Daniel 4

This is a unique chapter in the Bible because it’s an official autobiographical document, prepared by the king of Babylon and distributed throughout his vast kingdom. That Nebuchadnezzar should openly admit his pride, his temporary insanity, and his beastly behavior, and then give glory to the God of Israel for his recovery, is indeed a remarkable thing. He learned an important lesson the hard way just as people are learning it the hard way today: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16: nkjv).

There are five “acts” in this extraordinary drama.

Some students believe that twenty or thirty years may have elapsed between the episode of the fiery furnace described in chapter 3 and the events described in this chapter. Nebuchadnezzar was now enjoying a time of peace and security. After defeating all his enemies and completing several impressive building projects, he was able at last to rest at home and delight in what had been accomplished. Nebuchadnezzar thought that he was the builder of “Babylon the great” and the architect of its peace and prosperity, but he was soon to learn that all these things had been permitted by the will of the Most High God.

Once again God in His grace used a dream to communicate an important message to Nebuchadnezzar. In his first dream (Dan. 2), the king saw a great metallic image of which he was the head of gold, but in this dream he saw a huge flourishing tree that fed and sheltered a host of animals and birds. He heard an angel command that the tree be chopped down, its branches and leaves cut off, its fruit scattered, and its stump banded with iron and bronze. Then a command from the angel announced that someone would live like a beast for “seven times” and then be restored. After the first dream—that of the great image—King Nebuchadnezzar was troubled (2:3), but after this second dream, he was terrified (4: niv). He summoned his wise men and asked them for the interpretation of the dream, but they were baffled; so he called for Daniel. After the experience of the first dream, when the wise men failed so miserably, you would think Nebuchadnezzar would have bypassed his advisers and called Daniel immediately. But it seems that in the record of both of these dreams, Daniel is kept apart from the wise men, even though he was “master of the magicians” (v. 9). The Lord wants to remind us that the wisdom of this world is futile and that only He can give a true understanding of the future.

Nebuchadnezzar had changed Daniel’s name to Belteshazzar, which means “Bel protect his life” (vv. 8, 19; see 1:7). Bel (Marduk) was one of the king’s favorite gods. The fact that Nebuchadnezzar used both the Hebrew name and the new name in this document suggests that he had grown fond of Daniel over the years and didn’t treat him like the ordinary exile. The king recognized that “the spirit of the gods” was in Daniel and had given him remarkable wisdom and insight.

The king described his dream to Daniel: the vastness of the tree (note the repetition of “all” in vv. 11–12), the terrifying words of the angel, the transformation of a man into a beast, and the affirmation of the angel that all of this was by the decree of the Most High God. The dream was sent to teach an important lesson: “the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men” (v. 17 niv). God saw the pride in Nebuchadnezzar’s heart and was prepared to deal with it. The king could issue his decrees (2:13, 15; 3:10, 29; 6:7–10, 12–13, 15, 26), but it was the decrees from the throne of heaven that ruled events on earth (4:17, 24; 9:24–27). “The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all” (Ps. 103: niv).

After hearing the description of the dream, Daniel was stunned and troubled, and the king could see the perplexity on his face. Daniel’s thoughts were troubled because he saw what lay ahead of the successful monarch. He tactfully prepared the king for bad news by saying that he wished the dream applied to the king’s enemies and not to the king. (See 2 Sam. 18:32.) We get the impression that Daniel had a great personal concern for the monarch, and as they had worked together in the affairs of Babylon, he had sought to introduce him to the true and living God.

Years before, Daniel had announced to Nebuchadnezzar, “You are this head of gold” (Dan. 2: nkjv); and now he announced, “It [the tree] is you, O king” (4: nkjv). Trees are often used in Scripture as symbols of political authority, such as kings, nations, and empires (Ezek. 17; 31; Hos. 14; Zech. 11:1–2; Luke 23:31). With the help of the Most High and by His decree, Nebuchadnezzar had built a vast empire that sheltered many nations and peoples. He ruled a great kingdom, a strong kingdom, and a kingdom whose dominion reached “to the end of the earth” (Dan. 4:22).

