I saw and behold a tree in the midst of the earth.
The Fall of the Great Tree
I. UNDUE EXALTATION OF SPIRIT MAY BRING DEGRADATION OF THE FLESH. Rich men often look over a vast domain which they call their own, and the sight of their outward and visible possessions may inflate their spirit with pride, as air forced: into a bladder will expand it to its utmost extent Yet much that they look upon may have been bought for them by the blood and brain and sweat of others, the thought of whose labour ought to prevent the vain-glory of the possessor. This was the case with this giant king of the olden times (v.30.) And he bestowed no thought on the outstanding debt due to the human beings who had really build the city. If he had looked beyond that which was immediately before him, he would have seen the captives whom he had taken in war toiling to raise for him the stately buildings, those who had wrought for him, and had been repaid with scanty food and an iron rule. “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built:” But he “feared not God, neither regarded man.”
II. THE DEGRADATION OF THE FLESH MAY LEAD TO A RIGHT EXALTATION OF SPIRIT (V. 34). There are many people whom prosperity fails to bring to a right state of heart before God, and then chastisement becomes a necessity. God is willing to try the rod when nothing but the rod will bring the desired end. There are many men in the world who are much less overbearing towards the weak after they have been knocked down by a stronger arm than their own.
III. A DOXOLOGY WILL SPRING FROM A RIGHT EXALTATION OF SPIRIT (V. 37). Praise from a soul that has been humiliated in body and smitten in circumstance is the best sign that it has come into a condition of sound humility, and that the affliction has not been in vain. But praise is the outcome of pain when the pain has been followed by healing. So with Nebuchadnezzar. He passed through a painful experience, but it issued in bringing him to the feet of the Eternal God. Lessons:
1. Divine punish merit may become Divine healing. Diseases require treatment in proportion to their severity, and of all soul-disease there is none more difficult to cure than pride, “which is an abomination to the Proverbs 16:5). But in the case before us, as in many others, the chastisement of the sin became the instrument of its cure.
2. Those who have most sympathy with God are the most bold in declaring the conditions of His mercy. Daniel feared not to tell his king of his sins, and to warn him that repentance was the only way to escape judgment. (A. London Minister.)
The Tree of Pride
There is no narrative in the Scriptures which we may not apply to ourselves.
1. Is there not some portion of that old Babylonish pride in your hearts? You have never committed the same sins as the insane king, it is true. But have you, ever been tried as he was--brought up in the midst of royal luxury, taught to regard all men as beneath him and subject to his will, and made absolute from childhood, so that his slightest wish was law? If not you have nothing to boast of, and yet those sins you count so little may be as great as his were to him. That love of dress, that greed of moneymaking, the forgetfulness of common mercies, the neglect of religious duty, are but developments of the same disease which afflicted him. “Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches?”
2. How often have we seen this literally fulfilled--the edifice of pride, which had been erected by the toilsome labour of one man, dashed to the ground in ruin, while the possessor sees his children, bankrupt of youth and innocence, ignorant and regardless of the only treasure they can carry with them into a better world?
3. Can there be a more useful antidote than this chapter for the materialism which prevails, for fraud in high places, for public dishonesty, the mixture of luxury and bankruptcy and business immorality which threaten to sweep away the barriers of right and truth? What can we apprehend from such scenes but the stern and solemn voice of the watcher, “Hew down the tree?” Surely, then, this record speaks to us to aim at greater purity and simplicity of manner, at greater economy--for a reckless spendthrift must be dishonest, as he spends what he does not earn. We should deny ourselves in the way of vain show, and not be guilty of the folly of endeavouring to outdo each other in finery, in great parties, in luxurious living and magnificent extravagance. The spending of a half-year’s earnings in a single day is nothing but insanity. (J. Medley, D.D.)