Daniel 4:13–17

Shortly afterwards, heaven visited it. In heaven's judgment it was a different thing altogether. The Watcher and the Holy One came down, just as the Lord Himself had come down in the earlier days of Babel and of Sodom. This visitor from heaven inspected the tree of beautiful, astonishing growth. But to Him it was no object of admiration or worship. He was not moved to desire its beauty. In His thoughts it was not a tree good for food, or pleasant to the eye, or desirable for any purpose, as it was in the thoughts of all flesh. He looked on it as something ripe for righteous judgment. He said of it, "Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit."

As for the term "watcher," I do not think the understanding of who brought the decree of judgment rises above Nebuchadnezzar's religious condition. Daniel ascribes the decree directly to the Most High. Angels may well be its intelligent instruments, and God may in some way commit its administration to them. That presents no difficulty. The letter to the Hebrews, and other scriptures too, teach us that God employs angels in this way.

In verses 10-17 we have Nebuchadnezzar's own account of the dream that made him afraid. Read these verses and the strongly marked element of the supernatural is plain. There was a visit from "a Watcher and a Holy One." There was also a decree, endorsed by "the Most High," who "rules in the kingdom of men."

We also learn that God takes notice of the principles that guide the governments of the earth. They hold their power from God. His throne is not on the earth now, as it once was in Israel. Still, God watches over everything, and He judges whatever He has entrusted with authority. He does not rule directly. He holds responsible the one to whom He has entrusted the rule, so that this ruler might acknowledge God's authority as supreme in this world.

Daniel told the king that the tree stood for himself. Heaven had noted his ways, and God was about to visit him in judgment unless he repented. Men forget that there is a Watcher who sees their every act and hears their every word. In Noah's day "the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth." In David's time He looked down from heaven on the children of men. He looked for any who understood and sought God, but He found none who were not wholly worthless in His sight (Genesis 6:5; Psalm 14:2-3). How would any of us stand if the word went out, "Chop down the tree"?

This was solemn. Everyone was celebrating together. The beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and all flesh were glorying in the very thing heaven was condemning to destruction. But Daniel was a man of that day who had the mind of heaven — the mind of the Watcher and the Holy One about this tree. Only people like him had it. For the saint on earth has the mind of heaven in him. This is our place. All flesh may feed on what faith, or the mind of Christ in us, sees is heading for the certain judgment of God.

In every case the symbol of a tree points to greatness in the earth, unless fruit is the object. That holds whether it is an individual who expresses power, like Nebuchadnezzar, or a nation that rises to the top, or a system of religion, as in Matthew 13... This tree was the admiration of men. Everything about it gratified the heart: its own magnificent size, the beauty of its boughs and leaves, the abundance and sweetness of its fruits. Under its kindly shade the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky found protection. All this and more was in it, and such were man's thoughts about it. But what was God's estimate?

The beasts of the field and the birds of the sky come into the picture because God had given both alike into his hand. They, like the children of men, are subject to his authority, sustained and protected by it.

After a short time, however, heaven visited it, and in the judgment of heaven it was a different thing altogether. The Watcher and the Holy One came down, as the Lord Himself had done in the still earlier days of Babel and of Sodom. This visitor from heaven inspected the tree of beautiful, wonderful growth. But with Him it was no object of admiration or worship. In His thoughts it was not a tree good for food, or pleasant to the eye, or desirable for any purpose, as it was in the thoughts of all flesh. He looked on it as something ripe for righteous judgment.

"Hewn down." ... Compare the force of the expression in Daniel 4:14: it does not at all imply even the taking away of natural life. ... If "hewn down" itself meant the extinction of natural life, there would be little cause to dread the "fire" afterwards.

Notice, it is only a destruction for a time; there is no such thing as annihilation in anything in the mind of God.

