Please read Daniel Ch 4 prior to reading the post, and read post one, two, three and four in this series first.

Summary of Ch 4*: In Daniel 4, King Nebuchadnezzar has a troubling dream of a majestic tree that reaches to the heavens, providing shelter and sustenance for all creatures. However, a divine messenger orders the tree to be cut down, leaving only its stump bound with iron and bronze in the ground. The king seeks interpretation from his wise men, but they fail to explain it. Daniel, known for his ability to interpret dreams, reveals that the tree represents Nebuchadnezzar himself—his greatness and power. However, due to his pride and failure to acknowledge God’s sovereignty, Nebuchadnezzar will be humbled. He will be driven from society, living like a wild animal, and losing his sanity for seven periods of time until he recognizes that it is God who rules over all kingdoms and gives power to whomever He wishes. Despite Daniel’s warning to repent and practice righteousness, Nebuchadnezzar’s arrogance prevails. The dream is fulfilled, and the king is stricken with madness. After the appointed time, Nebuchadnezzar finally humbles himself, acknowledges God’s supreme authority, and his reason, honor, and kingdom are restored. The chapter concludes with Nebuchadnezzar’s praise of God’s eternal dominion and justice.

Political Economic Commentary:

Heretofore in this series, I have not discussed Daniel’s structure, which is very important for a good study, but critical for our commentary today. In short, Daniel has two languages, with Ch 1, 8-12 written in Hebrew, and Ch 2-7 written in Aramaic. Most commentaries believe that the Hebrew portions of Daniel were written to encourage the Israalites, whereas Ch 2-7 was written for the whole world, in order that they should know that Israel’s god was the Most High God. After the Lord led Israel into captivity, there would be a tendency for the polytheistic peoples of the world to believe it was because their god was stronger than the Hebrew god, and in each of the chapters we see the demonstration of the mighty power of the Hebrew God, and their kings forced to acknowledge it. Further Ch 2-7 is written in a chiastic structure (ch 2 goes with 7, 3 with 6 and 4 with 5) and the apex of the chiasm is the main point. Ch 4:37 is that apex, where King Nebuchadnezzar is forced to “praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.” This flows out of the theological center of the chiasm, v 17, where we see that King Nebuchadnezzar’s madness was “to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.”

With that preface, let’s get into some of the text and look at modern application. First up is to look at the big picture–God humbles the prideful and exalts the humble. Leaders of all eras have a temptation to be prideful. Whether good or bad, leaders generally get to their position by being successful–they’re usually not incompetent** and so they’re fairly full of themselves. It certainly would be in their nature to think this way. As I’ve related before, ever since the fall we have a duality within where we feel pride/shame as we compare ourselves to others. When we’re superior in our comparisons, we feel prideful; inferior, we feel shameful. So King Nebuchadnezzar, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris can look around and think they’re pretty awesome. But pride goeth before the fall–and the fall is part of God’s mercy too! When we see effective leaders with humility, they are attractive in part because they are so rare.

The intro to chapter 4 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar is the author (likely written down by Daniel) and his words were written retrospectively after what he describes happened to him. So he begins with saying “it seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.” But looking back, he has been humbled–he now acknowledges that Daniel’s god is the Most High God, and he is a personal God (what he has done for me). This suggests that God is active even in pagan’s lives to draw them to himself. We’ll see in Ch 5 that Nebuchadnezzar was pretty wicked (“whom he willed, he killed”) and yet God in His mercy was actively drawing him to Himself. God allowed Covid-19 to change the course of the 2020 election and removed Donald Trump from power (at least temporarily). Was it because of his pride? I suspect in part. Mr. Biden has a pretty prideful attitude too (“I’m the one who beat Donald Trump, and I was the only one who could!”), and where is he now? Yes there were Machiavellian machinations in the inner portions of the DNC, but we know that God in His mercy was yet at work in the removal of Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee. I have no earthly hope that Mr. Biden might repent and turn to the Lord, but that doesn’t mean he won’t, nor does it mean that God doesn’t even give repeated chances to those that will not turn. How many times has Vladimir Putin been humiliated even in his current war? Regardless, King Nebuchadnezzar’s main message that God humbles prideful leaders has been on full display in our own times.

