In the Book of Daniel, Chapter Four is narrated, after the events of the chapter, by a much-changed Nebuchadnezzar. In the internal sense, the story shows both the Lord's mercy in leading us, and also the depths of despair to which we sink before we willingly open our minds to the Lord and pray for His leadership.

At the beginning of the story, Nebuchadnezzar's idleness imitates the sense of complacency when things seem to be going right, when no temptations darken our skies, and essential selfishness asserts itself once again. Our mind is its house, its palace. We come into this state after a temptation or battle against our sense of selfishness, when we put the struggle aside and rest on our laurels. We are oblivious to the fact that regeneration is an ongoing state, that one temptation succeeds another, and that once conscience has been established in our thought processes, it will not be too long before the lethargy of selfishness is challenged.

While Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in his house, he had a disturbing dream, one unknown to him. As before when he did not understand his dreams, he called the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans and the soothsayers, who, once again, could not interpret the dream.

Often we feel that we face the same temptations over and over again. We might wonder if we will ever regenerate. This is because we fall into a state of selfishness, represented by the king at rest. But when we encounter resistance to that selfishness, we turn back to all our old thought patterns to help us.

Eventually, Nebuchadnezzar called Daniel to tell him his dream. As he recounts the story after the seven years of illness, he uses the words he had spoken before. He addresses Daniel as Belteshazzar, because that is how he saw him before the temptation. Even so, he recognized the presence of the Spirit of the Holy God within him, acknowledging Daniel's power to explain dreams and give interpretations.

The king's second dream took the image of a great tree, planted in the earth, so high it could be seen from the ends of the earth. This parallels the image of the great statue, whose head was gold. As we saw earlier, this image represents the initial state of perfection, followed by a decline as a person turns away from this ideal. The statue shows how self love takes dominance in our lives if unchecked, and brings us into a final state of spiritual destruction.

In this new dream, the tree in the midst of the earth is a reference to the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden of Eden. Both trees symbolize wisdom. The Tree of Life represented the perception the Most Ancient people had from love (Arcana Coelestia 103), but Nebuchadnezzar's tree is from the love of self and the different perceptions people have when motivated by that love (Apocalypse Explained 1029:6).

But when Nebuchadnezzar saw the tree in his dream, it was lovely. Everything in the dream which normally has a good and beautiful significance, instead takes on a negative meaning. The leaves and flowers, which should have been a picture of guiding truths (Arcana Coelestia 9553), represent the opposite, as the falsities which mislead us. We saw how the king called his false guides: the magicians, soothsayers, astrologers, and Chaldeans.

The birds represent the false thoughts from selfishness (Arcana Coelestia 5149). These give credence to selfishness, to justify it and find new ways to express it. So the tree takes on an intellectual picture of the selfish mind. But the mind is made up of both intellect and emotion. There were also beasts sheltering under the tree representing the things we care about.

When selfishness rules in us, just as Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon, all the lesser loves take their cue from this leading love. Thus the beasts of the field, were drawn to the tree for food and shelter.

After this scene is set, Nebuchadnezzar sees "a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven." The introduction of the indescribable watcher is the turning point in the dream, marking the beginning of the end for this marvel reaching up to heaven.

In a state of selfishness, we are spiritually asleep, just as Nebuchadnezzar was asleep when he dreamed. But the Lord never sleeps. Truth in our minds is always vigilant, looking for ways of bringing itself to our consciousness to lead us out of our selfish state. Just as everything seemed right in Nebuchadnezzar's world, he became aware of a watcher—the truth.

In an instant, the king's serenity was changed: a force greater than himself commanded the destruction of the tree, and there was nothing he could do about it. These words make it clear just how vulnerable our selfish states are. At their height, they seem so powerful, but in the face of truth they are shown for the sordid little nothings they are. Truth has the power to expose evil, and we should not be afraid to allow it to do so in our own lives. To stand indicted of selfishness is not the end of life, as it may feel, but the beginning of a new life of liberation.

But we still need some sense of self. There is nothing wrong with being concerned with our own well-being; it is vital to our lives. Selfishness is a part of us, but it needs to be kept under control, subordinated to the higher loves of serving the Lord and our neighbor.

This is why the watcher did not order the complete destruction of the tree: the stump is all that is left of a rampant selfishness, the bands of iron and brass represent thoughts and feelings which originate in selfishness, which can be used to keep it under control (Apocalypse Explained 650:32).

