Downfall and Restoration
Nebuchadnezzar has another dream, and as before, one that only Daniel can interpret. Yahweh will remove the king from power until he learns that the “Most-High God” is sovereign over the affairs of men. Chapter 4 begins and ends with the Babylonian ruler acknowledging the sovereignty of the God of Israel.
In the opening paragraph, the terms “great,”
“kingdom,” and “dominion” are repeated from the preceding chapter.
This prepares the reader for the concluding declaration by the king concerning
the sovereignty of God.
- (Daniel 4:1-3) – “Nebuchadnezzar the king, to all the peoples, races and tongues who are dwelling in all the earth: Let your prosperity abound! The signs and the wonders which the most-high God has wrought with me, it is pleasing before me to declare. His signs, how great! And his wonders, how mighty! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.”
The term “earth” occurs eight times
in the chapter in reference to Nebuchadnezzar’s sovereignty. In contrast,
“heaven” is applied sixteen times to the rulership of Yahweh. The
king must learn that “heaven” alone rules over the earth - (Daniel 4:26).
Nebuchadnezzar recounts the dream that gave
him great anxiety when he was “luxuriating” in his palace. This translates an Aramaic word for the “greening”
of plants. It anticipates the representation of the king in the dream by the
great tree that nourishes all earthly creatures.
This tree “grew great and its height
reached to the heavens and its sight to the end of all the earth.” The same
description is repeated in verses 20-22 and applied to Nebuchadnezzar, but the
king attributes his greatness to his own majesty.
As before, Nebuchadnezzar summons all the “wise
men” of Babylon to interpret his dream, the “scribes,
enchanters, astrologers and soothsayers.” And, as previously, none can do
so except Daniel.
In the dream, the king sees a large tree in
the center of the earth that grows until its height reaches heaven. It is
visible from the extremities of the earth. The animals of the earth are fed by
its fruit and the birds of the air are sheltered and nourished in its branches -
(Daniel 4:4-18).
Nebuchadnezzar then sees a “holy watcher”
descend from heaven. The figure commands the removal of the tree so that
nothing of remains visible above the ground. It is “cut down,” its
branches are “lopped off,” its leaves “stripped,” and its fruit “scattered
across the earth.” Only the “tip of its root” remains in the ground.
The “watcher” declares that the
heart of the king will change from that of a man to a “beast” until “seven
seasons passed over him.” The great tree will become a pitiful tethered
animal dependent on others for nourishment, and through his downfall, “All the
living would come to know that the Most-High rules in the kingdom of men and
gives it to whomever he will and sets up over it the lowest of men.”
Once again, “set up” translates the
same Aramaic verb used in Daniel 2:21 when the prophet declared that God “removes kings
and sets up kings.” Likewise, the same verb for “removed”
is used in both passages - (“Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdom is removed from you”).
The power of the heavenly decree is demonstrated when the ruler of the World Empire turns to Daniel for understanding. Through his God-given ability, the “lowly” Jewish exile exercises dominion over the Babylonian sovereign.
Thus, Daniel declared the removal and the restoration
of political power to one who presumed to possess it through his own might, rather
than acknowledge it as a gracious gift from the “God of Heaven.”
INTERPRETATION
The great tree represents Nebuchadnezzar.
He “became strong, his greatness reached to the heavens, and his dominion to
the ends of the earth.” The command of the “watcher” to cut down the
tree was “the decree of the Most-High.”
Men would drive him from society to live
among wild animals for “seven seasons” until he comprehended that “the
Most High has sovereignty over the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he
pleases.” Then his kingdom would be restored.
The term “seven seasons” is
ambiguous and does not necessarily mean seven years. It could refer to
seven weeks or seven months. Nebuchadnezzar would be in this state until the
divine pronouncement ran its course, however long that was. The dream was a
warning to Nebuchadnezzar, one he all too soon forgot.
A year passed, then “all this came upon
Nebuchadnezzar.” At the very height of his power, he boasted of his majesty
and achievements: “Is this not Babylon the Great that I built by the might
of my power and for the dignity of my majesty?” A voice from Heaven
responded:
- “O Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdom is removed from you…until you come to know that the Most High has dominion over the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he pleases.”
His understanding departed and he was
driven from society to live like an animal for “seven seasons.” However,
after his mind was restored, Nebuchadnezzar looked to heaven and declared:
- “Blessed is the Most-High who lives forever! I praise and honor the One whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. Before Him all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and according to his own pleasure He deals with the Host of Heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is none who can say to him, What have you done.”
History remembers Nebuchadnezzar as a great
ruler and builder, as well as the conqueror of vast territories. He established
an empire larger and mightier than any that preceded his realm.
His downfall is an object
lesson in just how hollow such boasts are, even when made by the mightiest
rulers on the earth. His fall demonstrates how decisively and quickly God can remove
any ruler or regime to suit His purposes.
PARALLELS TO GENESIS 11:1-9
There are verbal
parallels in the story with the incident at the Tower of Babel. For example, in the Genesis account, “all
the earth was of one language” and came to “inhabit the
plain of the land of Shinar.” The inhabitants set out
to “build for us a city and a tower whose height
reaches to the heavens and, thus, let us make for us a name
lest we be scattered over the face of all the earth.”
But Yahweh “came down” from
heaven to see the city that men had built. When He
pronounced judgment, He mockingly used the first-person plural - “Let us go
down and confuse their speech.” Thus, He “scattered them over the face
of all the earth, and so they left off building the city.”
The “watcher” pronounced judgment using
verbs in the first person, plural form, as did God in the Genesis
account – “Let us” cut down the tree, destroy it, and leave the stump of
its roots. The fruit of the tree would be “scattered” and the king was
driven from among men until he understood that the “Most High has dominion
over the kingdom of men, and to whomever, he pleases he gives it.”
At the end of the “seven seasons,”
Nebuchadnezzar was restored to his right mind and his sovereignty was reconfirmed.
IN REVELATION
The passage in Daniel is echoed in
the judgment pronouncement on end-time “Babylon” when the “kings of
the earth” wailed over her demise:
- “Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city; for in one hour is your judgment come… and a strong angel took a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus, with force will Babylon, the great city, be cast down and be found no more at all” – (Revelation 18:10-21).
From start to finish in Revelation, Babylon
symbolizes the determination of human society to arrogate to itself self-rule
in opposition to the sovereignty of the “God of Heaven,” the creator of
all things.
Likewise, the term “inhabitants of the
earth” is derived from this story, which is then used repeatedly by
Revelation to refer to humanity in its hostility to the “Lamb” and the “one
who sits on the throne.”