They shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and thou shalt be bathed with the dew of heaven; and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the Most High ruleth over the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
Daniel is telling Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, what his dream means. This verse is the sentence itself — what the king will suffer, how long it will last, and the one thing it is meant to teach him.
The verse does not just say "God". It uses a title, and one writer explains what that title marks out:
"Most High" is always the name of God used to denote Him as supreme over the earth. See what Melchizedek said when he came out to meet Abraham, after the defeat of the kings who had carried off Lot: "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth" (Gen. 14:19). In Daniel 4:24-25 this name presents God to Nebuchadnezzar as the One who governs the earth and was about to step in with judgment on him.
The punishment was not random. One writer shows how the king's outward state matched his inward state:
Reduced to the condition of a beast, he lost what characterises a man — all recognition of God. He had a beast's heart, as it says here. God has placed man here below as His image and glory. He is responsible to make God known, and he can only do it because he looks up to God… He credited everything to himself and not to God. A terrible punishment then brought him down to the lowest state.
The verse does not end with the grass and the dew. It ends with a purpose — till you know. That changes how we read the whole judgment:
God especially hates the pride of man. The king of Babylon showed that pride in an extreme form, so he fell under God's judicial hand. Some try to account for his condition in a natural way, calling it a special form of madness. Even so, the question returns: where did it come from? The Bible account answers, and the king himself recorded it — the condition came from the hand of God, as a just judgment on his towering pride and empty boasting. God threatened it a year before He sent it, giving him space for repentance. Then a voice from heaven recalled the very words of Daniel to his mind, at the very moment when the punishing stroke was about to fall. God had entrusted him with the government of the earth, so He held him accountable and punished him. Yet He acted in grace as well as in righteousness. His aim was to teach him that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He will.
The lesson was not for Nebuchadnezzar alone. One writer applies it to every government since Babylon, and notes that "in the kingdom of men" is better read as "over" it:
The kingdom of Judah fell apart and decayed. It passed into the hands of the first universal empire, under the renowned Nebuchadnezzar. This world-monarchy began the "times of the Gentiles," during which "the Most High rules over [not 'in', as in the older version] the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He will" (Dan. 4:25) — at times setting up over it even "the lowliest of men". Since that day empire has replaced empire, dynasty has replaced dynasty, and king has followed king.
Commentators differ on how much weight the phrase carries. Some hold it must be read plainly, and warn against stretching it into a prophetic calendar:
The question is, what does "seven times" mean? Seven years, none need doubt… The chapter uses the phrase four times, and always of Nebuchadnezzar, in a literal sense. That is quite different from a prophetic sense.
Others weigh the vague word "times" against the exact number seven. They see in the king's condition a picture of the whole stretch of Gentile rule:
It does not say "years", though possibly the "times" might be years — it says "times". The expression is vague, but the word "seven" gives it a very precise meaning. It marks a perfect period, one taking in the whole duration of the times of the Gentiles… This shows that we can expect no improvement in the governments of the earth.
The judgment had limits — in how long it ran, and in what it left untouched:
In His mercy God set a limit to his madness, and kept his kingdom secure for him "with a band of iron and bronze". God had given him the kingdom at the start, and God's power now held it safe for him. Meanwhile its ruler, brought low and given a beast's heart, lived among the cattle of the field… And so for seven years he continued to exist, until he was ready to own "that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He will."
- Pride — The king credited everything to himself instead of God. God hates that pride, and the blow fell on it.
- Beast — Man's place is to make God known by looking up to Him. Nebuchadnezzar lost that, and got a beast's heart.
- Grace — The blow was righteous, but its aim was to teach: till you know.
- Rule — The Most High rules over the kingdom of men. He gives it to whomever He will, even to the lowliest of men.
- Limit — Mercy set an end to the madness and kept the kingdom safe, until the king was ready to own who rules.
And whereas it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree; thy kingdom shall remain unto thee, after that thou shalt know that the heavens do rule.
The one gleam of hope in Daniel's grim interpretation is the stump: the tree is cut down, but the roots stay in the ground. The king loses everything except the throne itself. He gets it back on one condition: he must come to know who rules.
The order to cut the tree down was real. But the stump left in the ground changes what kind of judgment this is.
Notice, it is a destruction only for a time; in the mind of God nothing is ever wiped out for good. God leaves the stump of the roots in the earth, and He uses means to keep it alive.
While the king lived among the animals, his throne still had to be kept for him. The band of iron and brass around the stump shows God guarding it.