Finally, with the tree destroyed, Nebuchadnezzar himself had to be changed. The watcher commanded that the king is given the heart of an animal for seven years. In substance abuse recovery programs, it is said that an addict cannot change until they hit rock-bottom—when they realize the full necessity of change. In spiritual life, this rock bottom is a point at which we almost lose our humanity, we are so dominated by selfishness, greed and the lust of dominion that we lose our ability to think rationally. We become animals. The difference between humans and animals is our ability to think and act in freedom. Self-love destroys that freedom, thus destroying all humanity within us.

In this prophesy, we see a descent: from man, to beast, to ox. People are human because they are created in the image and likeness of the Lord. Thus human beings have the ability to think and act according to reason. This is the essence of our humanity (Arcana Coelestia 477, 2305, 4051, 585, 1555). When these are in tune with truth and goodness from the Lord, then we are truly human, because the image of the Lord is in us.

So again, we see this slide from an ideal to a lesser state: from man, the king became a beast. From rationality and freedom, he entered slavery. This fall appears earlier in the Word: when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they were cast out.

Finally he was told that he would eat grass like oxen. In a positive sense, oxen represent our affections (Arcana Coelestia 5198, 5642, 6357), or our love of the things of this world. But the opposite meaning of 'ox' is the perversion of goodness (Arcana Coelestia 9083), and the affection for injuring others (Arcana Coelestia 9094).

This humbling of the king represents the proper use of the love of self, and shows that the Lord does not eradicate it, because it is the foundation of true relationships with other people and the Lord Himself. But before it can become useful, selfishness needs to be converted into a humbled love of self, and we must return from the ox state.

As Daniel explained the meaning of the dream, he offered the king counsel: 'break off your sins by being righteous, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor.' This is the next step in spiritual awareness. Seeing our selfishness, coupled with an increased awareness of the Lord, we reach the point where thoughts must become actions. At first glance, the concept of 'sins and iniquities' may seem redundant. But in the Word, pairs of synonymous words reflect two internal senses: the celestial and the spiritual (Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 80). The celestial relates broadly to goodness, and the spiritual to truth. Together they make one.

Daniel's advice to Nebuchadnezzar is to repent. Repentance is the only way out of the quicksand of selfishness. The Lord taught that we should love one another as He loves us (John 13:34, John 15:12). To love ourselves alone, and to wish to control others is not in keeping with the Lord's teachings. The only solution is to listen to the voice of our conscience and allow ourselves to be guided by the truth.

In spite of everything, Nebuchadnezzar's pride was not reduced. As he walked around his palace, his heart was filled with pride: 'is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?'

A selfish person believes that everything they own or have accomplished is by their own power. There is no place for God or anyone else. When people do not listen to the Lord's teachings and reject His counsel, there is nothing the Lord can do but allow the person to reap the consequences of their choice.

The king remained in this ox-state until seven times passed over him, which illustrates that the Lord leaves us in this state until it runs its course. Sometimes it takes us a lifetime to see how our selfishness hurts others, and ourselves. Yet the Lord never leaves us. The promise of the root of the tree, bound with bands of iron and bronze is always there. The Lord works unceasingly to bring our selfishness under control until it can serve the higher loves of our neighbor and the Lord Himself.

Forgiveness begins in the recognition that we are in sin. In his ox-like state, Nebuchadnezzar lifted his eyes to heaven. Eyes represent understanding (Arcana Coelestia 2975, 3863), and to lift them to heaven is to lift our understanding to the truths the Lord has given us. The king had been given some truths in his dreams and in the interpretation of them. He knew from Daniel's advice that he needed to repent and change his ways. As he did so, his understanding and appreciation of the Lord grew. He realized how small he was in the grand scheme of things. The inflated ego of selfishness was deflated by the recognition that all things had been given to him by the Lord.

His story is our story. We each build our empires in one way or another. We hold the power of life and death over others in a figurative sense—do we not decide who we like and dislike, who is admitted out our 'inner circle' and who is beyond the pale? The warnings the Lord gave to Nebuchadnezzar apply to us, and like the king, we can also ignore them. The consequences in our lives are the same, as we are reduced to a merely animal-being, wet with the dew of heaven.

Yet can we hear the Lord's voice calling, for unless we do, we will remain in that state. Can we lift our eyes to heaven and search for the truth leading to the greatest declaration one can make, provided it is done with the heart and not with the lips:

Now I … praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and his ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to abase.

