Page 117 - Daniel

passages that speak prophetically of Babylon and its overthrow (cf. Isa.
13 and 14), it becomes clear that the contest between God and
Nebuchadnezzar is a broad illustration of God’s dealings with the human
race and especially the Gentile world in its creaturely pride and failure

to recognize God’s sovereignty.
The theme of this chapter, as given by Daniel himself in the
interpretation of the king’s dream, is God’s dealings with

Nebuchadnezzar “till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of
men and gives it to whom he will” (v. 25). Alongside the demonstration
of God’s sovereignty, the bankruptcy of Babylonian wisdom forms
another motif. It is certainly by design that this chapter precedes the
downfall of Babylon itself in chapter 5. However, there is no justification
in pushing this to the extreme of making it a particular application to
Antiochus Epiphanes, in the effort to support a late date of Daniel. There

is nothing whatever to link this passage to the second century B.C. In fact,
it is far more applicable to that fateful night in October 539 B.C. when

Babylon fell.
Whether chapter 4 was written by Nebuchadnezzar himself, or more
probably by one of his scribes at his dictation, or possibly by Daniel
himself at the king’s direction, the inclusion of it here is by divine

inspiration. Those who reject this account assume that it is not inspired
of the Holy Spirit, that an experience like Nebuchadnezzar’s is
essentially incredible, and that it is a myth rather than an authentic
historical record.

Such objections obviously assume that higher criticism is right in
declaring Daniel a forgery of the second century B.C. This conclusion is
subject to question not only because of the fallacious reasoning that

supports it, but because it is challenged by the documentary evidence in
the Qumran text of Daniel, which on the basis of the critics’ own criteria
would require Daniel to be much older than the second century (see
additional discussion in chapter 3). Conservative scholarship has united
in declaring this chapter a genuine portion of the Word of God, equally
inspired as other sections of Daniel.

INTRODUCTION OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S PROCLAMATION (4:1–3)