Notice a difference between the head of gold in chapter 2 and the tree here, in how each is applied. Both concern Nebuchadnezzar, as the text plainly says. But the head of gold includes his dynasty, since the second of the four prophetic kingdoms does not appear until his dynasty ends. The tree is a symbol of Nebuchadnezzar himself, as the judgment carried out shows. Only we have to add this: his degradation is in reality typical of the character of Gentile power in government, right up to the time Christ appears to replace it and establish His kingdom.

Nebuchadnezzar was the instrument God used to lead Judah into captivity, and he was the first of the great Gentile rulers to exercise the government of imperial power. God had not left authority in the hands of the Gentiles for them to do their own will. He gave them their authority to carry out His will. Nebuchadnezzar had to learn this when God's judgment fell on him. "A watcher, a holy one" cried out so "that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men."

The King's story is very simple. In a dream he saw a mighty tree, with room in its vast branches for the birds of the sky, and with shade beneath for the beasts of the field. He also saw a watcher, a holy one, come down from heaven directing the tree to be cut down, with only its stump remaining... Men forget that there is a Watcher who sees their every act and hears their every word... How would any of us stand if the word went out, "Chop down the tree"?

Notice, it is merely a destruction for a time; there is no such thing as annihilation in anything in the mind of God. "But leave the stump of its roots in the earth." There must be means used by God to keep it alive.

In His mercy God set a limit to his madness, and made his kingdom sure to him "with a band of iron and bronze." God had given him the kingdom at the beginning, and God's power now held it securely for him. Meanwhile its degraded ruler, with a beast's heart given to him, herded with the cattle of the field, his hair like the feathers and his nails like the claws of a bird.

The only true privilege of man, the thing that makes him noble, is that he can look up to God and acknowledge Him. Without this he looks downward; he cannot be enough for himself; he is degraded. Dependence is his glory, for it sets him before God and gives him to know God. Pride and independence separate man from God; he becomes a beast, without real intelligence.

Some have explained it as nothing more than a delusion in the king's mind... Scripture affirms that God's power brought king Nebuchadnezzar down, in appearance, to the condition of a beast. If we accept that God could and did set aside the laws of nature — letting some walk unhurt in the fiercest fire, and keeping another safe in a den of lions — then it is simply a question of His will and word whether He brought Nebuchadnezzar into this terrible humiliation, hunted among the beasts of the field and made to eat grass like the oxen.

From a peak of glory Nebuchadnezzar was now brought down to the level of a beast — indeed almost below that level. In that miserable, beast-like condition "seven times" passed over him. It was not a passing affliction but a long one, though it is not stated here whether "times" means years. Elsewhere it apparently does.

"Times" may have been used instead of years. Perhaps that is because this judgment on Nebuchadnezzar is the pattern of the condition the Gentile powers are reduced to through the whole course of their empire. So a symbolic term may have been chosen instead of one from ordinary life. The Gentile nations, despite God's gift of supreme power, would give Him no proper recognition in their government.

He is left as "a stump in the earth." And then, being broken and humbled under God's mighty hand, God blesses him and exalts him, in His own way, at the end.

Daniel had told the king that the kingdom would be sure to him after he had learned that the heavens rule. This prediction was also verified... God thus fulfilled His own word through the mouth of His servant; not one jot or tittle was allowed to fall to the ground, and Nebuchadnezzar gladly confesses and records the divine faithfulness.

The word "beast" is used because of this king's destructive power. A beast's heart was given to Nebuchadnezzar. A man's heart looks upward to God; a beast's heart looks down and preys on others. A beast is a wild, hungry creature that devours everything below it.

He lost every thought of God. He had no more idea of God than an animal in the field. Even an ordinary man has a conscience in him. But Nebuchadnezzar lost all thought. He sank to the mindlessness of an animal. Man was made to be the one creature on earth who looked up to God and lived in dependence on Him. That is his glory.

Some people look like men on the outside, but "a man who is honoured yet has no understanding is like the animals that perish." Nebuchadnezzar is the most striking proof of this. Yet the same is true, in principle, of every man who has self and not God before his eyes. That was exactly true of the king of Babylon. He had no understanding. He credited everything to himself and not to God. So, by a terrible punishment, he is brought down to the lowest state of all.

