The Tyrant's Doxology Text: Daniel 4:1-3
Introduction: When God Writes the King's Speech
The book of Daniel is about one thing, and one thing only: the absolute, universal, and unshakeable sovereignty of the God of Israel over all the nations of men. It is a book written to exiles, to a people who looked for all the world like their God had been defeated. They had been carted off by a foreign military machine, and their holy city was a heap of rubble. Their God, it seemed, had been weighed in the balances against the gods of Babylon and found wanting. The entire book of Daniel is God's thunderous reply to that lie. He is not the tribal deity of a defeated people; He is the King of Heaven who raises up kings and brings them down. He gives kingdoms to whomever He will, and sometimes He gives them to the basest of men precisely to show that He can.
Nowhere is this theme more potent, more startling, than here in the fourth chapter. What we have before us is not Daniel's narrative or a prophet's sermon. It is an official state document, a royal encyclical, written by the most powerful man on the face of the planet. This is a press release from the Oval Office of the ancient world, from the golden throne of Babylon itself. And it is a doxology. The tyrant has been cornered by grace, humbled by a seven-year stint as a beast of the field, and has come out the other side singing the praises of the God who broke him.
This is a profound offense to the modern secular mind, which insists that religion is a private affair, something to be kept quiet and personal. Our rulers today will speak vaguely of "the divine" or "a higher power," but they would never dare issue a proclamation like this one. They believe the state is ultimate, that their power is inherent, and that God, if He exists at all, must stay in His lane. Nebuchadnezzar is here to tell them, and us, that God has no lanes. The whole earth is His, and He does with it as He pleases. This chapter is a preview of that day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. For some, that confession will be the cry of the redeemed. For others, it will be the shriek of the damned. But for Nebuchadnezzar, it was the astonished testimony of a pagan king who looked into the abyss of his own pride and found the God of all grace waiting for him at the bottom.
The Text
Nebuchadnezzar the king to all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue that inhabit all the earth: "May your peace abound! It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done for me.
How great are His signs,
And how strong are His wonders!
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And His dominion is from generation to generation."
(Daniel 4:1-3 LSB)
The Global Memo (v. 1)
We begin with the preamble, the royal address that opens this astonishing letter.
"Nebuchadnezzar the king to all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue that inhabit all the earth: 'May your peace abound!'" (Daniel 4:1)
Notice the scope of this address. Nebuchadnezzar is not writing to his cabinet or to the province of Babylon. His intended audience is "all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue that inhabit all the earth." This is the language of universal empire. He was the head of gold, the ruler of the known world. But in the hands of the Holy Spirit, this language of earthly empire becomes a prophetic picture of the scope of the Great Commission. The gospel of the true King is destined for every tribe and tongue and nation. Nebuchadnezzar, the pagan emperor, is here commandeered by God to serve as a global town crier, preparing the way for the message that will one day truly unite all peoples under one Lord.
And what is his message? "May your peace abound!" This is a standard ancient greeting, to be sure, but in this context, the irony is thick enough to cut with a knife. This is a man whose entire career was built on the absence of peace. He was a warlord, a conqueror, a man who brought nations to heel through violence and bloodshed. For him to wish peace upon the world is like a wolf wishing the sheep a pleasant afternoon. True peace, lasting peace, does not come from the edicts of earthly kings. It comes from the Prince of Peace, the one whose kingdom this chapter will shortly declare to be everlasting. Nebuchadnezzar can only wish for peace; it is the Most High God who can actually bestow it. And the only way to have that peace is to be reconciled to the King whose dominion has no end.
The Compelled Testimony (v. 2)
Next, the king states his purpose for writing. This is not a political treaty or a tax levy. This is a testimony.
"It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done for me." (Daniel 4:2)
The phrase "it has seemed good to me" is the language of royal prerogative. It is the king's good pleasure. But we who know the story know that this is not Nebuchadnezzar's initiative. He is not declaring this because he thought it would be a nice gesture. He is declaring it because he has been flattened. He has been through the divine woodchipper. God has worked upon him so profoundly that he is compelled to speak. This is what true conversion does. It loosens the tongue. When God does something for you, and to you, it creates a holy obligation to declare it.
