Daniel 4.29-One Year After Daniel's Interpretation, Nebuchadnezzar Was Walking On Battlements Of The Royal Palace Of Babylon When Sentence Against Him Was Executed
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday October 11, 2012
Daniel: Daniel 4:29-One Year After Daniel’s Interpretation Nebuchadnezzar Was Walking On Battlements Of The Royal Palace of Babylon When The Sentence Against Him Was Executed
Lesson # 132
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 4:27.
This evening we will study Daniel 4:29, which records that the vision was fulfilled one year later while Nebuchadnezzar was walking on the roof of the royal palace in the city of Babylon.
Daniel 4:29 “Twelve months later he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon.” (NASB95)
We have the figure of “asyndeton” meaning that there is no connective word between the statement in verse 28 and the one here in verse 29.
The former said that the vision was fulfilled whereas the latter tells the reader that it was fulfilled twelve months after Daniel presented the interpretation of the vision to the king and advised him to repent in light of this interpretation.
Thus, the figure of asyndeton emphasizes the solemn moment when the sentence against the king was executed by God.
Daniel 4:29 At the end of twelve months, he was walking about on the roof of the city of Babylon’s royal palace. (My translation)
Daniel 4:29 recalls 2 Samuel 11:2, which records King David walking around on the roof of his palace when he saw Bathsheba taking a bath, which led to his committing adultery with her whose husband was Uriah.
Daniel 4:28 along with Daniel 4:29-36 makes clear that the king did not repent of his sinful behavior but instead continued to rule like a pagan king even though he had trusted in Yahweh.
That Nebuchadnezzar was a believer when he received this vision recorded in Daniel chapter four is indicated by Daniel 3:28 and 4:27.
If Nebuchadnezzar was an unbeliever when he received this vision in chapter four, the first thing Daniel would have said to the king would be to have faith in the Lord and then he would tell the king how the Lord wants him to live.
However, we have Daniel talking to the king about his conduct, which indicates that the king has already expressed faith in the Lord.
Thus, Daniel 3:28 and 4:27 make clear that the king being deposed from power for seven years was divine discipline of a believer rather than the judgment of an unbeliever.
Daniel 4:28-29 tells the reader that Nebuchadnezzar never repented by obeying Daniel’s advice in Daniel 4:27.
Repentance involves not only a change of attitude but of conduct.
Daniel told the king in Daniel 4:27 that his attitude and conduct towards God’s sovereign authority over him must do a 180 degree turn before his kingdom will be restored to him.
Daniel 4:29 reveals that the sentence against Nebuchadnezzar was not executed until a year after Daniel gave the king this interpretation of the vision.
So for an entire year, God in His grace gave Nebuchadnezzar the opportunity to repent or change his attitude and conduct towards His sovereign authority over the king.
Therefore, we can see that this prophecy that was given to Nebuchadnezzar was “conditional” meaning that if at any time during the one year prior to the execution of the punishment, Nebuchadnezzar had confessed his sin and then obeyed God, God would have never punished him.
Undoubtedly the king took the delay as evidence that Daniel’s interpretation would not come to pass.
However, he eventually learned a spiritual principle that is taught by Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes 8:11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil. (NASB95)
Because God did not execute immediately the sentence against Nebuchadnezzar because of his arrogance and sinful conduct, the king foolishly gave himself fully to commit evil.
Daniel 4:28-36 teaches a principle that appears in the book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 1:12 Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.” (NASB95)
Nebuchadnezzar found out painfully through his own personal experience with God that the Lord is watching over His word to perform it.
The fact that God can bring to pass that which He has predicted would happen to Nebuchadnezzar reveals that He is omnipotent and sovereign and omniscient.
All these attributes the Lord has revealed to the king in Daniel chapters two, three and now four.
Speaking in the context of judging Assyria the prophet Isaiah speaking for the Lord under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit said the following:
Isaiah 14:24 The LORD of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand.”
Nebuchadnezzar and Assyria both learned this statement is true.
Everything that Daniel said in his interpretation of the vision to the king came to pass exactly as Daniel said it would.
Nebuchadnezzar learned through personal experience what Balak was taught by Balaam.
Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (NASB95)
Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard way that when God says He will do something, He does it unlike sinful mankind who make promises that he can’t keep or say they are going to do something but do not keep their word.
The king’s stubborn refusal to repent reveals his great pride and arrogance.
In the Scriptures, pride is a great evil because it involves pretending to a greatness and glory that belongs rightly to God alone.
It is condemned as evil (1 Samuel 15:23; Proverbs 21:4; James 4:16; cf. Mark 7:22-23; Romans 1:29-30; 2 Corinthians 12:20; 2 Timothy 3:1-2; 1 John 2:16).
There are warnings about pride in the book of Proverbs (Proverbs 16:5, 18; cf. Proverbs 3:7, 34; 6:16-17; 11:2; 25:6-7, 27; 26:12; 27:1; 29:23) as well as elsewhere in Scripture (Psalm 119:21; cf. Leviticus 26:19).
God is said to be opposed to the proud (1 Peter 5:5; James 4:6; Proverbs 3:34).
Daniel 4:29-30 tells the reader that Nebuchadnezzar was walking about the roof of the royal palace in the city of Babylon when the Lord executed the sentence against him.
This city was founded by Nimrod according to Genesis 10:10 whom made it his capital.
However, Babylonian religious tradition gives credit to the god Marduk.
It is located in modern Iraq, about 53 miles south of Baghdad, near the modern city of Hilla, on the Euphrates River, south of where the Tigris and Euphrates approach.
Babylon had long been the commercial and pagan religious center of the entire Mesopotamian region.
The city was at its zenith when Daniel was taken captive.
Nebuchadnezzar expanded the city and made it a magnificent capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.
It encompassed approximately 2,100 acres.
Excavations have revealed that an inner city of around 1,140 acres was built up along both sides of the Euphrates River.
This was surrounded by a wall 5.5 miles long, incorporating an inner wall 21 feet wide and an outer wall 12 feet wide with a 24 foot space between them filled with earth, which resulted in a total defense depth of 57 feet.
Outside the outer wall was a moat, fed by the Euphrates, which ranged in width from 60 to 250 feet.
To the east of the inner city were two more double walls totaling 4.5 miles in length.
To provide additional protection against invasion from the north, Nebuchadnezzar constructed an enormous wall 20 miles north of Babylon, which was 16 feet thick and extended from the Euphrates to the Tigris River, which is a distance of approximately 25 miles.
Within the city Nebuchadnezzar’s magnificent palace occupied an area of about 50 acres.
Along with this were over 50 temples as well as numerous shrines and other buildings.
Donald Campbell writes “The palace of Nebuchadnezzar also adorned the city and was proudly called by the king, ‘The Marvel of Mankind,’ ‘The Center of the Land,’ ‘The Shining Residence’ and ‘The Dwelling of Majesty.’ It is supposed that within the palace area were the Hanging Gardens, considered by the Greeks to be one of the wonders of the ancient world. These gardens, of such height as to be seen outside the walls, were said to have been built by Nebuchadnezzar to gratify the desire of his wife Amytis to gave upon green mountains like those of her native Media.” (Campbell, Donald K., Daniel: God’s Man in a Secular Society; page 67; Discovery House Publishers; 1988)