He may reject the knowledge of the true God. He may become in spirit what Nebuchadnezzar became in body. That is, he too may be given a beast's heart. Of course this was a miraculous judgment carried out on that proud king of Babylon. But in moral terms it fits every man who turns away from God's testimony and gives himself up to the passing pleasures of the moment.

He imagined himself an animal, and for seven years he lived in the fields as one. We do not need to look outside Daniel's book to learn that Gentile rule is simply beastly in God's sight. The same powers appear to Nebuchadnezzar as metals in Daniel 2 and to Daniel as wild beasts in Daniel 7.

It does not say "years," but "times" — though the "times" might be years. The word "times" is vague, while the word "seven" makes it very precise. It means a complete period, a period covering the whole length of the times of the Gentiles… This shows that we should expect no improvement in the governments of the earth. So it is worse than useless for a Christian to launch out into political struggles, hoping to improve the state of things around him. It also sits badly with his heavenly calling.

The fact is that not one text of Scripture uses such a term as a prophecy. This chapter, which has it four times, uses it only of Nebuchadnezzar, in a literal and therefore quite different sense.

Nebuchadnezzar had credited all his glory to himself. So he was brought down to the state of a beast, as no one else ever has been, until "seven times" passed over him. After that he "lifted up his eyes to heaven" — a repentant and restored man who owned the Most High, no longer like an animal but with moral understanding.

As to the term "watcher," I do not think that knowing who brought the decree of judgment goes beyond Nebuchadnezzar's religious condition. Daniel traces it at once to the Most High. Angels may well be the intelligent instruments of that decree, and God may in some sense give them a part in carrying it out. That raises no difficulty. The letter to the Hebrews, and other scriptures too, teach us that God employs angels in this way.

The magicians were helpless as usual, so the king called in Daniel. Daniel told him that the tree stood for himself. Heaven had noted his ways, and God was about to visit him in judgment unless he repented. Men forget that there is a Watcher who sees their every act and hears their every word.

So all through Scripture, "the Most High" is a telling title of God as the Sovereign Ruler in the kingdom of men (Dan. 4:17). The demon-possessed man confessed Jesus as the Son of the absolute Lord of the universe. In the same way, the slave girl with a spirit of divination owned Paul and Silas as servants of the Most High God (Acts 16:17).

We also learn that God takes notice of the principles that guide the governments of the earth. They hold their power from God. His throne is not on the earth now, as it was in Israel. Yet God watches over all, and He judges the one He has given authority to. He does not rule Himself; He holds the ruler responsible, so that the ruler might own God's authority as supreme in this world.

What a poor, weak, foolish, conceited creature man is at his best state, altogether vanity (Ps. 39:5)! God does not always set the wise and noble of the earth over the kingdom of men. He gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men (chapter 4:17).

They represent Him in the way of government, little as they may realise it. Scripture even calls them His ministers, and He will hold them responsible for the way they use the power He has given them. Sometimes He allows this power to be in the hands of "the lowest of them" (Dan. 4:17). Every sort of man must be tested, so that all may know that Christ is the only hope of the world.

Put power into the hands of any fallen son of Adam and he will use it to exalt himself. He will even dare to use it against the saints of God and against God Himself. So came this stroke of chastisement on Nebuchadnezzar. It is a fitting picture of the turmoil among the nations today. What is God seeking to teach these men? "That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He will." When will they learn this lesson? When, like this king, they lift up their eyes to heaven.

We must recognise this and hold it without fear, doubt, or dodging, despite everything that looks the other way. Only then will we have confidence and rest of soul amid the flood of wickedness and the successes of the evil powers all around us. He is not stepping in openly at the moment. Still, He controls all things by His providence. GOD IS, and must ever be. This is the immovable anchor for our souls amid the threatening waves.