The Dream That Came True

“I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace: I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.”  Daniel 4:4-5

Did you ever have a dream that was so fearful that it woke you up in a state of anxiety?  It was only a dream, but the effects of the contents of the dream seemed real.  Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, had such a dream.  It is believed by Bible scholars that Daniel 4 was written by Nebuchadnezzar himself, and that it was written some 30 years after God’s miraculous deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego from the fiery furnace which the king had forced the three of these Israelites to enter because they would not worship him.  The events of Chapter 4 had already taken place; thus this writing was somewhat of a memoir of Nebuchadnezzar’s experience.

The king’s purpose in telling his experiences was to show how God had shown him signs and wonders so that he could come to know more about the God of Israel.  Nebuchadnezzar had a big ego and thus sounds egotistical in his writing about what God had done for him.  However, isn’t our witness for the Lord a telling of what He has done for us?  Nebuchadnezzar desired to spread the good news of God’s power and might so that others could come to know about Him.  Years before, the king had been an idol worshiper who did not regard the God of Israel.  He wanted everyone to worship him, his golden image, and his god.  But God had other plans for him.

Rewinding to the time of his dream, Nebuchadnezzar called in his magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers to whom he described his dream, but none of them could give an interpretation.  Daniel, one of the Jewish captives and in whom Nebuchadnezzar had great confidence, came before the king.  Nebuchadnezzar called him by his Babylonian name, Belteshazzar, and attributed Daniel’s insight to the king’s false gods.  Nebuchadnezzar knew of Daniel’s God but just assumed He was one of the many gods that some worshiped.  He wanted Daniel to not only give him the interpretation of his dream, but also to tell him his dream.  This shows how much confidence the king had in Daniel’s ability except that Nebuchadnezzar then begin to tell Daniel his dream.

The king said that there was a very tall tree in the midst of the earth which grew and reached all the way to heaven.  The birds dwelt on its branches, and the beasts dwelt beneath it.  It provided food for them all.  But then a “watcher”, a holy angel, came down from heaven crying out loudly a warning to the birds and beasts to flee because the tree was to be cut down, its branches cut off, and shaken until all the leaves and fruit fell to the ground.  The stump would be left with a band of iron and brass around it as it sat amid the tender grass of the field.  It would be wet with the dew of heaven.  The angel then stopped referring to the stump as a tree and began to refer to it as a man who would dwell with the beasts in the location of the stump.  The man’s heart would be changed to that of a beast, and he would live this way for seven years.  The “watcher” gave the reason for this strange dream:  it was intended to show the living that the most High rules over the kingdom of men, and He has the power to allow whomsoever He chooses to receive the honor of leadership over mankind.  He can choose whomever He will, the poorest, the youngest, even the evil to rule His people, even a man like Nebuchadnezzar, who had rose to immense power over Babylon only because God allowed him that privilege.  God also allowed him to destroy Jerusalem, kill many of her citizens, and take many as captives.

As Nebuchadnezzar concluded his quite alarming retelling of his dream, he commanded Daniel to declare the interpretation of it because none of the wise men could do so.  Did the king realize that the dream was about him and his position as king, or was he so full of himself that he assumed it was some other ruler of whom this dream pertained?  He likely thought that surely this crazy dream was not about him.  After all, he was the great Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the mighty Babylonians who had destroyed the land of Judah, the grand city of Jerusalem, and now had her people under his dominion.  Folks with big egos have a difficult time seeing their own faults and sins.  Whatever thoughts the king had about his dream, he wanted an explanation.  What he would hear would not be what he expected.

Next time:  The Interpretation, the Experience, and the Outcome