40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Daniel 4:4-37 (Episode 513)

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

Nebuchadnezzar has another dream, and only Daniel can interpret it. The king will be humiliated and become like a beast as God strips away his pride. And a stump is God's preferred thing to work with. Have a listen. Follow 1517:  Instagram X/Twitter More from 1517: Give to the June 1517 Podcast Network Fundraiser! Learn more about the 1517 Podcast Network Fundraiser 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education New Books from 1517 Publishing: By Water and the Word by Brian Thomas Being Family by Dr. Scott Keith A Reasoned Defense of the Faith by Adam Francisco Stretched: A Study for Lent and the Entire Christian Life by Dr. Christopher Richmann The Essential Nestingen: Essays on Preaching, Catechism, and the Reformation More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. While you're over there, make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing. Chad, we are in Daniel chapter 4. We just got through the first couple of verses. What just happened was a famous story, one of the more famous stories in the Old Testament.

Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Jesus in the fiery furnace. And Nebuchadnezzar is coming off the heels of, you know, saying some really nice things about the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He's like, you know what? I think that I'm going to go ahead and let you worship that God. I don't want to mess with him. I don't want him upset with me. In fact, I don't want to hear anyone saying anything bad about this God at all. And then he had a little psalm, a little something that he sung or said. They made this statement, and that's kind of where we ended, where he talked about, hey, this God, He does great signs and wonders. He's got an everlasting kingdom. He's

going to endure to all generations. And God's like, thanks for that. Let me give you this dream. And that's where we're going to pick it up. Yeah. And as we were joking before we started recording, this dream, not going to go so well for Nebuchadnezzar as the first dream. First dream, he was the head of gold. And in this dream, well, he's not even going to be like the defeat. He's going to be the animal who is in the grass. So we'll get to that in just a second. Now, you know right away, if you're looking at Daniel 4, verse 4, when it says, I mean, whoever, it's Nebuchadnezzar here, but this could be whoever, when someone is at ease in their house and prospering in their palace, things are probably not going to end well. It's just like,

i remember this time i was at ease and i was prospering and you know what's going to come next something bad just that's the way it goes i mean think about that's not usually when like the word of the lord comes to you and says hey just so you know this is all going to continue that's not usually what happens like when the lord that comes to you with good news it's usually something like you know and then the lord found elijah hiding in a cave uh running for his life And you're like, okay, maybe I'm going to get some gospel words here, or maybe you were out toiling in the field, and the Lord's going to come in to give you some good news. But yeah, if you're chilling in the palace, probably not good. Probably not good, yeah.

I mean, I think back to David right before he spied Bathsheba bathing. You know, at the time when kings go out to war, David remained at Jerusalem, took a little afternoon siesta, decided he'd take a little stroll on the roof and, you know, looks down and catches sight of some skin and then everything goes downhill from there. So kind of the same thing. And the David was at ease in his palace prospering. And then, bam, things, things fall apart. Well, here, this is Nebuchadnezzar. And interestingly, I think we talked about this last time. This is kind of odd because it's first person. So I, Nebuchadnezzar, this is a kind of a confession you might describe. A confessional letter maybe is the way we could depict this that is included within the book of Daniel. So this is Nebuchadnezzar telling his own story, you know, which is good. I mean, this is Augustine had his confessions.

This is Nebuchadnezzar's confessions, at least part of it. So I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. I saw a dream that made me afraid. So we've already had this other dream. And in that dream back in chapter two, I don't think there was any mention of him being afraid. It left him sleepless and we're told his spirit was troubled, but really nothing about fear. So this is right away we're clued in that this is going to be a little bit different kind of dream. Made him afraid.

As I lay in bed, the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me. Now, we're kind of being teased here, right? Because we're not told what this was all about. You know, what kind of dream did you have? What kind of visions did you have? All we're told is that, verse 6, I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. Then the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers came in.

