Daniel 4

A king’s letter to peoples, nations, and languages: peace. Wesley treats the edict as the king’s own proclamation after the wonders. The frame is after the humiliation (vv. 28–37); the dream inside it is told from ease (v. 4).

The monarch still speaks, beginning with “Peace.” The Most High who rules (v. 17) does not cancel the letter. Second causes write edicts.

Calvin: Daniel speaks in the king’s person; the edict belongs with this chapter. The king had confessed Israel’s God and not departed from his superstitions; conceptions of the true God were momentary. God intended him more blinded, then humbled by the rod.

Even the greeting sits after a long patience. The signs of v. 2 are why he writes.

It seemed good to show the signs and wonders the Most High God has worked toward me. Wesley: nothing less than a change of heart could cause such a confession—he was old, had seen much, and never till now admired events as the signs of the high God.

He judges it good. A human “seemed good” under the God of signs. Whether the heart is new is tested in what follows; the showing is still his act.

Calvin: he feels he paid the penalty of ingratitude. Often chastised before he profited by the rod. Whether this confession is true and genuine repentance is left in doubt; Daniel recites the edict to shew fruit. He still may mingle inferior deities with the Most High.

God extracted a witness among the nations. Most High God, signs for me.

How mighty are his wonders! Wesley: a confession that could not come without a change of heart. Matches 2:44’s unending kingdom—Christ’s, and here the Most High’s.

Everlasting is shared. The king who set up an image now names a dominion that outlasts palaces. Creaturely praise under that rule.

Calvin: the preface might seem proof of important conversion; we shall see how far he was from being entirely purged. He remits much pride by confessing God’s kingdom perpetual, after once decreeing a statue because he chose.

True of God whether or not the speaker’s heart is new. Common ground with Wesley: everlasting dominion. The narrative of ease follows.

Wesley: when my wars were over, I sat down quiet, enjoying the spoils of my enemies. Rest is named as rest, not a slogan against wealth.

Nebuchadnezzar is at rest and prospering. The Most High still rules a man at rest. Pride will grow in the quiet; the agency is still his.

Calvin: rest and happiness; prosperity renders men secure. Fullness is the parent of ferocity. He was divinely seized because prosperous fortune had rendered him stupid and drunken. David said in his prosperity he should not be removed; how much more a profane king.

God times the dream to the security. At ease, prospering. Fear comes next.

A dream which made me afraid; fancies and visions of my head troubled me. Like 2:1, God affrights the greatest in their security (Wesley on 2:3).

The dream fills him with dread. The tree is not yet told. Creaturely fear under a sending God.

Calvin: he distinguishes this from common dreams. God inscribed a mark so he could not rest till he heard the interpretation. Unlike the first dream, remembrance is not blotted; Daniel will only interpret.

The sting is God’s. Common to both: alarmed in bed. The guild is summoned.

He tells the dream this time (v. 7). Court habit, not a war on learning.

“Decree”—a king’s order. He still uses means. Daniel is not first, as in chapter 2.

Calvin: he did not always consult Magi on every dream; this one he could not rest from. He still avoids God until extremity, as before.

“Decree”—the same emptying of the guild. Common to both: brought before me. They will fail with the facts in hand.

Magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, astrologers: I told them the dream; they could not interpret. Wesley’s magicians already confessed in 2:11 that revelation must come from God.

Human wisdom reaches its real limit again. Human science meets a watcher from heaven and stops.

Calvin: this whole science a fallacy, or at least Daniel’s exposition not by human skill. If any knowledge of divination existed it belonged to the Magi; hence Daniel is divinely instructed.

God locks what art cannot pick. Daniel is last, not first.

At last Daniel—Belteshazzar according to the name of my god, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. The king still talks as a pagan while needing the exile. The name wounds; the Spirit is rightly located and wrongly pluralized.

He comes late. Delay, telling. The Most High who gave Daniel skill (1:17) is still the Giver under a wrong name.

Calvin: he addresses Daniel kindly when deserted by his teachers. No one comes to the true God unless impelled by necessity. He had Daniel in the palace and passed him over. Servile when reduced to extremity; overbearing when not in need. The change of name was the tyrant’s cunning.

The words “at last” expose the king’s ingratitude. Daniel, and the dream told. Chief of magicians is v. 9’s wound.

Chief of the magicians; the spirit of the holy gods in you; no mystery too difficult; tell the visions and their interpretation. He knows enough to ask Daniel, not enough to leave the guild’s title.

The king asks Daniel to tell the dream. Mystery too difficult is true of man. Interpretation is still gift, as 2:30.

Calvin: prince of the Magi wounded the Prophet. Many gods: he had made no progress; entangled in former errors. No secret overcomes thee—why then not call him first? The king’s ingratitude is proved.

Even the praise is mixed. Both traditions agree: you are able. The tree begins.

Wesley will read the king under this figure when Daniel interprets (v. 22). The tree is dominion as shelter.”

“Tree”—a vision of an empire. Height is creaturely under the Most High who will chop.

Calvin: under the figure, Nebuchadnezzar himself. Governments exist to be like trees on whose fruits all feed and under whose shadow they rest. Tyranny is better than anarchy. Even tyrants, whether they wish it or not, are compelled to be like trees; God’s grace shines forth in governments.

