Daniel 4:31 "While the word [was]
in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, [saying], O king
Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee."
He did not heed the voice of Daniel,
who interpreted his dream. This voice does not speak through Daniel. This voice
came from heaven itself.
This judgment is
unquestionable. It does not come from the mouth of man, but the mouth of God.
Daniel 4:32 "And they shall drive
thee from men, and thy dwelling [shall be] with the beasts of the field: they
shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee,
until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it
to whomsoever he will."
These are the same Words Daniel had
given him. He will eat grass and live like an animal, until he realizes it is
God who makes kings.
Daniel 4:33 "The same hour was
the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did
eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs
were grown like eagles' [feathers], and his nails like birds' [claws]."
This is an instant fulfillment of the
judgment. His nails, having not been cut for seven years, would be like bird's
claws. His hair would grow extremely long and straight in a period of seven
years, also.
This is the
description of a man who has lost his mind. Seven speaks of spiritual
completeness.
Two important
questions arise from this incident: (1) could it happen to a man and (2) could
it have happened to Nebuchadnezzar? The answer to both questions is yes. There
is a mental illness known as zoanthropy in which a man thinks and acts like an
animal. It is also called boanthropy, more specifically, when a man thinks of
himself as an ox. In answer to the second question, this illness is not
mentioned in Nebuchadnezzar’s annals, but one would not expect such a
humiliating experience to be chronicled. On the other hand, his long reign of
43 years is more than long enough to include the lengthy sickness.
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