We've already heard about these other guys. Astrologers is a new category. The astrologers came in. and i told them the dream but they could not make known to me its interpretation now that's different right from yeah he's he's letting him off the hook a little bit here he's like you know what i'm not going to make this impossible uh like last time where i make you tell me the dream and the interpretation just so i can know that that way i can have some some trust in this interpretation uh nice i'll tell you the dream and then and this is weird

because, I mean, I'm sure they tried to give him— he must just not have bought any of their interpretations. He's like, no, that's not it. Yeah, I think that might be what's going on there. I've wondered, too, if maybe the same thing might have been happening back in Genesis with Pharaoh and his dreams, and Joseph's the only one who could interpret them.

You know, maybe some other explanations were offered, and the Pharaoh's like, no, no. Yeah, because all you've got to do is make something up. I can interpret. You tell me your dreams. I can give you an interpretation. I might just be pulling it out of thin air and making stuff up. And if I'm like, you're the king and I'm your servant, well, of course, I'm going to give you a positive interpretation because look at the position that I'm in, right? I'm going to make sure I keep my boss happy if I'm a servant of the king. Yeah, I read this as, and none of their interpretations rang true, right? Yeah, right. You hear some guy be like, well, it's this. And you're like, no, that's not the feeling I had when I was having this dream.

Yeah, this dream made me afraid. It did not make me excited and anticipatory of the great things that are going to happen to me. So what do you turn to when all the interpretations fail? Well, you go back to the guy, right? You go back to Daniel. So verse 8 says, At last Daniel came in before me, he who was named Belteshazzar after the name of my God, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. So, yeah, Daniel, the name given to him, of course, is different than his Hebrew name. So Bel Teshazzar is from Bel, B-E-L, probably means something like, may Bel protect his life or something like that.

So Daniel comes in, we're told his name. And according to, this is kind of the Babylonian way of describing Daniel's gift, that the spirit of the holy gods was in him. Well, not really, but I mean, we know what you mean, right? This guy was a super theologically spiritual kind of guy, right? Yeah, this is how you know that this is Nebuchadnezzar talking and not like, you know, Daniel writing this part down. This is how you know, because he's even going to reference him this way, like, hey, I know the spirit of the holy gods, it's in you. And I'm sure Daniel's like, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. You and I have both been in situations where it's like you're listening to somebody and in your head you're like, that is so theologically off. But you're like, it's just not, it's not the situation where you want to go into like full theological correction mode. So you're like, just, all right, whatever. So that's what's probably happening here. So he comes in and the Nebuchadnezzar continues to say, and I told him the dream. And here's what I said. O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians

because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and that no mystery is too difficult for you tell me the visions of my dream that I saw and their interpretation so lays it out and verse 10 he's going to go into the details the visions of my head as I lay in bed were these I saw and behold

a tree in the midst of the earth and its height was great the tree grew and became strong and its top reached to heaven and it was visible to the end of the whole earth its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant and then it was food for all the beast of the field found shade under it and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches and all flesh fed from it so uh this particular vision of a tree is not confined to just here in daniel it's not even confined to the bible but you'll find this in a lot of religions cultures myths basically all over the world i mean it kind of makes sense i mean you think about a tree what a perfect icon or image for something which is powerful something which gives life something which

is kind of joining the earth to heaven in the sense it's growing it's growing upward so biblically you can go to ezekiel 31 we haven't covered that we haven't covered ezekiel yet uh so there's no episode on that but check out ezekiel 31 where assyria is a cedar with its top in the clouds and the birds of heaven rest in its branches all the trees of eden in the all the nations are under its shade so kind of the same thing happening here uh go to ezekiel 17 similar you got a sprig that's plucked from the top of the cedar and god plants out on a high and lofty mountain and under it you have all the birds you got shade all that kind of stuff going on and interestingly uh the same kind of language is used in one of the parables in mark four the mustard

seed. It grows up, becomes larger than all the garden plants, and the birds come and make their nest in its branches. So that kind of language is hearkening back to these Old Testament texts. But you could also find this in ancient Near Eastern literature. I think even maybe some of the Germanic religions and cultures, they use this same kind of image. So here, nothing Something surprising. You've got this tree and it's, of course, huge. Top reaches to the heavens. By the way, that's kind of interesting because that's the same language used in Genesis 11 about the Tower of Babel. They wanted to build a tower with its top in the heavens. Well, that would have been a ziggurat, a ziggurat kind of shape. And, I mean, that was a man-made mountain. So whether it's a ziggurat man-made mountain or a tree, kind of it's the same idea.

