Why is this holy one
also called a watchman
? There are two reasons to which we can point:
• Nebuchadnezzar exalted himself above God. The angels are the guardians or watchmen around God’s throne. They are to ensure, in the service of God, that the boundary between God and man will not be crossed.
On the curtain that hung between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle and the temple, an angel was depicted. This served to remind the people that they were not allowed to enter the Holy of Holies. The ark was the throne of God on earth. On top of it angels were placed as guardians. These angels were called cherubim (see also Isaiah 6:1–13 and Revelation 4:6–11). With this holy watcher the Lord shows that even the mighty Nebuchadnezzar could not and should not cross the line between man and God.
• Nebuchadnezzar was familiar with the term guardian.
All over the gates of his palace persons who represented guards were depicted.
These images on the walls and gates were to keep the demons out of the city and palace. The demons could threaten Nebuchadnezzar’s power and greatness. Based on his religious feelings, Nebuchadnezzar did everything he could to keep such hostile spirits away from him. He will not be able to keep the only God, the King of kings and his servants, away from him. The mighty world ruler Nebuchadnezzar cannot keep the watchers, the angels in the service of the Lord, out of his life. God rules and no one else!
17 The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’