Chapter 4. The Humbling of Nebuchadnezzar
Chapter 4. The Humbling of Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar has another dream, and this time it remains so deeply engraven upon his memory that be is able to tell it to his wise men just as it had appeared to him when he lay asleep on his bed. But they were no more able to interpret the dream now that they had heard it, than they were able in the first instance to make known the dream. God was speaking in a language that they understood not, however learned they might be; neither did God intend that they should understand Him. The interpretation of the language in which God was speaking to the king was not to be understood by men steeped to the centre of their souls in the worship of demons. What had such men to do with the living God? Is He going to give them the impression that they can have to do with demons one moment and with Himself the next?
Rather the opposite: He is letting them know that He cannot allow Himself to be mixed up with their abominations. He has His own in Babylon who fear and reverence His name, and these must be the interpreters between Himself and their king. “His secret is with the righteous” (Pro 3:32), and “He reveals His secret unto His servants the prophets” (Amo 3:7). But how could an idolater be in intimacy with the living God?
It is astonishing how quickly the faithful servant of the Lord passes out of the minds of the great people of the earth. The worldling does not understand the man of God, and therefore is he out of mind almost as soon as he is out of sight. One would have thought that the fact that Daniel was able, not only to interpret the king’s dream, but to bring it back to his memory after he had forgotten it, a feat which was admitted to be beyond all human power, would have ensured his remembrance by the king, should a similar circumstance ever arise again. But it was not so in this instance, and it was not so when the writing on the wall terrified his grandson. The men of this world will avail themselves of all the help that the man of God may be able to give them in the things of earth, but with him they can never feel themselves at home. There is a great gulf between the worldling and the man of God, and neither of them is perfectly happy in the company of the other. Hence whatever service the servant of the Lord may be able to render in a moment of difficulty, both himself and the service rendered are soon forgotten. If the world could only serve as well, or half as well, its service would be greatly preferred. The man of God cannot be well brought to mind without God Himself being also brought to mind, and this fact awakes the conscience and disturbs the tranquillity of the soul, and therefore only in the greatest extremity is the servant of the Lord appealed to. At other times he is utterly forgotten.
Hence Nebuchadnezzar’s wise men must first have a try at the interpretation of the dream, and only upon their manifest failure does Daniel come into the mind of the king. And in the ways of God this strange oversight only serves to bring into greater prominence the solemn truth that the God who put this monarch into such a position of power and splendour is the one true and living God, who raises up, and casts down, and does what He pleases in His own universe. It is only when all human resources fail that God comes in with deliverance for His fallen and devil-oppressed creature.
Nebuchadnezzar tells the tale of the pride of his heart, of his utter abasement, of his bestial condition, and he tells it with a brokenness of spirit that manifests a soul subdued in the presence of God. And he tells it to “all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth.” He does not hide the humiliation to which he was subjected by the God he had dishonoured and despised. He would have the whole earth know the signs and wonders that the high God had wrought toward him. And he seems to tell it with a heart grateful for all the sorrows through which he had been called to pass. We do not read of any human being that, either previously or since, has been ever reduced to such a state of bestiality. In the mercy of God a limit was placed to his madness, and his kingdom was made sure to him “with a band of iron and brass.” By the power of God, who at the beginning had given him the kingdom, it was securely held for him while its degraded ruler, with a beast’s heart given to him, herded with the cattle of the field, his hair like the feathers, and his nails like the claws, of a fowl. And thus for seven years he continued to exist, until he was ready to own “That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will.” The kingdom would be restored to him when he learned that the heavens rule. “All this happened to king Nebuchadnezzar.” No wonder Daniel seemed to be stricken dumb when the royal dreamer had set before him the visions of his head. For one hour he was astonished, and his thoughts troubled him. How was he to tell this proud potentate of the evil and degradation that was ready to fall upon his crowned head? He has to be encouraged by the king to open his mouth, and disclose to his unhappy listener the doom that awaited him from the hand of God. But he was there as the mouthpiece of God, and the language in which He was speaking to the king must be faithfully translated, whatever the result might be. But he cannot allow all this to come upon the haughty despot without tendering him some wise and wholesome advice. If he is in the presence of the king in the stead of God, he will faithfully present God to him in His true character as merciful and gracious, and as One who does not afflict willingly, and as One who has no pleasure in the execution of righteous wrath. “Wherefore, O king,” he says, “let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity.” We have no evidence that the king paid any attention to this faithful and friendly advice, advice that put his head in danger, for it was a reflection upon the way in which the king had used the power committed to him by God. Still he must be made to feel that the evil comes upon him on account of his own conduct, and that he might find a way of escape from it, by moderating his wilful and merciless ways, and ruling according to righteousness and kindness of heart.