In His mercy God set a limit to his madness, and made his kingdom sure to him with a band of iron and brass. God had given him that kingdom at the beginning, and by His power He held it safe for him. Meanwhile its degraded ruler, with a beast's heart given to him, herded with the cattle of the field, his hair like feathers and his nails like a bird's claws. So for seven years he went on existing, until he was ready to own that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will. God would give the kingdom back to him when he learned that heaven rules.
God aimed the lesson at the king's pride.
It is a great comfort that, despite man's pretension and disregard of the rights of God, "Heaven rules" (Daniel 4:26). Nebuchadnezzar had power and dominion greater than any man of today. His greatness reached to heaven and his dominion spread to the end of the earth. He had to learn this, and learning it broke his pride to pieces.
The sentence gave him a beast's heart, and the recovery starts when he knows. The two go together.
Man was formed to be the being on earth that looked up to God and stood in dependence on Him. That is his glory. A beast enjoys, so to speak, its own sphere of enjoyment, according to the capacity God has given it by nature. But it has no idea of the God that made it and all things. Man has. That is, recognising God is the great essential difference between a man and a beast.
The same writer reads the king's story as a picture of how the nations would govern.
If we read this history as a picture, it shows that the Gentile powers would give up the recognition of God in their government. They might use His name outwardly, but owning God as the source of all they had would pass completely from their minds; and so it has.
"Heaven rules" is not only a word to one king. Writers take it as a statement about where every power on earth comes from.
Heaven is the source of authority; it is a firmly fixed position. All spiritual, civil and political authority has its source above. "Heaven rules" (Daniel 4:26).
It also decides what a person steers by.
It is a principle from the very beginning that "Heaven rules" (Daniel 4:26). We cannot shape our course by events on earth. Events in heaven must control us.
One writer links this verse to the later title "kingdom of the heavens," and treats the link as possible, not proven.
It is the kingdom of Old Testament prophecy. But the name "kingdom of the heavens" (as it always reads in the original) gives it a character it hardly had in the Old Testament itself. An expression in Daniel 4:26, "after you have known that Heaven rules," may have prepared the way for its use. It implies that the seat of the authority of the kingdom, when set up, is in the heavens.
- Cut, not killed. The tree comes down, but the stump stays. God's judgment here has a time limit, and He does not wipe a thing out for good.
- Held in trust. The same power that first gave the kingdom kept it safe, while the king who owned it lived among the cattle.
- The condition. The throne returns after knowledge, not after time served: he must know that Heaven rules.
- Man or beast. Looking up to God is what makes a man a man. The beast's heart pictures what the king's pride had already made him.
- Wider reach. Heaven is the source of all authority. It humbled one proud king, it rules the nations still, and it names the kingdom whose seat of power is above.
Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity.
Daniel has just told the world's most powerful man that heaven has passed sentence on him. Then he adds advice. That closing appeal raises two questions: what does it mean to "break off" sins, and does the "perhaps" leave a real door open?
The advice touched the king where he was most sensitive — on how he had handled the authority God had given him. That made it dangerous to speak.
If he stands before the king in the place of God, he will faithfully present God to him in His true character: merciful and gracious, One who does not afflict willingly, and One who takes no pleasure in carrying out righteous wrath… We have no evidence that the king paid any attention to this faithful and friendly advice. It put Daniel's head in danger, for it questioned the way the king had used the power God gave him. Still, the king had to feel that the evil was coming on him because of his own conduct. He might yet escape it by softening his wilful and merciless ways, and by ruling with righteousness and kindness of heart.
One writer sets the scene beside Paul on trial before Felix, the Roman governor.
Daniel himself seems to have been moved, for he begged the king in earnest words. Like Paul with Felix, Daniel reasoned with Nebuchadnezzar about righteousness, self-control, and judgment to come. But we do not read that the king trembled. Still, Daniel had delivered the message and made the appeal, and the great meeting between the prophet and the king was over.
Some have used the verse to teach that gifts to the poor buy off guilt. The ancient Greek translation fed that idea by turning "righteousness" into "alms." Commentators reject the reading.
It is useless to appeal to Daniel 4:27. There the prophet does not urge the vain and self-willed king to pay a ransom. He urges him to break off his sins by righteousness (the Greek version says "by alms"), and his iniquities by showing mercy to the poor (or afflicted), "that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity." How sober is the divine word, and how wild and false is man's!