Ordinance of God, not the virtue of this king. Midst of the earth, great height.

Grew strong; top reached to heaven; visible to the end of all the earth. Wesley: he was high and mighty in the majesty God had given (on v. 22). Reach is given reach.

The tree keeps growing and expanding. Agency of wars and building under a God who still owns the sky the top claims.

Calvin: restricted to the Babylonian monarchy; other empires existed but were slight. Loftiness not surprising though it reached to heaven. Do not philosophize the center of the earth.

“Grew”—appointed magnitude. Visible far. Beauty and food follow.

Beautiful leaves, abundant fruit, food for all; beasts shaded, birds in branches, all flesh fed. Shelter and provision—political order as gift, not a slogan.

Usefulness under a flawed king. The Most High can feed through a tree He will cut. Second causes shade and feed.

Calvin: birds and beasts for mankind; society ordained for men. Boughs beautiful in vulgar opinion; eyes dazzled by princes. Yet God does not suffer all His grace in them to be extinguished; they are compelled to bring forth some fruit. Better some dominion than all equal in prey.

“Food”—grace in the ordinance, not in the man’s justice. All flesh fed. The watcher arrives.

A holy watcher came down from heaven. Wesley: a holy angel, the instrument of God, to execute God’s judgments which the angels watch constantly to perform.

The watcher is heaven’s envoy. Heaven still speaks into a palace at ease. The chop is command, not chance.

Calvin: no doubt an angel. Called watchers because perpetually watchful in God’s commands; not subject to slumber; at hand to fulfill His bidding. Holy ones: not infected by human infirmities. Nebuchadnezzar could not understand this by himself; he was taught of God that the destruction arose not from man but from the Almighty.

“Watcher”—God’s attendant, not a rival author of the decree. From heaven. The loud proclamation is next.

Chop down the tree; lop, strip, scatter; let beasts and birds flee. The sentence is public in the dream before it is public in the field.

An order against a height. The king still is the tree; the axe is heaven’s.

Calvin: the cutting down now follows. God meant Nebuchadnezzar for a time like a beast. The dignity of the tree cannot be lessened by lacking a human heart it never had; the allegory bends to the man.

Judgment announced, not a human revolt. Down, and the creatures flee. The stump is mercy.

Leave the stump of its roots, bound with iron and bronze, amid grass; wet with dew; portion with the beasts. Mercy in the cut: not uprooted. Interpretation waits (v. 26).

The stump means something remains. God can pluck down without erasing the man. Dew and grass are still gifts in humiliation.

Calvin: God does not tear him up by the roots, but allows the root to remain, for the tree to spring up again. Mark of clemency; in all temporal punishments He allows men to taste His pity, so the reprobate remain without excuse. Tempers punishment to what he could bear.

Spared root, appointed band. Not destroyed.

Mind changed from a man’s; a beast’s mind given; seven periods pass. Wesley later: seven years; how hard for lofty princes to learn this lesson (v. 25). The time is God’s; the man is still a man under a beast’s mind.

“Given”—a giving of a low mind. Agency of pride led here; the gift of a beast’s mind is judgment, not theater. Seven times are enough to teach, not a chart.

Calvin: seven times—probable seven years, or a long undefined span; the number seven for perfection and length. Hard and horrible, yet the root remains. He shall feed, and be watered with heaven’s rain: benefits mingled with wrath.

“Given”—effectual abasing. Beast’s mind, seven times.

The sentence by decree of the watchers, demand by the word of the holy ones, that the living may know the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will, and sets up over it the lowest of men. Wesley: the decree was God’s, the demand of the holy angels; they consent to a just judgment. The most high ruleth—Nebuchadnezzar and his flatterers conceded he was a god on earth unaccountable to any. But the great God will make all men know He rules all in earth too, and sets up at His pleasure whom He will, and plucks them down again.

The watchers announce the decree, but the Most High is the one who rules. Arminian readers keep both truths in view: God gives kingdoms to whom he wills, and Nebuchadnezzar remains responsible for the pride that grew the tree. Raising up “the lowest of men” is God’s prerogative, not a political program.

Calvin: the edict was promulgated at the united consent of the celestial host; angels subscribe to God’s judgment and demand that He humble the proud. Mortals must know God to be a ruler in the kingdoms of men—not shut up in heaven. He governs the human race and assigns every one his grade. He will give it to whomever he will. Ambition, skill, prudence, wealth, or help do not profit unless God raises by His stretched out hand. He raises the humble above himself. Scarcely one in a hundred feels in his mind the dominion of God over the earth.

“Rules”—effectual appointment, not a bare permission after a king rose. The living know because He actually gives and sets. Nothing happens but what He has knowingly and willingly decreed, yet He is not the author of the king’s pride as pride.

This dream I saw; tell the interpretation; the wise men cannot; you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you. The ask is honest need with a pagan name. Daniel’s interpretation is the next range.

The king is still asking. Ability is located in Daniel and sourced above. The Most High who rules (v. 17) will speak through a captive, not through the guild.

Calvin: he repeats the request. He understood the figure, not the intention. All the wise men vain; he ascribes the power to Daniel as peculiar to God, yet still says holy deities. Ordinary received language of a heathen just initiated.

The Prophet is means. Shared: you are able. What Daniel will say, and the counsel to break off sins, belongs to 4:19–27.