 |  |
dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation: and all the inhabitants of
the earth are reputed as nothing: 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?"
* * * * * * *
"Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all Whose
works are truth, and His ways judgment: and those that walk in pride He is able to
abase."
What a testimony was this to be published throughout the domain of this great king.
Here is recognition of the greatness of the heavenly King and kingdom, and, more than
that, the light of moral truth breaks in and God is praised not merely in view of His
power, but because all His works are truth, and His ways judgment, His will supreme in
heaven and among men.
How this revolution was accomplished occupies the bulk of Nebuchadnezzar's
proclamation, Dan. 4: 4-36. Summarizing the verses we find the king disturbed by a
dream, which none of the wise men of his realm can interpret. Daniel, however, is
empowered to do so, and his interpretation reveals that angelic watchers had decreed that
Nebuchadnezzar, because of his pride, should suffer a great humiliation. A disease,
partly mental, and resembling what is known as lycanthropy, falls upon him in the height
of his pride. He imagines that he is an ox, and is driven out into the fields where he
suffers this shameful ignominy for "seven times" with the avowed object:--
"Till thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to
whomsoever He will . . . . . Thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt
have known that the heavens do rule."
The mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens.
Daniel, in this passage, unfolds one of the mysteries ("secret" in 4: 9 is translated
"mysteries" in the LXX). Following His rejection by Israel, in Matt. 13:, the Lord
reveals a series of mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, which includes a fuller
development of Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the great tree.
Let the reader compare the vision of the great tree, which gave lodging-place to the
fowls of the heaven, with the parable of the Mustard Seed. Dan. 4: confines itself to
Nebuchadnezzar's aspect of the question, while Matt. 13: traces the transition from the
small seed (Israel's kingdom) to the great tree that supported the types of Satanic agency,
the fowls of the heaven (Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom). In face of the clear testimony of
Dan. 4: it is inexcusable on the part of expositors to try to drag the church into the
parables of the kingdom of the heavens. Nebuchadnezzar could have put right most
Christian writers in the interpretation of this well-known, but much misunderstood,
chapter of Matthew.
There is one more royal proclamation in this book; it occurs at the end of chapter 6:
Just as the deliverance of Shadrach and his companions moved Nebuchadnezzar to make