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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Daniel 4:28
Comments
‘All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.’ God gave him one year. Daniel had hoped it would be more, and had counselled him to reform his government, but it had no effect. He carried on exactly as before. He held out against the Lord and had no lasting fear of God in his heart. He had sensed the awesome majesty of God, and yet he had put it out of mind and returned to a state of uninhibited pride.His immediate judgment is provoked by words of self-exaltation and self-praise. He attributed his rise to power and success to himself alone, as if he owed nothing to God. The day came when, in a supreme act of boasting and self-congratulation, he stood looking round at the city of Babylon and praised himself for all that he saw. Babylon was indeed a great city with its forty-foot-high double walls, walls wide enough, according to Herodotus, to drive a chariot on. Its hanging gardens were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, supposedly built for the king’s wife, Queen Amytis, to make up for the hills of her native land which she missed. Nebuchadnezzar took personal credit for all of this, and it was in line with this that he ordered his named to be stamped on the very bricks with which the city was built (one of which is in the British Museum). As he viewed all this, he forgot entirely what he owed to God, and gave free rein to his pride and self-satisfaction. That is the pride and the hardness of Nebuchadnezzar. Nothing had changed in spite of how afraid he had been. ‘At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. 30 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?’ – the great expansion of the city, the wonderful structures, the vastness of it, and the richness of it. He saw it as a monument to his skill. Of course it all came to symbolise rich living independently from God. Where was any sense now that he had been given the kingdom by God, and that he could be just as easily removed from it. Pride comes before a fall!
Application
This happens when people seek the Lord and then leave off and conviction goes away. Nebuchadnezzar had been deeply disturbed by his dream, but up till now he had never truly humbled himself before God. The seeker can say things which indicate that the fear of God has gripped his heart, but the ground is still stony, or the thorns are still there and they grow up and overwhelm any conviction. It is very important that the one who is searching for God does not do so on a hit and miss basis, being very concerned one day, and almost forgetting about it the next. If we put our hand to the plough, and look back, we are not fit for the kingdom of God.
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