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.
And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he doeth according to his will in the army of the heavens, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
Nebuchadnezzar had ruled the known world, then lost his reason and lived like an animal until his mind came back. Verse 35 is what the most powerful man on earth then said about the only real power there is.
The turning point came one verse earlier, when the king looked up. One writer explains what that look meant, and how this praise differed from his earlier decrees about God:
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.
The verse weighs the whole human race against God. One writer draws out what that meant for the man who said it, and how far God's rule reaches:
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.
Another writer notes that the king did not exempt himself from his own verdict:
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.
The name Nebuchadnezzar uses has a history. One writer traces it back to Melchizedek, a king and priest who met Abraham, and forward to what God will yet do:
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.
The title reaches over both heaven and earth, and so does the verse.
In history the visible actors are men and armies. One writer counts three forces behind events, not one:
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.
One writer applies this to those who govern:
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 last clause shuts the door on argument, not just on resistance. One writer connects it to the potter and the clay:
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.
- Restored — when the term of judgment was past, the king lifted his eyes to heaven, and his understanding returned.
- Bowed — he had once ordered his subjects to honour God; now he drops all others and bows before God Himself.
- Nothing — the man who thought he was everything owned that all earth's people count as nothing, himself included.
- Everywhere — God rules in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; behind man's wrath and Satan's work runs His over-ruling government.
- Unanswerable — no one can stay His hand or question His ways; the first point of righteousness is that God has His place and man has his.