Who was Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible?

from the old testament

• After the Southern Kingdom, Judah, failed to learn from the Northern Kingdom’s captivity and continued sinning, God sent Babylon to capture her (Jeremiah 25:8–11). That captivity happened in 3 ways, starting around 605 BC, and was led by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:10–11). The key biblical figures Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were all in the first wave (Daniel 1:1–6).
• In the book of Daniel, the first six chapters are about historical kingdoms. Daniel devotes the first 4 chapters to Nebuchadnezzar, showing that he represents Daniel’s “foil,” a character used to highlight negative or opposite traits from the main character. The main final character in the book of Daniel is another ruler, known as “one like a son of man” (Daniel 7:13–14), to whom God will give the final, eternal kingdom (Daniel 7:27). In the New Testament, Jesus reveals that He is that man (cf. Matthew 26:64).
• In chapter 2, Daniel recounts an event in which Nebuchadnezzar receives a dream about a giant statue made of several metals (Daniel 2:31–35). Nebuchadnezzar’s arrogance shows as he threatens his wise men with the impossible task of telling him the dream before accepting their interpretation (Daniel 2:5–6). Daniel demonstrated that God was the true God by being used by God to reveal the dream (Daniel 2:19–28). Through the dream, God showed Nebuchadnezzar that his was the first in a series of four (or five, depending on one’s interpretation) successive human kingdoms (Daniel 2:36–43), followed by God’s eternal kingdom (Daniel 2:44–45). The statue’s gold head represented Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom (Daniel 2:37–38).
• In chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar arrogantly builds a statue of pure gold to represent himself (Daniel 3:1) and commands all his people to worship it (Daniel 3:4–6). Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse, and Nebuchadnezzar throws them into a fiery furnace to kill them (Daniel 3:19–21). However, God protected them in the furnace (Daniel 3:24–27), leading Nebuchadnezzar to command that his people say nothing bad about their God (Daniel 3:29).
• In chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar received another dream, this time a warning that if he continued acting arrogantly, God would take his kingdom away (Daniel 4:19–26). Initially humbled, he later arrogantly walked on the roof and boasted that he had made Babylon a great nation (Daniel 4:30). God immediately removed his intellect (Daniel 4:31–32) and made him like an animal for 7 years (Daniel 4:32–33). At the end of that time, God restored his mind and his kingdom (Daniel 4:34–36). Nebuchadnezzar finally acknowledges that “his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation” (Daniel 4:34).
• Some believe Daniel 4 represents Nebuchadnezzar’s saving confession. While plausible, it’s uncertain. His confession, at a minimum, serves to show that he finally came to acknowledge God as greater than all his pagan gods.

from the new testament

• Nebuchadnezzar is not found in the New Testament.

implications for today

While none of us will likely ever have Nebuchadnezzar's ruling authority, we all experience the other end of that equation: being under governing authorities. Each human government is, to some degree, sinful and corrupted. However, what Daniel taught us through Nebuchadnezzar was that God raises and removes kingdoms at will (Daniel 2:20–23).

This means God establishes every kingdom, from the most “Christian” to the most anti-Christian. God raises each for a purpose and then removes it when He is done with it.

Therefore, as believers, we are not to fear governments. We are to honor them and obey them (as long as they don’t force us to sin) because they are instruments of God to help control sin in this world (Romans 13:1–4). Yet we must remember that God has already planned their end, and that He also plans an eternal kingdom that will end all kingdoms.

Nebuchadnezzar was not the first wicked ruler and will not be the last (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4). But as he learned, “all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:35).

God remains in control. Let us worship God and His Son, “for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble” (Daniel 4:37).