He speaks of "signs and wonders." In our therapeutic age, we want a God who gives us gentle nudges and warm feelings. But the God of the Bible is a God of signs and wonders. A sign is an event that points to a greater reality. A wonder is an event that causes astonishment and awe. God's actions in the world are not random; they are meaningful, and they are powerful. The sign Nebuchadnezzar is about to recount, his seven years of insanity, pointed to the reality of God's absolute sovereignty. The wonder of it was that this proud king was brought so low and then, by grace, restored. This is the pattern of the gospel: humiliation and then exaltation. God did not just give Nebuchadnezzar a self-help tip; He performed a wonder for him. It was personal. It was invasive. And it was good.
And notice whom he credits. He doesn't credit Marduk or Bel or any of the tinpot gods of Babylon. He names "the Most High God." This is a title that emphasizes God's transcendence. He is not one god among many. He is infinitely above all pretended deities, and all proud kings. For the supreme ruler on earth to acknowledge the supreme ruler of Heaven is the beginning of all wisdom.
The King's Confession (v. 3)
Having stated his purpose, Nebuchadnezzar erupts into a hymn of praise. This is the thesis statement for the rest of the chapter and, in many ways, for the whole book of Daniel.
"How great are His signs, And how strong are His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And His dominion is from generation to generation." (Daniel 4:3)
This is not the language of a man who has merely learned a new theological fact. This is the cry of a man who has been personally run over by the truth. "How great... How strong..." This is experiential theology. He knows God's signs are great because one of them broke his mind and his pride. He knows God's wonders are strong because one of them put him back together again. He has felt the weight of God's hand, and he is left breathless.
And then he makes the central confession that is the point of the whole affair. "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And His dominion is from generation to generation." Think of who is saying this. This is the man who built an empire that was the wonder of the ancient world. He commanded armies, built hanging gardens, and erected golden statues. His kingdom was mighty. His dominion was vast. But here, with the taste of grass still in his memory, he confesses that his entire empire is a temporary, rickety shack compared to the eternal kingdom of the Most High God.
This is the great political statement of the Bible. There are only two kinds of kingdoms: the kingdoms of men, which rise and fall like the grass, and the kingdom of God, which shall have no end. Nebuchadnezzar's dominion would last for a time, then pass to the Persians, then the Greeks, then the Romans. But the kingdom of God, that stone cut without hands, would crush them all and grow into a mountain that fills the whole earth (Daniel 2:35, 44). Nebuchadnezzar is here testifying against himself. He is declaring the built-in obsolescence of his own glory. His dominion is for a generation; God's dominion is from generation to generation. This is the confession that every ruler, every president, every prime minister, and every king must one day make, either willingly in this life or unwillingly at the judgment.
Conclusion: The Gospel for Tyrants
So what do we do with a text like this? First, we must see that no one is beyond the reach of the grace of God. If God can save Nebuchadnezzar, the proud, brutal, pagan tyrant, then He can save your rebellious child, your hard-hearted boss, or your secularist neighbor. The power of the gospel is not limited by the depth of the sin.
Second, we must understand that God's primary method for dealing with human pride is to humble it. He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. For Nebuchadnezzar, this meant seven years of public humiliation. For us, it may mean a lost job, a difficult diagnosis, or a rebellious child. God will use whatever means necessary to break our self-reliance so that we might rely on Him alone.
Finally, we must take this king's confession and make it our own, but with a greater clarity than he could have ever possessed. We know the name of the one whose kingdom is everlasting. His name is Jesus. Nebuchadnezzar saw the kingdom from a distance, but we live in the age of its definitive arrival. Christ has come, He has died, He has risen, and He has ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on High, from whence He rules the nations. Therefore, we must not be timid. We are not citizens of a defeated kingdom. We are ambassadors of the King whose dominion is from generation to generation. Like Nebuchadnezzar, we have a testimony to declare. Let us declare it to all peoples, nations, and tongues, until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.