The morning Manna will be provided at 6am. Thanks.

Studying Mission in the SSnet.org series Lesson 9, may the Holy Spirit be the speaker to your heart.

The Topic today is: “Mission is speaking with Nebuchadnezzars in our day for Morning Manna of the Sabbath School Lesson Mission”.

The Opening Hymn will be 229 "Spirit of the Living God."

The Sabbath School Quarterly, downloadable from SSnet.org in the Teacher's Edition is on pages 112.

The SSnet.org site allows anyone, anywhere to read the lesson in their own language. Choose your own language to see God speaking also to your heart.

Why do you not click on this now?

https://www.adultbiblestudyguide.org/pdf.php?file=2023:4Q:SE:PDFs:EAQ423_09.pdf

---Nebuchadnezzar the Great

---But he became small. God punished him. He listened and was converted and shortly afterwards died.

---He will be in heaven.

---His family noticed changes in his life.

---His wife was so angry with the local religion that she left to live far away in another town (Harran) where Sin was worshiped, the Moon god. She did not like the Marduk priests.

---Her son Nabonidus did not like the Marduk religion in town. He destroyed banners of theirs and refused the New Year festival of gods entering the city towards the Marduk temple.

---Nebuchadnezzars wife died at 108 years old.

---The sister of Nabonidus or daughter of Nebuchadnezzar did not like the local Marduk religion either, so she wanted to be a highpriestess in another town.

---Nabonidus asked the priests to ordain her. He favored woman ordination.

---The god said three times no. After the third time she was installed as highpriestess of the temple.

---Point is: the influence of Hebrew religion on the family upset them all for a link to the Marduk religion. Only Nebuchadnezzar accept the true God and will be saved.

---So when was the time of the megalomania disease of Nebuchadnezzar?

---When was the time that he told himself over and over and over how great I am. Wow I am great. Look how great I am. See what I have built.

---Build is the word.

---So a book by Stephen Langdon of the British Museum appeared in 1912 about the Building Texts of Nebuchadnezzar.

---He arranged all the texts he could find on building operations by Nebuchadnezzar and arranged them in chronological order.

---They were building stelae, building inscriptions, building reliefs and building cylinders. There were 28 of them.

---The book can be downloaded from the internet.

---If one wants to talk chronology of building tasks of Nebuchadnezzar, the following rules need to be kept in mind.

---Firstly, Nebuchadnezzar can only build with cedars if he conquered Lebanon. He only conquered Lebanon circa 588-586 BCE and that does not rule out other trips there or some trips in the past like 597 BCE.

---It does not rule out the regular supply of cedars from the Lebanon after his first encounter of it.

---He can only roof the buildings and decorate it with wood from these cedars if he had it.

---Thus it appears that most building operations regarding the temples and shrines in and around Babylon only happened after he fixed the incomplete channel of his father Nabopolassar in the north of the Euphrates, all the other street works and layouts.

---Then when the city was build he focused on the temple restorations and beautifications, then on his own palace.

---Building of each takes about two years minimum each and either the same team goes from one to the other or teams worked simultaneously. The logistics needed to be considered by Langdon for chronology.

---Secondly, the likelihood is that the building of the temples per se, only occurred post 584 BCE until 570 BCE when his palace also was completed.

---That leaves seven years free for his megalomania embarrassment and his acknowledgement of the Jewish God before he died in 561 BCE.

---Thirdly, diet supply to the temples would only occur after a beautification of each temple. It included all kinds of wine. But the receipts of the Erech temple only indicate twice before 568 BCE a receipt of wine.

---As a rule, it seems that throughout his reign he did not favor the drinking of wine at temples. Below I will look at the Erech texts listing the commodities that were given to the temples.

---Thus, when he was in a state of madness starting in 568 BCE post-dating his megalomania thinking of his building works, then one finds on the business receipts of the temple increased alcoholism on a monthly or weekly scale, including priests. Nebuchadnezzar seemed not to favor wine drinking? If one looks at the lists of wine given to temples.