The danger is treating good conduct as a substitute for a changed heart.
Daniel says, "break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed" — a passage badly twisted, but fully explained by this. It is the special nature of that corruption to put satisfying, redeeming conduct in the place of the fruits of a changed spirit. It copies the outward effects, and so shuts out and gets rid of the inward power that produced the things they are a bad imitation of.
The verse names two things, not one: righteousness, and mercy to the poor.
Daniel 4:27 keeps mercy to the poor separate from righteousness. I know of no place in Scripture where the two are mixed up.
Commentators differ on how much hope the closing clause carries. One takes it as a real offer of escape:
If God causes counsel like this to be given, we may be certain of one thing. He does not intend to carry out the threatened judgment if the sinner takes the counsel to heart and his ways become agreeable to His gracious mind.
Another sees only a possible delay, not a cancellation:
Daniel begs the king to break off his sins by righteousness, and his iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Such repentance might lengthen his peace. But Daniel holds out no hope that the judgment will be avoided altogether.
Daniel's courage points past this one scene.
Finally, Daniel closes the interview with a bold appeal to the king to break off his sins by doing righteousness, and to stop his oppression of the poor. This is a bold witness for a Jewish captive to bear before the world's greatest ruler. It means one thing: while these Gentile powers rule the world, God will have a faithful witness for Himself on the earth.
A warning heard is not a warning heeded.
Most people today may ignore the warning, just as Nebuchadnezzar did. Daniel warned him boldly and even advised him to change his ways, as we see in verse 27. But the king did not heed the warning or follow the counsel. Even then, God waited twelve months before His judgment fell.
- Warned — Daniel does not stop at explaining the dream. He tells the king why the trouble is coming, and how he might still escape it.
- Not bought — the words do not teach paying a ransom for sin. The old rendering "alms" started that error, and the plain sense corrects it.
- Two duties — righteousness and mercy to the poor stand as distinct things here, not as one word for charity.
- Perhaps — commentators differ: does the closing clause offer escape, or only delay?
- Wasted — the king ignored the counsel. Twelve months later the blow fell, just as Daniel said.
All this came upon king Nebuchadnezzar.
A year earlier Daniel had told the king plainly what the dream meant and what would follow. Verse 28 is the hinge where prediction becomes history, and one commentator points out that the same king who had heard the sentence also had to feel it.
Nebuchadnezzar himself only showed what would become the general tendency of the Gentile nations, since God had given him his power. He would admire and exalt himself, turning all the greatness God had given him to his own credit. God showed him plainly the judgments that would come upon him, but he ignored the warning. Therefore, "All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar." Twelve months later he was walking in the royal palace of Babylon, and while the word was still in his mouth a voice fell from heaven. The sentence took effect. The Gentile powers have acted toward God in exactly the same way... those who have held the supreme power of the world, and the world's glory, have used it mainly for themselves.
Nothing happened for a year. That gap was not God forgetting, and it was not God being slow.
God holds back the threatened blow for twelve months. Between announcing the judgment and carrying it out, He leaves room for repentance. Will the king take this mercy and humble himself before God? Sadly, at the end of twelve months the king's pride is as great as ever.
The same writer states the principle behind that quiet year.
God always gives space for repentance before He carries out judgment. His judgment will certainly come, though in His goodness it may be delayed a long time. It was so in the days of Noah, when God waited a hundred and twenty years before sending the flood... How then does man treat this patience of God? Sadly, men despise the riches of His goodness. Because God holds back, men think He will never judge; because He is patient, men think He does not care about evil.
Nothing in the record shows the king shaken. That untroubled year has an unsettling likeness to ordinary life.
Twelve months had passed, and there is no record that the king had even been troubled by the warning he had received. The sky was still clear, with not a cloud on the distant horizon. This would astonish us, if we did not see the same thing every day: sinners untouched while eternal ruin stands right in front of them. Death must come, and judgment will follow, and yet men are careless and heedless.
When the year ran out, his thoughts were all on one subject. He looked over Babylon and saw only himself.
All this was the glorifying of himself — the full-blown pride of the human heart, born out of his high position and prosperity, the pride that goes before destruction. God had made known to him where his power came from (Dan. 2), but he had completely forgotten it, and credited all the glory of his kingdom to himself.
The delay had been long; the execution took no time at all. A commentator links the moment to the farmer in Jesus' parable who planned bigger barns and a long retirement.
