Daniel 4

All this came on the King Nebuchadnezzar. Wesley: with admirable propriety the person changes—these verses in the third person; at v. 34 he speaks again in the first. The dream is no longer a figure.

The chapter records something that happened to a named king in history. The Most High who warned (4:27) now acts. Delay of twelve months (v. 29) was room, not a canceled word.

Calvin: the dream executed. God might have struck at once; He waited, and the king grew prouder. The reprobate abuse forbearance and heap a treasure of vengeance.

The word stands. Both traditions read “all this” as the dream of 4:10–17 coming true on Nebuchadnezzar himself, and the next verse shows him on the palace roof.

At the end of twelve months, the king is walking in his royal palace in Babylon. Wesley’s ease of v. 4 has lasted a year after counsel. Time to break off sins was given; it was not taken.

The twelve months were ordinary days of walking and ruling, lived under a decree God had already spoken. The Most High still rules a man who still strolls.

Calvin: some think he was touched and so spared for a year; more likely God withdrew His hand, and the sloth is less excusable. The Prophet’s voice ought to have frightened him as thunder. He does not lay aside pride.

The twelve months show God’s patience, but when the year ran out the blow fell, and it found the king on the roof of his Babylon.

Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling place by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty? The tree names itself. The fault is not in building a city but in a man taking for himself the praise that belongs to the Giver.

The bricks were real work; the sin lay in the pride that credited them to his own power. He did build; the sin is “by the might of my power.” Agency under the Most High who actually gives kingdoms (4:17). The sentence still finds a mouth that can stop.

Calvin: which I—using the pronoun with emphasis—have built in the greatness of my valor. He claims all and robs God. Unless the Lord builds the city, the watchman watches in vain. He transfers to himself the glory of Semiramis. Cities are built by industry, and kings may be praised if they leave God’s praise inviolate. When men exalt themselves they bury His blessing.

The boast is the snatching of honor 4:17 forbade. The voice cuts the sentence.

While the word was in his mouth, a voice from heaven: the kingdom has departed from you. Judgment comes at once: the boast is still in his mouth when the voice from heaven answers. The Most High answers a still-moving tongue.

Words interrupted. Second causes boast; heaven speaks. The king remains the addressee—“O King”—even as the kingdom leaves.

Calvin: God does not now admonish by Prophet or dream; He sends forth His own voice. The word was in the king’s mouth when the voice was heard. Time for repentance had been allowed. They say to thee, O King—not for honor but ridicule. This royal majesty will not hinder God from laying thee prostrate.

The timing is His. On this both agree: voice, and the kingdom departed.

Driven from men; dwelling with beasts; grass like an ox; seven times; until you know the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will. The key sentence of 4:17 now becomes the king’s until.

The sentence is repeated word for word from Daniel’s warning, now fulfilled. A year of grace had passed (v. 29) without repentance. The purpose is still redemptive: the king must come to know that Heaven rules.

Calvin: they shall expel thee from among men. Whether madness or conspiracy, the example is memorable. Seven times until thou know there is a lofty ruler in the kingdoms of men. Special clemency: the rod useful, not hardening. Tyrants enclose God in heaven; he must feel God reigns on earth.

“Until you know” shows God’s judgment as effectual teaching, aimed at bringing the king to confess who truly gives kingdoms. Both traditions agree the seven times will pass and that the Most High rules, and the next verse shows the sentence carried out at once.

Immediately the word was fulfilled. Wesley: bereft of understanding, as a man distracted he fled to the woods.

There is no delay after the voice: the king is driven out, and his body is soaked with the dew of heaven. The stump’s mercy (4:26) is still a man among beasts, not annihilation.

Calvin: as soon as the voice, he was cast out from mankind. God left him a human form and deprived him of reason. Hair like eagles’ feathers, claws like birds: a horrid spectacle. He differs in nothing from the brutes except the form.

