Verses 30, 32: “Is not this the great Babylon which I have built as a royal residence by my own mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?, To you, King Nebuchadnezzar, the word is spoken: the kingdom has passed from you…until you have learnt that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.”
Nebuchadnezzar verbalizes an attitude of someone who has forgotten his or her dependence on the Divine Mystery we experience as the Self/God Within. The king makes the mistake of hubris, which Webster’s defines as “an exaggerated sense of self importance or confidence.” His ego is acting as if he were the originator of all that is.
When all is going well in life and we feel we are in “control,” we often forget there is more to who we are than the present expression. How often we think we are in charge of ourselves only to be surprised by an unbidden emotion, mood, thought, desire, or behavior. The unbidden may be inconsistent with what we are thinking or planning. It may be a “light bulb” idea that helps us or a burst of energy that moves us. Either way, the manifestation holds a seed of the Self.
Psychologically, the “Most High” is the Self, the organizing principle of psyche (soul) that is our point of connection to God/Divine Essence. In terms of Jungian psychology, the ego or sense of self is a reflection or extension of the Self—the totality of our psyche. The Self (with a capital “S”) can be likened to a ray of the Sun. It is not the Sun, but an extension of it. We are not God, but we are an extension of the Divine.
Like Nebuchadnezzar, we can forget that our power, strength, and creativity are not of our ego’s making but are an expression of the Self/God Within. The Divine Within demands we build a conscious or knowing relationship to our Divine Essence. To do this, we have to relate to our inner stirrings and seek the Divine presence in the mood, impulse, etc. We have to ask what purpose it serves or what it seeks to offer energetically and then listen for the answer from the “still small voice of God within.”
By embracing the totality of who we are, we begin to see the whole of our psyche/soul and honor “the Most High.”
Inner Reflection
Take a few minutes to reflect on the whole of who you are and to honor the Divine with words of acknowledgment and gratitude for your Inner Divine Spirit.