But the king was taking credit for these achievements and was in great danger because his heart was becoming proud. The king had learned from the first dream that the Most High God ruled in the kingdom of men and no earthly throne was secure. The Babylonian kingdom would end one day and God would raise up another kingdom to take its place. In the episode of the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar had witnessed the miracle of the preservation of the three faithful Hebrew men, and he had decreed that nobody speak against their great God (3:29). But now Nebuchadnezzar was about to meet this Most High God and receive severe discipline from His hand.

The cutting down and trimming of the tree symbolized Nebuchadnezzar’s disgrace and removal from the throne, but the leaving of the stump was a promise that he would one day reign again. The banding of the stump may suggest that he was marked by God and protected by Him until His purposes for him were fulfilled. For seven years (“seven times”) the king would live like a beast, eating grass and feeling the forces of nature against his body. Years later, Daniel would tell Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson Belshazzar that his grandfather had lived with the wild donkeys (5:21).

The grand lesson God wanted the king to learn— and that we must learn today—is that God alone is sovereign and will not permit mortals to usurp His throne or take credit for His works. We are but creatures, and God is the Creator; we are only subjects, but He is the King of Kings. When men and women refuse to submit themselves to God as creatures made in His image, they are in grave danger of descending to the level of animals. It’s worth noting that God used animals when He wanted to describe the great empires of history (Dan. 7), and that the last great world dictator is called “the beast” (Rev. 11:7; 13:1ff.; 14:9, 11; etc.).

Men and women are made in the image of God, but when they leave God out of their lives and resist His will, they can descend to the level of animals. “Do not be like the horse or like the mule,” warned King David, who was guilty of acting like both (Ps. 32: nkjv). Like the impulsive horse, he rushed into sin when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then like the stubborn mule, he delayed confessing his sins and repenting (2 Sam. 11—12). When the Lord arrested Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road, He compared the pious rabbi to a stubborn ox when He said, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 9: nkjv).

Daniel concluded his explanation of prophecy with an exhortation to obedience and urged the king to turn from his sins and humble himself before the Lord (v. 27). Unlike some preachers, Daniel didn’t divorce truth from responsibility. There was a “therefore” in his message. I have participated in numerous prophetic conferences and heard a great deal of interpretation and some speculation, but I haven’t always heard personal and practical application. Some of the speakers talked a great deal about what God would do in the future, but they said very little about what He expected of His people in the present. An understanding of God’s plan imposes on the hearer the responsibility to do God’s will. To hear and understand the Word but not obey it is to deceive ourselves into thinking we have grown spiritually when we have actually moved backward (James 1:22–27).

“We can speak so glibly about the coming of our Lord and about the judgment seat of Christ,” said William Culbertson, late president of Moody Bible Institute. “You do not truly hold the truth of the doctrine of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ until that doctrine holds you and influences your manner of living as the Bible says it should.” Peter’s admonition in 2 Peter 3:11–18 explains how Christians behave when they really believe the Lord will return.

In ancient times, an Eastern monarch exercised supreme authority and was master of life and death. Daniel knew that the king had a violent temper (Dan. 2:12; 3:19) and that he was walking a dangerous path as he confronted him with his sins; and yet the faithful prophet must proclaim the Word and leave the consequences with the Lord. Moses learned that in the court of Pharaoh, and so did Nathan in the court of David when he told the king “You are the man!” (2 Sam. 12: nkjv). Elijah boldly confronted wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel (1 Kings 18:17ff.), Isaiah rebuked Hezekiah (Isa. 39), and John the Baptist told King Herod to break off his evil relationship with Herodias (Mark 6:14–29). Preachers who tailor their messages to please people will never enjoy the blessing of God.

Unlike the Jewish rulers, who were supposed to be accessible to their people and serve them as shepherds, Eastern kings lived in splendid isolation and heard only the good news. Being a high official in the land, Daniel knew that Nebuchadnezzar had not been concerned about the poor or shown mercy to those in need. Daniel also knew how many times in the law of Moses the Lord spoke of Himself as the protector and defender of the poor, the aliens, and the oppressed. Perhaps Nebuchadnezzar had exploited the people in pursuing his extensive building operations, and wealth that should have helped the poor had been used to gratify the selfish appetites of the proud king. “If a king judges the poor with fairness, his throne will always be secure” (Prov. 29: niv), but Nebuchadnezzar was about to lose his throne.

