Daniel 4:34,35–“Humble”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

³⁴And to the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to the heavens and my understanding returned upon me and to the Most High I blessed and to the Living One of the ages I praised and I glorified that His dominion [is] an everlasting dominion and His kingdom [is] with generation and generation, ³⁵and the all of the dwellers of the earth [are] ones reckoned like nothing and like to please Him [He is] One doing in the armies of the heavens and [in] the dwellers of the earth and none there is who can hinder in His hand and say to Him, “What are You doing?”

I want to pause and ponder Nebuchadnezzar’s opening words here: “And to the end of the days I…” or, as in the NIV, “At the end of that time I, …”

What “time”? The seven years. The seven “times” the Lord had warned him would pass until he acknowledged that “the Most High rules.”

What I see here is a literal monument of grace. People today think there is more grace in the New Testament than the Old. What they’re not seeing is that God didn’t change. Daniel’s God is the same God you and I worship. He hasn’t changed. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And for us humans, one of the most important attributes we desperately need to understand is grace – whether we live in the New Testament or the Old. The book of Daniel (in the Old Testament!) is shouting to us the wonder of God’s grace and where better to learn about it than to watch the Lord humble a very proud, stubborn pagan king?

What do I mean? Just look again at these simple words, “At the end of that time, I…” Who is the “I”? The king of Babylon. Babylon, the very epicenter of evil in earth history. It started as the tower of Babel, was the very nation which utterly destroyed Judah, deported the people, and burned the Temple, and remains even until the last chapters of the book of Revelation, pictured as the Great Prostitute “drunk with the blood of the saints.” And who is this man? Their king. If ever the Lord had a few extra lightning bolts lying around, you’d think He’d of used one on this guy. But He didn’t. And what did He do? He sent a dream to warn him.

Warn him? Why? Why not just blast his evilness into eternity and be done with him? No one who’s ever known of Nebuchadnezzar would be surprised to read that the Lord sent down fire from heaven and cooked him. In fact, we’d probably all cheer and be glad for it. But that isn’t what our God did. And why not? Grace. We easily forget that the Lord made Nebuchadnezzar just the same as you and me. Psalm 139 applies just as much to him as to you and me: “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb…I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” The Lord loved Nebuchadnezzar.

And so He deals with him in grace. He sent the dream to warn him. Then he sent one of the greatest prophets of history to explain the dream to him, to repeat the warning, and to very graciously urge him to repentance. And, in the dream, in the warning that his tree would be cut down, was also the promise the stump would be bound with bronze and iron, that the judgment would only last for “seven times.” In between the warning and the judgment, the Lord allowed him twelve months, a full year, to repent. Then even as the stroke of judgment finally fell, the voice from heaven said, “This is what is decreed for you…seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge the Most High reigns…”

And now where are we? The “seven times” have passed. “At the end of that time, I…”

The “I” is still here. He’s still alive. Just as the Lord had said. Nebuchadnezzar is a monument to grace. And, happily, we get to see that grace won!

I haven’t studied chapter 5 yet, but if I may be allowed to rush ahead, contrast all of this with Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson Belshazzar. “O king, the Most High gave your (grand)father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness…But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his throne and stripped of his glory…But you, his (grand)son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this…That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain…”

Belshazzar was sent the handwriting on the wall and that very night he died. There was no offer of repentance, only judgment. And why the difference? This is soooo instructive. The difference is that Nebuchadnezzar experienced grace. Belshazzar abused it. As Daniel reminds him, he “knew all of this.”

Just those simple words, “At the end of that time I, …” remind us that our God is a God of grace. Belshazzar reminds us, however, that our God is no one to trifle with. Even in Nebuchadnezzar’s case, he did have to eat grass like an ox. Our God was gracious to him, but because of his stubborn pride, he still brought on himself horrible suffering. In order to enjoy grace, you and I must learn to live in humility. We believe that in fact the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men. We choose today to bow our knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We bring to Him our needs and requests, then say, “Thy will be done.”  We try to accept His rule and live humbly before Him. When we do, in fact, live in that place of humility, we get to enjoy the fruits of our amazingly gracious God. It’s down to the old simple maxim: “God resists the proud, but gives His grace to the humble.”