This at once brings to mind the parable of the rich man whose land produced a large crop. While he was congratulating himself on his wealth, planning bigger barns, and looking forward to years of selfish enjoyment, the judgment came: "Fool! This night your soul is required of you" (Luke 12:16-20). In the same way, while Nebuchadnezzar was pouring out the pride of his heart in foolish boasting, a voice fell from heaven while the word was still in his mouth... When God speaks, it is done, and what He commands stands firm for ever.
after_note: DELETE
The form the judgment took was not random. A man who will not look up has nowhere left to look but down.
Power sinks to the level of the beasts, which do not know God and have none of man's understanding. Man's one true privilege, the thing that lifts him up, is that he can look up to God and acknowledge Him. Without this he looks downward. He cannot be enough for himself, and he sinks low. Dependence is his glory, because it sets him in front of God and lets him know God... Pride and independence cut man off from God, and he becomes a beast, with no real understanding.
- Warned. God showed the king plainly what was coming. He heard it, ignored it, and the judgment came exactly as promised.
- Waited. The twelve months between the warning and the blow were room to repent. That is mercy, and God still gives it before He judges.
- Wasted. The year brought no fear and no change. The king's mind was still on his own greatness, and people today are just as untroubled with judgment ahead of them.
- Words. The moment the year ran out, the sentence fell while he was still boasting, like the rich man who was told his soul was required that night. When God speaks, it is done.
- Wrecked. The man who refused to look up ended up living looking down, because dependence on God is what lifts a man above the beasts.
At the end of twelve months he was walking upon the royal palace of Babylon
A year has passed since Daniel told the king what his dream meant, and nothing has happened. This verse shows how Nebuchadnezzar spent that quiet year. What he did with it is the whole question.
The delay was not an oversight. Commentators read it as room given for the king to answer one question:
The threatened blow is held off for twelve months. Between the sentence and its carrying out, there is room to repent. Will the king take up this mercy and humble himself before God? Sadly, at the end of twelve months the king's pride is as great as ever.
The record shows no fear, no reform, no change of course. One writer compares it to what we see around us every day:
Twelve months had passed. Nothing in the record shows that the warning had even troubled the king. The sky was still clear, with not a cloud on the distant horizon. This would astonish us beyond words, if we did not see it every day: sinners untroubled on the edge of eternal ruin. Death must come, and judgment will follow, and yet men are careless and heedless.
Why did the year change nothing? A delay is easy to misread. The longer the blow holds off, the more the heart decides it will never fall:
Perhaps he thought the results of his wicked life would never come. The dream and the prophet's explanation had warned him of them. It seems to have been delayed a long time; perhaps it will never come at all! God is infinitely patient, and He gives men time to repent. To take that as proof that He does not care about a life of evil dishonours the Lord and destroys our own souls. Yet this is often the natural thought: "Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil" (Eccl. 8:11).
The verse places him at the top of his palace, looking out. Everything in sight was his. The boast that follows comes straight out of that view — and so does the answer from heaven:
So solemn a dream should have brought Nebuchadnezzar to his knees, but it did not. Yet God, who is patient with all, granted him twelve months' delay before the blow fell. At the end of that time the king walked on the roof of his palace, full of pride. His magnificent capital spread out before him, with its mighty walls and bronze gates. He exclaimed: "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built...?" While the words were still in his mouth, a voice from heaven said, "O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken; the kingdom has departed from you."
This was more than one king's bad hour. What happened to him marked out the pattern for the world powers that came after him:
This chapter shows us, then, that men took all the power, authority and glory God gave them and turned it into a way of feeding their own pride. The consequence is that all understanding of God's mind would be taken from them... Twelve months passed. Then, in pride of heart, he credited all the greatness and splendour around him to himself and to the work of his own hands... At once the sentence takes effect on him. What was literally true of this one man was morally true of the Gentile powers as a whole.
The problem is not Babylon. It is what power does to the man who holds it:
It was God's solemn way of dealing with the pride and self-exaltation of man. When man gets into power, he exalts himself. There is only one Man who can really be trusted with power — the Lord Jesus Christ... Give any other man power, and what will he do with it? Give any other man riches, and what will he do with them?
- The warning — the dream and the prophet's explanation had told the king exactly what was coming.
- The space — the twelve months were mercy, not accident: room to repent.
- The silence — the record shows no fear in him. The sky stayed clear, and his pride stayed whole.
- The mistake — he read God's patience as God's indifference. A sentence not carried out quickly only hardens the heart.
