This decision is the decree of the watchers, the verdict declared by the holy ones, so that the living will know that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes, setting over it the lowliest of men.' Sermons
I. WE HAVE A PICTURE OF BRILLIANT PROSPERITY. It was a common method in olden time to represent a prosperous man under the image of a flourishing tree. "The righteous shall prosper as a palm tree: he shall grow as a cedar in Lebanon." The greatness and splendour of Nebuchadnezzar resembled such a tree. He reigned in Babylon - well-nigh the centre of the then known world. His power among earthly kings was supreme. Neighbouring monarchs were his vassals. In all his wars he had been successful. Israel and Syria, Egypt and Arabia, lay at his feet. His throne was strong, and his fame reached, as it seemed, to heaven. Nor did his rule appear, on the whole, injurious. The peoples found protection under his sceptre. He encouraged the growth of art and science. But this military glory fed and pampered his pride. He deemed himself something more than man. He imagined himself a demi-god. The prosperity was outward, material, plausible. It did not touch and transform his inner nature. His body was nursed in luxury, but he was starving his soul. The flower opened in unrivalled beauty, but there was a worm at the root. Ah! deceitful sunshine. II. A PICTURE OF AWFUL REVERSE. It is no uncommon thing for prosperous men to suffer a sudden and complete reverse. "Riches make for themselves wings, and fly away." The props of a throne are soon snapped. The arm of military power is soon broken. Kings have ended life in a dungeon or on a scaffold. Not more complete is the contrast between a fruit tree in spring and the same tree in the frosty days of winter, than the conditions of some men - in the morning prosperous, in the evening stripped and naked. Can Fortune's best gifts be worth much, which give no warrant of continuance? The calamity which was preparing for Nebuchadnezzar was certainly the most severe that could befall a man. Worse than disease! Worse than leprosy Worse than death! He who had "set his heart as the heart of God," who had aspired to a place among the stars, was to fall below the level of a man - was to have the heart of a beast, abject weakness instead of imperial might, imbecility in place of boasted wisdom. This disaster is said to be proclaimed by a holy watcher. This language was an accommodation to prevalent beliefs. The unfallen angels, being unburdened with a corporeal nature, and having, therefore, no need of sleep, are ever wakeful to execute the commissions of Jehovah. These watch our course, grieve over our declensions, and correct us for our follies. So did an angel scatter the hosts of Sennacherib. So did an angel smite Herod with a fatal disease. "Are they not all ministering spirits?" "Excelling in strength, they do his commands, hearkening to the voice of his word." III. TWIN RAYS OF HOPE. The Divine sentence proceeds with a succession of melancholy chastisements, until the word "nevertheless" is reached; then the deepening darkness is relieved by a gleam of hope. The stump of the root was to be preserved. This, of course, implied that the overthrow was not absolute and final. Room was yet left for repentance and restoration. Special means were chosen to preserve the stump from rot and injury. So all God's judgments, in this life, are corrective and are designed to be remedial. Judgment and mercy are blended in human discipline. The affliction, though severe, was not to be permanent and eternal. There was a limit in respect to duration: "Till seven times are passed over him." A sad apprenticeship in the dark prison of insanity, for seven years, was to be endured. And then, what? This was the momentous question. Was the issue, then, to be death? Or repentance, amendment, life? Tremendous issues hung upon the man's use of God's judgment. Every man is upon his trial. We are here "prisoners of hope." A ray of mercy gilds our path, which ray may broaden and brighten into eternal noon, or may be quenched in blackest night. IV. A MERCIFUL DESIGN. There is no room for caprice or chance in the government of our world, nor in any of the affairs of men. Does insanity fall upon a man? It is by a heaven]y design. "The purpose of Jehovah, that shall stand." Mark, that God's intention was not simply the good of one individual man, but the good of all living. God uses one to teach many - disciplines one, that he may be a blessing to multitudes. "No man liveth unto himself." We receive good and evil mediately from the human race. We transmit blessing or bane to the future ages. God's high design is to teach men religious truth - "that the living may know that God ruleth" To know God, as the living, reigning God, - this is among the highest blessings we can obtain. If we know God, we shall long to be reconciled to him, to enjoy his friendship. Acquaintance with God will quicken the aspiration to be like him. To know him is the way to virtue, wisdom, eminence, peace. It is comparatively easy to instruct the beggar, it is very difficult to instruct the monarch, in this lore. How hardly shall they that have riches confess themselves poor! How hardly shall they that have dominion acknowledge their dependence! The poorest in this way may become the richest; the meanest among men may become the mightiest in the kingdom of heaven. - D.
