What is the meaning of Daniel 5:21? He was driven away from mankind When Nebuchadnezzar exalted himself, God removed him from the very people he was proud to rule (Daniel 4:32-33). • Pride isolates; it breaks fellowship with both God and others (Proverbs 16:18; James 4:6). • Like Cain who became “a fugitive and a wanderer” (Genesis 4:14), the king’s banishment pictures sin’s separating power. • Belshazzar hears this reminder so he can grasp that the same God who humbled his grandfather still reigns (Daniel 5:22-23). and his mind was like that of a beast God did not merely strip away the throne; He touched the king’s reason. “A man of wealth without understanding is like the beasts that perish” (Psalm 49:20). • Sin darkens understanding (Romans 1:21-22). • True wisdom begins with fearing the Lord (Proverbs 9:10). • When God withholds common grace, even the greatest intellect collapses. He lived with the wild donkeys The palace was traded for the open field, company for creatures (Job 30:3-7). • “Who loosened the bonds of the wild donkey?” (Job 39:5). Only the Creator governs both rulers and animals. • The scene is a living parable: man apart from God is untamed, restless, unable to govern himself. and ate grass like an ox The royal banquet table is gone; the king becomes a grazing animal (Daniel 4:33). • God often uses physical circumstances to mirror spiritual need (Luke 15:15-16; Psalm 106:15). • The humiliation matches the offense—Nebuchadnezzar boasted in what he built; God shows him he cannot even feed himself. and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven Unprotected, he sleeps under the open sky until hair and nails grow wild (Daniel 4:33). • “My food and drink, day and night, were on the field; the dew lay on my branch” (2 Samuel 21:10). Exposure underscores helplessness. • The same “dew of heaven” that blesses (Genesis 27:28) can also chasten; God decides which. until he acknowledged that the Most High God rules over the kingdom of mankind, setting over it whom He wishes The nightmare ends the moment the king lifts his eyes and praises the Lord (Daniel 4:34-35). • God alone establishes and removes rulers (Psalm 75:6-7; Romans 13:1). • Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony—“all His works are true and His ways are just; He is able to humble those who walk in pride” (Daniel 4:37)—stands as a warning to Belshazzar and to every generation (1 Peter 5:6). • History is not a contest of human power but a stage for divine sovereignty (Psalm 115:3). summary Daniel 5:21 recounts how God shattered Nebuchadnezzar’s pride: driven from people, mind darkened, living among beasts, eating grass, soaked by dew—until he confessed that heaven rules. The verse reminds Belshazzar, and us, that the Most High is Lord over every kingdom and every heart. He exalts or abases at His pleasure, calling all people to humility, repentance, and worship. |
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