- The verdict — the boast came on the roof, and heaven cut in mid-sentence. Power ruins the man who holds it; only Christ can be trusted with it.
the king spoke and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?
Twelve months earlier, God had warned this king. Now Nebuchadnezzar looks over the great city of Babylon and takes the credit for all of it. In one sentence he tells us what power does to the human heart — and the next verse tells us what God does about it.
A whole year passed after the warning, and nothing happened. The strange part is the king's calm through it.
Twelve months had passed. Nothing in the record shows that the warning had troubled the king at all. The sky was still clear, with not a cloud on the distant horizon. This would surprise us beyond words, if we did not see the same thing every day. Sinners stay unmoved on the edge of eternal ruin. Death must come, and judgment will follow, and yet men are careless and heedless.
The boast makes three claims in one breath: the builder, the power, and the purpose. (Where older translations read "for the house of the kingdom," the ESV renders it "as a royal residence.")
At the end of twelve months the king's pride is as great as ever. In all this proud talk there is no recognition of God. As the king looks over the great city of Babylon, he claims that he has built it to establish the imperial line. He claims that everything has been achieved by his power and for his glory.
All power comes from God, and thanks belong to Him. That is what this king forgot, and he is not the last man to forget it.
This king stands out as a fitting picture of the pride of the human heart. Man should thank God and glorify Him as the source of all power. Instead he boasts of that power as if it were his own doing, brought about by his own wisdom. Do we not still hear words much like these all around us?… Instead of ascribing glory to God, he credits it to himself.
This is not only one man's story. Commentators read the moment as the pattern for the world powers that followed him.
Nebuchadnezzar had remarkable visions and revelations from God. But what did they achieve? He had had this warning, the most personal one of all… Twelve months passed. Then, in pride of heart, he credited all the greatness and splendour around him to himself and to the work of his own hands… At once the sentence takes effect on him. What was then literally true of him as a man was morally true of the Gentile powers as a whole.
The judgment that follows looks like pure ruin. It came from God's hand, and it had a purpose.
Entrusted with the government of the earth, God held him accountable, and punished him accordingly, and yet in grace as well as in righteousness, since the object was to teach him "that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will" (v. 32)… The king's physical state is therefore a moral picture, and one that should often be thought over. It shows man's condition as God sees it, when he boasts of his own power, seeks his own glory, and claims to be independent.
Pride like this is not only a royal problem, and it does not stand for long.
A heart that is "lifted up" is in a dangerous state, and almost always on the eve of a fall.
Only one person has ever used power the other way.
Wherever we look at the Son — on earth, in heaven, or on the cross between earth and heaven — His first and great desire is to glorify the Father. Such purity of motive is beyond the imagination of fallen man. The natural thought is to use power, in whatever form it takes, to glorify self… All heaven may well unite to say, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power." This is because He alone uses power for the glory of God and the blessing of man.
- Given — God gave Nebuchadnezzar his kingdom, his power and his glory. Nothing he looked out on that day started with him.
- Grabbed — His boast claims the building, the might and the honour as his own. What is missing from it is any recognition of God.
- Grace — A full year stood between the warning and the blow, left open for repentance. He spent it untroubled, as people still do.
- Ground — The blow fell while he was still speaking. Its aim was to teach him one lesson: the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will.
- Glory — What was true of him marked every power that followed. Only Christ uses power for the glory of God and the blessing of man, so only He is worthy to receive it.
While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from the heavens King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken The kingdom is departed from thee;
A voice from heaven cuts Nebuchadnezzar off while he is still boasting about "great Babylon". Why did the blow fall at that exact moment, and why turn a king into a beast?
The blow did not come without warning. A year passed first, and that year had a purpose.
There follows the account of the fulfilment of the dream. The threatened blow is held off for twelve months. Between the announcement of the judgment and its execution, there is room to repent. Will the king make use of this mercy and humble himself before God? Sadly, at the end of twelve months the king's pride is as great as ever.
One writer draws the everyday parallel:
Twelve months had passed, and there is no record that the warning ever troubled the king. The sky was still clear, with not a cloud on the distant horizon. This might surprise us beyond words. But we remember that the sight of sinners unmoved on the eve of eternal ruin greets our eyes every day.
The boast was not just self-praise. He claimed as his own the power he had received.
All this was the glorification of himself. It was the full-blown pride of the human heart, born out of his exaltation and prosperity — the pride that goes before destruction. The source of his power had been given to him (Dan. 2); but he had entirely forgotten this when he attributed all the glory of his kingdom to himself.