This matter is by the decree of the watchers The word for watcher became an ordinary term in the Syrian church for angel; and Ephrem Syrus classes the watchers with the Seraphim and Cherubim as a special order of Heavenly beings. The use, however, of the word in the Syrian church was probably borrowed from this passage, and it is interesting to find in the Babylonian mythology a complete explanation of its use. For as there are "watchers" mentioned also in the literature of the Parsees, or Persian fire worshippers, it has been argued that the Book of Daniel was a late book, which had borrowed its doctrines of angels from Zoroaster. Our enlarged knowledge of Babylonian literature has revealed to us the fact that they believed in a vast hierarchy of spiritual beings of every rank, some belonging to the earth and some to Heaven; and among these the seven spirits, to whom the seven planets were entrusted, held an important place as the guardians of the universe and of the house. There were also seven warder spirits who kept watch at the gates of Hades. Each dwelling also had special watchers, whose office it was to drive away the wicked and all enemies, and who could oven inflict upon them the penalty of death. There have been brought home to our museums figures coarsely fashioned in bronze of these watchers; while in the cuneiform inscriptions there are found solemn forms, directing where, with magical rites, each one of these guardian beings was to be placed, and detailing his attributes of office. The being, therefore, which the king saw in his dream was one of his own guardians, a warder spirit under whose protection he had been placed.(R. Payne Smith, D.D.) (R. Payne Smith, D. D.) II. Let us now proceed to notice THE LEGISLATION SET FORTH IN OUR TEXT in the words "decreeing and demanding," throughout the wide range of Divine government in the worlds of nature, providence, and grace; and who, I ask, can be trusted to decree and demand, but these Almighty watchers, these holy ones? This glorious Triune Jehovah alone doeth what seemeth Him good in the armies of Heaven and among the inhabitants of earth. Of Him only can it be said, "He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast"; for "the counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations." So that what the watchers decree, the holy ones demand throughout the world of nature. Hence the Psalmist assures us that fire and hail, snow and vapours, stormy wind, mountains and all hills, fulfil His word (Psalm 148:8). Yea, when He decrees the reversing of nature's order for any special purpose, He also demands its accomplishment; as when the sun stood still while Joshua completed his victory over Israel's enemies (Joshua 10); and when the sun went backward ten degrees by the sun-dial of Ahaz to confirm the Lord's promise of adding unto the king's days fifteen years (Isaiah 38:8). Let us now turn from the world of nature to the world, of providence, and see how Divine legislation rules there without human interference; yea, against human hostility. The history of the patriarch Joseph was a striking exemplification of this principle. The watchers had decreed that he should rise to an eminence above all his brethren for the purpose of saving Egypt from desolation, and the chosen tribes from perishing in the time of famine; but at every step of his advancement human hostility seemed determined to frustrate that decree. Just glance at the history of David in confirmation of the grand truth which we are dwelling upon. "The decree of the watchers" was that he should be King of Israeli that he should slay Goliath and vanquish the Philistines; but everything human seemed to militate against that decree. Take one more sample of sacred history to illustrate this point, the history of Paul. The decree of the watchers concerning him is recorded thus, "He is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel." Yet, before the demand is made, "he is breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord." But what an imperative demand was that word of the holy ones, "Saul! Saul!" which invincibly struck him to the ground, changed his heart, and made him cry out, "Lord, what wilt thou have me do?" Still, human hostility determines upon reversing the decree of the watchers, and perverse man sets himself to overturn Divine legislation by conspiring against the life of Paul — yea, against the progress of Christ's Kingdom; but what do all their conspiracies effect, but the very furtherance of that great work which they aimed to destroy? Having thus surveyed the worlds of nature and providence as under this Divine legislation, we will turn our attention to the world of grace; and here our text will be the running title of the statute-book, and the farther we read the more deeply shall we be convinced that decrees and demands made up the whole amount of legislation by which the world of grace is governed. The whole system is ushered in with this royal proclamation, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I wilt show mercy" (Exodus 33:19). III. We will now attend, in the third place, TO THE LESSONS OF INFORMATION