---Fourthly, one needs to see that Stephen Langdon is not dogmatic about his findings of the dating and suggest it rather hesitatingly so one should not canonize his suggestions as fixed norms that cannot be shifted. Do not take Langdon too seriously although he is the guide for the main frame.

---The use of cedars for building is one of his weaknesses not properly considered as a factor for chronology in the building projects and thus Langdon’s suggestion of the Wadi Broshi (Lebanon) text A and text B dates stands under review.

---Fifthly, according to a renewed study of the Building projects of Nebuchadnezzar by the specialist Rocio da Riva over a long period but in his publication of 2013, the finishing of the Main palace was circa 576 BCE.

―Nebuchadnezzar began the construction of the North Palace between his 16th and 19th regnal years and did not finish it before 576 BC, his 29th regnal year (Kleber 2008, 159-161). We are looking for a time of his disease of megalomania. That is our topic here.

--- The building of the Hauptburg is commemorated in the following texts: C34, C35, C024, C025 and ST (Da Riva 2008), and mentioned in the introductory sections of many other Nebuchadnezzar inscriptions‖ (Rocio Da Riva, 2013. Nebuchadnezzar II‘s Prism (EK 7834): A New Edition. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 103(2): 196-229, especially page 196 footnote 5).

---Sixthly, the Psychology of Megalomania requires some time of focused reflection and repeated praises by all.

---The kakophonia of praises from his administrators, people in the streets or populism, diplomats from other countries, created in the mental composition of Nebuchadnezzar a reinforcement of his own importance linked to his building operations.

---Daniel‘s description of this problem is very relevant. One can see for example in the modern style of talking of president Trump that he is also reflective of his own achievements and this is because everyone fail to have a proper conversation with him so they quickly resort to a rescue tool for the uncomfortable few minutes with him by resorting to abundance of praise for his successful economy leading to a psychological rehearsal of him telling in public how great he is.

---This is why there are more than 28 cylinders by Nebuchadnezzar repeatedly explaining how great he is by his building operations.

---Seventhly, although achievements is a fact in a person‘s life, unless there is a concerted effort by the person him/herself to ―back down‖ or ―step out‖ of this praise, namely, to avoid hearing or seeing one’s own praise plastered in public, the person can become mentally disorientated. The human being does not have the capacity to handle over-praise and in this is his/her weakness as a general rule. It is because God did not create the human to be filled with self-praise in abundance. My father‘s workers in South Africa said it right: ―It is like pepper:

as long as you use a little, the food tastes good but if you shake it too much, it

will come into your eyes and burn you‖. So they called my father by the nickname ―pelle-pelle‖.

---Eighthly, the text EK 7834 that Da Riva discussed was not necessarily written in the 7th year of Nebuchadnezzar around 598 BCE but is the year in which the storehouses of the treasury was filled with abundance

(Da Riva 2013: on Col. IV or III* (line 25) reading:

Text:

Line 25   in se-bu-tim ša-at-ti-ja 1 lim 1 lim še-im

Line 26   1[ME] 10+ [x] +10 [lim] ZÚ.LUM.MA 20 lim sa-ap-pa-a-ti ka-ra-[nam]

Line 27   inq é-[re]-[eb] é-sag-íl ak-ku-ru-[un]

Translation:

Line 25 “In my seventh (regnal) year, I stored inside Esagil 1,000,000 (measures of) barley‖

---This was when Nebuchadnezzar finished the Old Palace which his father Nabopolassar started building earlier.

---He elaborated on it. He would build another palace or Main palace later in his reign.

---The period between 605 and 597 BCE was one of grabbing for the treasury. Rob other countries to fill his banks so that he could use the money for building operations.  

---Power-stealing operations through war and conflict. That is the style of the dreamer or one infatuated with illusions.