You want to join the terrestrial and the celestial together with something like this. So, anyway, that's the vision. Yeah, nothing to be concerned about so far. Yeah, sounds great, doesn't it? Yeah, I mean, awesome. A tree, a beautiful tree. verse 13 uh things uh things take a turn here i saw the visions of my head as i lay in bed and behold a watcher a holy one came down from heaven he proclaimed aloud and said thus

and here's where things really really go bad chop down the tree and lop off its branches strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit let the beast flee from under it and the birds from its branches, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beast in the grass of the earth. Let his mind be changed from a man's and let a beast mind be given to him and let seven periods of time pass over him. Those are indeterminate periods of time, by the way. The Septuagint has seven years, but the Aramaic here is just some undesignated period of time. So seven periods of time, Passover hymn. This sentence, this is verse 17. The sentence is

by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones. To the end, the living may know that the most high rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men. And then wrapping up this section, this dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. And you, O Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because all the wise men in my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you. So a couple of things here. Just a couple of details. Watcher. So you're It's like, oh, watcher. Haven't heard that one before.

Well, not in the Bible, for sure. This is the first time. In fact, it's the only time, and only in this chapter in the book of Daniel, that you have the term watcher. I kind of think of this as like a kind of heavenly sentinel, maybe, is one way to think about this. Described here also as a holy one. I think if this rings a bell with anybody, it's probably from the pseudepigraphical book 1 Enoch. 1 Enoch 1 and 36 is called, in fact, the Book of the Watchers. Now, those watchers are portrayed negatively in 1 Enoch because these are the guys, the heavenly beings, the sons of God who came down and in Genesis 6 saw the daughters of men and had intercourse with them

and produce these hybrid, who were called the Nephilim. So those are the watchers in 1 Enoch. But biblically speaking, here, of course, it's positive image. This is just another term for angels, right? You got all kinds of designations for them. They're called sons of God. They're called messengers. Of course, you got cherubim and seraphim, different designations for the heavenly host,

different designations for them. Anyway, this one's called the Watcher. And these aren't acting independently, of course. They are carrying out the decree of the Holy One himself, as we'll hear when Daniel gets to interpret this. But that's who the Watchers are. And, of course, the decree that they come down with is this big, beautiful tree that has all this good stuff going on. Chop it down. Get out your chainsaw.

Get out your axe. And not just chop it down. You're stripping the leaves off. scattering its fruit you got the beast and the birds are flying and fleeing away and all that's left finally is a stump and uh then there's kind of a shift you notice in verse 16 from talking about a tree to a hymn right let his mind and that's the first clue that oh we're we're talking about an individual here he's gonna lose the mind of a man and he's going to be given the mind of a of a beast for seven periods of time and things are not going to go well for this guy

yeah i mean the the way this uh tree is handled is that it's not just simply like cut it down but it's uh you're going to humiliate this tree like we're gonna why do you need to cut his branches off if you're gonna just cut it down uh why do you need to have it why do you need to strip all leaves off. I mean, why are you going to scatter its fruit everywhere? You get the idea that this tree needs to be taught that it's not as great as it thinks it is. Yeah. Yeah. This is a true stripping down. I mean, we still use that kind of language, right? Yeah. This is going to be a humbling experience, of course, which is what this is all about, as Daniel will make very clear once he begins his, once it begins his interpretation. And you get a pretty strong clue as to what this

is all about when you get to verse 17, where it talks about that the end, to the end, so the goal is that the living may know that the most high rules the kingdoms of men and gives it to whomever he will and sets over it the lowliest of men oh sounds like whoever was high and exalted is about to be brought down to be the lowliest of men so this is i mean this is just the this is the biblical story told over and over right those who exalt themselves will be humbled and the one who humbles himself will be exalted and nebuchadnezzar who was at ease in his house and prospering in His palace is about to be brought very, very low. Okay, so let's get to the interpretation.

Verse 19. Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him. So he wasn't sitting over there gloating over this. This actually troubled him as well. The king answered and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you. Belteshazzar answered and said, My Lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies.

