"Is this not Babylon the Great?"

 

10. The Fulfillment of the Dream (4:28-33).

A narrative shift: these verses, relating to the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s madness, are appropriately written in the third person, as opposed to the first. When reason returns, the King again resumes his first-person narrative.

 

v. 28: "All this happened to Nebuchadnezzar the king.”

o   A grim and most pregnant introduction to the events that follow. Failing to repent, all of these things happened because the King failed to yield unto Daniel’s godly counsel!

 

v. 29a: "Twelve months later…”

o   The King was granted the “grace period” of a full year to respond to Daniel’s call for repentance! Sadly, in his unregenerate state, he refuses to bow before the Lord and avail himself of this gracious opportunity—despite being the beneficiary of such dark and terrible warnings from the mouth of a man that he respected as a true and accurate interpreter of Divine communications (cf., 2:46-47, 4:18). Such bears witness unto the hard, stony, and utterly impenetrable heart of natural man (Eph. 2:1; 1 Cor. 2:14, Jer. 17:9).

 

Jer. 17:9: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

 

o   This recalls the principle of grace before judgment (cf., Gen. 6:3).

 

Gen 6:3: Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”

 

o   Such a delay of Divine Justice is usually unheeded by men, who typically misinterpret God’s patience and make the temporary deferral of God’s wrath an occasion to further harden their hearts and perhaps even make sport of the Lord’s forbearance and restraint.

 

2 Pet. 3:3-4: “…knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

 

Eccl. 8:11: “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.”

 

But nonetheless, judgement still falls!

 

2 Pet. 3:9-10: The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

 

o   The failure of men to avail themselves of the opportunity to repent in and of itself confirms the very justice behind Divine Judgment!

 

v. 29b: “…he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon.”

o   There were no less than three royal residences within the confines of the great city. This doubtless refers to the primary royal palace located in conjunction with the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which would have provided an awesome and spectacular vantage point from which to view the entire city. This grand palace was known alternately as “The Marvel of Mankind,” “The Center of the Land,” “The Shining Residence,” or “The Dwelling of Majesty.”

 

v. 30a: "The king reflected and said, 'Is this not Babylon the great…?”

The King’s boast in the splendor of his refurbished and re-invented capital city was not without merit!

 

o   Located some 50 miles south of modern Baghdad, Babylon was a city of great antiquity, associated with the infamous post-diluvian Hamite monarch Nimrod (Gen. 10:10) and the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9), serving as the capital of the Old (or First) Babylonian Empire (c. 1894 BC–1595 BC). Nebuchadnezzar, however, would raise the city to new heights and unprecedented grandeur as the capital of his Neo-Babylonian (or Chaldean) Empire.

 

o   Babylon was the largest and most populous city of antiquity, with an estimated population of some 1,200,000 individuals.

 

Isa. 13:19a: “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans…”

 

The city was essentially a vast square, measuring approx. 15 x 15 miles, surrounded by a deep, wide moat. Laid out in orderly fashion, the city featured wide streets and boulevards, enhanced by great public monuments and numerous buildings—as well as by cultivated farm land & orchards that helped serve the city’s agricultural needs!  

 

o   The ancient Greek historian Herodotus records that Babylon’s impregnable double walls measured some 56 miles in total length and extended to an overall width of 80 ft. (comparable to modern 6 lane highway!), allowing four-horse chariots to ride abreast on the top. Measuring some 320 feet in height, the wall system featured some 260 individual towers.

 

o   The wall system and its massive gates were decorated with royal blue ceramic tile and golden-colored animal figures (lions, bulls, and dragons). Notable was the famous Ishtar Gate, made of beautifully crafted blue glazed bricks at the end of the wide and spectacular Procession Street.

 

o   The city also featured an impressive system of levees and canals that drained excess water from the Euphrates into the Tigris, preventing flooding. A 400 ft. bridge spanned the Euphrates (which bisected the city), joining the eastern and western halves of Babylon.

 

o   The city featured some 53 temples, many of which housed formidable golden statues. The Temple of Marduk (Nebuchadnezzar’s patron deity) was 288 ft. high, situated on top of the seven-story Tower of Babylon, which was built of 60 million fired bricks. Inside the temple was a solid gold statue of Marduk, weighing some 52,000 pounds.

 

o   Perhaps the grandest achievement was the Hanging Gardens of Babylon—one of the Seven Wonders of the World—which was located in conjunction with the King’s primary residence, the Grand Palace. Essentially a 400-foot-high man-made mountain, the Gardens were an ascending series of terraces that featured running water (a triumph of hydraulic engineering) and all manner of trees and vegetation. The King built this marvel for his beloved wife, Queen Amytis (cf., Dan. 5:10-12?), who, as a native Median princess, had missed the fertile green hills of her homeland.