28All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. 29Twelve months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 30he said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” 31The words were still on his lips when a voice came from heaven, “This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you. 32You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like cattle. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes.”
33Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like cattle. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird.
Twelve months passed, and the proud king forgot the warning God had given him, first of all, through a heavenly messenger in his dream and then through Daniel to his face. The king was walking on the roof of his royal palace, from which he could look out over the entire city. Perhaps he was showing visitors some of the points of interest to be seen in the capital city of the Babylonian Empire. (It will be helpful to remember that this is the king’s own account.) The king said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”
Outwardly it might seem that Nebuchadnezzar had something to brag about. Babylon was the largest and most magnificent city of the ancient world, a claim made by ancient historians and supported by the spade of the archaeologist. Nebuchadnezzar’s capital was an excellent example of early city planning. The city was divided into a number of rectangles by wide roads named after the gods of Babylon. Near the royal palace were the famous Hanging Gardens, considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. A system of canals regulated the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for use in irrigation. Hundreds of impressive temples, shrines, and altars dedicated to the gods of Babylon could be seen throughout the city. Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of two huge walls that surrounded the city, each more than 20 feet thick. Was Nebuchadnezzar justified, then, in what he said about “great Babylon”?
No, he was not, for several reasons. For one, he claimed for himself the honor of having made Babylon what it was. Now it cannot be denied that Nebuchadnezzar was clearly the most gifted and ambitious ruler of his day. Everything we read about the man in ancient records shows that he was an achiever. Even before he ascended the throne, Nebuchadnezzar led Babylon’s armies to a string of impressive victories. He crushed Egypt, as well as what was left of the once great nation of Israel. While Nebuchadnezzar was famous as a warrior, he was even more famous as a builder.
But in his boasting Nebuchadnezzar failed to acknowledge that his abilities were gifts of God, to be received gratefully and to be used responsibly in humble obedience to God. Nebuchadnezzar forgot the truth so eloquently stated by the apostle Paul centuries later: “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Corinthians 4:7) Nebuchadnezzar would have had no skill at all as a military commander or city builder if God had not blessed him with those gifts. For him to fail to acknowledge those gifts was to rob God of the honor due him.
“Is not this the great Babylon I have built . . . for the glory of my majesty?” Nebuchadnezzar had asked. These words point to a second reason why the Lord stepped in to humble the proud king. He was distorting God’s design for all of life. Life, whether that of a kingdom or a person, has only one proper goal—and that is to glorify God. To adopt as life’s motto “Glory to man in the highest!” is to pollute and prostitute life. Whether he realized it or not, Nebuchadnezzar was frustrating God’s good purpose for him.
It has been said, “The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding fine.” On occasion, however, God’s mills of judgment have been known to grind very rapidly. We have one of those occasions here. The king’s boastful words were still on his lips when a voice from heaven announced his judgment. The king who had exalted himself to the point of claiming for himself glory that belongs to God alone would be humbled beneath human dignity. He would be reduced to the level of an animal.
The voice from heaven had more bad news: this judgment would continue for seven periods of time, until Nebuchadnezzar was ready to acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men. Nebuchadnezzar had been unwilling to admit that governments rise and fall not by accident but by God’s decree. To this God replied, “Very well, then, you will be compelled to admit this against your will. But you will know that I am the Lord of the universe.”
Once a person denies God’s mercy to him, refuses to give God due honor, and fails to acknowledge God’s claim on him, he has reduced himself to the level of an animal. God therefore let Nebuchadnezzar live like an animal. A strange form of insanity (known technically as boanthropy) came over Nebuchadnezzar. Under God’s judgment, Nebuchadnezzar lost his human identity, actually imagined he was an animal, an ox, and acted like one. He ate grass, in imitation of the animal he thought himself to be. “His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird.” This once-proud king can show us that the psalmist had good reason for saying the following:
You kings, be wise;
be warned, you rulers of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear
and rejoice with trembling. (Psalm 2:10,11)
As might be expected, objections have been raised to this account of Nebuchadnezzar’s madness, primarily because the illness is not documented in any Babylonian records that have come down to us. In answer, it has been pointed out that this isn’t the sort of thing royal historians would be likely to report. The weaknesses of great men are not usually inscribed on their tombstones. The closest any Babylonian historian comes to referring to Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity is a statement by Berosus several centuries later: “Having fallen into weakness, [Nebuchadnezzar] died” (Wilson, Studies in the Book of Daniel, page 291).
Others have argued that a revolution would almost surely have broken out in Babylon if the empire had been without a ruler for seven years. It is well to note, however, that the text before us does not say Nebuchadnezzar’s mental illness lasted for seven years. And surely we can assume that while the king was serving his sentence out in the pasture, his royal advisers temporarily took charge of the affairs of government. It ought not be forgotten, either, that Daniel, the king’s chief adviser, knew how long the king’s madness would last. He may very well have shared this information with other members of the king’s cabinet, so that temporary arrangements could be made for running the government.