6343. 'You are my might' means that through faith comes the power which good possesses. This is clear from the representation of Reuben, to whom 'you' refers here, as faith in the understanding, referred to immediately above in 6342; and from the meaning of 'might' as the power which good possesses. As regards power - the power to think and will, perceive, do what is good, believe, dispel falsities and evils - it comes wholly from good through truth, good being its primary source and truth merely the channel through which it comes, 3563, 4931, 5623. The reason the power that good possesses is meant is that 'might' means that power, whereas 'strength' means the power of truth. Thus it is that 'the beginning of my strength', which comes next, means the initial power that truth possesses; for the word used in the original language to express 'strength' has reference in the Word to truth, whereas the word used to express 'might' has reference to good.

[2] The fact that the Word is holy, extremely holy in its inner senses, is plainly evident from the consideration that the heavenly marriage, which is the marriage of goodness and truth, thus heaven itself, is present within every detail of the Word. In the inmost sense every detail embodies the marriage of the Lord's Divine Human with His kingdom and Church; indeed the theme in the highest sense of all is the union of the Divine Itself and the Divine Human within the Lord. These extremely holy subjects contained in every detail of the Word are a plain indication that the Word has come down from the Divine. The truth of all this may be recognized from the consideration that where good is spoken of, so too is truth, and where what is internal is spoken of, so too is what is external. Also, there are expressions which always mean good, those which always mean truth, and those which mean both - both good and truth. Or if they do not mean them directly, they are nevertheless used with reference to them or else imply them. And such reference of those expressions to good and truth or their meaning them directly shows that every detail, as has been stated, embodies the marriage of goodness and truth, which is the heavenly marriage, and that the inmost and highest sense holds the Divine marriage which exists in the Lord, thus holds the Lord Himself, within it.

[3] All this reveals itself in every part of the Word, yet not plainly except in those places where the repetition of some matter occurs that is no more than a change of words, as in the present chapter, where Reuben is dealt with,

You are my might, and the beginning of my strength.

Also,

Excelling in eminence and excelling in worth.

Here 'might' is used in reference to good, and 'strength' to truth; 'excelling in eminence' is used in reference to truth, and 'excelling in worth' to good. Likewise in the next verse regarding Reuben,

You went up to your father's bed; at that time you profaned it - he went up to my couch.

Similarly further on, where Simeon and Levi are dealt with,

Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is hard. I will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter them in Israel. Verse 7.

Here 'anger' means a turning away from good and 'wrath' a turning away from truth. 'Jacob' is the external aspect of the Church and 'Israel' the internal aspect of it. Then where Judah is dealt with,

Your brothers will praise you; your father's sons will bow down to you. Verse 8.

Further on,

He binds his young ass to the vine, and the foal of his she-ass to the outstanding vine; he washes his clothing in wine, and his garment in the blood of grapes. Verse 11.

Where Zebulun is dealt with,

He will dwell at the haven of the seas, and he will be at the haven of ships. Verse 13.

Where Dan is dealt with,

He will be a serpent on the road, a darting serpent on the path. Verse 17.

[4] Similar examples occur frequently in the Psalms and among the Prophets, as in Isaiah,

Babel will not be dwelt in ever again, it will not be lived in even from generation to generation. Its time is near and about to come, and its days will not be prolonged. Isaiah 13:20, 22.

In the same prophet,

Search from above in the Book of Jehovah, and read: None of these will be missing, not one will not be left longing for its mate; ¹ for He has commanded with His mouth, and His Spirit has gathered them. The Same has cast the lot for them, and His hand has distributed to them by means of a measuring rod. Even for ever they will possess it, from generation to generation they will dwell in it. Isaiah 34:16-17.

More examples may be found in a thousand other places. Anyone who does not know that expressions are used in the Word to mean spiritual and celestial realities, and that some are used to refer to good but others to truth, will inevitably think that such usages are no more than repetitions that serve solely as fillers and so are in themselves meaningless. Thus it is that people who think ill of the Word also add this to the arguments they use in vilifying it. Yet utterly Divine things are concealed within those repetitions; that is to say, the heavenly marriage, which is heaven itself, and the Divine Marriage, which is the Lord Himself, are concealed in them. This [highest] sense is 'the glory' in which the Lord is present, while the literal sense is 'the cloud' in which that glory is present, Matthew 24:30; Luke 21:27. See Preface to Genesis 18, and also 5922.

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