Daniel 4:33
The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws.
The sentence pronounced upon Nebuchadnezzar took effect in the same hour without delay while the boast was still in his mouth, after twelve months of warning in which his actions were weighed in heaven. He was driven from human society to dwell with beasts, his reason and wisdom were taken away leaving only animal instincts, and he ate grass like an ox with his body wet with dew until his hair grew like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws. His degraded condition lasted seven years, until his reason was restored and he became humble and obedient to God. The cause was pride and self-exaltation in claiming that he had built great Babylon by his own power for his own honor, forgetting God as the source of strength and ability. The purpose was that he would learn that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He wills, for God gives reason and wisdom to be used for His glory and can remove them in a moment, so all who boast in their own wisdom and exalt self will surely be laid low.
Setting and Immediate Fulfillment
The verse belongs to the account of Nebuchadnezzar's rise and humbling, in which the tree in his dream represents his greatness and prosperity, with the nations gathered under his rule and his kingdom secure among loyal subjects. It belongs to another dream God gave him in Daniel 4, after he had received great light through Daniel's interpretation of the great image with Babylon as the head of gold and after he was convinced that the God of the three Hebrews was the living God by seeing the form of the Fourth with them in the fiery furnace. It records the trying experience that comes when a person trusts in his own wisdom and sets God aside.
The sentence foretold by dream and warning took effect in the same hour, at once and without delay. After a twelve-month period of warning and of testing and proving, in which his actions were weighed in the balances of the sanctuary in heaven, Nebuchadnezzar was walking in the palace of Babylon boasting that he had built great Babylon by the might of his power for the honor of his majesty. While the boast was still in his mouth, a voice from heaven declared that the kingdom was departed from him and that he would be driven from men to dwell with beasts, eat grass as oxen, and continue seven times until he knew that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men.
In that fulfillment he was driven from human society to live among beasts and cattle. His God-given reason and prized wisdom were taken away, his blessings and power were removed, and stripped of the power his Creator had given him he was left with only animal instincts. The loss of reason removed the quality of mind that elevates people above beasts. He ate grass like an ox, his body was wet with the dew of heaven and exposed to the weather, and he remained until his hair grew like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws, an astonishment to his subjects.
His degraded condition lasted seven years. Afterward his reason was restored and he became humble, obedient to God, and compassionate, acknowledging God's hand.
Cause and Divine Purpose
The driving cause was pride and self-exaltation in prosperity, which elevated and deceived him until he forgot to honor God and pursued his own course irrespective of warnings and reproofs. In an unguarded moment, while walking in the palace, he claimed that he himself had built great Babylon by the might of his own power and for the honor of his own majesty, consumed by ambition and thirst for personal glory. The sentence went into effect the instant he spoke, like the felling of a tree, with the blessings bestowed upon him removed and his reason taken away.
Having been given truth and warning, he rejected it in pride, turning a just and merciful rule into vanity and oppression. He went where he had been forbidden to go and showed disregard for the warnings given him, so he was left to follow his own way. His influence was thus counteracted by the consequences of his own actions.
The purpose was that he would learn that the Most High rules over human kingdoms and in the kingdom of men, and gives them to whom He wills. The stern discipline taught that God and not man is Ruler, that His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and that all who walk in pride He is able to abase. God so humbles kings and nobles for His own glory that they acknowledge a power above themselves and use the tongue to praise Him.
God's chastisement was meant not merely to separate sin from the sinner but to reveal by His light the sin that led the soul from God and would ruin it unless corrected. He brings down the man lifted up by his own ability and trusting in human strength in order to teach him his utter weakness, that he may feel his need of divine aid and learn that the Lord alone is to be exalted. By taking away the entrusted talent of wisdom because he went on in his own strength despite warning, He led him to see and acknowledge that the God of Israel is able to create and to destroy. Even in taking away his mind God meant to teach him, bringing him into connection with men joined to God who could explain His dreams and speak of God and of Christ.