The word does what it says. Both traditions take the grass, the dew, the hair like feathers, and the claws as the literal humiliation of a proud king.

At the end of the days I lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned, and I blessed the Most High, who lives forever; everlasting dominion. Wesley: God shined upon his soul and gave him understanding to consider his sad state and its causes; he honoured Him by prayer and praise, adoring justice and mercy, giving God the glory of sovereignty and unchangeableness.

“I lifted up my eyes to heaven” and “my understanding returned” come together. Arminian readers see restoration as God’s gift met by a turning upward; the promise of the stump (4:26) is fulfilled in a man who now blesses the Most High.

Calvin: from which thou shalt know there is power in heaven—he would never have acquired this of his own accord unless touched by the secret movement of the Spirit. God not only punished to humble him but worked in him and changed his mind. Dominion everlasting: he now confesses what 2:44 and 4:3 already said of God.

The looking up is inside the return of reason as gift. Lifting his eyes to heaven, recovering his reason, and blessing God happen together. Verse 35 states the will none can stay.

Inhabitants of the earth as nothing; He does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; none can stop his hand, or say, What have you done? Wesley: a due consideration of God’s infinite greatness makes the creature appear as nothing—nothing to help, nothing to hurt, nothing in duration, nothing without dependence, influence, and support from God. His will—the Lord of hosts, the only absolute and universal monarch of the world.

No one can restrain God’s hand or call him to account. Arminians hear this from the lips of a man who once boasted (v. 30) and has now freely praised; God’s sovereignty and the king’s turning stand side by side in the same confession.

Calvin: not only power in heaven but a ruler in the kingdoms of men. He will give it to whomever he will. None can stay His hand: government must remain with the one God. Bare foreknowledge without this government robs Him of half His glory. He appoints future events and governs, allowing nothing to happen by chance or without His direction.

Effectual rule, not a bare permission after the seven times ran out. The inhabitants are as nothing because He actually does His will among them. Nothing happens but what He has knowingly and willingly decreed, yet He is not the author of the king’s pride as pride.

Reason returned; majesty and splendor returned; counselors sought him; established; more greatness added. Wesley: the majesty of a king in his countenance again; owned and obeyed; more august than before.

The stump confirmed (4:26). The lords of his court come seeking him again, because God has restored him as king. Added greatness is gift, not a prosperity wage for the grass. He is still a man under the King of heaven.

Calvin: not a merely moderate station but former dignity, as if never trenched upon. Clemency in the cut. The root remained that the tree might flourish again.

God restores what he had taken, returning reason and majesty and adding still more greatness. The last verse is praise, not a building boast.

Now I praise and extol and honor the King of heaven; His works are right, His ways just; those who walk in pride he is able to abase. Wesley: thus can the Lord make the stoutest hearts to stoop. This doxology proceeds from his heart. God is truth; He dealt justly for pride, in faithfulness afflicted, in tenderness restored. The king has learned in his own life that God is able to humble the proud. What authority had any to say this man was no convert? We can no more doubt of his salvation than of Solomon’s.

The mouth that boasted in v. 30 now speaks in the first person to praise the King of heaven. Able to humble is the lesson of the chapter. Walk in pride is still a walk men take; He is able to meet it. Wesley is sure of conversion; Calvin earlier left the edict’s sincerity in doubt. The shared confession is the King of heaven.

Calvin: whether the confession is true and genuine repentance is not beyond doubt from the earlier edict; he may still mingle deities. Here the language is higher: King of heaven, works right, ways just, able to humble the proud. God extracted glory among the nations. The proud are His to abase; that ability is the same stretched-out hand as 4:17.

The ability to humble is effectual, as the seven times proved. Wesley and Calvin agree on what the king confesses: God’s works are truth, his ways are just, and he humbles those who walk in pride. Daniel 4 ends where 2:21 and 4:17 pointed—the Most High rules. How that rule meets a king who looks up remains the fork already named.