Daniel 4, Part 1

King Nebuchadnezzar’s feelings towards Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had changed quickly. Going from “do you think your God is greater than me” and “throw them in the fiery furnace”, his tune changed to “worship their God” and “you’ll be torn limb from limb if you don’t”. I don’t know that his attitude really changed all that much, as it seems it was more “do as I command” than “I believe in their God”. I think Nebuchadnezzar was impressed with the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but as we will see, he doesn’t put his full faith and belief in Him, he is more interested in the miracle performed. Now we will see Nebuchadnezzar continuing to praise God, but a second dream will be coming. There is no date attached to the second dream, so we have no idea how close or far away from the first dream or the fiery furnace this is but we might be able to back figure from the end of his reign. According to Stephen Miller in the New American Commentary, “The king’s illness began a year after the dream (cf. 4:29) and probably lasted seven years (discussed later). An interval of time also was needed for Nebuchadnezzar’s reign after his cure (at least a year). Thus this incident must have taken place no later than the thirty-fourth year (571 B.C.) of his forty-three year reign (605–562 B.C.). Probably about thirty years had transpired between the events of chap. 3 and those recorded here.”

Praising God

Daniel 4:1–3 ESV

1 King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! 2 It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. 3 How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

Dr. Danny Aiken in the Christ Centered Exposition Commentary writes:

C. S. Lewis calls it “the great sin” and with good reason. It is the sin that led to the fall of Satan. It is the sin that led to the fall of humanity and drove Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. Of this sin Lewis said,

There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which everyone loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault that makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.

The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility.… According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind. (Mere Christianity, 121–22)

Jonathan Edwards had much the same opinion on this great sin as Lewis:

The first, and the worst cause of errors that prevail in such a state of things, is spiritual pride. This is the main door, by which the Devil comes into the hearts of those that are zealous for the advancement of religion. ’Tis the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit, to darken the mind, and mislead the judgment: this is the main handle by which the Devil has hold of religious persons, and the chief source of all the mischief that he introduces, to clog and hinder a work of God. This cause of error is the mainspring, or at least the main support of all the rest. Till this disease is cured, medicines are in vain applied to heal other diseases.…

Pride is much more difficultly discerned than any other corruption, for that reason that the nature of it does very much consist in a person’s having too high a thought of himself: but no wonder that he that has too high a thought of himself don’t know it; for he necessarily thinks that the opinion he has of himself is what he has just grounds for, and therefore not too high.… The heart is so deceitful and unsearchable in nothing in the world, as it is in this matter, and there is no sin in the world, that men are so confident in, and so difficultly convinced of: the very nature of it is to work self-confidence, and drive away [humility]. (Some Thoughts on the Revival, 414–16)

Proverbs 8:13 teaches us, “To fear the LORD is to hate evil. I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.” Perhaps no one in the Bible came to understand this truth better than King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Proud of his accomplishments and proud in his speech, he learned the hard way that “pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall” (Prov 16:18). He learned the hard way p 44 that you can be strutting like a king one day and living like an animal the next. He learned the hard way that the “Most High” God (Dan 4:2, 17, 24, 25, 32, 34) is God, and he and we are not.

God hates pride because it challenges his sovereignty and questions his will and ways (4:37). It claims a position and power for mere mortals that rightly belongs only to “the King of the heavens” (v. 37). Daniel 4, through the humiliation and restoration of the most powerful man on the earth in that day, reminds us that God is in control and we are not. He is sovereign over all and “is ruler over human kingdoms” (4:17, 25, 32). These are words of assurance and comfort. They are also words of warning and wisdom for all of us. What God did to King Nebuchadnezzar, he can also do—and will do if necessary—to you and me. This is the last that we will see of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel. The text contains a powerful warning concerning the pitfalls of pride. It also contains “a powerful message for those who are fearful of or intimidated by the might of human kings and kingdoms” (Greidanus, Preaching Christ from Daniel, 113).