Daniel was calling for repentance. He wanted the king to change his mind, acknowledge his sins, turn from them, and put his faith in the true and living God, the Most High God of the Hebrews. Nebuchadnezzar knew enough about Daniel’s God to know that what Daniel spoke was the truth, but he did nothing about it. The king was passing up a gracious opportunity to make a new beginning and submit to the will of the Most High God. He made the wrong decision.

“All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar” (v. 28), because God’s Word never fails to fulfill its purposes. God graciously gave the king an entire year in which to heed His warning and repent of his sins, but the king refused to yield. Pride had so gripped his heart that he would not submit to the Most High God. “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Eccl. 8: nkjv). God waited patiently in the days of Noah and gave the inhabitants of the world 120 years to turn from their sins, but they refused (1 Peter 3:20; Gen. 6:3). He gave the city of Jerusalem almost forty years of grace after the religious leaders crucified their Messiah, and then the Romans came and destroyed the city and the temple. Just think of how longsuffering He has been with this present evil world (2 Peter 3:9)!

Nebuchadnezzar was probably walking on the flat roof of his palace, looking out over the great city when he spoke those fateful words recorded in Daniel 4:30. One thing is sure: he was walking in pride (v. 37), and pride is one of the sins that God hates (Prov. 6:16ff.). “When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom” (11: nkjv). “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4: nkjv; Prov. 3:34; 1 Peter 5:5). It was pride that transformed the angel Lucifer into the devil (Isa. 14:12–15), and it was pride that brought about the downfall of King Uzziah (2 Chron. 26:16–21).

A solemn voice from heaven interrupted the king’s egotistical meditations and announced that the time of probation had ended and judgment was about to fall. We never know when God’s voice will speak or His hand touch our lives. Whether it’s the call of Moses in Midian (Ex. 3), the drafting of Gideon to lead the army (Judg. 6), the opportunity of David to kill a giant (1 Sam. 17), the summons to the four fishermen to leave all and follow Christ (Matt. 4:18–22), or the warning that life has come to an end (Luke 12:16–21), God has every right to break into our lives and speak to us. What the king had learned from Daniel’s interpretation of the dream, he now heard from heaven! “No man knows when his hour will come” (Eccl. 9: niv).

God is longsuffering with sinners, but when the time comes for Him to act, there is no delay. The words were still on Nebuchadnezzar’s lips when everything began to change. His heart became like that of an animal (Dan. 4:16), and he was driven from the royal palace to live in the fields with the beasts. Since the man was beastly at heart, God allowed his brutish nature to be revealed openly. It’s likely that Daniel and the other officers managed the affairs of the kingdom during the king’s seven years of discipline, so that when the king returned to the throne, he found everything in good order. That in itself was a strong witness to Nebuchadnezzar of God’s grace and Daniel’s faithfulness. How much the common people knew about this judgment isn’t revealed in the record. It’s been suggested that the court officials kept the king in the palace gardens and not in the public eye, but Daniel 5: states that he was driven from people and lived with wild donkeys. His mind and heart, and even his body, became beastly for seven years.

God could have destroyed both the king and his kingdom, but He still had purposes to fulfill for His people and His prophet Daniel. Furthermore, God wanted the king to tell the whole empire what He had done for him so that His name would be glorified among the nations. It was the privilege and responsibility of Israel to be a light to the Gentiles (Isa. 42:6; 49:6), but they failed miserably and started practicing the darkness of the pagan nations. So, God used a pagan king to give glory to His name!

The first-person narrative picks up again in verse 34, for at the end of the seven years, as God had promised, Nebuchadnezzar was delivered from his affliction and restored to sanity and normal human life. It began with the king lifting his eyes to God, which suggests both faith and submission. “I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven” (Ps. 123: niv). “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth!” (Isa. 45: nkjv). Some students believe that Nebuchadnezzar experienced spiritual conversion, and his testimony in these verses would seem to back that up. We have no idea what the king had learned about the God of Israel as he had listened to Daniel over those many years, but now the seed was producing fruit.

