree growing tall and strong, reaching high into the heavens. Its branches were loaded with fruit. Wild animals lived in its shade and birds built their nest on its branches. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, “That tree is you. Your greatness reaches to heaven.
“You saw a holy messenger come from heaven and announce, ‘Cut down the tree, but leave its stump and roots. Put a band around the stump. Tender grass will surround it. Let him eat grass for seven years.”
“This means, you, King Nebuchadnezzar, will be forced to leave your palace. You will live alone in fields with wild animals. You will eat grass like a cow and be covered with dew for seven years. I beg you, stop sinning and do what is right.”
A year later the king was boasting about his accomplishments, “I built this great city of Babylon. It is my splendor.”
There was no pause. As he spoke a voice called, “You are no longer ruler of this nation.”
Soon we will discover: What happened to Nebuchadnezzar?
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