Lord help us to be found in the place of “the humble.”

Daniel 4:34,35–“Looking Up”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

³⁴And to the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to the heavens and my understanding returned upon me and to the Most High I blessed and to the Living One of the ages I praised and I glorified that His dominion [is] an everlasting dominion and His kingdom [is] with generation and generation, ³⁵and the all of the dwellers of the earth [are] ones reckoned like nothing and like to please Him [He is] One doing in the armies of the heavens and [in] the dwellers of the earth and none there is who can hinder in His hand and say to Him, “What are You doing?”

As I have studied, I suspect the passage before us is perhaps one of the most remarkable, one of the most instructive passages in the entire Bible. Here we have the words of a man, arguably the most powerful man who ever lived, as he emerges from seven years of insanity. Here is the man before us whose very soul overflowed with the sin of pride, and, in a sense, rightly so. Yes, this was the great Babylon that he had built. Yes, he has conquered the civilized world. Yes, throughout his lifetime, he has been master of every single other human being (and the animal world too!). If ever there was a king who really did appear a god, it was this man. If ever there was a man who possessed everything the rest of us could ever dream of in this world, it was this man.

Carefully should we consider his words. For seven years he has been insane, but then, in a sense I would suggest he has always been insane. For a mere, fragile, utterly dependent human being to think he doesn’t need God is nothing short of the worst form of madness. Here before us is a man who has lived his entire life breathing God’s air, eating the produce of God’s earth, garnering the gifts of other peoples’ efforts, and yet utterly failing to see in the midst of it all, his own frailty, his own man-ness.

And what are the very first words of this man as the very first gleam of real sanity breaks upon his mind?

“But at the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation.”

Note it again: “I praised and honored Him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation.”

What was he struck with? God’s eternality. As the very first glimmer of sanity broke upon his mind, what most impressed him? God’s eternality.

This is precisely the point at which I think we should all pause and ponder deeply his words. I also think we should note this was, in a sense, not the lesson he had to learn. The specific lesson he was to learn was that “the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men,” repeated four times: vv.17, 25, 26, and 32. He does go on in v.35 to acknowledge this. He did learn that lesson. But the very first thoughts that explode out of his mind concern God’s eternality.

Why?

Maybe there are a million different answers, but here is what I think: Nebuchadnezzar is not a cow, but what he had to see is this: God is not a man. What do I mean? Nebuchadnezzar was born into a culture that worshipped a pantheon of “gods,” but those gods were all really just super people. They were created, they could die, and they were subject to lusts and passions just like people. The stories about the gods really weren’t much different than Stan Lee’s superheroes. Really they were men (and women) – super men (and women), but still men like Nebuchadnezzar.

That said, with whatever sliver of sanity and reason he possessed, as he might have pondered his plight of being stuck in this “cow” mentality, it was basically another man he was wrestling with – a super man, a god-man perhaps , but still just another man. This king is so proud and stubborn he will not cry, “Uncle!” to any man, no matter how badly he’s whipped. He’d rather die – or go on being a cow – than to admit defeat to any other man.

…Until the realization swept over him: This is not a man. This is God. This isn’t just a god. This is God. This is the God. This is not just a super man, not even a god-man. This is God. This is not just the “most high” in the sense of being the most powerful, the one who always wins. Again, that is what he has to learn: “the Most High rules,” but, what matters is knowing who is this Most High? He is God. We believers don’t capitalize “Most High” for nothing.

May I suggest that this is what Nebuchadnezzar is expressing as he bursts out with God’s eternality? “Then I praised the Ever-Living One.” Our God is not just a super man. He is not a created being. He does not die. He is not one of us. (Yes, He became one of us to purchase our redemption, but He is not a man. He is God). The king doesn’t have to cry “Uncle!” to another man. He needs to bow before the ever-living, eternal God. It’s not just a super man before whom he must accept defeat, it is the very Creator and sustainer of life itself, the One who exists outside of and above our created world.

Nebuchadnezzar finally met God. It’s not irrelevant that he says, “I lifted my eyes to the heavens…” He finally realized it wasn’t a matter of looking around. It was a matter of looking up.

