Dan 4:30 | KingComments | STEP | Nebuchadnezzar has been told that the decree is assured. But he also heard Daniel’s advice. If God’s decree is certain that a sinner will go to hell, but the sinner accepts the warning, then his fate will change. In the same way, the prophecy would not have had to come over Nebuchadnezzar if he had taken to heart the warning. However, he did not take the warning to heart. Over time, that is, after a year, what is in the heart of Nebuchadnezzar becomes public and what is promised to him in his dream interpreted to him by Daniel happens. He walks in great complacency on the roof of his royal palace and looks at Babylon. His heart swells with pride. He expresses his pride by honoring himself. Everything he sees is thanks to him, he has done it himself, in his own strength and he deserves all the credit for it. There is no thought of God with him, he simply ignores God, does not mention Him, does not take Him into account. He does not acknowledge that he owes his power to God. All his buildings proclaim his glory. He sees his own name on everything that is Babylon. Here we see an example of pride. Pride is the sin of the devil ( ). It is the first sin in creation. A lot of people have their own miniature kingdom, for example in a company with different departments where each manager runs his department like his own kingdom. It can also be true of a father who sees his family as his own kingdom and attributes everything that is nice to his own merit. Maybe we have something of which we think we’re just a little better at than any other. If we boast of this, it is pride. We must learn that the word is true: “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” ( ). The Lord Jesus is among His disciples as One Who serves. He never boasted about anything. On the contrary, He humbled Himself. Nebuchadnezzar experiences the truth of the word: “God is opposed to the proud” ( ). We will also experience this when we are proud. The king has not yet pronounced his utterances to the full, the sound of the words have not yet died away, when there is another voice, a voice from heaven. This voice lets hear a proclamation: “Sovereignty has been removed from you.“ From the moment he boasted of his achievements, he lost his kingship. A believer who boasts of his own works also loses his royal dignity and gets heaven against him. What a contrast with the Lord Jesus. Above Him the voice of “God [the] Father” sounds from heaven, testifying of Him: “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased” ( ). All that is said of Nebuchadnezzar happens to him. At the same time he is robbed of his reason. Suddenly he is insane and in his behavior he becomes “like the beasts that perish” ( ). As announced, he is rejected by the people and takes his place as a beast. There he stands in the open field and eats grass like cattle. Thus seven times pass over him. To the description of the dream by Nebuchadnezzar and its repetition by Daniel, it is now added that his hair and nails are growing all this time. There is no question of any physical care. The image of the once so powerful ruler is becoming increasingly blurred. So vain is even the most powerful man on earth when he exalts himself against God by placing himself in the place of God. A beast has no awareness of its Creator. When a man denounces the connection with God, he becomes like a beast. This is the situation of every person who does not have God in mind, but only himself.

‏ Daniel 4:30

Fulfilment of the Dream

Nebuchadnezzar has been told that the decree is assured. But he also heard Daniel’s advice. If God’s decree is certain that a sinner will go to hell, but the sinner accepts the warning, then his fate will change. In the same way, the prophecy would not have had to come over Nebuchadnezzar if he had taken to heart the warning. However, he did not take the warning to heart. Over time, that is, after a year, what is in the heart of Nebuchadnezzar becomes public and what is promised to him in his dream interpreted to him by Daniel happens.

He walks in great complacency on the roof of his royal palace and looks at Babylon. His heart swells with pride. He expresses his pride by honoring himself. Everything he sees is thanks to him, he has done it himself, in his own strength and he deserves all the credit for it.

There is no thought of God with him, he simply ignores God, does not mention Him, does not take Him into account. He does not acknowledge that he owes his power to God. All his buildings proclaim his glory. He sees his own name on everything that is Babylon. Here we see an example of pride. Pride is the sin of the devil (1Tim 3:6). It is the first sin in creation.

A lot of people have their own miniature kingdom, for example in a company with different departments where each manager runs his department like his own kingdom. It can also be true of a father who sees his family as his own kingdom and attributes everything that is nice to his own merit. Maybe we have something of which we think we’re just a little better at than any other. If we boast of this, it is pride.

We must learn that the word is true: “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” (1Cor 4:7). The Lord Jesus is among His disciples as One Who serves. He never boasted about anything. On the contrary, He humbled Himself. Nebuchadnezzar experiences the truth of the word: “God is opposed to the proud” (Jam 4:6). We will also experience this when we are proud.

The king has not yet pronounced his utterances to the full, the sound of the words have not yet died away, when there is another voice, a voice from heaven. This voice lets hear a proclamation: “Sovereignty has been removed from you.“ From the moment he boasted of his achievements, he lost his kingship. A believer who boasts of his own works also loses his royal dignity and gets heaven against him. What a contrast with the Lord Jesus. Above Him the voice of “God [the] Father” sounds from heaven, testifying of Him: “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased” (2Pet 1:17).

All that is said of Nebuchadnezzar happens to him. At the same time he is robbed of his reason. Suddenly he is insane and in his behavior he becomes “like the beasts that perish” (Psa 49:20). As announced, he is rejected by the people and takes his place as a beast. There he stands in the open field and eats grass like cattle. Thus seven times pass over him.

To the description of the dream by Nebuchadnezzar and its repetition by Daniel, it is now added that his hair and nails are growing all this time. There is no question of any physical care. The image of the once so powerful ruler is becoming increasingly blurred.

So vain is even the most powerful man on earth when he exalts himself against God by placing himself in the place of God. A beast has no awareness of its Creator. When a man denounces the connection with God, he becomes like a beast. This is the situation of every person who does not have God in mind, but only himself.