Of Nebuchadnezzar and Ozymandias

Every time I read the story of Nebuchadnezzar and his golden image in the book of Daniel, I think of the poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. And, whenever I see the poem, I think of the story. I wonder if Shelley wrote the poem, because he was aware of the story.

Nebuchadnezzar thought himself to be the greatest king. He had some reason for this, because one of the dreams which Daniel had interpreted for him concerned a statue with a head of gold. Daniel had explained that Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom was the head of gold and that the inferior materials in the rest of the statue represented inferior kingdoms. Of course, Daniel had also made it clear that his ability to interpret the dream was a gift from the one true God who was in control of human history. It was only this God who was (and is) worthy of worship.

Nevertheless, Nebuchadnezzar’s opinion of himself was so inflated that he had a ninety foot image of himself made and erected in an open plain. It was not just the head of this image that was gold, but the entire thing. Everyone was to bow down to the image on penalty of death in a furnace. Nebuchadnezzar thought himself to be a god worthy of such reverence.

Of course, neither Nebuchadnezzar nor his statue has endured. If his golden image still existed today, it would be a major tourist attraction and an artifact of incalculable value!

Consider Shelley’s poem:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear --
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

The megalomaniacs of human history have come and gone. Each, in his time believing himself to be invincible, has succumbed to the same fate as every commoner. It will continue to be so. The names of today’s famous athletes, entertainers, government leaders, business titans and other news makers will someday be unknown.

But…one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess the one who genuinely is invincible and whose value is far above gold. (Philippians 2:10-11)