Commentary on Daniel 4:5 (Summary)

Nebuchadnezzar has another dream. Yet the situation for him is very different this time from when he had the dream of which we read in Daniel 2:1–49. His first dream occurred in the second year of his reign. At that stage he was not so sure about the future and his continuing power (see Daniel 2:29). We are probably much further in time now. The king of Babylon probably had the second dream in the thirty-seventh year of his reign, that is, thirty-five years after the first. In total, Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon for forty-four years, so how did we determine that it was the thirty-seventh year of his reign? Our number here is based on what Daniel says in Daniel 4:22 when interpreting the dream.: It is you, O king, who have grown and become strong. Your greatness has increased and reaches to heaven, and your dominion reaches to the ends of the earth. So Nebuchadnezzar is at the height of his power. The entire area that was then counted as belonging to the civilized world is under his authority. This becomes the reality when he defeats Pharaoh Amasis of Egypt, in 568 BC. At this occasion he penetrates deep into Egypt. Even from his archenemy, the Pharaoh of Egypt, he now has nothing to fear. Nebuchadnezzar can be really at peace in his palace in Babylon. The fact that he is so at ease also shows that he again sees himself as the great king.

It has been a long time since the Lord pointed out to Nebuchadnezzar that the king of Babylon was not equal to him (or could be above him). That first dream was about thirty-five years ago. The event with the golden image in the plain of Jura probably took place about nineteen years before what we read in our chapter. We often tend to forget such obvious corrections after a time when things are going well for them, even when, like Nebuchadnezzer, we have be put in our place so clearly. With such great prosperity and success, it is easy to feel independent of God, when things are all working out so well. It is the midst of this self-satisfaction that the Lord comes again very emphatically to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream. Nebuchadnezzar, being so at ease, was beginning to exalt himself, but now once again, he becomes restless. God shows things in his dream that startle this king. He no longer feels at ease.