The timing is not random. One writer traces the same pattern through Scripture: God lets a proud work reach full height first.
This is very instructive, for this has been God's way, and is so still. The builders of the tower of Babel were allowed to go on with their work until they made it a wonder. Nebuchadnezzar was given time to finish his great city. The beast of Revelation will prosper until the whole world wonders after him. So here Haman is put up with, until he sits on the pinnacle. Then, in the moment of proudest elevation, the judgment of God visits all these.
Some explain what follows as a medical condition. One writer answers that, and traces the blow to its source and its aim.
There are those who try to account for his condition in a natural way by calling it a special form of madness. Even so, the question comes back: where did it come from? The Bible's account supplies the answer, and the king himself recorded it. It came from the hand of God as a just judgment on Nebuchadnezzar's overwhelming pride and vainglory. The blow was threatened a year before it fell, so there was space to repent. Then, at the very moment when the stroke was about to fall, a voice from heaven brought Daniel's own words back to his mind. Yet God punished him in grace as well as in righteousness, since the object was to teach him "that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will" (v. 32).
The form of the punishment matches the sin. A man's dignity lies in the one thing a beast cannot do.
Power is reduced to the condition of the beasts that do not know God and lack man's understanding. The only true privilege of man, the thing that ennobles him, is that he can look up to God and acknowledge Him. Without this he looks downward, he is not enough on his own, he is degraded... Pride and independence separate man from God; he becomes a beast, without real intelligence.
The judgment was personal, but it did not stop with him.
Nebuchadnezzar had remarkable visions and revelations from God. But what did they achieve? He had had this warning, the most personal one of all... At once the sentence takes effect on him. What was then literally true of him as one man was morally true of the Gentile powers as a whole. Their character all through would be the same — no understanding of God, and no subjection to Him.
If power in human hands always ends this way, who can be trusted with it?
When man gets into power, he exalts himself. There is only one Man who can really be trusted with power — the Lord Jesus Christ... Give any other man power, and what will he do with it? Give any other man riches, and what will he do with them?
- Warned — the judgment came a year after the warning. That year was room to repent, not proof that nothing would happen.
- Ripened — God let the boast reach full height. The moment of proudest elevation is the moment judgment visits.
- Spoken — a voice from heaven cuts across the boast, and the kingdom is gone the moment God says it.
- Lowered — the sentence fits the sin. Pride stops a man looking up to God, and a creature that only looks down is a beast.
- Enlarged — one king's fall pictures the whole era of world power that began with him. Only one Man can be trusted with power: the Lord Jesus Christ.
and they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field; they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth over the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
God cuts in from heaven while the king is still boasting over Babylon. Heaven takes his throne, drives him out to live among animals, and sets a limit — until he learns who hands out kingdoms. Two questions run through the chapter: why does God reduce a man to a beast, and what must he know before the seven times end?
Notice the timing. God does not wait for the king to finish speaking.
Nebuchadnezzar poured out the pride of his heart in foolish boasting. Even "while the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you." The voice repeats the judgment Daniel had already announced, and carries it out at once. It all happened to Nebuchadnezzar that same hour.
after_note: DELETE When God speaks it is done, and what He commands always stands fast.
The form of the judgment matches the sin. God sends a man who took all the credit down among creatures that can give Him none.
God had given the king "a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory." Despite those gifts, and despite the striking way God had borne witness to Himself, the king forgot God. He sat at ease in his palace at the height of his prosperity. He credits all his power and glory to himself, and uses his high position to exalt himself. Never was such great prosperity joined to such pride… As one has said, "He makes himself the centre instead of God. He becomes a beast and loses his reason entirely. A beast may be powerful, large, stronger than a man, and clever in its own way. But its look is downward. It has no exercise of conscience, and so no real relationship to God."
The word "until" sets a limit. Even while the judgment runs, God is keeping something safe.
In His mercy God set a limit to the madness, and made his kingdom sure to him "with a band of iron and bronze." God, who had given him the kingdom at the start, held it safe for him by His own power. Meanwhile its degraded ruler, now with a beast's heart, herded with the cattle of the field, his hair like a bird's feathers and his nails like its claws. So for seven years he went on living, until he was ready to own "that the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom He will." The kingdom would be restored to him when he learned that the heavens rule.
The lesson reaches past one king. It teaches you to read history on two levels: what men do, and what God does through it.