This is precisely what I meant when I said earlier, “I suspect the passage before us is perhaps one of the most remarkable, one of the most instructive passages in the entire Bible.” If we would benefit from the passage we must realize it’s not a story about a king long ago. It’s about you and me – today. We all need to stop looking around and start looking up. We must meet this One who is the Ever-living One. He’s not just a character in our religious stories. He’s not just another man – albeit even a very, very big man. No, no, no. He is not someone. He is Someone. We live in time and space. He inhabits eternity. We live here. He fills all the universe with all of His being and is everywhere present at the same time. We know only in part. He not only possesses wisdom. He is wisdom. We receive life. He is life. He is the life-giver.

To meet Him is to live. But how many ever do? How many are happy to know about Him but never know Him? I hope for anyone who might stumble across these feeble scratchings that perhaps you might even for the first time actually look up. I hope you won’t make the Lord turn you into a cow for seven years before you’ll realize it’s this simple. Look up.

Daniel 4:33–“Dignity”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

³³In its moment the thing was fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar and from the man he was chased and the grass like oxen he ate and from the dew of the heavens his body was wetted until his hair like eagles grew great and his nails like birds.

So, in fact, Nebuchadnezzar was stricken with madness. He’s lost his mind. Instead of the proud, powerful, commanding king, suddenly he is a mindless cow. Suddenly he is stripped of every ounce of dignity he ever enjoyed and now he wanders around  a disgusting, repulsive maniac, alive but seemingly mindless.

Lots of thoughts go through our heads. I can recoil from the horror of it all and pity the man. I can play the judge and condemn him: “He deserved it! Serves him right!”  As  I studied this verse – in particular, this verse 33 – I seemed to hear the Lord keep saying to me, “You’re the man!” Finally, one of the old guys I read mentioned how sin turns us into animals and it struck me what He might mean. I wondered, as the Lord looks down from heaven and sees me in my sins, do I look like a beast to Him? Does our sin actually turn us into animals in His eyes? Could this be one reason why He hates sin so much?

I wondered, if that is true and if that is what God sees, perhaps if I could see it too, it would help me hate sin more. Maybe this is a way to see myself more clearly through God’s eyes? And so, I took off on a small excurses to see what the rest of the Bible had to say on this subject.

Here is what I think I found: First of all, going all the way back to Genesis 1, one thing is very clear: God created animals – fish and birds and reptiles and livestock and wild animals – and then He created man. After God had created all the other “living things,” or “beasts” or “four footed animals,” He said, “Let us make man in our image, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (1:26).

Man is not an animal.

In taxonomy, man is a mammal. He is grouped with all the other warm-blooded creatures that breathe air and give live-birth to their young. Perhaps that is fair enough. However, evolutionary theory goes on to say we are one of them, that we are nothing more than a highly developed ape.

That is not what God says.

He made the animals, then He made us. We are not one of them. He made us separately. He made us in His image and He made us to rule over them.

I wonder if that isn’t part of the problem today? The world has bought evolution hook, line, and sinker, They tell us we are nothing but animals. No wonder people think it’s okay to act like them. God created human beings with a dignity that not one other creature on earth was given. We are born with the dignity of bearing His image and ruling over the very creation in which we live. In rejecting the truth of Genesis 1, we have robbed ourselves of the very dignity we were created with!

Man is not an animal. He shouldn’t act like one. In a sense, Nebuchadnezzar’s judgment is the same as ours – to be robbed of this dignity and left to act like brute beasts. Anyone who saw or heard about Nebuchadnezzar would know it wasn’t right. He’s not a cow. He shouldn’t act like one. Right. And neither should we.

Consider some other passages I found.

II Peter 2:12ff says, “They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed…Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight…With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning…” We see sin degrading people in Romans 1:21ff, “For although they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful...Therefore God gave them up in the sinful desires of their hearts to impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another…filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity…”

It is interesting to me that in Daniel 2, the king has a dream and sees the four kingdoms of the earth as gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Then in Daniel 7, Daniel himself has a vision, and sees the same four kingdoms, only in his eyes they are beasts. What looks like precious metals to this world is a bunch of beasts in the Lord’s eyes. Also, throughout Revelation, the antichrist is called “the Beast.”

