Wednesday Evening
Adult Bible Study
King Nebuchadnezzar has another dream about a great tree that towers to the heaven, big enough for the entire world to see. It is home to birds and a thing of beauty. In the dream the tree is cut down and only a stump remains which is left out in the elements. This stump is to dwell with the animals as an animal itself – having the mind of an animal.
The interpretation is that the Nebuchadnezzar is the tree. He kingdom is great over all the earth; but it will be cut down, and Nebuchadnezzar will be reduced mentally to little more than an animal. He will lose his mind and will dwell out in the woods, but off from society; however, after two years all will be restored by God to its former state.
The condition that is being described of the king is called “‘insania zoanthropia,’ a form of insanity in which a man acts like a beast.”[1]
The story practically interprets itself. It is one of many stories that depict the preeminence of God Most High over all the kingdoms of the world. It is to say, “Evaluate power, you that have it – or seem to have it. No power is greater than God’s and not power is in your possession unless you have been given that power from God Most High.” Power, and authority to rule is given by God and there is none that exists outside of God’s.
Nebuchadnezzar learns this lesson; yet along with the lesson of God ability to destroy comes also God’s continued ability to build up and to restore what is broken down.
This is an important message for the people to whom Daniel is written. They are a people in the clutch of Alexander the Great. The Greek world has come upon them and Alexander’s next in line to rule is Antiochus Epiphanes IV – a tyrant that has no tolerance for Israel. Their temple has been desecrated and their authority squashed. The author of Daniel reminds them that this is not the first time that they are in captivity by foreigners. They were taken to Babylon – they were under King Nebuchadnezzar – and God exercised his rule and dominion over him. This message is that God can and will restore his people when they are pressed hard and brought low.
The Rev. Dr. Kipp W. Zimmermann
© All rights reserved. Any use of this material must carry this copy right. Brooklyn NY, 2004.
[1] Metzger, Bruce M. and Roland E. Murphy, eds, The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, The New Revised Standard Version, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991; note 4.25, 1133 (OT).