I think that I asked a question similar to this one a couple of week ago, but I will ask it again: What is the one characteristic which makes any professed god really God? It seems to me that if that some professed god is not in control of things, then he isn’t god. Absolute deity demands absolute sovereignty. Jehovah IS God, because He possesses those things which Nebuchadnezzar describes. He “ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.” His “dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” Our God is omniscient – knows all things, because He is sovereign over all things – past, present and future. Our God is omnipresent, because He has absolute control over such mundane things as space and time. Yes, His primary attribute is holiness, but in some ways we can even relate this to His sovereignty. And God’s sovereignty is the theme of this dream. That is the lesson that Jehovah wanted to teach this self-absorbed earthly king. And that is the lesson that the Lord wants us to learn – through the record which He has given to us here. Despite the average person’s hatred of this idea, I feel obligated to deal with it once again.
And the Lord’s control over our dreams includes the smallest details. In each item of this dream there was a point to be made, and God made that point. The height and breadth of the tree spoke of the vastness of Nebuchadnezzar’s empire. The birds and the beasts were protected, fed and housed under the Babylonian king’s care. I wonder if Nebuchadnezzar dreamed in color? Were the sheep and goats black and white? Were the birds blue and red? Did the brass whoop shine, and could the king smell the dew in his dream? He experienced as much of this dream as the Lord wanted him to experience.
And the concern and fearfulness which crept up into the man’s heart was as much under the Lord’s control as everything else. As I’ve said a couple of times, if I had a dream with nothing more than what we have recorded here, I wouldn’t have bothered to try to remember it, let alone be worried about it. But the Lord wanted this man to be worried and fearful – that was where the message came in. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” The Lord turned this king’s heart into jelly. It was all a part of God’s plan.
To God’s only servant amongst that august crowd – Daniel – was the interpretation given. Jehovah was in control of every aspect of every part of this chapter. It wasn’t that Daniel was smarter than the other wise men – He was only more blessed of the Lord. To Daniel was the explanation given – from the general lesson to the exquisite details. Jehovah, He is God – in the sense that the Lord is in sovereign control over all things.
It would seem that Nebuchadnezzar took notice of God’s dream and Daniel’s advice. Apparently, for the next few months the king kept a lid on his emotions – and particularly his pride. But despite governing a vast empire, controlling a huge economy, and building a city which I will describe more fully this evening, Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t even king over his own heart. “At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?”
Let’s pretend that Nebuchadnezzar had listened to Daniel and had tried his best to implement his suggestions. He couldn’t do it. At least he couldn’t do it for very long. His dream had been a message from the King of kings telling him that he was only a little fish in the Lord’s vast ocean. And for a while he tried to believe that it was true. But in a moment of weakness, he looked out across his capital city, and his heart burst the rubber band that he had wrapped around it, and it exploded in pride. Nebuchadnezzar was king of nothing, not even his own heart. And that is precisely what the scripture tells us. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
I will come back to this tonight, because I don’t want to fall away from my theme, but Nebuchadnezzar immediately began to suffer from a rather rare, but documented, form of insanity. He was driven from the company of other human beings, because that is what he wanted. He lived among animals, eating grass like an ox, because that is where his insanity drove him. It wasn’t that a revolt took place, and the king was driven into the fields by his enemies. This was the choice of his fallen and insane mind – over which he had no control whatsoever. The name of his malady is “lycanothropy.”
But here is the point – One moment Nebuchadnezzar was permitting his heart and mind to fill with pride because of the magnificent accomplishments of the previous couple of years. And then, without a moment’s notice, his mind snapped, and he became a madman. That my friend, was a direct result of the command of God – as difficult as it is for some people to accept. There may have been some demon involvement, but it was still through the decree of Jehovah. Do you think that the king would have chosen this path? This was something which was completely out of his hand, but it wasn’t fate or accident either. He became insane because Jehovah wanted him to be.
Furthermore, he had no choice about his return to sanity – God ordained that too. The majority of the scholars whom I surveyed, are agreed that this insanity lasted seven years. I know that the word “times” isn’t clearly defined, but “years” is the common opinion. Seven hours would have been pointless, and seven days would have almost been so. Some say seven months, but without any reason. The majority all say that this lasted seven years. And to answer a question which was given to me a couple weeks ago – Yes, there is secular corroboration that Nebuchadnezzar was absent from his throne for that period. We will return to this again tonight, as well.
And then without any warning, other than the prophetic dream 8 years earlier, the king’s sanity was restored. That was no more under Nebuchadnezzar’s power than the loss of his mind in the first place. Jehovah ruleth among men. And “none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?”
Why was not the kingdom given to another during that period? It is because Jehovah is the sovereign God over all the earth – including all the kingdoms of men. When the king fell, I’m sure that there was a mad scramble between sons and rivals to grab the throne. But if I had to guess, I’d say that say that Daniel immediately stepped in and pointed back to the well-documented dream of a year earlier. He probably pointed to the prophecy and the details, telling everyone that this was of the Lord God. And not only had the Lord ordained the fall, but He had ordained the king’s return in seven times. “Give him some good pasturage, protection from wolves, lions and bears, and in seven times you will have your king back again.” It might have been that Daniel, as one of his chief political advisors, who helped to govern Babylon in Nebuchadnezzar’s absence.
Remember that all of this was under the strict control of the Almighty God.
I know that it will not be exactly the same thing, but the Epistle to the Philippians reminds us of something. Speaking of the day when the Son of God will be glorified before all humanity, Paul says – “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” The majority of those tongues on that great day, will be speaking from a history of insanity. Many will have already spent time in Hell, suffering for their sins and particularly their pride. There will be a parallel between that day and the day of Nebuchadnezzar’s restoration. But there will be one special difference – Nebuchadnezzar has become a repentant believer and those people in Hell, will be as lost as they ever had been before.
When all was said and done in Nebuchadnezzar’s life, he didn’t have a choice but to praise, extol and honour the King of Heaven. Furthermore, he had to admit that all God’s “ways are judgment,” and “all his works are truth.” In our pride and our conceit, we are not fond of looking at the tragedies of life as “truth.” This man’s insanity borders on the unbelievable, but nevertheless it was ordained and approved by God for a very specific purpose. This entire chapter is recorded here so that we might join Nebuchadnezzar in his praise to the Lord, hopefully without having to experience anything even close to what he had to endure.
And this bring us to our conclusion – YOU must bow before this holy and omnipotent God, or your fate will be worse than what is described here. You must acknowledge that Jehovah really is God in the absolute sense of the term. And furthermore, you must come to Him in the only fashion which He has approved. You must repent, sacrificing your pride, your sins, and even your self to the Almighty God. And for your sins, you must bow before the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s ordained sacrifice for sin. You need a Saviour and a Mediator to stand between God and yourself. Christ Jesus the Lord is that Mediator – the only Saviour.