Daniel 4:8 But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and before him I told the dream, saying
Maybe you have heard the corny joke about the man who sees his friend with a burn mark on his ear. He asks, “What happened to your ear?” The friend says, “I was ironing my shirt one day and the phone rang. I answered the iron instead of the phone.” The man said, “That’s horrible! What happened to your other ear?” There was also a burn mark on that ear. “Well,” he said, “the same guy called back.” The reason that is humorous, if it is humorous at all, is because we have all experienced the event of not learning from our own experience. Something happens and we just go on and it happens all over again because we didn’t learn from our experience.
In Daniel 4 we have the same kind of story. It is about Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonian Empire, who answers the clothes’ iron instead of the phone for the second time. He does the same thing all over again. Daniel 4:1 says, “Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.” Then, we have a copy of his declaration. It says, “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.”
Then he talks about a dream he had and what it meant. In verse 6 he says something interesting, “Therefore made I a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they might make known unto me the interpretation of the dream.” I am amazed at this. How in the world could a guy be seeking his wise men and sorcerers a second time. He had already gone through all this. God had already given him a vision. He had told the wise men to give him the interpretation of the dream, but they could not. Daniel said, “No man can do this, but there is a god in heaven.” The king asks Daniel the interpretation. Daniel seeks God, who gives him the meaning, and he shares it with Nebuchadnezzar. But here he is yet again, going back to the same old wise men who were not that wise.
Then verse 8 says, “But at the last.” In other words, this was after he had exhausted his other options. It continues, “Daniel came in before me, whose name was Balteshazzar, according to the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and before him I told the dream, saying…” He told Daniel the dream and Daniel gave him the interpretation.
What is amazing to me is how arrogance and ignorance are almost synonymous. This king was living in arrogance; therefore, he was living in ignorance. He did not know what he did not know because he was ignoring it. He had sought his wise men. They had failed, but he went right back to the same empty source all over again. How often that is a picture of me. I need help, guidance, answers. I find some source empty, yet I have the same need later on and I go back to the same bankrupt source.
There is an old saying, “A wise man does at the first what a fool does at the last.” I think Nebuchadnezzar became wiser after this, but he says, “At the last Daniel came in before me.” He was doing at the last what he could have done at the first. Why does a wise man do at the first what a fool does at the last?
First of all, he accounts for God. At the end of all of this, that is what Nebuchadnezzar did do. In verse 2 he basically says, “I want to show forth the wonders that the high God hath worked toward me.” A wise person accounts for God in life. He doesn’t misattribute the events of his life. In verse 8 it is interesting that Nebuchadnezzar calls Daniel Balteshazzar, a name he had given Daniel in reference to his own pagan god. He says this right before he reiterates the spirit of the holy gods, by which he means Jehovah, is in Daniel. A wise man accounts for God. He doesn’t misattribute the events of his life. It is all too easy to look at the events of my life and attribute them to dumb luck, chance, abilities, money, or gifting. A wise person accounts for God in life.
Second, a wise person learns from experience. Nebuchadnezzar says, “Therefore I made a decree to bring in all the wise men.” Well, he tried that and it failed. I want to learn from experience. Sometimes experience is an effective teacher and sometimes a fatal teacher. So, I would rather learn from your experience or Nebuchadnezzar’s or Daniel’s experience. The Bible is the experiences of thousands of people over thousands of years and God’s intervening in their lives. It is how we can learn in a short period of time from thousands of years of history. The quicker we learn the better we live.
Throughout this story you find various designations of time and their relevance on the story. For instance, God pronounces judgment on Nebuchadnezzar, and He mentions that it will occur over a period of seven years. Verse 29 says, “At the end of twelve months he [Nebuchadnezzar] walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon.” This is after he had been given the interpretation and warning by Daniel and persisted in his arrogance. God judged him.
Verse 31 says, “While the word was in the king’s mouth…” The king was talking about his power, honor, and majesty, but God is not going to share His glory with anybody. So, you find all these time designations, but when it comes to the time designation for when Nebuchadnezzar listened to Daniel, it was at the last. It should have been at the first. I think Nebuchadnezzar learned from this, and I want to learn from Nebuchadnezzar’s lesson too because I don’t want to experience what he experienced. The quicker we learn, the better we live, and a wise man does at the first what a fool does at the last.