Here, Nebuchadnezzar is praising God but not for the right reason, it was done boastfully and out of pride. But notice this chapter is not written from Daniels perspective, but from the perspective of Nebuchadnezzar. He is writing this to all those who would listen - everyone who could have had contact with this decree. The beginning of this letter is to brag on God “It’s good for me to tell you of His signs, and of the miracles done”. Now, while Nebuchadnezzar knows what God has done, He also knows Daniel has given him the interpretation of the first dream and seeks to know the meaning of the second dream.

Second Dream

Daniel 4:4–18 ESV

4 I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. 5 I saw a dream that made me afraid. As I lay in bed the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me. 6 So I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. 7 Then the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers came in, and I told them the dream, but they could not make known to me its interpretation. 8 At last Daniel came in before me—he who was named Belteshazzar after the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods—and I told him the dream, saying, 9 “O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and that no mystery is too difficult for you, tell me the visions of my dream that I saw and their interpretation. 10 The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. 11 The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. 12 Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it. 13 “I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. 14 He proclaimed aloud and said thus: ‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. 15 But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. 16 Let his mind be changed from a man’s, and let a beast’s mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him. 17 The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’ 18 This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. And you, O Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.”

God sends a second dream that troubles the king. In today’s terms, he was kicked back chilling on the recliner watching a little TV when all of the sudden God sends another dream. This dream, again, troubled the king and disturbed him to the point he could not sleep. So, what did the king do? He sent for the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. Think of this…if they couldn’t interpret the first dream, what made him think they could interpret the second? Like the fool who keeps doing the same thing over and over expecting different results, he finds out that his scholarly entourage again cannot deliver: “They could not make its interpretation known to me”. So once more he goes to where he should have started. He calls on his go-to guy Daniel, also named Belteshazzar, noting that “a spirit of the holy gods is in him”.

Why didn’t he go to Daniel first? He recognizes Daniel is the “head of the magicians”, so why didn’t Daniel get asked first?

Nebuchadnezzar than tells Daniel his dream in verses 10–17, making a second request for its interpretation in verse 18. Nebuchadnezzar saw an incredibly large, strong tree that, like the tower of Babylon in Genesis 11:1–9, reached into the heavens and “was visible to the ends of the earth” (4:10–11). It also had beautiful leaves and fruit to feed everybody. Animals found shade under it, the birds lived in its branches, and everyone “was fed from it” (v. 12). If this tree represents the king, and it does, what a testimony and witness to his greatness and glory. However, tragedy is on the way.

In his vision, while dreaming in bed, he saw an angel “coming down from heaven.” The angel is described as “a watcher, a holy one” (v. 13). Interestingly, the word “watcher” occurs only in Daniel 4 (vv. 13, 17, 23) in the Old Testament. His message is ominous:

Cut down the tree and chop off its branches; strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the animals flee from under it, and the birds from p 47 its branches. But leave the stump with its roots in the ground and with a band of iron and bronze around it in the tender grass of the field. Let him be drenched with dew from the sky and share the plants of the earth with the animals. Let his mind be changed from that of a human, and let him be given the mind of an animal for seven periods of time. (4:14–16)

Verse 17 is the key that unlocks the purpose of the chapter and the interpretation of the dream. The sentence of judgment on the tree is “by decree of the watchers” for the purpose that “the living will know that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms. He gives it to anyone he wants and sets the lowliest of people over it.” As Bryan Chapell reminds us, “Talent, brains, and opportunity mean nothing apart from God’s provision” (Gospel According to Daniel, 75). I suspect Nebuchadnezzar had a strong inkling as to the meaning of his visions. Still, he pleads with Daniel to provide the interpretation because, affirming what he knows to be true for the third time, “you have a spirit of the holy gods” (v. 18). The king did not need a yes man. He needed a truth man. The head of state needed a man of faith to speak truth into his life, and Daniel was such a man. Would that we might boldly and humbly walk in his steps!

Nebuchadnezzar can be described well by Psalm 10:4

Psalm 10:4 ESV

4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”

He acknowledged God, but did not have faith in God; instead he thought HE was the one in control but would find out he was sadly mistaken.