People should not be beasts. It is a bad thing for people to act like beasts. We were created in the image of God. We give up the very dignity that is ours when we step down from that image to act instead like the very creatures over whom we are supposed to rule. To be born again, to grow in Christ, to live more and more according to the Word restores to us the dignity we were created to enjoy. Redemption means you and I act more and more like God and less and less like a bunch of hyenas!

Nebuchadnezzar thought he could spit in God’s face and rule his own life. Next thing we know he’s on all fours eating grass. We should all realize we are just a half a step behind him. Sanity itself is a gift from God. May the Lord somehow enable all of us to treasure more the dignity that is ours as human beings. May we actually value knowing we are God’s special creation in this world to bear His image. May we see that sin is a stooping to behaviors unfitting to the dignity that is ours.

Daniel 4:32–“Lord, Help Us!”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

³²and from the man ones driving away you and with the animals of the field your dwelling [will be]. The grass like oxen they will feed you and seven times will pass over upon you until you know that Master [is] the Most High in the kingdoms of the man and to whomever He pleases, He gives it.”

This is, of course, a terrible judgment. This is the third time Nebuchadnezzar has heard these words, but now the ax has fallen. We should probably pause and consider that this is perhaps one of the worst possible judgments any one could suffer – to lose your mind. What I mean is, the Lord just said, in v. 31 that his kingdom has been taken from him. That would be a terrible blow to this very proud monarch, but as crushing as it would be, if he still had his mind, he would immediately begin plotting how he would somehow get it back. Such a loss would not humble this man. It would rather enrage him!

But to lose the ability to respond at all is probably one of the most painful afflictions we intelligent, responsible human beings could ever suffer. I’m thinking, at this point, we should be like Daniel and actually pity this man, rather than allow any feelings of triumph that this cruel tyrant is “getting his deserts.” Tyrant he may be, yet he is still a man. God’s heart would be longing for his repentance and restoration. Ours should be too. We need grace, just like him!

That said, there are some other things I’d like to note from this verse. First of all, see the places above in my translation where I underlined the word “you.” In v. 30, Nebuchadnezzar had boasted, “Is not this the great Babylon which I have built?” There I underlined the pronoun “I” because it is emphatic in the Aramaic. There was no question Nebuchadnezzar meant “I.” Now, as the Lord speaks to him from heaven, notice He is also being emphatic, “You will be driven away and you will eat grass like an ox!” The king, in a sense, thought he was alone. He was sitting on the throne of the universe boasting, “I!” But Someone was listening who responds, “No, you…” Someone far greater than him was listening. Someone knew Nebuchadnezzar and that Someone held his very life in His hand. What we should all note is that our relationship with God is about “you and I.” It is personal. But the key is understanding who is the you and who is the I. That is precisely what the king had never learned – but he is about to.

There is another thing I think is notable and which bears on our own relationship with God. The Lord’s intended lesson for Nebuchadnezzar is repeated three times in this chapter: first as Nebuchadnezzar relates the dream and specifically in v.17, then as Daniel recalls the dream (and specifically in v.25), and now here in v.32 with the Lord Himself declaring it. All three are letter for letter identical saying the lesson to be learned is “that the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men and gives them to whomever He pleases.” Straight from the angels, it was said it was for the purpose that “all the living might know,” then in vv.25 & 32 it was addressed specifically to the king, “until you know.”

But the lesson itself is in each passage identical. Word for word. Letter for letter. Identical.

“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”

When the Lord says it, He means it.

The Bible is full of this, but two examples jump into my mind: The Lord told Jonah, “Go to the great city of Nineveh…” Jonah ran away, got thrown in the ocean and swallowed by a fish, then got spit up on the beach, until finally the word of the Lord came to him, “Go to the great city of Nineveh.” After all of Jonah’s machinations, the Lord’s directions to him did not change. When the Lord says it, He means it. We also see this where Ahab jails the prophet Micaiah, whose last words in I Kings 22:28 were “Listen, all you people.” About 100 years later, God raised up the prophet Micah, whose name is just an abbreviated form of Micaiah, in the same way that, over time, Thomas becomes Tom or Katherine becomes Kathy. In 100 years, Micaiah had become Micah. What is amazing is that Micah’s first words to the people were “Listen, all you people” (Micah 1:2). Once again, in Hebrew, they are the exact same words which were Micaiah’s last. We see Ahab and his kind thinking they can imprison God’s prophets and silence His message. But suddenly another prophet (in this case with the same name) pops up to pick up right where the last one left off.

