Daniel 4:28–37

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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 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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A heart that is "lifted up" is in a dangerous state, and almost always on the eve of a fall.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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?

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

"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.

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.

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.

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.

"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 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.

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.

When the term of the judgment was past, Nebuchadnezzar lifted up his eyes to heaven. He is taking the true place of a man. "And my understanding returned to me." What was the result? "And I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honoured Him who lives for ever." Notice the difference. On earlier occasions he might have bowed down before the prophet... he might send out statutes and decrees that the God of the Jews should be honoured by all his subjects. But what does he do now? He drops all others for the moment, and bows before God.

Looking at himself, his might and his glory had led the king to become like a beast that looks down... Then he thinks of men. Compared with God, he owns that all the inhabitants of the earth — the greatest kings as well as the lowest subjects — are as nothing. The man who thought he was everything discovers that he is nothing — a wholesome lesson for us all to learn. He also owns the sovereignty of God. God is sovereign not only in the armies of heaven, but also among the inhabitants of the earth. None can stay His hand or question His ways.

This opened the king's eyes to the fact of his own nothingness, for he confessed that "all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing"; and if all, then himself among them.

We may note this title "Most High." It is the name given to Jehovah in the meeting between Melchizedek and Abraham. There the words "Possessor of heaven and earth" are added to it. This is, in fact, the character God will take when He gathers together in one all things in Christ, both in heaven and on earth. Christ shall be the true Melchizedek.

There are at least three factors to be recognised... the wrath of man; the working of Satan; and the over-ruling government of God. Do not take the last apart from the first two. And do not let those first two on their own — man's wrath and the great adversary's activity, large as they are — take over the whole field of vision. We do well to remember every agency at work, for without that no situation can be understood. Men certainly tend to forget everything except what they can see.

Kings and their advisers should remember that God knows every secret of the council chamber, however carefully they keep it from the people... These are lessons God would teach the leaders of men today. How good it would be for everyone if they would only learn them!

The thing formed is not to say to Him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?" God, as the potter, can make one vessel to honour and another to dishonour out of one lump. If He does, no one can say to Him, "What have you done?"... The first of all righteousness is that God should have His place... God will judge man. It is not for man to judge God.

Daniel had told the king that his kingdom would be made secure for him, once he had learned that heaven rules. This prediction also came true... God kept His own word, spoken through His servant. Not the smallest part of it failed. Nebuchadnezzar confesses and records God's faithfulness with joy.

His reason came back as suddenly as it left. He tells of a miracle at his return to his kingdom as striking as when men drove him away. His lords and courtiers sought him out after seven years apart. He received still more greatness. Both facts mark the miraculous controlling power of Him who holds all things in His hand.

The one thing that lifts man up is submission — that is, submission to God. It assumes he can understand the will of God. Man bows to that will and honours God as One who is greater than himself. From the moment he says "I have built," he loses his moral relationship to God. All real dignity is lost. In this he becomes like one of the animals. I say it again: man's true superiority is his capacity to keep a relationship with God... Nebuchadnezzar became the companion of beasts — he had lost his proper understanding.

What a magnificent recovery! The hand that struck him hurled him from his proud position into the dust of degradation. That same hand now lifts him out of the animal state he had been made to sink into, and that sinking was for his eternal good. The same hand puts him back in his former glory on earth. But now he carries the light of the knowledge of the Most High in his heart. That light was worth more than all the riches of the universe, even if he could have owned them all.

This is the man whom God was about to bring down from such dizzy heights of earthly glory to a condition like that of the beasts. He did it so that He might make Himself known in some measure. The king, humbled in this way, would then publish His glory everywhere, and receive the kingdom back from His hand in a different way. Job may come to mind as an example of this way of dealing: his loss, his humbling, and his blessing at the end.

When he submits to God, the king's reason returns and he is once again established in his kingdom. So, in the days yet to come, after the judgment of the living nations, the Gentiles will be established in blessing under the rule of Christ.

Comparing the Nebuchadnezzar who gives this praise to God with the Nebuchadnezzar who said, as he surveyed the magnificence of his city, "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built?" we can only exclaim, "What has God wrought!" He had indeed shown His power to abase the man who was walking in pride. More than this: in abasing him He so changed the heart of the king that he turned in submission to the hand that had struck him. He confessed that all God's works are truth, and His ways judgment. So he justified God, a sure and unmistakable sign of conversion.

Now he says, "Those who walk in pride He is able to abase." He no longer talks about cutting people in pieces and making their houses a rubbish heap if they do not praise and bless the God of heaven. He will not intrude into God's domain, for God Himself knows how to humble the proud. He no longer tells others what they are to do, but he acknowledges what he himself does.

Notice this; it is a broad and bold confession of the judgment that had fallen on him because of his pride. He had passed through deep waters under God's correcting hand... Remember that this is the effect of personal humiliation — "toward me," said the once proud monarch. But he had been abased, emptied, brought to the dust, and now, visited again with mercy, his lips are full of the praise of his Corrector.

When the Lord had His throne in Jerusalem, He was God of the earth as well as of heaven. But He abandoned His throne there and handed world rule to the king of Babylon. From then on He would be known as the God of heaven... In taking this title, God did not give up His claims to the earth, or the present workings of His power in government.

We often dwell on the grace of Christ, as mentioned in the letter to the Hebrews. But let us not forget that He is not only able to sympathise, "able to help" and "able to save," but also "able to abase." He did it effectively with Nebuchadnezzar, and clearly for his spiritual good... Human pride, fed by scientific advances and the wonderful achievements that follow, is growing. It will reach its peak before long.

It is symbolic of the times of the Gentiles. After being like the beasts of the field, they will in the end be restored to "reason." Then, "clothed, and in their right mind," they will, like this king, praise and extol and honour the King of heaven.

Only let us remember that he did not live in New Testament times. The gospel now carries the knowledge of salvation, and makes that the basis of worship. But he had learned the wisdom of God from the lips of Daniel. He had seen the sympathy of God with His suffering people in the fiery furnace. And he had bowed to His will through seven years of deep humbling — three important lessons. Nor is he ashamed to publish it all, as with a trumpet, so that God might be glorified. This, at least, is no small evidence of what is called "conversion."