Thursday, November 20, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Daniel 4-12
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 134
Key Verse
Daniel 8:5 — “And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.”
Devotional Thought
Nebuchadnezzar had everything a man could want—a palace at rest, a kingdom flourishing, a city of unmatched splendor. Yet a single dream shook him. In Daniel 4, the great king of Babylon describes a tree that reached to heaven, sheltering beasts and birds, until a watcher from heaven cried out that it must be hewn down, its stump bound with iron and brass. Daniel, the faithful captive from Judah, interpreted the dream with sorrow: the tree was Nebuchadnezzar himself. Twelve months later, walking on his palace roof, the king boasted, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built by the might of my power?” Before the words left his mouth, the decree fell. He was driven from men, eating grass like an ox, until his hair grew like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws—until he lifted his eyes to heaven and knew that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men.
That lesson was not learned by his grandson. In Daniel 5, Belshazzar throws a feast for a thousand lords and drinks from the golden vessels taken from the temple in Jerusalem, praising gods of silver and gold while the God in whose hand his breath lay went unglorified. A hand appears and writes on the plaster: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. Daniel, now an old man, reads the sentence without flattery: numbered, weighed, divided. That very night Belshazzar was slain, and Darius the Median took the kingdom.
Then comes Daniel 6, and the plot turns to the saint himself. Daniel serves so faithfully that his enemies can find no fault in him—except his prayers. They trick Darius into signing an irrevocable decree, and Daniel, knowing it, kneels at his window three times a day as before. He is thrown to the lions, and God shuts their mouths. Even the lions testify: the Most High rules.
We read these chapters in late November, when our own kingdoms—our careers, our health, our carefully built lives—feel secure enough to boast in. The season of Thanksgiving invites us to count blessings, but Daniel 4 through 6 asks a sharper question: to whom do the blessings belong? Nebuchadnezzar’s sanity returned the moment he looked upward. Ours will too.
Reflection
- Where in your life are you tempted to say, “Is not this great thing that I have built by the might of my power?”—and what would it look like to lift your eyes to heaven before the voice from heaven speaks?
- Daniel kept praying with his windows open even when it was illegal. What daily habit of faithfulness might God be asking you to keep, regardless of the cost?
Prayer
O Most High, whose kingdom is from generation to generation, we confess that we have boasted in what Your hands have given us. You have set kings up and brought them down; You have numbered and weighed kingdoms, and You alone rule in the affairs of men. Teach us the lesson Nebuchadnezzar learned in the field, and spare us the pride of Belshazzar at the feast. Give us the courage of Daniel, who knelt before You with his windows open. Let our reason return, let our eyes lift upward, and let our lives declare that all Your works are truth and Your ways judgment. In the name of Your Son, Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 134:1 — “Behold, bless ye the LORD, all ye servants of the LORD, which by night stand in the house of the LORD.”