In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, greets all the people reading the story by saying, "Peace be multiplied to you. I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me." (Daniel 4:1-2)

This is quite a statement from someone who, just in the previous chapter, was executing three men because they did not worship him instead of the real God. I was struck by the actuality of Nebuchadnezzar's words and the simple claim that God's work can be accomplished.

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, represents the love of self in some of its worst forms. In the chapter before, he listens as his counselors tell him, "These men, O King, have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up." (Daniel 3:12) In other words, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego did not bring the image of self into every thing they did, nor cower before their propriums. Nebuchadnezzar, in his rage and fury, commanded his soldiers to bring the three men to him. Who has not experienced the rage and fury of the proprium (a term that Swedenborg uses meaning one's own, or self-hood) when it is not being served? The king then demands of the men, "You fall down and worship the image which I have made" or "you shall be cast…into the midst of the burning fiery furnace." (Daniel 3:15).

Just recently my brother, Tom, who does not believe in God, was in a discussion with another brother, Joe, a born-again Christian. Within five minutes the discussion got onto religion. This was no surprise. It got heated, and eventually the discussion got onto the good that we do. Joe kept claiming it was from God and Tom was adamantly denying it. When Joe asked Tom where he thought the good that he does comes from, Tom's fingers gripped the table between them, his eyes bulged, his face reddened, and his voice got hoarse. He leaned forward and rasped, "From me."

In Daniel, chapter 4, at the beginning, Nebuchadnezzar says, "I was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace." (Daniel 4:3) Here the king of Babylon is telling us about his contentment in life. From his words I get a sense of a man (more particularly myself), really believing that this world is everything, and he's made a good life for himself amidst worldly riches and activities.

But something happened to him to trouble his ideal existence. The king says, "I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me." (Daniel 4:5) His thoughts are so stirred up that he can't sleep, and the pictures he gets in his mind are so disturbing that his rest is gone. Odd that they didn't seem to disturb him earlier when he was ready to kill three men for not submitting to his control and worshiping the images he brought forth. But now his thoughts and visions are troubling him. Wrong thinking and reasons always brings trouble, first to other people and then to ourselves.

I really had to stop to realize that when I want control of other people, as Nebuchadnezzar did with Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, I don't care how much I disturb their life - just so long as my ideal life is not tampered with. Could one aspect of it be why we want control, because we have an ideal in our minds that we don't want to have disturbed, and that we will do anything to accomplish that ideal?

Because of his troubled mind, Nebuchadnezzar made a decree, telling his counselors "to bring all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they might make known unto me the interpretation of (my) dream." (Daniel 4:6) But those he considered wise could not do it. They were wise in flattering self and explaining how the world works, and not about spiritual things. When the Lord decides this is the time for you to learn about Him, then the mind is chaotic, like Nebuchadnezzar's. "But at last Daniel came before me, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods." (Daniel 4:8)

I can almost feel the relief in the king's voice. Nebuchadnezzar tells Daniel his dream. This is a picture of the love of self in us so distraught, it is driven to try the true religion as a last resort. Daniel says in the story, "This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most High," (Daniel 4:24) meaning, "This is the way life is, O king, there is a spiritual, and there is no other way to interpret it. You can no longer believe that you are the source of all good. There is a spiritual life after this one, and all your palaces and accomplishments and control of things and people in this world is not going to change it. You have to look beyond this natural life and reflect on yourself, because you are the problem." Daniel says, "It is you, O king, you are grown and become strong; for your greatness has grown, and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the end of the earth." (Daniel 4:22) This inward zeal of dominating, you have to let go of, for the heavens and the earth really are under someone else's control.

Daniel then tells Nebuchadnezzar that he needs to be worried, for all the things he saw in his dream will come true: "They shall drive you from men…your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make you to eat grass as oxen." (Daniel 4:25) In addition to the spiritual doom, the literal is describing a feral state - that is, of turning back from a tamed state to a wild, animal one. My daughter, Kelley, recently had a cat that was tame but turned to hunting as its primary way of getting food. It refused to eat cat food and in the house would only eat food that she cooked. Worse than that, it was very aggressive about getting the food she was cooking, meowing in a nasty way, demanding food. It climbed into the trash container, meowing and rummaging. Its coat was dirty and shaggy, and it didn't clean itself much anymore. In addition, it had a diseased look. She couldn't let her two year old near it, for the cat always looked on edge, like it was going to scratch the little one. The way it was acting left no alternative but to take it away from the "company" of people.