God and Human Ability
Daniel 4:33 shows God as Lord over all His creatures and all His works, supreme over success in His work, who removes human ability, strength and wisdom when men place a high estimate upon themselves and do not acknowledge Him as the source of strength and ability. By stern discipline in Nebuchadnezzar's humiliation He taught that God and not man is Ruler, that His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and that all who walk in pride He is able to abase. Success in the work of the Lord comes from God for God's glory and not for man's glory, and seeking to steal a ray of light from His glory brings punishment for presumption. Any people, church, or those in charge of an institution who boast in their own wisdom, exalt self, indulge pride, take credit for success, and glory in wisdom and efficiency will surely be laid low and brought to humiliation, for pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.
God gives reason and wisdom to be used under His control and for His glory, not to live like the dumb beasts nor to suppose that reason can climb higher than the Source from which it flows. He can give wisdom and can remove it in a moment, taking away the mind He had given and leaving a man without reason. When reasoning powers are not used for His glory He can remove them, as with Nebuchadnezzar, and degrade man to the level of the beasts of the field. Brilliant intellect, natural endowments, money, wisdom and power do not elevate man in God's sight and do not give him independent life, because all are given by God his Maker. Human capabilities belong to God lent in trust, so boasting over them and thinking highly of self invites God to remove reason, and man is proved only mortal with no independent spiritual life apart from Christ when he acts as though wisdom and power were gotten independently of God, triumphing in fancied efficiency and glorifying self while too wise to accept Jesus.
The Watcher guarding the interests of all men sees every individual, every transaction, thought, plan and imagination, hears secret whisperings of self-gratulation, detects fraud and every species of deceit, records works exactly as they are, and brings every secret thing into judgment. When warning and reproof are disregarded and men go where God has forbidden them to go, He fulfills His pronounced judgment, and pride that puts self where God should be brings debasement. What He did to Nebuchadnezzar for rebellion and boastful independence, cutting off favors, taking away reasoning powers and appointing his portion with the beasts of the field, is what He could rightly do to sinful men in deformity of character who rebel against their Maker and boastfully assert independence. Yet He does not do it because He is patient, longsuffering, full of goodness, mercy and truth, even though men presume upon His goodness and forbearance, and the king's fate illustrates the loss of favor and reasoning power that could come upon persistent rebellion.
Ruling the greatest earthly kingdom could not secure God's acceptance, for Nebuchadnezzar's power was taken from him in a moment when he exalted himself. Rulers who make laws opposed to God's law will answer to His authority, for He controls the minds and souls of those He created and carries out His purposes in human affairs.
Warning to Later Rulers
Nebuchadnezzar's fall under divine judgment for pride, and his later acknowledgment of the power and mercy of the God of Israel, stand as a warning that Belshazzar knew but failed to heed. Banished from human society to live among the beasts of the field for forgetting God and glorifying himself, Nebuchadnezzar was afterward miraculously restored and converted, yet Belshazzar knew of that humbling decree of God and disregarded its lesson. His humiliation came upon him exactly as foretold, driven from men to live like an animal until the appointed signs of his condition had grown, and rejecting the light God had given through him brought calamity upon Babylon.
The kings who succeeded Nebuchadnezzar failed to profit by his experience, and in prosperity the rulers of Babylon forgot God and ascribed her honor and glory to human achievement, so the kingdom of Babylon passed away. God had taken from Nebuchadnezzar the talent of wisdom because in spite of warning he went on in his own strength, that he might be led to see and acknowledge that the God of Israel is able to create and to destroy. Like Pharaoh king of Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar was willfully obstinate, exalting his own ways and his own judgment as supreme against messages sent from heaven to warn him. Because of this he came under Satan's jurisdiction and was led blindfold by him, his spirit and his methods conforming little by little to the arch-deceiver until his whole mind was under the spell. The serpent kept its eye fixed upon him to charm him until he had no power to go from the snare, showing that any man who exalts himself the same way will be brought under the same control, led little by little under Satan's influence until he cannot leave it.
God gives such lessons to lead people to reform, and neglecting and refusing to practice them brings judgment. He still tests men today when they forget God and refuse to obey His law, and they are humiliated. If they do not humble their hearts and confess their sins they face the penalty of transgression and receive judgment.
