Drenched By the Dew of Heaven

The dew fell generously on the gardens of Nebuchadnezzar. His palace and gardens were one of the wonders of the world and he took pride in his architectural achievements. But he was about to learn an important life-lesson from the silent power of the dew.

As he tells his story in Daniel Chapter 4, he was at home in his palace contended and prosperous, when he had a dream that made him afraid, terrified him, in fact. He dreamed of a magnificent tree cut down by a decree from heaven; the tree had a human mind, but it lost its sanity and became like an animal. exposed to the weather for seven years.

A palace advisor named Daniel interpreted the dream as a warning to the king and urged him to practice mercy and justice.
 But the king ignored his counsel until a year later when he was basking in his self-made grandeur. “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” v.30. The words were still on his lips when the voice from heaven announced that time was up.

The proud king descended into a nightmare world of ‘lycanthropy’, a form of insanity where people perceive themselves to be an animal. Eventually the king regained his sanity and realized God had humbled him and taught him that there is only one God and it was not the king of Babylon.

Don’t over-look the role of the dew in this story. God uses 'the weak things of the world to shame the strong.'  (1 Corinthians 1:27) Three times we hear of the king being ‘drenched by dew’. First in the dream, v.15, then in the interpretation in v. 25, and again in the outcome v.33 when the king was ‘driven away from people, and ate grass like cattle. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until . . . his sanity was restored". Three times, always the same phrase - ‘drenched by the dew of heaven.’

In the Bible, dew is almost universally a gift of life, one of the great silent blessings of nature in an arid world. But when the king loses the roof over his head and is exposed to the elements, the dew dissolves his dignity. The story does not say that he was ‘assaulted by wind and storm’ or even soaked by the dew of the ground.’ He was ‘drenched by the dew of heaven’, as if God was pouring on him the kindness of a stern wake-up call. This three-fold reference to heaven’s drenching dew trumpets what the New Testament calls ‘the kindness and severity’ of God.

This pagan king who desecrated God’s temple in Jerusalem and dragged Israel’s finest citizens off in chains; this arrogant overlord who esteemed himself a self-made god, became the recipient of God’s severe mercy, drenched by it, soaked in it till it seeped through his tough-leathered pride and made him human again. He lived to thank God and give testimony to the world of his recovery. “Hi, my name is Nebuchadnezzar and I’m a recovering selfoholic. Let me tell you about my higher power who is the ultimate authority in the world, and relentlessly a God of justice and mercy, and a God of new beginnings.”

That’s a paraphrase, but it’s not far off the original.

Picture Sources:
Garden - Davidsonville Landscaping
Nebuchadnezzar - William Blake Art and the Bible
Dew on Hosta - author's photo