That doesn't sound good. The tree you saw, verse 20, he's going to now give his interpretation. The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which beasts to the field found shade, and in whose branches the birds of the heavens lived.

It is you, O king. That's quite a lead up. I love rhetorically. That's like beautiful. This long description, the tree and this and this and this and this and this and this. It was you, O king, who have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven and your dominion to the ends of the earth. and because the king saw a watcher a holy one coming down from heaven and saying chop down

the tree and destroy it but leave the stump of its roots in the earth bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field and let him be wet with the dew of heaven and let his portion be with the beast of the field till seven periods of time pass over him this is the interpretation of king it's a decree of the most high so this wasn't just a decision of the holy ones the the watchers this is a decree the most high which has come upon my lord the king that and here we get to the very worst part of this that you shall be driven from among men and your dwelling shall be with the beast of the field you shall be made to eat grass like an ox and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven and seven periods of time shall pass over you till you know

that the most high rules the kingdoms of men and gives it to whom he will and as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that heaven rules and then one more verse this is uh now we get to the the theological advice that daniel's about to give to the king therefore all right so based on upon everything I've just told you, O Nebuchadnezzar, therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you. So here's what I propose. I hope that you listen to me. Break off your sins by practicing righteousness and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.

yeah now i mean this is one of those things where you what you wanted an interpretation and you got it uh i don't know i don't know if you're super happy uh careful what you asked for right yeah yeah and uh but uh the there's sort of like this little bit of good news like right like so it's all bad news except for this like hey at least you left a stump because uh that means that uh after you learn something yeah uh yeah you know god god will uh god can bring you low and raise you back up though yep you ever been a stump dan yeah i have yeah yeah yeah in fact i can still feel the axe in fact uh chopping away and uh all that was left was was a stump but hey you know what uh stumps aren't dead right stumps

stumps can grow yeah sometimes you got to be you'd be cut down to to grow back so yeah this whole section is pretty pretty fascinating beginning with daniel's reaction right i mean there's no uh he's emotionally impacted by this which i think is significant i think that daniel he has uh i don't know if it's a uh an admiration or respect for for nebuchadnezzar there's something going on he's not he's not just kind of a uh he doesn't have just an objective view of him right and he's certainly not here just as a you know a people pleaser he's not saying this to nebuchadnezzar because when he says you know may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies uh he actually means that so he has some he has some respect

for the man and of course you know he's seen nebuchadnezzar do some dumb things but he's also seen him do some some wise things so he's initially troubled by this and says so uh and you know understandably troubled because everything everything which was big and good and beautiful is about to almost at least come to an end and he is the he's the king he's the he's the tree uh the the parable is being interpreted here not really a parable but you know what i mean just like jesus would tell parables sometimes and then interpret those parables we have the vision now we have its interpretation and obviously the tree is not the kingdom itself but rather the king who kind of is the embodiment of that yeah the one thing that you know

daniel doesn't really tell him uh but we know is that um god does his best work with stumps uh like his best promise of all time has to do with the stump right so it's not all bad news uh god really likes working with stumps you know that's he likes to have stuff uh shoot out of them yeah this is going all the way back to those opening chapters of isaiah which we talked about i don't know probably a year ago something like that yeah yeah i mean uh there's a there's a stump that's sitting there in judea and it may look like it's dead but oh no it's not because uh that stump is going to grow forth the the from the the root of jesse becomes the shoot of jesse and grows into the kingdom itself.

Yeah. God looks at big, glorious trees and is like, I can't do anything with this. We're just going to do a stump. Then I can really get to work. Then I can do some work. Yeah. So the goal, of course, is to bring him to the point of knowing

that it's the Most High who rules the kingdoms of men and gives it to whomever he will. Basically, he wants Nebuchadnezzar to be humbled, yes, but not just to be humbled, but to look up and to know that he is under the rule of the Most High and his kingdom, his vocation within that kingdom, everything that he has is a gift and a work of God. It's not something that Nebuchadnezzar came up with on his own. Now, the last part of this, verse 27, is important. because of the way it has been misinterpreted a lot, in fact, over the course of the centuries. And part of this is simply due to translation. So verse 27 says,

Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you. Break off your sins by practicing righteousness. Well, the Septuagint, Greek translation, and then followed by the Vulgate, the Latin translation, Both render that Aramaic verb, which here is translated as break off, with redeem, the Greek and the Latin equivalent of redeem. So redeem your sins, which was often misinterpreted as atone for your sins by doing this. So this was the way it was understood. Nebuchadnezzar, you got all these sins. You got to do something about it.

