By Deanna Davis
A Commentary on the Sabbath School Lesson for October 16–22, 2004, "Nebuchadnezzar’s Judgment"
Remember the guy we sang about in Sabbath School when we were young—Daniel—as in "Dare to Be a Daniel"? Well, he may have gone quietly into the lion’s den, but he was human. When asked to tell Nebuchadnezzar II the interpretation of his dream of a great tree that was cut down, Daniel "was greatly perplexed for a time, and his thoughts terrified him" (Dan. 4:19, NIV).Years later, when he had another bit of bad news to tell to Prince Belshazzar, Daniel described Nebuchadnezzar as one whom "all the peoples and nations and men of every language dreaded and feared," who put to death those he wanted to put to death and spared those he wished to spare" (Dan. 5:19).
Nebuchadnezzar had to reassure him before he could tell him the meaning of the dream. By way of introduction, Daniel exclaimed, "My Lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries!" (Dan. 4:19). Now the king knew for sure he wasn’t going to like what Daniel had to say. But say it he did. Proud Nebuchaddnezzar was going to go insane, not for just a week or two, but for seven years. During that time he would believe himself to be an animal and would live out in the fields with the donkeys and cattle eating grass.
This type of advanced psychosis is quite rare, but cases have been documented in many cultures from antiquity to the present. The sufferer usually believes himself to be transformed into the fiercest animal commonly known in the area. For example, in Europe the animal was usually the big bad wolf that figures prominently in European folk and fairy tales. It gives name to the syndrome: Lycanthropy from the Greek words lykoi, "wolf" and anthropos, "man." It is sufferers of this malady who gave rise to the myth of werewolves.1
But God obviously would not make the proud king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire believe he was a wolf. He had other plans for him. After all, Nebuchadnezzar was already the fiercest and most frightening animal in his kingdom. And we all know wolves are not herbivores. No, God would do a variation on the theme and give him boanthrophy, from the genus bos, "ox," but not immediately.2 He would give the king a year to repent of his arrogance and pride. But even the urging of Daniel could not convince the king to do so. One year later, Nebuchadneezar was still unrepentant.
Nebuchadnezzar II reigned over the empire from 605–562 B.C. (minus seven years for bad behavior). He had established his empire after his father and Median allies defeated the Assyrians. "Science and literature flourished in an age preoccupied by the stars; astrology was invented, and, more generally, all the divinatory arts. Neo-Babylonian scholars, the first astronomers, also postulated the existence of planets.… From the Neo-Babylonians, we get our division of the day into 24 hours, of an hour into 60 minutes."3
Nebuchadnezzar was a successful warrior. He had led the troops who fought the Egyptians back to their borders and conquered Judah. He rarely bragged about his military exploits, however. It was his massive construction projects completed in his country of which he was most proud. The middle years of his reign were a time of peace and prosperity. He was "able to create a new empire that restored the glory of ancient Babylon."4 His wide-scale deportations of conquered peoples, particularly young men and those talented in arts and sciences, provided both labor force and talent for his reconstruction of Babylon.
In one of his edicts, the king boasted: "I have made Babylon, the holy city, the glory of the great gods, more prominent than before, and have promoted its rebuilding. I have caused the sanctuaries of gods and goddesses to lighten up like the day. No king among all kings has ever created, no earlier king has ever built, what I have magnificently built for Marduk.… All my works … I wrote in a document and put it down for coming generations."5
Marduk was the chief god of Babylon, who was represented in the form of a dragon with the head of a serpent. Hmmmm—dragon, serpent—sound familiar?
Nebuchadnezzar strengthened and extended the outer walls of the city, built canals and roads, restored temples, built new palaces. He even built a "mountain" for his Median wife, and planted on it the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. His legacy was sure.
But just so the people didn’t forget him, he had his name stamped on each of the bricks used in the construction. "Nine-tenths of Babylon itself, and nineteen-twentieths of all the other ruins that in almost countless profusion cover the land, are composed of bricks stamped with his name."6
As he walked on the roof of his palace his thoughts were of himself only. "Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?" (Dan. 4:20). And suddenly he heard an answer from heaven and found himself down on all fours with a huge craving for grass. C. Mervyn Maxwell suggests that the bands of iron and bronze in the king’s dream may have signified "nothing more than this: When Nebuchadneezar was driven out of the palace, he was to be bound with an iron-and-bronze chain so that he could neither come back into the palace nor wander too far away." 7
God had promised his restoration, and there came a day when he raised his eyes to heaven and praised the Most High. Nebuchadneezar’s sanity and his claim to the throne were restored. He "honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation" (see Dan. 4:34–37). He would live into his eighties.
At each televised replay of the capture of Saddam Hussein, I was struck by how regardless of advances in science and technology, human nature has remained the same throughout history. It is because of the utter inability of men and women apart from God or from Christ to overcome sin, redeem fallen human nature, and quench the activities of Satan and his minions that history "repeats itself."
The proud and unrepentant tyrant of Iraq, curled up in a fetal position on the floor of a "spider hole," his long dirty hair matted, eyes expressing shock at his having been found by American troops, reminded me of Nebuchadnezzar II. Indeed, Saddam made no secret of his ambition to be like his great predecessor. After the Iran-Iraq War ended in a ceasefire, he began in earnest to rebuild Babylon. "Saddam Hussein, determined to hark back to Iraq’s past glory, spared no cost."8
On the commemorative plaque on the palace of Babylon are three inscriptions: a quote from Isaiah 13:19–22: "Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory of the Babylonians’ pride, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.…" Then a second inscription in 689 B.C. from the Assyrian conqueror, Sennacherib: "I was like the wind heralding the tempest.…I was destroying the city.…I flattened it better than any flood ever could, so that no one would ever remember this city and its temples." Then in A.D. 1989, Saddam Hussein added: "I rebuilt Babylon, I raised the walls of Nebuchadneezar and the temples of Ishtar, Nabu, and Nin-Makh in the years 1988–1989, to give back to the Iraqi people its past glory."9 More than 60 million bricks used in the restoration were stamped with his name.
Mosquitoes fly through the broken windows of the other monstrous palace Saddam built in Babylon, the one he built for himself. Looters have taken everything they could get their hands on. Today, it is a military encampment where U.S. Marines pitch their tents inside its walls.10
He hath shown thee, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Mic. 6:8).
And those who walk in pride he is able to humble (Dan. 4:37.)
1. "Lycanthropy," The Skeptic’s Dictionary.
2. "Boanthropy."
3. Gilles Munier, Iraq: An Illustrated History and Guide, trans. David Stryker (Northampton, Mass.: Interlink Books, 2004), 13, 14.
4. Ibid., 13 (emphasis added).
5. The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, ed. Francis D. Nichol (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1953–57), 4:799, quoted in C. Mervyn Maxwell, The Message of Daniel: God Cares (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1981), 1:72.
6. "Nebuchadnezzar," WebBible Encyclopedia.
7. Maxwell, Message of Daniel, 72.
8. Munier, Iraq, 110 (emphasis added).
9. Ibid., 115.
10. Jackie Craven, Your Guide to Architecture.
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE
|
