This Week's Focus Passage

Daniel 4:37 ‘Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven.’

This Week’s Focus Passage: Daniel 4:37

‘Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven.’

    The book of Daniel begins with this historical note; In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jeru-salem, and besieged it. Nebuchadnezzar is, to say the very least, a very interesting character, related to the history of the people of Jehovah. A quick glance in the book of Jeremiah, and the 27th chapter, connect the reader with the beginning verse of the   book of Daniel. In Jeremiah 27:5, after reminding His hearers that it was He, Himself who had made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, He directs the kings of Edom, of Moab, of the Ammonites, of Tyrus, and of Zidon, that, now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babyon, my servant, and the beast of the field have I given him also to serve him.

    Following upon this, He says, in verse 8, it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. This one Nebuchadnezzar appears to be a typical middle-eastern king and conqueror and tyrant, subjugating all that are found in his path. And yet, we read in the fourth chapter of Daniel, how that this amazingly successful monarch had a dream. I saw a dream, he related, which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me. He subsequently, after all of his magicians, and Chaldeans, and astrologers, and soothsayers, were unable to interpret his dream, called in Daniel, of the children of Israel, a man of the captives of Judah, explained to the king what his dream was, and what it meant. He had dreamed a dream of a tree, whose height reached unto the heavens, and many other wondrous things about this tree. And he told the king of Babylon that ‘It is thou, O king;’ this great tree is a figure of yourself.’ And yet, the actual predictions about this tree, were very ominous, and portended grave things regarding the future of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel concluded by giving his counsel unto the king, saying, break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility. This is then followed by the statement, All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. Evidently, the king did not take Daniel’s wise counsel to heart, and the next account that we read of him relates that, after twelve months, as he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon, his pride lifted him up to speak the following words, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty? The text then continues, telling the reader that even 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 beast 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 ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.

    Verse 4:33, which follows, advises the reader explicitly, that 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 hair was grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws. This continued to be the case for this king until the end of the days when his understanding returned to him. This expression reminds one immediately of the demonic of the Gerasene demoniac of Mark 5, and the 8th chapters of Matthew and Luke. After Jesus had driven out the demons that possessed this poor creature, we are informed that the people of the city came to see if the rumor they had heard was true. In Mark 5:15, we may read of this: And they come to Jesus, and behold him that was possessed with demons sitting, clothed and in his right mind. Is this not what we have read of Nebuchadnezzar? What difference is there between ‘his understanding returned to him,’ and, ‘sitting, and in his right mind’? It certainly appears in the sequels of both of these individuals, that something had taken place. In the case of the former ‘demoniac’ we are told that ‘he began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him; and in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, consider his ‘testimony,’ given in the final verse of the fourth chapter of Daniel, Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven; for all his works are truth, and his ways justice; and those that walk in pride he is able to abase. If we have ever had the privilege of listening to such an honest profession from an individual purporting to have become a Christian, would we not have every hope of believing this as truth? And are there not good grounds to embrace the testimonies of the reclaimed demoniac as well as Nebuchadnezzar? 

“The climax of this edict is reached in this public confession. It has been debated among Christian interpreters whether Nebuchadnezzar was truly converted. Calvin denied the conversion, and in this he has been followed by Hengstenberg, Pusey, and Keil. The matter is difficult to determine and perhaps cannot be determined. Nevertheless, there are certain considerations which would lead to the conclusion that the king did, after all, experience in his heart the regenerating grace of God.”

  1. There is discernible progress in his knowledge of God. Cf. 2:47 with 3:28 and finally with 4:34, 35.

  2. The king acknowledges the utter sovereignty of God with respect to his own experience (4:37b). 

  3. The king utters true statements concerning the omnipotence of the true God (4:34, 35).

  4. The king would worship this God, whom he identifies as King of heaven (4:37a). These reasons lead me to believe that, although the faith of Nebuchadnezzar may indeed have been weak and his knowledge meagre, yet his faith was saving faith, and his knowledge true.”        

                                            —Edward J. Young: A Commentary on Daniel 

    Would to God that we were privileged more often to hear such professions.

David Farmer, elder

Fellowship Bible Church

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