Daniel 4.10-Nebuchadnezzar Tells Daniel He Saw A Vision Of An Enormous Tree In The Middle Of The Earth
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday September 5, 2012
Daniel: Daniel 4:10-Nebuchadnezzar Tells Daniel He Saw A Vision Of An Enormous Tree In The Middle Of The Earth
Lesson # 116
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 4:10.
This evening we will study Daniel 4:10 which records Nebuchadnezzar telling Daniel that he saw a vision of an enormous tree in the middle of the earth.
Daniel 4:1 “King Nebuchadnezzar, to each and every person belonging to the nations, ethnicities and language groups, who are living throughout the entire earth: May your prosperity increase! 2 It is pleasing to me to make known the miraculous signs, yes, and wondrous signs at that, which the Most High God performed on my behalf. 3 How great are His miraculous signs! Indeed, how great are His wondrous signs! His kingdom is eternal. In other words, His governmental dominion is from generation to generation. 4 I myself, Nebuchadnezzar was content in my house, specifically prosperous in my palace. 5 I saw a dream, which caused me to be frightened, specifically revelations on my bed. Indeed, visions in my mind caused me to be terrified. 6 Therefore, from me a command was issued for the purpose of causing each and every one of the city of Babylon’s wise men to be brought into my presence in order that they could make known to me the dream’s interpretation. 7 So when the occult priests, necromancers, astrologers as well as diviners entered, I communicated the content of the dream before them but they could not make its interpretation known to me. 8 Then Daniel entered my presence whose name was Belteshazzar according to my god’s name and in addition one who possesses God’s Holy Spirit in him. Next, I communicated the content of the dream before him. 9 ‘O Belteshazzar, chief over the wise men, because I myself know personally that God’s Holy Spirit is in you so that any mystery is by no means too difficult for you, please consider the content of my dream, which I saw. Also, please communicate its interpretation.’” (My translation)
Daniel 4:10 ‘Now these were the visions in my mind as I lay on my bed: I was looking, and behold, there was a tree in the midst of the earth and its height was great.’ (NASB95)
Daniel 4:10 marks a transition from Nebuchadnezzar requesting that Daniel consider the content of his dream as well as communicate its interpretation to the king communicating the content of the dream to Daniel.
“Visions” is the masculine plural construct form of the noun ḥězû (חֱזוּ) (khay´-zev), which refers to Nebuchadnezzar receiving a supernatural revelation from God while he was awake.
This term speaks of revelation from God the Holy Spirit with regards to the Father’s will for Nebuchadnezzar and denotes that God gave Nebuchadnezzar revelation with regards to His future plans for the king.
This is demonstrated in chapter four.
“I was looking” is composed of the masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active participle form of the verb ḥǎzā(h) (חֲזָה) (khaz-aw´), “looking” which is followed by the first person masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active perfect form of the verb hǎwā(h) (הֲוָה) (hav-aw´), “was.”
The verb hǎwā(h) is employed with the participle form of the verb ḥǎzā(h), “looking” in order to make a periphrastic tense expressing continuous and habitual action.
The use of this verb hǎwā(h) with the participle form of another verb is the Aramaic way of expressing continuous action and is frequently found in the book of Daniel.
This construction in Daniel 4:10 emphasizes that Nebuchadnezzar was in a trance like state and could not take his eyes off of this vision.
The verb hǎwā(h) denotes Nebuchadnezzar’s trance like state when he received this revelation from God concerning his future in a vision.
The verb ḥǎzā(h) means “to stare” in the sense of steadily looking at something with studious attention and with openmouthed wonder and amazement.
“Behold” is the interjection ʾǎlû (אֲלוּ) (al-oo´), which is used to introduce a description of the content of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream with emphasis and draws the attention of the reader in order to mark that what the king saw was impressive and astounding.
The noun ʾî∙lān means “tree” and appears six times in the book of Daniel, all of which are in chapter four and in each instance, it is used of the tree that appears in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision which terrified him.
“And its height was great” describes the height of this tree as “enormous, immense” since the adjective śǎg∙gî(ʾ), “great” denotes the great spatial size of the tree and suggests an exceeding of all ordinary bounds in size or amount or degree with the implication of abnormality or monstrousness.
This indicates that this tree was larger than any tree Nebuchadnezzar had ever seen on the face of the earth.