Application to Leaders Today
The lesson is for all humanity today, for any people, for any church, and for those in charge of any institution, that God is supreme and success in the Lord's work comes from God for God's glory and not for man's own glory. Any who boast in their own wisdom, exalt self, indulge pride, take to themselves credit for success, glory in wisdom and efficiency, and seek to steal a ray of light from God's glory will surely be laid low and brought to humiliation for presumption, for pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. What befell Nebuchadnezzar will surely be fulfilled in those who have had great light but through an unholy confederacy sustain and influence one another to do the very things God warned them not to do, in carrying out ambitious projects for grasping means in connection with God's cause. That fulfillment came because he pursued self-exaltation and his own course irrespective of warnings and reproofs, after God had warned him in a dream of coming judgment and after twelve months in which he was tested and proved and his actions were weighed in the balances of the sanctuary in heaven. God will uproot such confederates and bring their ambitious projects to confusion, but if they repent and humble their hearts before God, walk in humility, make God their trust, and keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, there is pardon and peace in God's forgiveness and approval and acceptance with another trial and proving, for the Lord will not be trifled with.
Proud men connected with God's work who manifest a selfish, masterly spirit and deal with others with iron determination may by heaven's mandate be placed in Nebuchadnezzar's circumstances and in a moment of time be deprived of health or reason. God is a living God who will tolerate no oppressive confederacy in His cause but will break up unholy unions, bring order out of confusion, and do justice and judgment, so such men are not to be feared or envied. The same leaving will come upon any steward who begins to feel himself a man of power, who exalts his own work out of its appointed place as the hand into the place of the body, and who runs down the ministry, for as long as he does not become like Nebuchadnezzar he can remain upheld and become a power, but pride and disordering God's order causes the Lord to withdraw His sustaining hand and leave him in a humbled, helpless condition driven from men where Nebuchadnezzar was left. The fulfillment warns one who exalts and magnifies himself and takes authority and power over God's heritage that God has not given, bringing human principles into God's work, standing to require everyone to understand and carry out one's own mind, investigating and criticizing and condemning work elsewhere unless it meets one's ideas, discouraging workers making a small beginning, and revealing supremacy by making laws and pledges. Those bearing responsibility who exalt themselves, take a measuring line to measure character, and climb on the judgment seat to oppress others must humble their hearts before Him who sees every individual, every thought, plan and imagination, hears secret whisperings of self-gratulation, and brings every secret thing into judgment, or they will make grievous mistakes, and rulers who make laws opposed to God's law will answer to His authority, for He controls the minds and souls of those He created and carries out His purposes in human affairs.
The humiliation warns never to trust in self and human wisdom or to make flesh an arm, never to lift a pin or remove a landmark of truth God gave His people, never to manipulate matters to suit personal plans and devices, never to use influence to lead away from the strait and narrow path to accommodate self, and never to seek popularity. Whoever does so loses prosperity because God will not be his guide, and the call is to keep the banner lifted and to keep the features of faith prominent in the message for the last days without blending in anything else. God brings this humbling when His work is carried on according to the wisdom of human minds and human devising instead of as He requires, and departing from the path God has set for His people brings an end to prosperity. Covetous self-seeking to exalt self, as Nebuchadnezzar consumed by ambition and thirst for personal glory, is idolatry, and eternal interest depends on a change of heart so that the head may plan for all others to have a chance to accomplish the work by the wisdom given them individually of God.
A person exalted by others may face a similar downfall unless he turns and rejects self-exaltation, for Nebuchadnezzar was driven from human society and lived like an animal until he turned from presumptuous ambitions and high opinion of his wisdom. He stands as a pattern not to follow, warning against self-exaltation and taking glory to one's own name, and teaching the duty to humble the heart before God. Workers must learn to be less self-sufficient, to fear and tremble, and to put away harsh mastery of others, and must not think highly of self and boast, since human capabilities belong to God lent in trust so that boasting over them invites God to remove reason. True excellence is shown by Christlikeness, meekness and lowliness, usefulness and love rather than by high self-estimate. Nebuchadnezzar dethroned in reason because he did not honor God but made himself as God, having been given truth and warning yet rejecting it in pride and self-exaltation and turning a just and merciful rule into vanity and oppression until left to his own way, sank to beasts' instincts and food eating grass as oxen for seven years, and in that state was an astonishment to all his subjects as an example of how God humbles the high-minded who do not practice truth. Self-exaltation brings danger of being brought low now. His humiliation came when the Lord took away his reason and he was driven from human society until he was no longer able to receive correction, showing what comes when correction is refused.