"Pride goeth .... before the fall!" How many times have you heard this warning? Yet how frequently this in of pride appears in our lives. The pathway of history is strewn with people who thought themselves self-sufficient and destined to lead others on to glory. The courts are full of offenders whose troubles flow from pride.
Many marital problems spring from the same source. Why is an almost universally condemned sin so prevalent and persistent a problem?
The absence of God from the life of a sinner leaves him wholly captivated by the selfish ego. The natural man is obsessed by his self-reliance, self-control, and self-esteem. In his pride he creates himself a god and thus lives independently of God.
Part 1 (Daniel 4:1-27)
I think this chapter deals heavily with the issue of pride, the heights to which it soars, and the method which God uses to bring proud sinners to their knees. It magnifies God's absolute sovereignty and man's sinfulness. The account in the fourth chapter of Daniel was written by Nebuchadnezzar after he had learned about God's supremacy and mercy from a firsthand experience with the most high God.
The chapter is introduced by a brief prologue in which Nebuchadnezzar addresses all the subjects of his realm. The king's jurisdiction encompassed a vast territory, and he wanted all of the peoples under his dominion to share the good news of his deliverance. Among other items, the announcement contains a proclamation of peace.
Ordinary men would have made every attempt to hid the fact they had suffered a mental derangement, and certainly a universal monarch would not be eager for his subjects to learn of such a disgraceful debasement, but Nebuchadnezzar was determined that everyone should know about the "signs and wonders" which the God of Daniel had worked on the king's behalf (vs. 2).
He had had a personal transaction with the God of Heaven, and he was unashamed for his subjects to ehar of it and benefit from it.
Nebuchadnezzar had come to understand something about the King and the kingdom eternal. He was referring to God's absolute rule in all theaters of time and space, over all creatures--uniterrupred and universal.
The incident which the king is about to rehearse took place toward the close of his reign when relative peace had settled throughout the empire (vs.4). The Gentile world government had arrived at a status in which it was uncontested and unopposed. It had mounted up to lofty heights, glorious and powerful. Magnificence and majesty were everywhere displayed in the kingdom of Babylon.
The Oreiental monarch's complacency was interrupted by a dream which distrubed his sleep and made him fearful of the future. When his wise men could not interpret the drea, it was committed to Daniel. The king describes the content of the dream in verses 10-17.
He saw a tree planted on the earth and growing until it became so large it stretched up to the skies and spread itself over all the earth. Its foliage was luxuriant and its fruit prolific. It afforded shelter for all the animals and birds who lived in its branches and received its provisions.
Then the king saw a supernatural being descending from Heaven--an angel who commanded the tree to be felled, the animals driven away, and the fruit scattered. The tree was not completely destroyed; a stump remained in the ground. Fetters of iron and bronze were ordered for someone who was to be given the heart of a beast for the space of seven years and live like an animal of the field.
The angel added the fulfillment had been decreed and it would serve God's purpose of vindicating His absolute sovereignty. Furthermore, it would demonstrate God Himself elevates men to positions of earthly glory as it pleases Him and he also deposes them at will (vs. 17).
The tree represented Nebuchadnezzar in all his glory and grandeur. Like the tree, he had exalted himself to Heaven, vaunting in his accomplishments and like the tree, he had spread his dominion to the remote recesses of the world. Millions of people rested confidently in the protective shade of this "tree" and drew their sustenance from its provisions.
The tree, then, includes both Nebuchadnezzar the emperor and the empire wove which he ruled. It characterizes the first stage of Gentile world domination, and at the same time it illustrates the whole course of the Gentile period of supremacy until the last stage in the future tribulation.
An angel from Heaven sounds the death knell and calls for the hewing down of the tree just at the height of its glory (vs. 23). The event spells the debasement of arrogant Nebuchadnezzar who imagined he had gained his lofty position quite independently of God. At the same time it is a reminder of the coming collapse of the Babylonian empire.
