Daniel – Chapter 4c
A. Chapter 4 Outline
I. The Dream (4:1-18)
a. The King’s Introduction (4:1-5)
b. The Councillors Ignorance (4:6-7)
c. The Prophet’s Insight (4:8-9)
d. The Dream Illustrated (4:10-18)
II. The Interpretation (4:19-27)
a. Daniel’s Thoughts (4:19)
b. Nebuchadnezzar’s Tree (4:20-26)
c. Possible Tranquillity (4:27)
III. The Fulfilment (4:28-36)
a. The Pride (4:28-30)
b. The Proclamation (4:31-32)
c. The Punishment (4:33)
d. The Praise (4:34-37)
Message
III. The Fulfilment (4:28-36)
a. The Pride (4:28-30)
The king didn’t fly off the handle or go into some mega rage like he did before. Was this a simple resignation to the will of God? Was it just a simple willingness to wait and see if this interpretation was true?
Verse 28
What God had promised, He is able also to perform, whether it be a promise of blessing or one of judgement. Romans 4:21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
We are about to see that not only does God keep His Word but He is willing to give people chance after chance. He still gave Nebuchadnezzar time to repent and turn to the Most High.
Verse 29
God graciously gave Nebuchadnezzar a year to repent of his sins, but the king refused to heed God’s warning, pride had gripped his heart so much that he would not submit to the Most High God.
God gave the wicked world of Noah’s day 120 years to turn from their evil ways and acknowledge God, but they refused to turn from their sins 1 Peter 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
He gave the city of Jerusalem almost 40 years of grace after the religious leaders had crucified their Messiah, and then the Romans came and destroyed the city and the temple. Just think ho longsuffering He has been with this present world 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
John Phillips says…
The city of Babylon was founded by Nimrod soon after the flood
Idolatry was born in this city. Babylon reached its peak and greatest splendour in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. The city was defended to the south by a huge area of marshland. Trade rout?
For centuries, Babylon was just an ordinary place, a city of the dominant Assyrian empire, but once the combined armies of the Babylonians and the Medes overthrew Nineveh (612BC) the future of Babylon was assured. The new kingdom extended rapidly to the east and south and west to Jerusalem and Egypt.
Nebuchadnezzar inherited the growing empire upon the death of his father Nabopolassar and set about strengthening and expanding Babylon. Most of what we know today about Babylon comes from the Greek Historian Herodotus who saw the city in all its splendour.
The city was built in the form of a square, about fifty six miles in circumference. The Euphrates, which flowed through the city, provided the city with more than an abundance of water. It was spanned by a spectacular bridge.
On the one side of the bridge stood an enormous temple dedicated to Belus and it was filled with a numerous golden idols, and on the other side of the bridge stood Nebuchadnezzar’s grand palace.
The perimeter walls of the city were 335 feet high and about 87 feet thick. Chariots could race side by side on these massive walls. The walls had a hundred gates of solid brass, 25 on each side of the city. A straight road ran from each gate dividing the city into a grid of 676 squares. In the centre of the city there were 150 pillars 88 feet high supporting the chapel of Baal and inside was a colossal golden image of this false god.
The one thing that Babylon is known for having one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The gardens were built to cheer up Nebuchadnezzar’s homesick wife, Amyitis. Amyitis, daughter of the king of the Medes, was married to Nebuchadnezzar to create an alliance between the nations. The land she came from, though, was green, rugged and mountainous, and she found the flat, sun-baked terrain of Mesopotamia depressing.
Successive terraces rose one above another until they reached as high as the walls. They were filled with soil and planted with every kind of tree and flower. The king had recreated his wife’s homeland by building an artificial mountain with rooftop gardens.
The Ishtar Gate was built and dedicated to the goddess Ishtar. It was awesome in appearance and one of the most impressive monuments of the ancient Near East. It was decorated with glazed brick reliefs, in tiers, of dragons, lions and young bulls. The gate was a double gate, and it was the starting point for the half mile Processional Way to the Temple of Marduk.
Undoubtedly the city of Babylon was magnificent. One day the king is strolling through his palace and looks out at this city and pride started to swell up within him…
Verse 30
The king is walking in pride, and pride is one of the sins the Lord hates - Proverbs 6:16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: [7] A proud look…
James 4:6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
It was pride that transformed the angel Lucifer into the devil (Isaiah 14:12-15)
Someone said, “Pride affects people in a strange way, for “pride is the only disease known to man that makes everyone sick except the one who has it.” We must learn to recognize this sin in our own lives in all of its ugliness. If we don’t, God may have to knock the props out from under us. Believe me, He knows just how to do that.
Nebuchadnezzar is a prime example of a man who thought everything revolved around him. He felt there was no one to thank for his accomplishments but himself. But God took him down more than a notch or two to show him differently. At the end of it all, Nebuchadnezzar learned that God is supreme in all things.
God even gave the king a year in which to repent of his sins but the king still refused to yield.
b. The Proclamation (4:31-32)
Then a voice interrupted the kings egotistical meditation and announced that the time had come and that judgement was about to fall. God is long-suffering with sinners, but when the time comes for Him to act there is no delay.
What the king had learned from Daniel’s interpretation of the dream, he now heard from Heaven.
c. The Punishment (4:33)
The words were still on Nebuchadnezzar’s lips when all of a sudden everything began to change. His heart became like that of an animal and he was driven from the royal palace to live in the fields with the beasts.
God could have destroyed both the king and his kingdom, but He still had a purpose to fulfil for His people and His prophet Daniel. God wanted the king to tell the entire kingdom what He had done for him so that God’s name would be glorified among the nations.
It was Israel’s responsibility to be a light to the Gentiles Isaiah 42:6-7 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; [7] To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
Israel had failed to be that light and had started practicing the darkness of the pagan nations, so God used a pagan to glorify His name and to bring light not only to the Israelites, but to the whole world.
d. The Praise (4:34-37)
Verses 34-35
For seven long years, this man had looked like and acted like a beast, and just like a beast, his eyes had been riveted to the earth. Suddenly, his mysterious captivity ended. He looked up and saw the Heavens above. His sanity was restored and his soul burst into song.
He had learned his lesson – “The heavens do rule!” He was awed by the greatness of God
Verse 36
The madness of Nebuchadnezzar should have created a power struggle within the kingdom, and his own life would have normally been at risk. A mad king must have been a huge liability.
Yet for 7 years his life was protected from those who would have exploited his madness and tried to take the kingdom from him to gain power for themselves. God had kept His Word.
Who looked after the kingdom for the 7 years that the king was insane and acting like a beast? It is possible that Daniel took charge as the highest ranking official next to the king. What an awesome testimony to God’s grace and Daniel’s faithfulness.
So the kingdom was returned to Nebuchadnezzar when his sanity was restored. This restoration awed the king and caused him to acknowledge the works, ways, and wonders of God.
Verse 37
It was all about pride. That was the king’s crowning sin – not greed or lust or murder, but pride. The failure to acknowledge God in human affairs.
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 works of the “successful people” of the day. There is very little, if any, morality in their characters but they get the worldwide media attention.
One day the Lord will come in judgement, and His promise is Isaiah 13:11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
Christ has the last word Matthew 23:12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
