God’s Word for You
Daniel 4:1-3 Glory be to God on High
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, October 2, 2025
The basic message of the book of Daniel is that the true God, the God of Israel, is superior to all the idols of the nations. This chapter underlines this truth by showing that heathen nations and heathen kings are just as subordinate to the true God as the nation and kings of Israel. “What is different about this chapter is that here the testimony to the true God is placed into the mouth of a heathen king.”
King Nebuchadnezzar’s illness is not described until verse 33 of this chapter, and then only briefly. It does not appear in the official records of Babylon at the time, but a king’s illness is not the kind of thing that regularly gets recorded by royal scribes. The third century BC historian Berosus wrote: “Having fallen into weakness, [Nebuchadnezzar] dies.” His madness resembles the symptoms of clinical lycanthropy, but we will content ourselves to calling the king’s condition his madness.
It has occurred to more than one reader that in these beginning chapters of Daniel, the accounts alternate between various dangers and threats to God’s people and miraculous interpretations of visions and dreams by the prophet. Such was Daniel’s life and service under the great King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
4:1 King Nebuchadnezzar,
To all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth:
May your peace grow!2 Oh, the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me! It is my pleasure to declare 3 how great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.
Nebuchadnezzar writes as if he is king over all the world: “To all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth.” But Nebuchadnezzar was really just king of Babylon, and he knew it. The Egyptians weren’t under his power (Daniel 11:8). Neither were the Greeks (Joel 3:6). Nor were the Scythians in the far north (Colossians 3:11) or the Chinese in the far east (perhaps the meaning of Sinim in Isaiah 49:12). But tyrants sometimes overstate their achievements, even when their true achievements could stand on their own merits.
This account begins with its own happy ending. Toward the end of the chapter, the king will be driven into a madness by the word of God. After seven years of this illness, during which he acted like an animal, driven away from his own palace and court and eating grass, he was restored to health and sanity by God. And the royal letter he wrote and sent throughout his kingdom is the document before us.
Ezra copied documents from the royal archives of Persia. Paul quoted Greek poets such as Epimenides (Acts 17:28; Titus 1:12), Aratus or Cleanthes (Acts 17:28) and Menander (1 Corinthians 15:33). Are those words part of the Word of God? Absolutely they are, elevated to the same status by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through the pens of the Biblical authors who quoted them. Therefore what Nebuchadnezzar says in this chapter is also every bit as much the word of God, not because Nebuchadnezzar was inspired, but because as Daniel used his words, Daniel himself was writing, and quoting, under inspiration. We must say the same thing about Moses quoting Satan’s hissing words in the Garden of Eden.
Since it is the inspired word of God, as is everything in the Scripture, what do we learn here about either law or gospel, or justification and sanctification? Our lesson is without a doubt a proclamation of the gospel. Nebuchadnezzar had been struck down by God with the full hammer of the law, as we will see later on, and now, fully recovered, he was telling what had happened to him and giving the Lord, “the Most High God,” full credit for what he had done for him.
When we confess our sins in church and hear the proclamation of the forgiveness of our sins, what do we usually do next? We sing a song of praise. Most often it is “Glory be to God in the Highest,” which as a title is very similar to “the Most High God” indeed. We praise God who has rescued us and forgiven us just as Nebuchadnezzar praised God. He did it in public and we do it in public.
I think the king did pretty well. He wasn’t a complete and full convert to faith in the Most High God and him alone, perhaps, but shaky faith or not, if it was nothing but a broken reed or a smoldering wick, it was enough. I do not want to stand in judgment of Nebuchadnezzar’s faith beyond that. I would not condemn him, and I rejoice the most that Christ has not condemned me. How wonderful it is to know that one’s sins are forgiven! This is what it means to be at peace with God.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.