Diving into Daniel: The King has Another Vision
Daniel 4:4-18; Matthew 27:19 - Dreams are many things: Mysteries, messages from God or old long-abiding anxieties about things that seem incomplete.
““I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and flourishing in my palace. I saw a dream and it made me fearful; and these fantasies as I lay on my bed and the visions in my mind kept alarming me. So I gave orders to bring into my presence all the wise men of Babylon, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. Then the magicians, the conjurers, the Chaldeans and the diviners came in and I related the dream to them, but they could not make its interpretation known to me. But finally Daniel came in before me, whose name is Belteshazzar according to the name of my god, and in whom is a spirit of the holy gods; and I related the dream to him, saying, ‘O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, since I know that a spirit of the holy gods is in you and no mystery baffles you, tell me the visions of my dream which I have seen, along with its interpretation.
‘Now these were the visions in my mind as I lay on my bed: I was looking, and behold, there was a tree in the midst of the earth and its height was great.
The tree grew large and became strong
And its height reached to the sky,
And it was visible to the end of the whole earth.
Its foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant,
And in it was food for all.
The beasts of the field found shade under it,
And the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches,
And all living creatures fed themselves from it. ‘
‘I was looking in the visions in my mind as I lay on my bed, and behold, an angelic watcher, a holy one, descended from heaven.
He shouted out and spoke as follows: “Chop down the tree and cut off its branches,
Strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit;
Let the beasts flee from under it
And the birds from its branches.
Yet leave the stump with its roots in the ground,
But with a band of iron and bronze around it
In the new grass of the field;
And let him be drenched with the dew of heaven,
And let him share with the beasts in the grass of the earth.
Let his mind be changed from that of a man
And let a beast’s mind be given to him,
And let seven periods of time pass over him.
This sentence is by the decree of the angelic watchers
And the decision is a command of the holy ones,
In order that the living may know
That the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind,
And bestows it on whom He wishes
And sets over it the lowliest of men.”
This is the dream which I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now you, Belteshazzar, tell me its interpretation, inasmuch as none of the wise men of my kingdom is able to make known to me the interpretation; but you are able, for a spirit of the holy gods is in you.’”
Daniel 4:4-18 NASB1995
Nebuchadnezzar II is enjoying the fruits of his vast empire, flourishing in his comfortable palace and finding ease. There are no battles to be won right now and the affairs of state are purring along (probably thanks in part or even mostly credited to the men from Judah). In the midst of this false security, God sends him a dream to disturb him and make him fearful. Apparently, these visions and fantasies are on-going or repetitive.
I found a most intriguing commentary on this dream on Precept Austin by English Congregationalist Pastor and author Joseph Parker (The People’s Bible), who died in 1902. Dreams are a powerful tool that God uses to get our attention:
"I saw a dream which made me afraid." Let us not tamper with this graphic language, but take it as it stands in the English tongue. Nebuchadnezzar "saw" a dream: it was part of himself, yet it was wholly outside, so that he could fasten his eyes upon it; it was in him and without him, above him, round about him, beneath him; and he was "afraid." Sometimes we ask the question, Do dreams come true? Why, they are true. A dream does not need to come true, because it is there, a fact; it is already part of the history of the brain. There need be no other hell than a dream.
Who can count the resources of God? In a dream we can be burned; in a dream we can be encoiled by serpents; in a dream we can be eternally suffocated; in a dream the serpent's fang may be within one inch of striking our life, and we may have no power of resistance or flight. The dream made Nebuchadnezzar afraid, and Nebuchadnezzar was not accustomed to fear, for he had brass enough, iron enough, chariots enough, horsemen enough; at the blast of his trumpet an empire stood up in his defence: but a dream made a fool of him.
You cannot strike a dream; you cannot lay your hands upon it and compel it to make terms with you. These are the resources of God. If he would fight us with lightning we could make some device that might catch the lightning and bear it away; if he would fight us always with whirlwinds we could order our masonry accordingly, and hide ourselves behind the granite wall till the great euroclydon cried itself to rest: but he will not do this; he will trouble us with dreams, and make us afraid with visions; and whilst we are flourishing in the palace he will make the floor tremble under us, or there will be a movement behind the screen, the curtain, the arras, and that movement will frighten us more than we ever were affrighted by thunderstorm at midnight.
If Nebuchadnezzar had heard that an army was thundering at one of the gates of Babylon, he would have been delighted: war is the amusement of kings; battle is the recreation of royal luxury and ambition: but this was a dream that came through the great brass gates that made the great wall of Babylon memorable as one of the finest structures in the world. You cannot bar out a dream, or lock it out, or bolt it out, or set a watch to keep it out; a wakeful sentry, armed at every point, may be looking at the dream while it touches him, and he cannot touch it, or blow it back, or threaten it, or defy it; it smiles upon him, and passes on, to work its murder in the king's head and the king's heart, and turn the king's imagination into an intolerable perdition.