You got to atone for those. You got to make up for those somehow. So here's what you need to do. You need to practice righteousness and you need to show mercy to the oppressed. And by doing so, then you will make up for all of your bad deeds. You will redeem yourself. So this was misinterpreted as basically taking care of your own sins. So you got some sins over there.

Well, you need to atone for those, right? By doing some good. instead of understanding Daniel to be saying, hey, you need to break off those sins by repenting and then bringing forth fruits in keeping with repentance, which is exactly what he's describing. He's not saying, hey, you got all these sins you got to atone for by doing good. He's just saying, stop. Stop what you're doing. Repent and instead do what's right. Practice righteousness. Show mercy to the oppressed instead of sitting in your palace at ease and boasting about how great you are and all the good things that you've accomplished. Yeah, a big difference there, too. He's not

saying, like, if you start doing what's right, you can erase some of this bad stuff. He's saying you should stop compounding all these sins on top of each other. Yeah, yeah. There are better things to be doing with your time than heaping up more and more sins let's practice some repentance and practice some righteousness instead and he ends up by saying there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity uh that should be understood the same way that you hear this elsewhere in scripture or listen that god is god is pleased not to follow through with his threats yeah the very reason that god issues threats against people or nations is not because he wants to follow it through with them. It's an order that people might hear and repent so God doesn't have to do

what he threatened. That's the whole idea behind the preaching of the law, the threats that are issued. God doesn't want to destroy Nineveh. He doesn't want to do this to Nebuchadnezzar. But, you know, if he's not heeded, then, yeah, well, the hammer's going to fall. Eventually, the axe is going to be laid at the root of, at the stump of the tree, and down it's going to fall. Well, this whole thing is a humiliation. And so, I mean, part of what the advice here is that you could start practicing humility and try to get maybe ahead of this. This is the old, you could be humble or you can be humbled. I recommend being humble beginning right now. believe me uh i speak from experience it's much much better to humble yourself than to be humbled by god the latter will be painful i promise you uh will not be good all right so uh what's going to happen well you probably have forecast of what's going to happen we're going to hear now

verse 28 it's going to pick up the story all this came upon king nebuchadnezzar well there you go there's the end of the story already. At the end of 12 months, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. Well, that sounds familiar. That's like lifted right from the story of David. And the king answered and said, so he's like talking to himself, is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the Glory of my majesty. Bummer. So this is not, you did not take the advice to, you know, begin the humility now.

This is not what you have done. 12 months goes by. You're like, all right, looks like I'm in the clear. Yep. And I do think that's important, too. Like, judgment didn't fall, right? He had this vision. Daniel interpreted it.

Nothing happened. Oh, I'm good, though, right? Yeah. nope the threat still lingered in the air and and now it comes down verse 31 says while the words were still in the king's mouth there fell the voice from heaven oh king nebuchadnezzar to you it is spoken the kingdom has departed from you and you shall be driven from among men and your dwelling shall be with the beast of the field and you shall be made to eat grass like an ox and seven periods of time shall pass over you until you know that the most high rules the

kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will immediately the word was fulfilled against nebuchadnezzar he was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles feathers and his nails were like birds claws boy that's a freaky image isn't it it is yeah i mean and just this whole thing like that god speaks this word and then it has you know it doesn't tell you exactly how this happened just that he was driven out right so he's driven from among men and you're like what does that mean what it is and you assume it's god doing the driving yeah oh yeah for sure yeah we're not given enough details to know exactly

