13 And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?
But wicked character or no, He is used as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ and his history forms a parable for us today.
The Story of Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible is a Parable.
The key events are:
God's role for Nebuchadnezzar, He
is given dominion over all the world. [Jeremiah 27; Ezra 1; etc.;see below.]
Nebuchadnezzar 's conquest of Tyre
Nebuchadnezzar 's rulership and destruction
of Jerusalem and
Nebuchadnezzar 's conquest of Egypt.
In this parable the characters or elements
are:
Nebuchadnezzar is a type of Jesus
Christ,
The land of Judah and the City of
Jerusalem are the Church.
The king of Tyrus is Satan, [Ezekiel
28; see below]
Pharaoh king of Egypt is also Satan.
The Lord is the Father God.
Egypt is the world. [The only new
type here is Nebuchadnezzar.[
What the parable illustrates is the
role Jesus plays in the Fathers plan.
Nebuchadnezzar first conquered Tyre,
then Jerusalem, and finally Egypt.
Jesus first defeated Satan at Calvary. Now He is about to take over [conquer] the Church. Then He will judge and take over the world.
As Nebuchadnezzar was given the land of Egypt by the Lord, for his service in defeating the king of Tyrus, so the Father has given Jesus all authority and power under heaven for his defeat of Satan at Calvary. [Ezekiel 29, see below.]
And part of the judgment that Nebuchadnezzar carries out against Egypt is to destroy the houses of their gods. This alludes to the judgments the Lord made against Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt in Exodus. And it is a prophetic foreshadowing of the Second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, when He will carry out vengeance against Satan's kingdoms [the houses of their gods] in the heavenly places. [Jeremiah 43; see below]
Then He will set up his throne in Pharaoh's house, and spread his royal pavilion there.
...And he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment; and he shall go forth from thence in peace Jer.. 43:12. Which is to say, Jesus will set up his kingdom on this earth, and assume control of the world and bring peace!
But First, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed
Jerusalem and burnt the temple. And afterward He conquered Egypt. [Jeremiah
25; see below]
Which is to say: Judgment must begin
at the house of God, and then judgment will come upon the world.
The main lesson for the church today:
Nebuchadnezzar as a type of the Lord
Jesus brings judgment on Jerusalem. This is the coming judgment on the
Church. Organized Christianity as we know it will be devastated, like Jerusalem
was. The survivors are counseled by the prophet Jeremiah to remain in the
Land of Judah [praise] to dwell safely. If they go down into Egypt, they
are in danger. [Jeremiah 42: see below.]
Likewise Christian who come through
this judgment must stay in an attitude of Praise and Worship [service]
to God, in order to be safe during the judgments coming on the world. If
they loose heart and fall back into following the ways of the world [Egypt]
they will be judged with the world.
The Judgment on the Church
The situation in Jerusalem when it
was destroyed was that they were already under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar.
The Kingdom of Judah was supposedly submitted to the Babylonian empire.
Their King was a man He had set up and placed on their throne. He [Zedekiah]
rebelled and brought down destruction upon the nation.
Our churches are supposedly submitted to the Lordship of Jesus. Our leaders are men he has raised up. Yet for our disobedience He [Jesus] must come as Judge. He will assume His authority and set up His throne in His temple, the Church. As Judgment begins at the House of God, so will the Kingdom of God begin in this revival.
This judgment is quite comparable to the destruction of Jerusalem. In Rick Joyner's article, Civil War in the Church, he speaks of it in terms of what will "look like a total meltdown of Christianity."
Isaiah speaks of a time when " When the enemy shall come in like a flood, .... Isa. 59:19
In another place Isaiah writes:
15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
[Note that some of these references refer directly to Jesus, some to Cyrus King of Persia and some to Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon. The common element is that God speaks of each of them as 'my servant' or 'my anointed'. And as you might guess, Cyrus is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ just as Nebuchadnezzar is.]
Jeremiah. 27:
6 And now have I given all these lands
into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the
beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.
Ezra 1:
2 Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia,
The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and
he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is
in Judah.
Isaiah. 42:
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold;
mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon
him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
Isaiah 44:
1 Thus saith the LORD to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him;
and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved
gates; and the gates shall not be shut;
2 I will go before thee, and make
the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass,
and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
3 And I will give thee the treasures
of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know
that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God
of Israel.
28 That saith of Cyrus, He is
my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem,
Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
Jeremiah 25:
9 Behold, I will send and take all
the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king
of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against
the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and
will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing,
and perpetual desolations.
15 For thus saith the LORD God of
Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all
the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.
17 Then took I the cup at the LORD'S
hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:
18 To wit, Jerusalem, and the
cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make
them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is
this day;
19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his
servants, and his princes, and all his people;
Ezekiel 28
12 Son of man, take up a lamentation
upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou
sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden
of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz,
and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the
emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and
of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
14 Thou art the anointed cherub
that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain
of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 Thou wast perfect in thy
ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
Ezekiel 29
18 Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every
head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had
he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served
against it:
19 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD;
Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon;
and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey;
and it shall be the wages for his army.
20 I have given him the land of Egypt
for
his labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me,
saith the Lord GOD.
21 In that day will I cause the horn
of the house of Israel to bud forth, and I will give thee the opening of
the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am the
LORD.
Jeremiah 43
8 Then came the word of the LORD unto
Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying,
9 Take great stones in thine hand,
and hide them in the clay in the brickkiln, which is at the entry
of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah;
10 And say unto them, Thus saith the
LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar
the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones
that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them.
11 And when he cometh, he shall smite
the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death;
and such as are for captivity to captivity; and such as are
for the sword to the sword.
12 And I will kindle a fire in the
houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away
captives: and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd
putteth on his garment; and he shall go forth from thence in peace.
13 He shall break also the images
of Bethshemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of
the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.
Jeremiah 42
9 And said unto them, Thus saith the
LORD, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication
before him;
10 If ye will still abide in this
land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant
you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have
done unto you.
11 Be not afraid of the king of Babylon,
of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the LORD: for I am
with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.
12 And I will shew mercies unto you,
that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.
13 But if ye say, We will not dwell
in this land, neither obey the voice of the LORD your God,
14 Saying, No; but we will go into
the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the
trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell:
15 And now therefore hear the word
of the LORD, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God
of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn
there;
16 Then it shall come to pass, that
the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt,
and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there
in Egypt; and there ye shall die.
17 So shall it be with all the men
that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die
by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall
remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.
18 For thus saith the LORD of hosts,
the God of Israel; As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon
the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you,
when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment,
and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.