The first thing the king did was to praise the Lord (vv. 34–35). What a concise compendium of biblical theology this is, and what an exciting expression of worship! Theology and doxology belong together (Rom. 11:33–36), for spiritual experience that isn’t based on truth is only superstition. The God of the Hebrews is the Most High God. Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom was limited, but God’s kingdom includes everything in heaven and earth. Babylon would one day fall and give way to another empire, but God’s kingdom will remain forever. Nothing can destroy His kingdom or defeat His purposes.

Seven years before, the king considered himself a great man and his kingdom a great kingdom, but now he had a different viewpoint. “All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing” (Dan. 4:35a niv)—and that would include the king! Perhaps Daniel had quoted the prophet Isaiah to the king: “Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales. … It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers” (Isa. 40:15, 22 nkjv).

The king acknowledged the sovereignty of God (v. 35b), which was the main lesson God wanted him to learn through this difficult experience (vv. 17, 25, 32). It’s too bad that this wonderful Bible doctrine has been so maligned and misinterpreted by amateur Bible students, because an understanding of God’s sovereignty brings the believer assurance, strength, comfort, and the kind of surrender that produces faith and freedom. The Bible teaches both divine sovereignty and human responsibility, and when you accept both, there is no contradiction or conflict. No person is more free than the believer who surrenders to the sovereign will of God. To ignore God’s sovereignty is to exalt human responsibility and make man his own savior, but to deny responsibility is to make man a robot without accountability. The Bible preserves a beautiful balance that exalts God and enables His people to live joyously and victoriously no matter what the circumstances might be (Acts 4:23–31; Rom. 8:31–39).

Because God is sovereign, He can do as His pleases and nobody can hinder Him or call Him to account (Rom. 9:14–23). The heart of sinful man rebels at the very idea of a sovereign God, for the human heart wants to be “free” of all outside control (Ps. 2:1–6). Sinners think they are “free” and don’t realize how much they are in bondage to their fallen nature and to the forces of Satan and the world. Charles Spurgeon was very balanced in his theology, and he said: Most men quarrel with this [the sovereignty of God]. But mark, the thing that you complain of in God is the very thing that you love in yourselves. Every man likes to feel that he has a right to do with his own as he pleases. We all like to be little sovereigns. Oh, for a spirit that bows always before the sovereignty of God.

The Most High God is so wise and powerful that He can ordain that His creatures have the freedom to make decisions and even disobey His revealed will, and yet He can accomplish His divine purposes on this earth. “Man’s will is free because God is sovereign,” said A. W. Tozer, who was not a confessed Calvinist. “A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so.”Submitting to God’s sovereign will didn’t make Nebuchadnezzar any less of a man; in fact, this commitment transformed him from living like a beast to living like a man!

Finally, Nebuchadnezzar gave joyful witness to all peoples of the marvelous grace of God (vv. 1–3). In this preamble to the official account of his experience, the king extolled God’s mighty wonders and His eternal kingdom, and he boldly announced that God had done great signs and wonders on his behalf. How different from Pharaoh’s response to what the Lord did in Egypt! Instead of obeying the word given by Moses, Pharaoh saw God’s power demonstrated in the plagues and continued to resist the Lord. He arrogantly declared, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go” (Ex. 5:2). As a result of his rebellion, his country was ruined, thousands of people died, and Israel was still delivered from his power! When God isn’t permitted to rule, He overrules and accomplishes His divine purposes for His glory.

What was the result of this “conversion” experience? God not only restored the king’s reason and removed the beastly heart and mind, but He also graciously restored the king’s honor and splendor and gave him back his throne! He testified that he “became even greater than before” (Dan. 4:36). Where sin had abounded, grace abounded even more (Rom. 5:20). Instead of boasting about his own accomplishments, Nebuchadnezzar said, “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven” (Dan. 4:37).

He closed his official statement with a word of warning based on the lessons the Lord had taught him: “Those that walk in pride, he [God] is able to abase” (v. 37). The world today doesn’t think that pride is a wicked and dangerous sin, but instead practices flattery and exaggeration and exalts the words and the works of the “successful people” of the day. Some of them lack moral character, but as long as they are achievers, they get worldwide attention in the media. One day, the Lord will come in judgment, and His promise is this: “I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless” (Isa. 13: niv).

Our Lord has the last word: “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matt. 23: niv).