To help the king Daniel advises, "If it may be a lengthening of your tranquility," "let my counsel be acceptable unto you, and break off your sins… and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor." (Daniel 4:27) To Nebuchadnezzar, who represents the exalted love of self and the world, the poor here probably means people who are in less wonderful states than him. Conceit is so grand. It drives us to do big and wonderful things. In Genesis, it drove the ancients to build a tower so high they thought it could reach heaven. (Genesis 11)

I guess the king listened to Daniel for a while, but after a time forgot all about his teaching, for "At the end of twelve months, he (Nebuchadnezzar) walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spoke and said, "Is not this great Babylon that I have built… by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?" (Daniel 4:30) His (our) abilities appear so great that we drive out of our minds all thought of the Lord's hand in them. The story continues, "While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, "O king, Nebuchadnezzar…the kingdom is departed from you." (Daniel 4:31) Uh, oh.

"That 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, 'til his hair was grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds claws." (Daniel 4:33) One of the images here is of a wild bird, hair long and feathery, his nails overgrown and wrapped around. Birds correspond to the understanding, and one of the things talked about here is that Nebuchadnezzar's understanding had gone astray, and had not been giving him any true understanding about who God is, who he is, and the ratio or proportion between God's power and abilities and his. In other words, he is so far gone astray that he is not rational anymore. He is so addicted to power and the world's glory that he couldn't be with people anymore. In spiritual things, the feral state is called profanation. The king has gone so far astray that his false reasoning can't even serve him anymore and has driven others to not want to be around him.

The Word continues the story of the king of Babylon living alone in a wild state by saying, "At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me." (Daniel 4:34) What a time of joy this is - Nebuchadnezzar's reason returned to him. It is like the addict's relief - to be able to think and not do that addictive thing anymore - to not be impulsively addicted to power, or control, or alcohol, or sex, or co-dependency. His happiness is real. He can think when he is oppressed by the love of self.

I am struck by the simplicity of this story. Nebuchadnezzar does not describe the terrible things that happened to him, whether an army came and cast him out, or his people turned against him in rebellion, or influential, rich people wouldn't support his state, etc. The Word simply says he was driven from men. Nebuchadnezzar only says, "I… lifted my eyes unto heaven, and my understanding returned to me." He has gone through a tremendous change and doesn't even describe the details. He is not fixated on the bad things that happened. He has done something new. He has lifted his eyes up to heaven. The story continues, "and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored Him that lives forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion." (Daniel 4:34)

Nebuchadnezzar's story is one of gaining humility. And of letting go.

Nebuchadnezzar then tells us he can no longer look to people for an assessment of his worth; he has gotten a distorted view from them, or from the way they treated him as king. In this state of coming down from such aggrandizement and flattery, he says, "And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing." (Daniel 4:35) People have failed him, and he has failed people. Neither side has been perfect. It is God's will that prevails. What Nebuchadnezzar has learned about God is that "He does according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth…" The difference is that God does this with love. "And none can say to Him, 'What doest thou?'" (Daniel 4:35)

What does God do to Nebuchadnezzar after all this? The king says, "The glory of my kingdom, my honor and brightness, returned to me." (Daniel 4:36) Slowly the Lord has returned Nebuchadnezzar's life to him, purified, losing what was from proprium, or self and the world, and having heavenly things in their place instead. Nor has the king lost with people, either. He says, "And my counselors and my lords sought unto me." (Daniel 4:36) Where before he may have forced his way on them, now others willingly were seeking out his thinking and counsel. "And I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me." (Daniel 4:36)

This story and the one before it of the burning fiery furnace are of Nebuchadnezzar learning who to worship. The king says, "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgement: and those that walk in pride He is able to abase." (Daniel 4:37)