The ironclad war machine of Rome may have won the caesars an exceedingly vast territorial domain, but as far as pagan glories are concerned, Babylon exceeded all heathendom. Indeed, the splendour of Babylon’s hanging gardens, lofty walls, and imposing temples earned the Mesopotamian city-state its golden legacy.
Notwithstanding her earthly magnificence, Babylon was a nation that tore down and destroyed, being dubbed by Scripture ‘the hammer of the whole earth’ (Jeremiah 50:23). In stark contrast, Jerusalem was called by David ‘the joy of the whole earth’, and was established to plant and build up (Psalm 48:2). In reference to Nebuchadnezzar, God proclaimed, ‘with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms’ (Jeremiah 50:23, 51:20). Because of their sins against Him, God hired Nebuchadnezzar to punish the nations of Edom, Tyrus, Moab, Zidon, Egypt, and Judah.
While Nebuchadnezzar was a heathen man who knew not the Lord, he was nevertheless appointed to perform a divine purpose. In reference to his work in punishing the aforementioned nations, God called Nebuchadnezzar ‘my servant’. Demonstrating the fairness and impartiality that God has towards all who fulfil His will, the Lord even arranged that Nebuchadnezzar receive appropriate renumeration for his work. For example, during the long siege of Tyre, ships loaded with gold and treasures emptied the Phoenician trading hub of its great wealth. When the Babylonian army finally breached the fortified island city, no spoil was left to repay the 13 years of blood and toil. That the King of Babylon had performed all that hard work for nothing was noticed by the Lord, who relayed to His prophet:
Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it: Ezekiel 29:18
To recompense His labourers, the Lord arranged for Nebuchadnezzar and his soldiers to receive wages at Egypt’s expense:
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.
Ezekiel 29:19
But the King of Babylon had not perceived these divine purposes. He and the King of Assyria had accomplished Jehovah’s will in ignorance of the fact. As it is written:
Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. Isaiah 10:7
At Belshazzar's ill-fated feast, Daniel declared that it was Jehovah who secured Nebuchadnezzar his kingdom. Upon his interpretation of the writing on the wall, Daniel declared to Belshazzar:
O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour: And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him…
Daniel 5:18-19
With the great strength given him, nothing restrained Nebuchadnezzar from executing his own will upon the nations around him, which he exacted with great severity:
…whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down. Daniel 5:19
While we may think it so, Daniel did not intend to paint Nebuchadnezzar as a ravenous tyrant in the statement above. He was speaking before the Babylonian court, after all, who reverenced their great former monarch. Daniel was simply pointing out that Nebuchadnezzar had been appointed the ‘hammer of the whole earth’, and that his heavy-handed work was by divine appointment. This does not mean that every action of the king had borne the sanction of heaven. The vindictive king’s slaying of the sons of Zedekiah before their father’s eyes was cruel, and the capricious monarch’s death sentence upon the three worthies who would not bow down to the golden image was wicked. Notwithstanding the king’s many sins, Nebuchadnezzar’s work in punishing the nations was overall an execution of the divine will. Daniel did, however, fault the former king for not giving God the glory:
But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will. Daniel 5:20-21
Nebuchadnezzar was given prophetic dreams, by which he became acquainted with the true God. Through association with the prophet Daniel, and possibly also Ezekiel, Nebuchadnezzar came to understand that Jehovah had given him his great empire, and used him to punish the nations for their sins. The king was not judged for his campaign of destruction (for this was his appointed task), but for his failure to acknowledge the true God as the source of his great majesty once it was revealed to him.
After his seven years of humiliation, Nebuchadnezzar realised that his authority over men was both given and withdrawn according to God’s will. Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged ‘that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will’ (Daniel 5:21). Owing to the work of Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and others, the once-proud King of Babylon and idolatrous high priest of Marduk was eventually converted to a worshipper of Jehovah. This remarkable confession of faith made by the King of Babylon appears in the canon of Scripture:
Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase. Daniel 4:37
Christopher Sparks