Daniel 4:10 ‘Now, concerning the visions in my mind on my bed, I was in a trance like state staring as behold a tree was in the midst of the earth. In fact, its height was enormous.’ (My translation)
Daniel 4:10 begins Nebuchadnezzar’s presentation to Daniel of the content of his dream and this description of the content of his dream ends in Daniel 4:17.
This presentation of the content of his dream is poetic which most English translations attempt to reflect by indenting the entire section (See NASB95, NRSV, LEB and NET).
As was the case with Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter two, the dream here in chapter three is a “revelatory” dream.
Revelatory dreams in the Bible can be classified under two categories: (1) Auditory (Genesis 20:3, 6; 31:24; 1 Kings 3:5, 15; Matthew 1:20; 2:13, 19, 22; 2:12) (2) Visual, usually symbolic of real events, people and nations (Genesis 28:12; 31:10; 37; 40:9ff.; 41:1ff., 7ff.; Judges 7:13; Daniel 2:31ff.; 4:10ff.; 7:1ff.; 8:2ff.).
Revelatory dreams are often distinguished from ordinary dreams by the fact that they usually upset the individual who has had the dream (Genesis 40:7f.; 41:8; Judges 7:13; Daniel 2:1ff.; 4:2ff.; 7:15f.).
In Daniel 4:10, Nebuchadnezzar makes clear to Daniel that in this dream, he received visions.
The noun ḥězû, “visions” in Daniel 4:10 is distinguished from the possession trance and dreams since it signifies an altered state of consciousness in which extrasensory audiovisual experiences, which are revelatory in character, are perceived in private by individuals.
Here this word denotes that Nebuchadnezzar was in an altered state of consciousness in which God revealed what will take place in his life in the future.
These visions that Nebuchadnezzar received from God were prophetic in that they tell the king about his future and they were also symbolic dream visions as indicated by the fact that the tree and its stump is symbolic of Nebuchadnezzar.
These visions were also oracles of assurance since the king is assured that he would be restored to the throne when acknowledges that God is sovereign over him.
These revelations Nebuchadnezzar received from God regarding his future was to direct him to submitting to God’s will over his life and to teach him and the reader that God’s authority is over every ruler including the most powerful ones such as Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar begins the description of the content of his dream in Daniel 4:10 by describing the manner in which he received this vision of an enormous tree which was in the midst of the earth, namely, he was in a trance like state, staring.
He also identifies the location in which he received this revelation, namely while resting on his bed.
The king tells Daniel in Daniel 4:11 that this tree grew large and became strong and its height reached to the sky and was thus visible to everyone on the earth.
Then, in Daniel 4:12, Nebuchadnezzar tells Daniel that the tree’s foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant and provided food for all.
The beasts of the field found shade under it and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches and every living creature fed themselves from this tree.
In Daniel 4:13-14, the king tells Daniel that in this vision, a holy watcher descended from heaven and proclaimed loudly to chop down this tree and cut off its branches, strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit so that the beasts will flee from it as well as the birds.
The messenger then says in verse 15 to leave the stump of this enormous tree in the ground but with a band of iron and bronze around it surrounded by the grass of the field.
He says to let it become damp with the dew of the sky and let it live with the animals in the grass of the land.
In Daniel 4:16, the messenger makes clear that this tree and its stump are referring to a human being and to let this human being have his mind altered from that of a human being and let an animal’s mind be given to him for seven years.
The purpose of this according to Daniel 4:17 was so that the human race may know that the Most High is ruler over the nations of the earth and bestows these kingdoms to whomever He desires and establishes over them even the lowliest of human beings.
In Daniel 4:22, Daniel interprets this to the king telling him that the description of this tree is a description of Nebuchadnezzar and his empire, which was a world-wide empire at this time in history.
This tree symbolized Nebuchadnezzar’s greatness and power as a world ruler, which is a familiar symbol in the Bible to describe great men and princes (Psalm 1:3; 47:35; Jeremiah 22:15; Ezekiel 17:5, 6; 31:3).
Then, in Daniel 4:23-25, Daniel tells the king he would be driven from human society and would live with the animals for seven years, feeding off grass like an oxen and would become damp with the dew of the sky.
In Daniel 4:26, Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar that his kingdom would be restored to him only until he acknowledges that he is subordinate to God.