When the Lord says it, He means it.

And this all leads me to another instructive observation. The words of the Lord directly to Nebuchadnezzar here in v.32, are even more identical to Daniel’s in v.25, than they are to the angels’ message in v. 17. What I mean is that the basic message that “The Most High rules…” is identical in all three, yet, when Daniel said “and seven times will pass over you until you know that the Most High rules…,” those get repeated word for word by the Lord Himself!

In v.25, Daniel honored the Lord by faithfully and accurately communicating His message to the king. Now in v. 32, the Lord honors Daniel by repeating his words exactly. God says, “I will honor them that honor me” (I Sam. 2:30). Daniel was faithful to the Lord, now the Lord is being faithful to Daniel.

Along these same lines, another interesting verse in the Bible is I Sam. 3:19, where it says, “And the LORD was with Samuel…and he let none of his words fall to the ground.” What is interesting is that there is no way to know whether it was Samuel not letting any of the Lord’s words fall to the ground, or if it was the Lord not letting any of Samuel’s words fall to the ground! The 3^rd  person “he” and “his” can apply to either. I would suggest the Lord’s ambiguity at this point was deliberate, that, just like with Daniel, when a person is faithful to stand for God’s Word, the Lord will in turn stand for their words too. No doubt it didn’t take long before people in Israel were saying, “You’d better listen to Samuel! What he says comes true!” You and I can live with that same quiet assurance as we would sincerely try to speak for the Lord – if we let none of His words fall to the ground, He’ll do the same for us!

Finally, one last observation, and this is one of my “for whatever it’s worth” contributions. Everyone basically assumes Nebuchadnezzar’s judgment lasted seven years, but then almost all commentators acknowledge that it actually says seven “times.” He was warned his judgment would last seven “times.” Here is what I think: The Lord was actually giving Nebuchadnezzar the choice how long it would last. It is still squarely under God’s control, since, no matter what the king chooses, it will somehow occur as seven of something, but, still, it is up to Nebuchadnezzar how long this lasts.

I’m saying it literally could have been seven seconds. If the instant he felt his mind going, he would have humbled himself, it could have been over that quickly. Or perhaps it would take seven minutes for him to realize this is really happening, exactly as he was warned, and he needs to humble himself, or even seven hours. After seven days it could have been obvious to him this is really, really happening and it is really bad – after he spent seven nights sleeping on the ground, waking up soaked, with grass in his mouth. Perhaps because he is very proud and stubborn it would take seven months of such misery? Or…could it take seven years???

I personally think it was seven years, particularly (now allowing myself to read ahead) because, when he finally does repent his hair has gone as ragged as birds’ feathers and his fingernails are like claws. I don’t think that would be the case even after just seven months. Seven years, yes.

There would be much we could all glean from this. First of all, we should all humbly praise God that He treats us with such dignity as to grant us the honor of choice. Even within the very exercise of His total sovereignty over our lives and this universe, He grants us the freedom to choose. And can it be? Yes. Choice started in the Garden and, if we have eyes to see, it is the very present warp and woof of God’s relationship with every human being. It’s your choice. The Most High rules, so choose well, but it is your choice.

Second, may we all be horrified by the enormity of our evil pride. Seven years??? When it only had to last seven seconds? Oh, wow. What a stubborn, foolish, hardened heart. But, is that not your life and mine? How many years of misery have we all brought on ourselves until finally we’re willing to hear the Lord and let Him humble us? There He was, waiting, even wanting to bless us, but we would not. Truly, the heart of man is “desperately wicked and deceitful above all things.” May we all include in our prayers the constant request, “Lord, deliver me from my pride!” I can’t see it. It hides itself from me. But it is my utter ruin. It robs me of the very blessings You want me to enjoy! “Lord, deliver me from mine enemies, for they are too strong for me!”

It always has been, and always will be true that “God resists the proud, but gives His grace to the humble.

God help me to be humble!