If God causes counsel like this to be given, we may be certain that He does not intend to proceed to execute the threatened judgment if the counsel is taken to heart and the ways of the sinner become agreeable to His gracious mind. Nebuchadnezzar must be made to see that God takes account of all that goes on upon earth, and that He holds all accountable for the way in which they act in the various relationships in which they are placed by Himself. Surely it was just as true in Nebuchadnezzar’s day as it is today that He desires that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth (1Ti 2:4), but it sometimes takes very severe measures to bring men to a sense of their own sinfulness and nothingness, and to lead them to the understanding that they cannot be allowed to assume that they are masters of their own actions, and responsible to no one; for unless their responsibility to God were admitted they could never be brought to acknowledge themselves transgressors.
Nebuchadnezzar had gods many, who by himself and his subjects were worshipped and served; and yet when his idolatrous will was thwarted by three of the servants of the living God, the state of his proud spirit is manifested, in that he says to them, “Who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands?” At the bottom of his heart there was the conceit that no god existed that was stronger than himself. The dream and its interpretation do not seem to have had any very lasting effect upon the proud monarch, for at the end of twelve months he seems to be as full of his own self-importance as ever, “At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon.” His heart and mind were full of his dignity and grandeur, and of the glory of his kingdom. The fell weed of his own miserable vanity still flourished in the congenial soil of his corrupt ambitious nature, “The king spake and said, Is this not great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?”
How utterly infidel and degraded the human heart is! Perhaps he thought that the consequences of his iniquitous career, of which he was forewarned by his dream and the interpretation by the prophet, would never come. Long it seems to have been delayed; perhaps it will never come at all! It is a dishonour to the Lord, and destructive to our own souls, to suppose that because God is infinitely patient, and gives men an opportunity to repent, He is indifferent to a life of evil-doing. Yet this is often the natural thought, “Because 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” (Ecc 8:11). The lesson set before him by the living God has not been learned, nor does the king seem to have applied his mind to the task, and now the hour has struck for the execution of the sentence that has been so long delayed. The height of his ambition has been reached, and from the giddy eminence he surveys the greatness of his inheritance, which was committed to him by the Sovereign of the universe, and attributes it all to his own creative genius. He will rob God of the glory that is rightly His, and now the proud position in which he stands does nothing but make his fall all the more terrible. “While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; the kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men: and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws.”
Suddenly had the bolt from the blue struck that imperious ruler. Suddenly was he headlong hurled from his proud position. His gods have to stand by and witness the almighty blow, that strikes their devoted servant upon his forehead, and sends him reeling down into the deepest depths of degradation; a degradation into which, possibly, no human being had ever previously been stricken. His kingly honour was departed from him. His lords and courtiers are aghast at the violence of his terrific fail, the meanest of his subjects stare in wonder at the abasement of their monarch; high and low give him a wide berth; the beasts of the field alone give him companionship, and he finds them congenial company. The dews of night, the winter’s frosts and snows, the summer’s heat, and all the changes of the seven years must be known by him ere the day of his redemption shall come to pass. Let him tell the tale of his own recovery, return to reason, and reinstatement in his kingdom.
“At the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes to heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honoured Him that lives for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation: and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and He does according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou? At the same time my reason returned to me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment: and those that walk in pride He is able to abase.”
What a magnificent recovery! The hand that smote him, and hurled him from his proud position into the dust of degradation, is the very hand that lifts him up out of the mire of the bestial condition into which he had been made to sink for his eternal good, and that reinstates him in his former earthly glory, but with the light of the knowledge of the Most High in his heart, which was infinitely better than all the riches of the universe, even if those riches could have been granted to him.
“At the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven.” To what other place could be lift them? The God against whom be had so fearfully offended is the only One to whom he can look with any degree of confidence. Would he not have fled to hide his wretched condition from one of the meanest of his slaves? Whither under heaven dare he direct his gaze? Were there no place but earth from which to expect consolation and encouragement, would his degradation not have been utterly insupportable? The dark cloud that had for seven years rested upon the heart and mind of this merciless autocrat is at last dispersed, and while yet in the midst of the beasts of the field his understanding returns to him, and he comes to realize that however heavy upon him the hand of God had been, it was all for his good; and with a will subdued, a mind enlightened, and a heart softened by grace, he blesses the One who had smitten him. Is it not so with us all, when in our natural state the light of God penetrates into conscience and heart? And what a faithful picture of this, and of the grace of God that gives a glorious welcome to all that turn to Him, even when still bearing all the tokens of the degradation into which their rebellion against Himself had brought them! Brought to the realization of the wretched state in which all by nature are, his first thought is to return to the God he has sinned against. Valueless are all his boon companions to him now. No one can help him but the God he has slighted and despised. He says, “I will arise and go to my father.” Blessed resolution! He comes, and is received into the arms of eternal love. The path that Nebuchadnezzar had to tread to the end that he finally reached was rough, thorny, and humiliating, but it led into the region of everlasting light; and here all the darkness, the stumbling, the fighting against God, came to an end. If the previous part of his reign was gloomy, turbulent, oppressive, self-willed and