SET BEFORE US IN THIS HIGH AND HOLY PROCLAMATION. And the first lesson of information is that there is but one sovereign Ruler of all worlds, all beings, and all things; To throw off Divine authority, and the absolute sovereignty of Jehovah, is the bent and determination of fallen man; "because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7). Moreover, His redeemed, grace-taught subjects may well rejoice even now that all nations, all kings, yea, all worlds shall know that the Most High ruleth over all; so that all the great events, the revolutions, the rise and fall of empires are subject to His control, and subservient to the decree of the watchers, and to the demand by the word of the holy ones. Now let us learn a second lesson of information from this subject, the entire dependence of the creature upon these Almighty watchers. (Joseph Irons.) God was pleased to humble Nebuchadnezzar, and to make him an example to the world and to himself of the frailty of all human power — the instability of all human greatness. Strange as it may seem, notwithstanding Daniel's weight and credit with the king — notwithstanding the consternation of mind into which the dream had thrown him, this warning had no permanent effect. He who was not cured of his overweening pride and vanity till he was overtaken by the threatened judgment. This judgment the text refers to the "decree of the washers," and the "word of the holy ones." The intent of the matter is to give mankind a proof, in the fall and restoration of this mighty monarch, that the fortunes of kings and empires are in the hand of God — that His providence perpetually interposes in the affairs of men, distributing crowns and sceptres, always for the good of the faithful primarily, ultimately of his whole creation, but according to His will. It is a mistake to regard these "watchers" and "holy ones" as angels. They are none other than the Three Persons in the Godhead. "Watchers" describes them by the vigilance of their universal providence. "Holy ones" by the transcendent sanctity of their nature. The assertion in the text is that God had decreed to execute a signal judgment upon Nebuchadnezzar for his pride and impiety. To make the declaration more solemn and striking, the terms in which it is conceived distinctly express that consent and concurrence of all the Persons in the Trinity in the design and execution of this judgment, which must be understood indeed in every act of the Godhead. It is the express assertion of the text that God governs the world according to His will. If this were always, present to the minds of men, they would never be cast down beyond measure by the successes of any enemy. And a firm belief in God's providence will moderate our excessive admiration of the virtues and talents of men, and especially of bad men.(Bishop Horsley.) People Belteshazzar, Daniel, Jonah, NebuchadnezzarPlaces BabylonTopics Angelic, Announced, Anyone, Basest, Bestows, Command, Decision, Declare, Decree, Demand, Fixed, Gives, Giveth, Holy, Intent, Jonah, Kingdom, Kingdoms, Lifting, Lowest, Lowliest, Mankind, Matter, Messengers, Ones, Order, Pleasure, Raise, Realm, Requirement, Ruler, Rules, Ruleth, Saying, Sentence, Sets, Setteth, Sifters, Sovereign, Verdict, Watchers, Whomever, Whomsoever, Willeth, WishesOutline 1. Nebuchadnezzar confesses God's kingdom,4. makes relation of his dreams, which the magicians could not interpret. 8. Daniel hears the dream. 19. He interprets it. 28. The dream fulfilled. Dictionary of Bible Themes Daniel 4:17 4029 world, human beings in Library The Life of Mr. Andrew Melvil. Mr. Melvil, after finishing his classical studies, went abroad, and taught, for some time, both at Poictiers in France, and at Geneva. He returned to Scotland in July 1574, after having been absent from his native country near ten years. Upon his return, the learned Beza, in a letter to the general assembly of the church of Scotland, said, "That the greatest token of affection the kirk of Geneva could show to Scotland, was, that they had suffered themselves to be spoiled of Mr. Andrew Melvil." Soon … John Howie—Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) Human Government. Epistle xxxi. To Phocas, Emperor . The Teaching of Matthew 13 Proves that no Era of Millennial Blessing Precedes Christ's Second Advent. And the Fame of Antony came Even unto Kings. ... Third Sunday after Trinity Humility, Trust, Watchfulness, Suffering The Power of God That for the Most Part the Occupation of Government Dissipates the Solidity of the Mind. King of Kings and Lord of Lords Concerning Salutations and Recreations, &C. Destruction of Jerusalem Foretold. The Chorus of Angels Supplementary Note to Chapter ii. The Year of Christ's Birth. "Seek First the Kingdom of God," &C. Repentance Daniel Links Daniel 4:17 NIVDaniel 4:17 NLT Daniel 4:17 ESV Daniel 4:17 NASB Daniel 4:17 KJV Daniel 4:17 Bible Apps Daniel 4:17 Parallel Daniel 4:17 Biblia Paralela Daniel 4:17 Chinese Bible Daniel 4:17 French Bible Daniel 4:17 German Bible Daniel 4:17 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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