Deeper Reflection
We must learn to read the Old Testament with a certain theological perspective. The terms “nations” and “peoples” are frequently mentioned in the Old Testament. When we come across these two terms and their equivalents, we must think of the Abrahamic Covenant: That through Abraham and his descendants, Israel – and the Church, the New Covenant Israel (Gal 3:7-9) – “all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen 12:3; Gal 3:14). In other words, think of missions.Nebuchadnezzar demanded “the nations and peoples of every language” to worship his golden statue, or they would be burned in the furnace (vv.1, 4-6). Sometime later, Nebuchadnezzar declared “to the nations and peoples of every language, who live in all the earth³⁸ ” the “signs and wonders” that God had done for him (Dan 4:1-2). We can see the radical change in Nebuchadnezzar from Daniel 3 to Daniel 4. Certainly the nations and the peoples under his rule noticed this change. And through his personal testimony in Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar pointed to the nations and the peoples that it was God who changed his life. Now, think of the Abrahamic Covenant and what God was doing here. God was fulfilling His missional purpose through Nebuchadnezzar.Instead of being a blessing to the nations, Israel was now under God’s covenant curse of exile in Babylon for their covenant unfaithfulness. But it was right in Israel’s failure that God was fulfilling His missional purpose in the Abrahamic Covenant through Nebuchadnezzar, whom God used to execute His curse on Israel. God’s sovereignty in an irony! God’s purposes can never be thwarted.

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³⁸ all the earth” refers to the Babylonian Empire