God’s Word for You
Daniel 4:19-22 Quite a while
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, October 7, 2025
19 Then, for quite a while Daniel, whose name was also Belteshazzar, was stunned. His thoughts terrified him. But the king said, “Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or the explanation alarm you.” Belteshazzar answered, “My lord, if only the dream were for your enemies and its interpretation for your opponents! 20 The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached up to heaven, and was visible to the end of the whole earth, 21 and its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and there was food for all, giving shade to the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches—22 it is you, O king! You have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and you rule to the ends of the earth.
We move now into the second part of the chapter (Daniel 4:19-27) in which the prophet interprets the dream. He begins by telling us that he was stunned, astonished, for “about an hour” (literal meaning of the Aramaic). He could not speak, and without a doubt he turned the words of the dream over and over in his head, perhaps even pacing around in the king’s court, or else dropping into a chair, head in hands, as his astonishment turned first to terror and then to understanding, until finally he was able to put his full comprehension into words.
The prophet turns over the most important elements of the prophecy in his mind once again, but he does it out loud, so that both he and the king will recall the things before he touches on them all and their significance. Verses 20 and 21 are therefore a repetition, but there is no point in ignoring them:
“The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached up to heaven, and was visible to the end of the whole earth”—These things were about the king’s power and his authority. Nebuchadnezzar had grown in his renown. He had become strong in the might of his armies. His name and his reputation had been like the top of a towering tree, for all to see and for all to recognize. There was no one in the world who knew about him who did not respect his might. And yes, word about Babylon reached “to the very ends of the earth.”
“Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and there was food for all, giving shade to the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches.” Here, too, were Nebuchadnezzar’s hand and eyes, watching over his kingdom, taking care of all of the people under his authority. Those people were like helpless animals under his personal shade; they were like birds finding perches in all of the branches of his long reach. He might have had tremendous compassion for them, but would his successor? No—the vision tells us that the animals and birds were commanded, or urged, to fly away! Run away! Whatever protection they had been given by this king was soon to disappear, as soon as his human mind was replaced with the brains of a brute beast. There would be no one to help those people any longer.
Daniel continues: “It is you, O king! You have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and you rule to the ends of the earth.” This was not in the distant future. This was not Nebuchadnezzar’s heir. This was Nebuchadnezzar, and it was the king now, as he was, at the height of his power, fame, glory, and splendor. This detail among all the others was one of the things that made Daniel so terrified. The vision was not a prophecy about the future. It was a prophecy about the present. This was about to happen.
It is clear how we should consider this passage as law, since it displays with precision what was about to happen to the king, and even to his subjects. It is not so clear why this was going to take place, and therefore the warning left the king room to consider his life, how he was at fault, and what he might have done. Knowing this, or thinking about it, might lead him to reform his life and to give up sin of every kind, learning, perhaps, the will of God through Daniel or through his companions.
The law does the same thing for us. It shows us our sins in general, and some specific things that we are aware of having done. The man who curses all the time is shown the Second Commandment, and learns that he should not use God’s name, nor any foul or filthy language, but to use language in general (a gift from God) and God’s name in particular to pray, praise, and give God thanks. And so it is with the rebel, the adulterer, the sexually immoral, the thief, the gossip, the plotter who desires and covets what is not his, and so forth. God says: “Repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out” (Acts 3:19). For the threats are there in many words. There is the threat of hell in eternity, and also of troubles in this lifetime for those who have had a carefree life without troubles but with endless sins and rebellions against the Lord. The Lord may bring them down tomorrow, so that they will say, “I was senseless and ignorant, I was a brute beast” (Psalm 73:22). This was the threat to Nebuchadnezzar. But we have the gospel to free us from threats and terror, from the reality of hell and the possibility of earthly ruin. We put our faith in Jesus, the name above every name (Philippians 2:9), and we strive to do everything in this life “without complaining or arguing” (Philippians 2:14), for we have a place waiting for us forever in heaven.
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.