Daniel 4:28

The Fulfilment of the Dream.

‘All this came on the king Nebuchadnezzar.'

It had to do for it was the decree of the Most High, and he had failed to take warning. That is the divine side. But humanly speaking Nebuchadnezzar had become a manic depressive (suffering from bipolar illness, moving between the periods of depression revealed by his dreams and moods of exultation) and was being carried along on his illness. He had an intensity about him that revealed the illness that lay beneath the surface, and he chose to direct that intensity in sinful ways until at length he could no longer control it. It controlled him.

Note on bipolar illness.

Bipolar illness reveals itself in many ways. Sometimes the depressive element is more manifest, sometimes the exaltation. It produces in exaggerated proportions the moods that overtake all of us, and is the result of chemical activity in the brain. At its most exaggerated it can produce what we call ‘insanity' or ‘madness', for it can produce excessively abnormal behaviour and delusions. For large periods of time it does not manifest itself, and sometimes it is lifelong, on and off, while at others it manifests itself as people get older, although its underlying presence can sometimes be detected by the experienced observer even when not obvious. It can come and go with remarkable suddenness.

I had a good Christian friend who was a medical doctor who had permanent bipolar illness, the symptoms of which recurred throughout her fairly short life. When the depression began to come on her she would sign herself into the hospital for treatment until the period subsided. She confided to me that it was while going into the depression and coming out of it that the danger of suicide was likely, the result of the feeling of unworthiness and lack of desire to live consequent on the depression of the faculties, and it was then that medical supervision was so necessary. When in total depression there was not even the will to do anything. Sadly well meaning Christian friends, who had no understanding of bipolar illness, persuaded her that she should exercise faith (it was like telling someone with a broken back to ignore the broken back) and not resort to the hospital and to medicines, and she felt guilty and responded. She committed suicide as a further period of clinical depression (not be it noted what we generally think of as being depressed) came on her. She would undoubtedly not have done so had she been under medical supervision and care.

Another, a close relative of high intelligence, began to manifest the illness in her fifties. I had previously seen hints occasionally in her eyes of something strange, and had sometimes noted an intensity that had slightly disturbed me, and I was in fact informed by someone more knowledgeable, twenty years before it happened, that ‘she will have trouble in her fifties'. Yet I had dismissed the idea and there were no obvious signs of it over that period apart from what I have mentioned. Rather she was bright, active, intelligent and totally sensible.

The bad time began with ‘clinical depression', the depression of mental faculties. This was not excessive gloom, but strange behaviour. Clinical depression is not necessarily related to black moods. And there followed periods on and off of excessively strange behaviour and delusions, and actions which were totally incomprehensible, absolutely unbelievable if I had not witnessed them, and totally out of character. And then the strangeness would pass away as though it had not been. Nebuchadnezzar's subsequent behaviour does not surprise me at all.

With regard to moral accountability assessment is difficult. For most of the time she was morally accountable, but there were certainly also periods when she could unquestionably not be blamed for her actions, for what she did was ‘moral' given the disturbing thoughts and delusions of her brain, and her relatively mild violence was totally untypical. She had always abhorred violence and actually thought she was doing right because of her delusions.

Nebuchadnezzar may be seen as manifesting minor signs of his illness during his life, including his intensive dreams, followed by his equally intense determination to have them interpreted, and his mad intention to destroy all the wise men of Babylon, and to heat the furnace seven times, indeed the intensity may have helped him in his warlike activities. But in this period of his life depression probably partly explains his dream and mania his subsequent response, followed by a further period of a severe clinical psychotic state in the form called zoanthropy (behaving like an animal), that brought about his excessive behaviour. This does not exclude the fact that God used this to bring about His purposes. He could, and did, use the illness to achieve what He wanted to achieve.

End of note.