what went down but what went down is uh is is pretty crazy to think about now there are there's i i looked this up just because i was curious there are like these psychiatric conditions that i'm probably mispronouncing this but there's one called lycanthropy where people think that they're uh a uh an animal usually like a a wolf or zoanthropy which is kind of the kind of the same thing they they think that they're animals and act like animals and to all this you know strange kind of strange kind of behavior so uh who knows maybe something like that was happening to nebuchadnezzar but whatever it was yeah he uh talk about being debased i mean you're i mean all of us often act in animal kind of ways just dumb animal kind of

ways you know we just do stupid things like are you a are you a rational person created the image of god are you are you acting like you're some kind of beast to the earth just going about doing whatever your instincts and appetites want to do well often that's what sinners sinners do they act like the act like the beast of the field and that's where this guy was driven to eating grass and living outdoors and letting his hair grow out and not clipping his nails and I'm sure looking like a raging madman. Yeah, I mean, and it seems that people in the kingdom,

they had to have just assumed that the king has just lost his mind, right? Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I mean, this wouldn't be the first time that you have a king who just acts like he's nuts. You know, you had this going on in the first century Roman Empire with several of the kings. I mean, you got Caligula, you got Nero. These guys are doing just crazy, crazy kind of things.

And everybody around them knows that they're losing their mind. They're not doing the same thing that Nebuchadnezzar did. But I mean, they were still acting like madmen. And that's what's happening here now with Nebuchadnezzar for seven periods of time. however long that might be yeah i do wonder like is is i i don't know um i it seems to me that it's probably not seven years no it's shorter than that seven weeks seven months you know whatever whatever it was and and so the ambiguity uh is is helpful there because it's just like yeah seven periods of time, whatever that was. Maybe they had a certain amount of time in mind that

they used kind of an idiomatic sort of way, but whatever it was, probably not seven years, but seven periods of time, whatever that might be. And then it ends because verse 34 says, at the end of the days, I, now we're back in first person, at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven. Just a simple posture change, right? I lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored him who lives forever. Now, we began this chapter with a little psalm, a little prayer,

which you referred to at the beginning of this episode. and now we're going to end this chapter or almost in this chapter with something similar he goes on to say for his dominion is an everlasting dominion his kingdom endures from generation to generation all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done? Well, that's a pretty good line there. None can stay his hand or say to him, what have you, what have you done? Verse 36, picking it up here. At the same time, my reason returned to me and for the glory of my kingdom and for the glory of my kingdom,

my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me and I was established in my kingdom and still more greatness was added to me now i this is the last verse now i nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the king of heaven for all his works are right and his ways are just and oh here we go this is the uh this line really sums up it's the last line of the chapter but it really sums up the entire chapter and those who walk in pride he is able to humble speaking from experience here yeah that's it's a it's it's beautifully succinct and it's it's a it's a powerful understatement i guess that's the best way i can describe that those who walk in pride oh yeah god is he's able to humble them yeah i think he is

i'm pretty sure you just just experienced that nebuchadnezzar is i mean he's uh he's getting closer and closer to actually being a an orthodox believer you know he's uh he's getting to know this god of the israelites uh very well as a result of his interactions with with daniel as well as daniel's three friends i love the i love the language in his little psalm about his dominion being an everlasting dominion his kingdom endures in generation generation we're gonna hear more about that when we get to chapter seven and you have the vision of the son of man who is given the kingdom that is going to endure from generation to generation. And ultimately, you know, God's will is done because who can say to him,

what have you, what have you done? It feels like it's right from the book of Job, right? Who can say to him, what have you, what have you done? I mean, you can say it all you want. Yeah, yeah. It just doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The answer, the reply is to me, who are you?

Yeah. Ask me what I'm doing. That's the whole thing. Yeah. Yeah, this is a great chapter. I mean, it's one of many. We're going to see in the next chapter, we're going to hear about Belshazzar about 30 years later from this. So each of these chapters is kind of describing.

And then we have one about Darius. So we've got each of these chapters kind of describing God's interaction with these rulers. And here, I mean, the theme is very, very clear that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the earth, and he will humble those who walk in pride, not just Nebuchadnezzar, but, of course, all of us as well. Yeah. Yeah, man. Good stuff. Well, all right. Well, we will come back for next episode for one of the—you think that was weird, creepy stuff going on next episode. So you don't want to miss that. I'll see you then, Chad. All right. See you then.