Seen from the human side, men usually seize kingdoms by corruption, violence, bloodshed, and often murder. But behind the scenes, where no human eye can reach, God is accomplishing His purposes. He does it even through the wickedness of the ambitious creature, prompted by the devil. Neither the cunning and malice of Satan nor the guilty ambition of man can counteract the intention of God, but everything that they do must serve to bring it to pass.
Commentators differ on how far the seven times reach. Some read them as a picture of the whole span of Gentile rule.
Seven times pass, and then God is confessed. Seven times means a complete period of time. In prophecy it would cover the whole period of Gentile rule… During the period of Gentile power, men govern the world without reference to God and so without any understanding of His mind. At the end of this period, after judgment has done its work, the nations will confess God.
Others insist the chapter's own use is plain and personal: "The chapter shows the phrase four times, and uses it only of Nebuchadnezzar in a literal and therefore quite different sense" (The Bible Treasury).
This is not only an old story about one king.
Put power into the hands of any fallen son of Adam and he will use it to exalt himself and dare to use it against the saints of God and even God Himself. So this stroke of discipline fell on Nebuchadnezzar… What is God seeking to teach these men? "That the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom He will." When will they learn this lesson? When, like this king, they lift up their eyes to heaven.
- Forget — God gave the king his kingdom, power and glory. The king took the credit himself, and that forgetting is the whole offence.
- Fall — the sentence fell at once, in mid-boast. The man who made himself the centre got a beast's downward look and no conscience toward God.
- Fence — God set a limit to the madness and kept the throne safe for him while he was gone.
- Find out — the aim was knowledge, not ruin. God hands out kingdoms as He wills, working behind the violence and ambition men can see.
- Face up — the cure starts when a man lifts his eyes to heaven, as this king did.
The same hour was the word fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar; and he was driven from men, and ate grass as oxen; and his body was bathed with the dew of heaven, till his hair grew like eagles' [feathers], and his nails like birds' [claws].
The king was still boasting when the sentence fell. In one hour the ruler of the first world empire was living in a field like an animal. Why this punishment? Was it a real event? And does it mean anything beyond one man's ruin?
Judgment fell in the same hour as the boast. Scripture records other judgments that came the same way — sudden, and on people who felt safe.
In the same hour of his boasting the judgment fell on him (see Dan. 4:25, 33), swift and unexpected. So it was with the people before the flood, so with Sodom; so it will be in the days of the Son of Man (Luke 17:26-30). Alarm and fear no doubt filled his court. This was no ordinary case of insanity, whatever unbelievers since have dared to say — as they also say of the people in the Gospels who had demons. The account is wonderful, but believers know it is true. The words of Scripture are far too precise to allow any meaning short of literal fact.
God had waited before He struck. Men read that patience as permission.
God is infinitely patient, and He gives men time to repent. To think this means He is indifferent to a life of evil-doing dishonours the Lord, and it destroys our own souls. Yet this is often the natural thought: "Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil" (Eccl. 8:11).
The verse describes a body: hair, nails, food, exposure. But God took something higher than any of these.
He lost every thought of God. He had no more idea about God than the beast of the field. Even a natural man has a conscience in him. But Nebuchadnezzar lost all thought. He sank to the non-intelligence of a beast... Recognition of God is the great essential difference between a man and a beast.
Independence sounds like strength. In God's sight it is the ruin of what makes a man human.
Man's one true privilege, the thing that ennobles him, 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. It sets him before God and gives him to know God. His mind, joined with God, receives its measure and its knowledge from Him. Pride and independence separate man from God. He becomes a beast, with no real intelligence.
One writer lists three layers of meaning in what happened to the king, then draws out the moral one.
This judgment has a threefold significance — personal, moral, and prophetic... The physical state of this king is therefore a moral picture. It is worth pondering often, for it shows man's condition in God's estimate when he boasts of his own power, seeks his own glory, and asserts his own independence. But it goes further than the king himself. It takes in the character of his rule and of his kingdom. In Daniel 3 the first kingdom in man's hand becomes idolatrous. In Daniel 4 it becomes bestial — bestial in the sense that, cut off from God, it has no intelligence at all.
The king's fall points forward as well, and it raises a question about the "seven times."
Judgment came on this great monarch at the beginning of the times of the Gentiles. In the same way judgment will yet fall on this proud and self-exalting age of the Gentiles... Some try to work out from this "seven times" how long the times of the Gentiles will last. That lacks the support of Scripture. The seven times mean seven years... There will be no more looking up to God. The attitude of the beast will be the attitude of the nations.
