The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

The “Seven Times” of Daniel 249
primarily a builder, not a warrior. He renovated and restored
sixteen temples in Babylon including the two temples of Marduk,
completed the two great walls of the city, built a network of canals
across the city, embellished the streets of Babylon, rebuilt the
palace of Nabopolassar, his father, and constructed another palace
for his own use that was finished about 570 B.C.E., in addition to
many other architectural achievements. 28
It was evidently at the close of this building activity that the
vision of the chopped-down tree was given, as is indicated by
Nebuchadnezzar’s proud words in Daniel 4:30. This points
towards the close of his forty-three-year-long reign, and
consequently many years after the destruction of Jerusalem in his
eighteenth regnal year.
A prophecy is, by definition, forward looking. How then could
the time at which the vision was given indicate anything about a
greater fulfillment, one beginning with the dethronement of
Zedekiah many years earlier? Should not the fulfillment of a prophecy
start, not before, but subsequent to the time at which the prophecy is
given? The time of this particular dream, therefore, does not only
seem to be unimportant, as the prophecy is not dated, but can
actually be used as an argument against an application to a period
starting with the destruction of Jerusalem, as the dream evidently
was given many years after that event.
c) The person to whom the vision was given
Does the person to whom this vision was given, that is
Nebuchadnezzar, indicate it has to be applied to a supposed 2,520-
year break in the royal dynasty of David?
It is true that Nebuchadnezzar was instrumental in causing the
break in this dynasty. But is it not improbable that
Nebuchadnezzar’s oppressive exercise of sovereignty would be a
symbol of Jehovah’s sovereignty expressed through the Davidic
dynasty, while contemporaneously during the “seven times” of
madness his total powerlessness was a symbol of world dominion
exercised by Gentile nations? Or did he play two roles during his
“seven times” of madness—(1) his powerlessness, representing the
break in the dynasty of David during the 2,520-year period; and (2)
his beastlike state, picturing the Gentile rule of the earth?
28 D. J. Wiseman, Nebuchadrezzar and Babylon (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1985), pp. 42–80.