Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and
languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. I thought
it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me.
How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation. (Daniel
4:1–3)
Here Nebuchadnezzar predicts the magnificence and mightiness
of his own monarchy. Hence he sends his edict to all peoples, and nations, and
languages, which dwell on the earth. He afterwards adds, it seemed to me good
to relate the signs and wonders which the mighty God hath wrought with me. No
doubt he feels himself to have paid the penalty of his ingratitude, since he
had so punctiliously ascribed the glory to one true God, and yet had relapsed
into his own superstitions, and had never really said farewell to them. We see
how often King Nebuchadnezzar was chastised before he profited by the rod of
the Almighty.
Hence we need not be surprised if God often strikes us with
his hand, since the result of experience proves us to be dull, and, to speak
truly, utterly slothful. When God, therefore, wishes to lead us to repentance,
he is compelled to repeat his blows continually, either because we are not
moved when he chastises us with his hand, or we seem roused for the time, and
then we return again to our former torpor. He is therefore compelled to
redouble his blows.
And we perceive this in the narrative before us, as in a
glass. But the singular benefit of God was this, Nebuchadnezzar, after God had
often chastised him, yielded at length. It is unknown whether or not this
confession proceeded front true and genuine repentance: I must leave it in
doubt. Yet without the slightest doubt Daniel recited this edict, to shew the
king so subdued at length, as to confess the God of Israel to be the only God,
and to bear witness to this among all people under his sway. (Commentaries)
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