Who was Nebuchadnezzar?

The more personal history of Nebuchadnezzar is given by Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar had chosen him, and some of his fellow captives, to fill honourable positions in the state. In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign (B.C. 603) he had the remarkable dream of the Great Image. Its interpretation made known that God had chosen him as the first king of an entirely new era, the times of the Gentiles. The house of David had for the time been set aside as God's ruler on earth, and in Nebuchadnezzar the Gentiles had been entrusted with supreme authority.

Nebuchadnezzar, who is called by the Lord "My Servant," is spoken of about forty times. He is raised up to carry out His judgment on Israel, and on other nations too. The Lord says, "I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, My Servant: … and all nations shall serve him." Dominion is given to him by God; it is taken away from Israel.

Nebuchadnezzar is told that, as the representative of the Babylonian empire, he is the head of gold. Until then there had existed on the earth distinct nations, each under its own king. Now, for the first time, a new form of government is established — government by imperial unity. Under this form of government, nations, with their kings, are united under an empire with an imperial head who is a king of kings.

Nebuchadnezzar is inflated by this dream. God gave him a vision of this composite image, the head of gold being named as himself. In his folly he would make a whole image of gold, and call men on pain of death to worship it.

What was to be said of the power of Nebuchadnezzar now? What did it matter to be the mightiest monarch of the world, surrounded by all that made up the strength of his force and the grandeur of his empire? There were these men, who had been bound and thrown into the middle of the burning fiery furnace, apparently the most pitiable case in his realm. But now he has to watch their ropes burn, and see them set free by the very thing he meant to destroy them with.

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." He was at once deprived of his reason; and imagining himself an animal, he was driven out into the fields, where for seven weary years he ate grass like oxen. This visitation broke him down completely, and when reason was graciously restored, the man who once said arrogantly to Shadrach and his companions, "Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" now says in his proclamation to all his subjects, "I blessed the Most High; and I praised and honoured Him that lives for ever and ever."

He was reduced to the non-intelligence of a beast. Man was formed to be the being on earth that looked up to God, and stood in dependence on Him. That is his glory. Recognition of God is the great essential difference between a man and a beast.

This time something effectual does seem to have been worked in his soul. Not only did he lift up his eyes to heaven with the understanding of a man, but he blessed God, giving Him His title of "the Most High."

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 — that irresistible will that commands the army of heaven — in the seven years of severe humbling. Nor is he ashamed to publish it all, so that God might be glorified. This, at least, is no small evidence of what is called "conversion."