The second point of application today is that absent God, we all become beasts. Most of us are rightly aghast at stories of the wickedness of humanity (e.g., what the Hamas terrorists did on Oct 7, rejoicing as they brutally murdered and dismembered women and children), and we wonder how could one human do that to other humans. Yet it happens….again and again. After the Fall, we have seen the image of God in each of us significantly marred. Not gone, but disfigured. And it doesn’t even stay that way, it will get worse as we harden our hearts against God. Or positively, as we turn to God, our Imago Dei is capable of being renewed. But as we reject God, He gives us over to our sin. The path downward described in Romans 1:18-32 happens to all who reject God, not necessarily completely, but the complete description does apply at least collectively to those who reject God–they become animals. King Nebuchadnezzar’s fall represents what we become when we reject God and walk in our own strength, relying on our own selves to be God. We’re autonomous! There was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes! Whether in Israel of the time of the Judges, or in Nebuchadnezzar’s day, or our own. The world always has and always will desperately need godly leaders. We should be praying that whomever God lifts us from the lowliest of places this November, that they would look to the heavens and their reason would be restored, and they would give glory to God.

A third point is the main point in v17:

The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’

God is completely sovereign in the kingdoms of men, and that means He determines who will be president this (and every) November election. God is going to raise up either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump (or someone else–no, neither one of them is guaranteed to breathe tomorrow). None of our votes is ever determinative, it is the sovereign God who decides who is going to be the leader, and it is always the right decision as He is daily finishing the work of putting Christ’s enemies under His feet and leading to the culmination of history. We can and should lament wicked leaders (as well as rejoice with godly leaders). But we should rejoice that God is always in the process of turning the evil that men inflict into good, even when we can’t see the good. His complete sovereignty means it’s not up to you or I to make sure Donald Trump is elected; it is not our responsibility. People that tell you “it’s your fault” if you don’t vote the way they want you to do are simply trying to manipulate you into doing what they want you to do. It is our civic responsibility to participate in the political process and work towards putting godly leaders in place; that is a stewardship for which we will be accountable. But we are not responsible for the result–that’s God’s job. That should also give us the ability not to condemn those that vote differently than we think they should. Even if someone votes for a wicked person, they did not put them in place, God did. I think the U.S.A. deserves Joe Biden. We also deserve Kamala Harris. And Donald Trump. An ungodly and rebellious people deserves ungodly and rebellious leaders–that’s our choice set today. Yes, one may be much better than the other, but they are still far short of the mark. Our current leadership choices should cause us to collectively repent and cry out to God for mercy, not to spend time “owning the left.”

Finally, notice Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar’s interaction together in v19. Daniel was dismayed as he understood the dream, and King Nebuchadnezzar encouraged him to not to be alarmed, whatever the interpretation. There now seems to be mutually genuine affection between these two. Daniel is not sucking up when he says “may the dream be for those who hate you,” after all, Daniel will be quite stern in the next chapter to Belshazzar. And King Nebuchadnezzar has grown from being the petulant king who will kill anybody that cannot satisfy his unreasonable desires. No, Daniel genuinely desires good for the man he serves, and this is a lesson for us today. To be change agents in our cultural context, we need to serve well and we need to seek the good of those who God places over us. When we do that, as we see with Daniel, our leaders will notice. There are many people who will say and do anything to get closer to those in power, and Nebuchadnezzar is no man’s fool. As we saw in Ch 2, he well knows what people will do to preserve their privileged position. How rare is it for him to find a counselor that he can truly trust to not just tell him the truth, but legitimately pursue his best interest? How can it not be that the kingdom of men will come to trust the man (or woman) of the Kingdom of God? May that describe us in our time of being in the world but not of the world.

An interesting question for many today is did Nebuchadnezzar become a believer? Certainly if you were to read his intro and final verses without knowing it was written by a pagan king you’d think it was written by a believer. Scholars go both ways, but I’ll fall into the camp that he did become a believer, in stark contrast to that parallel in the chiasm, ch 5, where Belshazzar will not. But Calvin, among others, thinks not. I encourage you to look at his progressive comments from Chapters 2-4 and make your own decision, but we’re now done with Nebuchadnezzar, since this story is not really about him!

* Courtesy of ChatGPT–yes I’m lazy, but it’s not too bad! And some of you are lazier and won’t click through and read ch 4 so I’m giving you a summary that I’m too lazy to write! 🙂

** I’m not talking about necessarily being competent at governing–many are not, just look at our current incumbent. But Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and Donald Trump have all been successful at ascending through the political process. How they ascended does not negate the fact that they did ascend, and they will all think it was due to their own skill (and perhaps good fortune).