Furthermore, I think it's indicative of the destruction of the last form of Gentile word power when God will bring the times of the Gentiles to a halt at the end of the tribulation.
Daniel informed the king he would suffer a seven-year period of insanity in which he would crawl about on all fours, believing himself to be an ox. He would be banished from the company of men and left to living with the brutes of the field dieting on grass (vs. 25).
The stump foretells Nebuchadnezzar will survive the ordeal and live to be reinstated on the throne (vs. 26). I think the image of the stump also implies the empire will outlive him and pass on to his successor.
In addition, the cutting down of the tree speaks of the final destruction of Gentile rule at the end of the tribulation. The tribulation judgments will succeed in devastating the kingdom of the beast. All of his followers among the nations will be slain by the returning Messiah, but there will be survivors among the peoples of the earth.
A group of saved Gentile survivors ("the stump") will emerge from the tribulation woes to enter the period of the millennial reign...when they will be the faithful subjects of King Jesus.
Daniel's parting word to the king is an appeal for him to forsake his sins and iniquities, and prove he has genuinely repented by producing deeds of kindness. Such a reversal of his attitudes and actions might avert the fulfillment of the prophecy and the judgment of God (vs. 27).
Part 2 (Daniel 4:28-37)
Evidently the dream, combined with Daniel's plea, had a beneficial effect upon the king. Nebuchadnezzar seems to have suppressed his pride for about a year. But soon the dream faded into forgetfulness and Daniel's warning went unheeded. The king fell back into his old haunts and habits.
One day on the palace roof he was simply overcome with a sense of his own greatness (vs. 29, 30). He was surveying the vast city of Babylon and was stuck with the genius and power by which had attained such dizzying heights. He framed his thoughts in words, and in that moment the long suffering of God ceased and the threatened judgment fell (vs. 31).
The period of opportunity and grace was past. The king was to learn what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of an angry God.
God withheld Nebuchadnezzar his rational powers and reduced him to the level of the irrational beast of the field. I think this demonstrates God has direct access to the mentality of men and He can do with it anything that suits His purpose. Nothing in Nebuchadnezzar's succeeding actions is contrary to the possibility.
When the designated period had elapsed, God restored the king's sanity. The first intimation of it was the fact that he looked up to God (vs. 34). The protracted bestiality was over, and Nebuchadnezzar lifted his voice in an anthem of praise to God in His mercy.
The years of Nebuchadnezzar's beast-like conduct are vivd reminders again of the final stage of Gentile world power I think... because in the future, the kingdomes of earth will be governed by two "beasts"--men who are savage and ferocious, energized by the devil and set on destroying the people of God.
Power-crazed men will gladly accept the offer which the devil gave to Jesus to control the kindoms of this world (Luke 4: 5,6). They will entertain no thought of God.
In utter godlessness and lawlessness they will exercise their jurisdiction over all the territory from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, and for all we know they will extend their territorial sway to worldwide proportions. But they will be brought down to the pit, and the unexcelled magnificence of their empire will be reduced to rubble in an hour.
Nebuchadnezzar learned much from his experience (vs. 35-37). He knew there existed only one eternal God--the most High. He knew God was supreme and all-glorious and He would not share his glory with the creature. He knew man has absolutely nothing with wich to commend himself to God; and his works are worthless and transitory. He learned God has the right to do exactly as He pelases without consulting the creature first or ever.
God's sovereignty extends to the highest Heaven and to the lowest hell. Nothing in Heaven above or on the earth below can thwart God's purposes or interrupt His plans.
Nebuchadnezzar learned God acts in unfettered liberty to do with His creatures anything He pleases, and the creature only shows his insolence and rebellion and pride when he reacts against God's ways or when he takes upon himself prerogative which belong only to God.
The king learned God is eternally just and true, faithful and righteous altogether. I wonder how many "believers" believe these same truths?
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