When Pilate was puzzled about the new king and the new theology and the unheard-of sedition which was not written in the Roman books, "his wife sent unto him, saying, 'Have thou nothing to do with that just Man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of Him'." (Mt 27:19) God has made great use of dreams in history. Spiritual impressions may be laughed at by those who read nothing but cold type; but they are regarded as having unutterable suggestion to those of a more sensitive and exalted order of mind. (The People's Bible: Volume 16).
WOW - This 19th century Biblical scholar was not a “psychotherapist” who could make a fine living “interpreting” dreams, but perhaps he should have been. I really was taken aback by his idea that once a dream occurs, it is real, at least to the neurons and memory storage in your brain. As I’ve gotten older, I thought that dreams would be rare, less vivid and make less of an impression on me, but the opposite has happened. I can usually remember at least one dream a night or at least the fragments of a dream and sometimes the dream is quite disturbing.
A number of years ago, I had a small series of extremely vivid (and beautiful and comforting) dreams about Heaven. In fact, they were so vivid that I woke up to tell Steve about the dreams and have not forgotten the details (those details are kept in my mind and I am not going to share them here). Biblically, those dreams seem to fit with Scripture about Heaven - one should always check God’s Word. Those dreams have never repeated, unlike the annoying “I still haven’t finished things at work/school” dreams that plague me even now almost every night, almost eight years after retirement and more than 40 years since my last formal education was completed. These silly dreams have me jumping through hoops to get to a class or finish a paper or finish a work task or go back to work because there is more to be done. Perfectionist anxieties! I also have dreams seeing many long-lost family members and they serve to remind me to be grateful I had them in my life and pray for them (we should still keep praying for those who have passed on).
We just saw part 2 of “The Chosen: Last Supper” (season 5) a couple of days ago. These episodes are slowly going through the events of Holy Week, starting with Palm Sunday. Their casting decisions for this series have included using fairly young actors to portray Pontius Pilate and his wife Claudia (they are both excellent). Claudia appears to be unwell in one of the episodes and is having nice music played to her as she sits on her bed looking pale and disturbed; this is right after Pilate and his henchman Atticus are discussing the turmoil that Jesus and His followers have brought to Jerusalem during Passover week. I think Claudia is starting to have her disturbing dreams about Jesus, as noted in Matthew 27:19:
“While he [Pilate] was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message, saying, “Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him.””
Matthew 27:19 NASB1995
Back to Nebuchadnezzar - He has called together all of his Chaldeans and diviners and sorcerers together again and actually tells them about the dream (this time he doesn’t make them tell him about it) but they are unable or are reluctant to provide an interpretation. The king remembers Belteshazzar (Daniel) and his successful interpretation of the statue dream many years before and he calls Daniel because the “spirit of the holy gods” is in him.
This image was created using DALL·E, OpenAI’s legacy image generation model.
The dream has two parts: First, there is a vision of a beautiful tree that was large and strong and fruitful (see the image at the top). The tree provides shelter for many animals and birds and has abundant fruit. Second, an angelic watcher descends from heaven and orders the tree to be chopped down but the stump will remain with a band of iron and bronze around it (see image just above). The animals and birds will flee. The stump, which represents a man, will change and have the mind of an animal, grazing in the grass and drenched with dew. This change will last for seven periods of time. The sentence is pronounced so that the lowliest of men will know that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind.
This short commentary from Enduring Word is quite good - there is really nothing deeply mysterious about this dream, which is why Nebuchadnezzar’s usual assortment of soothsayers refused to interpret it and suffer the king’s wrath:
a. A tree in the midst of the earth: The tree in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was noted for its size, strength, prominence, beauty, fruit, and shelter.
b. He cried aloud and said thus: The watcher (presumably an angel) explained the fate of the tree. He noted that the tree was to be chopped down, and it would lose its size, strength, prominence, beauty, fruit, and shelter. He also said that the tree represented a man who would be changed and given the heart of a beast.
i. Bound with a band of iron and bronze: These were either for the tree stump’s confinement or protection. The tree would no longer be free and great.
c. In order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men: Nebuchadnezzar heard these words in his dream. In light of this, the dream wasn’t hard to interpret – it clearly dealt with the humbling of a great king. No wonder none of Nebuchadnezzar’s counselors wanted to interpret the dream for him.
i. Like most kings – ancient and modern – Nebuchadnezzar wanted to believe that he ruled instead of God or anyone else. “Both the Assyrian and the Babylonian kings thought of themselves as rulers over all the earth, so describing themselves in their inscriptions.” (Leon Wood)
A note about the images in this devotional: Steve is now having fun using OpenAI as a tool to help create images for our devotionals. Finding appropriate images or pictures was taking a lot of time and there are always concerns for copyrights and usage constraints. Unsplash is good (and free to use) but is also too generic. So you will see more of these AI images in the future and also more of the Canva creations that use our own photos and showcase a passage or verse.
In my next devotional, Daniel interprets the dream for the king (Daniel 4:19-27).
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - Thank You for how You created us, to have minds that experience dreams. Sometimes those dreams really mean something and come from You and sometimes they remind us of family or things we need to do or things we need to stop worrying about. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Precept Austin was accessed on 4/6/2025 to review commentary for Daniel 4:4-18.
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.