superstitious, the remainder could not be but calm, cloudless, refulgent in the light of the knowledge of God, at least as far as he himself was concerned. He had learned something of the infinite compassions of the God he had so grievously insulted. And it is with such a God as this we have to do; cruel for a moment, in order that He may be henceforth and eternally kind. He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men; and if He is compelled to afflict, it is His love that compels Him, for it is to do good in the latter end to those over whom His rod had been lifted. In this madness of the king we have powerfully forecasted the true character of the succeeding Gentile monarchies; they neither recognize, nor have they knowledge of the true God. Their eyes are not lifted to heaven, from whence, and from the One who sits there, they derive their kingly authority. In their judgment, they have acquired their royal inheritance, and their autocratic position, by virtue of the prowess of their armies, and by the same means they retain all that they have won! All that they can stretch their sceptre over upon earth is their inalienable right, and they owe it to no higher power than the power that lies in their own right arm! The three powers that succeeded the head of gold—the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman—were all pagan, and though there be in that which represents the Roman at this present moment an acknowledgement of God, the assertion is made that the ruler holds his position by no other power than the will of the people, which goes to prove that the madness of the powers continues; and it will continue until the lesson is learned “That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will, and sets up over it the basest of men.” Then autocracy and democracy shall both come to an end together as far as the kings of the earth are concerned, for the now rejected Christ shall then sit upon the throne of His glory as King of kings and Lord of lords. In that day democracy shall have vanished for ever, for above every other form of government it is the most infidel. As regards the kings of Israel, they were chosen of God, and responsible to rule in the acknowledgement that they held their kingly authority from Him, and if they did evil He made them to suffer for the evil that they did. They were to have the law of the Lord ever before them, and they were to read therein all their days, in order that they might learn to fear Him. The heart of the king was not to be lifted up above his brethren, nor was he to turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left (Deu 17:14-20). But in committing authority to Nebuchadnezzar, God does not enter into relationship with Him, nor with the people over whom he ruled. He had used him as a rod, wherewith He had chastised His wayward people; but He does not directly undertake to instruct him in the laws of His kingdom. He is kept pretty much at arm’s length, and not even told that he has the kingdom from God, until by Daniel, who interprets his dream, he is informed of the fact. He was given no book of instructions, as though he were the servant of Jehovah. The true God is the God of Daniel and his friends. It is a hard lesson for a proud heart to learn that his relations with God are of such a nature that he must be kept at a distance until he learns how utterly unsuitable he is to the holiness of the Divine presence. But if a soul is ever to be in right relations with God, this has to be learned. God will not associate Himself with the demons that were served by this king and his courtiers, nor will He give either him or his miserable hucksters of lying inventions the impression that they can be rightly, viewed in any other light than in avowed antagonism to Himself. It is impossible that God should lie. Nor is it different in regard to the succeeding monarchies. Lust of conquest and the rapacity of wild beasts characterize every one of them, and when they are portrayed before Daniel in the visions that were granted to him, they exhibit nothing but the characteristics of the wild beasts of the earth, without any sign of a recognition of God or of responsibility to Him. Their state is set forth in the madness of the head of gold.
Read the history of the kings of Israel and Judah, and you will find that though rebellion against God and abominable idolatry were a constant provocation, yet in His infinite grace He ceased not to strive with them by His prophets and to discipline them by the incursions of the surrounding nations: rebuking, chastising, forgiving, pleading, until they had so wearied Him with their sins that He was compelled to remove from them the kingly authority that He had so graciously bestowed upon them at the beginning, and to put it into the hand of the idolatrous Gentile. But with the Gentile He does not connect His name, His throne, His prophets, His interests, nor His authority. The king is not “The Lord’s anointed.” God is not in any public way the God of the earth but the God of heaven. He is certainly not the God of the Chaldeans nor has He His seat in the city of Babylon. It is the times of the Gentiles, with the beast’s heart, and the beast’s characteristics. And this state of things must continue until “The Lord has performed His whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem” (Isa 10:12), then, “The heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against Me, therefore hid I My face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword” (Eze 39:23), “and the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore” (Eze 37:28), and “I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord” (Eze 38:23). This shall be the result of the dealings of God with the nations. They shall know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will. Viewed from the human side, kingdoms are generally laid hold of by corruption, violence, bloodshed, and of often murder; but behind the scenes, into which the gaze of man cannot penetrate, the purposes of God are being accomplished, and that even by the wickedness of the ambitious creature, instigated by the devil. Neither the cunning and malice of Satan nor the guilty ambition of man can counteract the intention of God, but everything that they do must serve to bring it to pass.
He would not be God if His poor erring creature could circumvent His wise resolve. The way in which men may arrive at the height of their ambition may be, and often is, very reprehensible; but he could not arrive there at all if it was not allowed of God. It may result in the condemnation of the apparently triumphant creature, and it will if the position has been gained in dishonest ways, but no power of the creature could successfully militate against the express will of God.
Jacob got the blessing by deceiving his blind father, but he could not have secured it had it not been the will of God that it should be his. Had he known God better he would have left all in His hands, and he would have saved himself many a sorrow of heart.
What peace have all those that leave the ordering of their circumstances for time and eternity in the hands of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our God and Father through grace!