Daniel 4:34-37--Nebuchadnezzar Restored

Daniel 4:34-37
English Standard Version

Nebuchadnezzar Restored
34 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to 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 endures from generation to generation;
35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
    and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
    and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
    or say to him, “What have you done?”

36 At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. 37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, 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.

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At the end of the days that the LORD had prescribed, Nebuchadnezzar lifted his eyes to heaven and his right mind was returned to him.  As a result, he blessed the Most High God (the LORD) and praised and honored Him who lives forever (also the LORD).

The song the king sings praises the LORD for His everlasting dominion (His kingdom is eternal) that reigns through all generations.  The LORD is greater than all the inhabitants of the earth put together.  Not even if all of them gathered together could they contend with the LORD (as we have seen already when the LORD nearly destroyed all the population of the earth when every thought and intention and action of man was evil all the time).  He acts according to His will and for His good pleasurer, and the heavenly bodies and angelic armies obey His commands.  All the inhabitants of the earth are made for the purpose of serving and worshiping Him, and Him alone.  None of them has any right to question why the LORD does anything that He does, because we cannot understand the mind of God.

Not only did the king personally praise the LORD, but He wrote a royal proclamation telling the people of what had happened to him and how the LORD allowed him to be restored for the good of the Babylonian kingdom.  The LORD restored his honor, majesty, power and position, but the king was a new man who understood that his duty was to glorify the LORD and call all men of all peoples and tongues to worship the LORD.  The king set the example and in making this proclamation calls all of his subjects to join him in worshiping the King of heaven whose works are always right and just.  He is even able to cause those like the king who walk in pride to be humbled.

I think at this point, King Nebuchadnezzar has had a genuine change in heart.  I am not sure if you noticed, but the majority of the first part of this book has been written by the king's own hand.  It is called the book of Daniel, but this is the biography of the king's journey from darkness and death to light and life.  He wants his entire kingdom to know, so he wrote it in the common tongue of the time (the very beginning is written in Hebrew as is the portion coming up that was a series of dreams given to Daniel and their interpretations).  If King Nebuchadnezzar were alive in our day, people would be wondering if he were the Antichrist, and, yet, it was part of God's plan to save him and to have him write a part of the Old Testament Scriptures to show that God's plan has always been for men from all nations to be saved.  Daniel and his three friends were instrumental in this journey for King Nebuchadnezzar by their words and actions working together and being in agreement with one another.  The story of this king comes to an end here, but we will see next that this truth and experience is not passed from generation to generation.  His grandson will try to be even worse than the old man that King Nebuchadnezzar was so that people would fear and respect him.  We only have a brief glimpse of his reign before the kingdom is taken away from him, but we'll see later that the LORD sent this successor to Nebuchadnezzar plenty of dreams and messages as well, he just refused to listen.  The problem would not be with the message or the messenger, but with the condition of the soil of the new king's heart.  He would not humble himself, so the kingdom would be taken from him and given to another.  We'll talk about that next time.