---Then after the Old Palace enlargement the city buildings were done.

---Then the temples inside and outside of Babylon proper and finally his own Main palace.

---One reads of his wine storing practices before 597 BCE in this storehouse but it seems that the Jewish lifestyles of Daniel and friends had an impact on him to minimize the wine at temples as Erech receipts shows?

---Archaeology took me to the city of Erech for a search of evidence of Nebuchadnezzar and his seven "mad" years.

---In the following description of the tablets from Erech I took the catalogue of Raymond P. Dougherty (1922) published as Coucher College Cuneiform Inscriptions vol. 1 by Yale University Press and supplied the Julian years to the information and rearranged it to be chronological.

---I was particularly interested to see how Biblical history and these texts breathes the same time.

---What we found is the following:

1. Nebuchadnezzar moved people to Babylon and Daniel and his friends went there as young boys, maybe 13 years old.

2. Erech was a town near Babylon and under its control.

3. These texts are economic receipts of commodities ordered, bought, delivered, received and the kind of commodities indicate for us the vision and demand from Babylon and by Nebuchadnezzar.

4. Erech was known for its temple of Eanna and it was a metropolis of southern Babylonia. The tablets were kept at the temple which served as a bank and a court for legal affairs. It was an archive but almost a library since about 50 documents were in Sumerian and had a longer history. There were bullae or labels which were attached to sacks of grain, bundles of produce. 262 tablets dated to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, with the help of the Medes captured Niniveh from the Assyrians in 606 BCE and then the crown prince Nebuchadnezzar rushed to Carchemish to conquer the Mediterranean countries away from Assyria by defeating the Egyptians in 605 BCE. He had to rush back since his father died. He ruled for 43 years. We provide here the economic texts from this temple of Eanna in Erech year by year in chronological order.

5. One sees a high proportion of animal husbandry between 604-600 BCE.

6. Water channels were dug according to the text in 602 BCE and what followed is a series of barley texts which displays a focus on agricultural farming. This was to continue all through Nebuchadnezzar's reign.

7. After the arrival of exiles in 597 BCE, the commodities that came to the temple included fashion design and clothing industry as one can see in 596 BCE. Also blacksmiths arrive for iron metal works.

8. A very exceptional arrival of date wine arrived at the temple in 594. Highly exceptional and total abstinence of alcohol is the case throughout the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. One fails to see a bottle of wine in any year except 594 BCE. However. . . .

9. For the next decade or two the economy was pretty diversified with all levels well represented.

10. The year 586 BCE saw the destruction of Jerusalem. A number of texts dates from that year. One interesting text was an order to destroy a tablet recording an obligation and that happened after the campaign to destroy Jerusalem. Why was it necessary to destroy records in Erech's temple archive with the arrival of Hebrews from Israel?

11. In 581 BCE there were two receipts for honey. Also in 572 and 570 BCE honey was received.

12. In the 9th month of 570, there was suddenly a turn of events at the Temple. It appears that when the cat is gone the mouse is boss. They did not pay their debts. From this time until the end in 561, there were problems with debts, especially as one can see in 568 BCE. Then from 567 and also including 566 BCE, alcohol was a severe problem in society. Suddenly, one can conclude that things went bad at Babylon. These were the last seven or eight years of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. It may have been that his Altzheimer disease is connected to these seven years of trouble and society corruption.

13. During these years of the king's madness (Daniel 4) it appears that the temple has wasted money on golden and silver accessories (565 BCE) and all kind of strange purchases.

14. It appears as if Nebuchadnezzar ended his reign after God gave him back his mind (Daniel 4:36). The recovery was before or in 561 BCE, his last regnal year it seems. ---Nice. Correct? You can learn much more from a Seventh Day Adventist pastor in your local area. Is your smartphone out to navigate there? Do not miss this opportunity. The Bible is real and you need to align with it. Correct. When? Immediately.