The judgment had a limit built into it.
In His mercy God set a limit to his madness. He made his kingdom sure to him "with a band of iron and bronze." God had given him the kingdom at the beginning, and by His power He held it safe for him. Meanwhile its degraded ruler, with a beast's heart given to him, fed with the cattle of the field... So for seven years he went on existing, until he was ready to own "that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will."
- Boast — Judgment fell in the same hour as the boast. God's patience had never meant He was indifferent.
- Beast — God did not take his health. He took his power to look up, and recognising God is what separates a man from an animal.
- Because — The punishment fitted the sin. He had declared himself independent, so he received the life of a creature that knows no God.
- Beyond — The picture is larger than one king. Power in man's hands, cut off from God, sinks to the level of the beast — and judgment will fall on the proud Gentile age as it fell on him.
- Boundary — Mercy set the limit. God kept the kingdom for him, and the term ran only until he owned that the Most High rules.
And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto the heavens, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation.
The time of judgment is over, and the change begins with one small movement: the king looks up. His reason returns, his praise follows, and the God he blesses bears a name far bigger than one man's recovery.
Why record which way his eyes turned? The direction tells you what kind of creature is looking.
"At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven." That was the first great sign that his mind was coming back. A beast looks downward. It never looks upward, in the moral sense of the expression. A man who acts as a true man owns in his conscience the One who gave him everything. He is bound to honour and obey Him. Nebuchadnezzar, when the term of the judgment had passed, lifted up his eyes to heaven. He is taking the true place of a man.
His mind came back at the very moment his eyes went up.
It is striking that the moment Nebuchadnezzar lifted his eyes to heaven, his understanding returned. It was the same with the prodigal son who had wandered off into a far country. His "coming to himself" and his turning back to his father's house go together. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the experience of the king of Babylon shows it. He turned upward to the hand that had struck him, and he began to understand. For the first time he learned that he was accountable to God.
He could have used his recovered reason for anything. His very first act shows what God had done in him.
The first thing he does with his newly-found understanding is to bless the Most High. He praises and honours Him as the eternal God, and as the Sovereign Ruler of both heaven and earth. This is very beautiful, and it is the sure evidence of what we know as a work of grace in the soul.
Earlier the king had issued decrees ordering other people to honour Daniel's God. Here he does something he had never done.
In the past he might have bowed down before the prophet and ordered incense to be offered to him. He might send out laws and decrees that all his subjects must honour the God of the Jews. But what does he do now? He drops all others for the moment, and bows before God.
Nebuchadnezzar reaches for one particular name for God. God had already used that same name when He warned the king of judgment.
"Most High" is always the name of God used to denote Him as supreme over the earth. See, for instance, what Melchizedek said to Abraham... "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth" (Gen. 14:19). It comes again in Daniel 4:24-25. There this name announces God to Nebuchadnezzar as the One who rules the earth and was about to step in and judge him... And God brought Nebuchadnezzar to own this same truth as the fruit of that dealing.
The word "everlasting" lands with force from a man who had just watched his own rule vanish.
The sign and wonder Nebuchadnezzar is about to tell is very humbling to him. In one hour his mighty kingdom left him, though it was soon restored. In contrast to this, he confessed God's kingdom to be everlasting. He may not have realized this fully. Yet within two or three generations his own rule, pictured by gold, would fall before another rule, pictured by silver. God's kingdom, he acknowledged, lasts through all generations.
One king's fall pictures how power behaves in human hands, and how God answers it.
This king is a fitting picture of the pride of man's heart. God is the source of all power. Instead of thanking Him and giving Him the glory, man boasts of that power as though it were his own doing, won by his own wisdom... What is God seeking to teach these men? "That the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will." When will they learn this lesson? When, like this king, they lift up their eyes to heaven.
- Down — a beast looks at the ground, and that was the king's place for as long as the judgment lasted.
- Up — he lifted his eyes to heaven. That turn was the first sign of a mind coming back, and with it came a new sense of being accountable to God.
- Blessing — his first act with restored reason was praise. This time he bowed himself, instead of ordering others to bow.
- Most High — the name he uses marks God as supreme over the earth. It is the same title God used in the sentence that humbled him.
- Everlasting — his own kingdom left him in an hour. God's kingdom runs from generation to generation, and every proud power still has that lesson to learn.