NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S DREAM
‘I saw a dream.’
I. An alarming dream which God sent to Nebuchadnezzar, and which his soothsayers were unable to interpret, greatly startled the king, whose empire at that time was enjoying a settled peace.—How often when men are at rest in their houses, and flourishing in their palaces, they are nearer the blow of the axe than in hours of stress and storm. See to it that in seasons of prosperity you walk humbly with God, and bear fruit, that the axe may not be laid to the root of the tree. What a remarkable description that is of God’s angels given us in Daniel 4:13! They are watchers and also holy ones. God’s angels watch over the saints, and it is in their interests that His chastisements fall upon their oppressors, O suffering saint!
II. The sentence which Daniel announced, that the king should become deranged in his mind, imagining himself a beast, and ranging with animals in the royal demesne, was a terrible one.—But he did not hesitate in his duty to warn the proud monarch of the imminence of the worst, adding words of entreaty (Daniel 4:27). Men may secure a lengthening of their tranquillity, and a mitigation of their sentence if they will forsake the sin with which God has a controversy. O proud boast! How apt we are to speak of our fortunes, our prestige, our influence amongst men, as the great Babylon which we have built (Daniel 4:30). We are apt at attributing the success of our life to ourselves, and forgetting that after all there is only one Agent and Arbiter of events, to Whom we must give praise and honour for ever (Daniel 4:35-36).
Illustration
‘Pride leads to madness. In Nebuchadnezzar we see its ultimate result—that to which it tends in all men. Pride unbalances the reason. As a scale may need only the addition of another ounce to weigh it down, so a proud man may need only one more strong emotion of pride to sink him into grovelling idiocy. While Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity may have been a judicial infliction, like Miriam’s leprosy (Numbers 12:10), it was more probably the natural result of a long course of mentally disturbing worship of self.’