Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him.
This is the sentence passed in Nebuchadnezzar's dream. The king will lose a man's mind, receive an animal's, and stay that way for a set time. Two questions follow. What exactly did he lose, and how long is "seven times"?
The difference between the two hearts named in the verse is a matter of direction.
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 did not lose intelligence in general. He lost the one thing that sets a human being apart from the animals.
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.
The punishment was not random. It gave outward shape to what the king had already become inside.
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.
That principle reaches past the one king in the story.
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.
The king's condition becomes a portrait of the empires after him. His madness took the shape of the very symbol Daniel later uses for Gentile rule — the rule of the nations outside Israel.
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.
The word "times" is vague; the number attached to it is not.
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.
Commentators differ here. Others take the phrase as a plain seven years. They ask where Scripture ever uses it more widely.
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.
The word "till" sets a limit. The humbling had an end, and the man who came out of it was changed.
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.
- Looking up. A man's heart looks up to God; a beast's looks down and devours. The verse describes losing the first and receiving the second.
- Looking down. The king had already credited his glory to himself. The sentence only showed on the outside what he had chosen inside. The same holds for anyone who puts self where God belongs.
- Looking on. What happened to one king pictures the empires after him. They hold power with no thought of God — metals in Daniel 2, wild beasts in Daniel 7.
- Counting the times. "Seven" marks a complete period. Commentators differ on its reach. Some read seven literal years; others, the whole era of Gentile rule.
- Looking up again. The word "till" fixed a limit. When the time ran out, he lifted his eyes to heaven — restored, and owning the Most High.
This sentence is by the decree of the watchers, and the decision by the word of the holy ones that the living may know that the Most High ruleth over the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.
A sentence falls on the greatest king of his day, and the verse gives the reason: the living are meant to learn who really holds power. Two questions follow. Who are the "watchers"? And what does it mean that God gives the kingdom of men even to the lowest of men?
The king saw a heavenly figure and heard a sentence from "the watchers." One writer is careful not to press the term too far. He notes that Daniel traces the sentence straight to its true source:
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 word itself carries a warning. A watcher is one who observes, and heaven had been watching this king long before the sentence fell:
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.
The name used here is not a stray detail. It is the title Scripture gives God for this very thing — His rule over human government:
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).
The dream pictured a great tree sheltering everything under it. The tree was a man at the very top of human authority. But that place was a loan, and God checks how it is used:
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.
Human greatness is not what puts a man on the throne. God is free in His choice, and man at his best is a small thing:
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).
Why would God ever hand power to such men? There is a purpose in it:
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.
The chapter is not only history. The same pride, and the same answer from God, are here now:
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.
For anyone unsettled by what powerful people are doing, this truth holds:
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.
- Watched — heaven had been watching. A king's ways were "noted in heaven" long before the sentence fell.
- Named — all through Scripture, "Most High" is God's title as Sovereign Ruler in the kingdom of men.
- Lent — a throne is a loan, not a possession. God does not rule the earth Himself now, but He holds the ruler responsible.
- Free — He gives the kingdom to whomever He will, even to the lowest of men. Every sort of man must be tested, so that all may know that Christ is the only hope of the world.
- Known — the aim is that the living may know it. That happens when a man lifts his eyes to heaven, as this king did; until then, it is the anchor of those who already see it.