In Daniel chapter 2, Daniel interprets King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream for him. The centerpiece of the dream is the establishment of the Kingdom of God which will never end.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today’s episode.
This is episode three in our Daniel Bible Study podcast. This episode is entitled “Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream Revealed and Explained,” where we’ll discuss Daniel 2:24-49. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, truly Daniel 2 is one of the unique and great chapters in the Bible. It’s unique because it gives us, in dream form and symbolic form, the unfolding of human history from the Babylonian empire, possibly even to the end of the world, and we’ll talk about that. It also gives an incredible picture of the greatness and the majesty of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, again in prophetic vision. So there’s a lot of details. There’s a lot of big picture, this soaring vision of God’s sovereignty over human history, but some mind-boggling details and we’ll try to walk through some of those in this podcast.
Wes
Let me go ahead and read Daniel 2:24-49,
“Therefore, Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: ‘Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king and I will show the king the interpretation.’
Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him: ‘I have found among the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation.’ The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, ‘Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?’ Daniel answered the king and said, ‘No wise men, enchanters, magicians or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he is made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these: To you, O King, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this, and he who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be. But as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your mind.
You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all- you are the head of gold. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces, the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation, sure.’
Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. The king answered and said to Daniel, ‘Truly, your God is God of Gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.’ Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king’s court.”
Andy, at the beginning of this passage that we’re looking at in verse 24, how does Daniel get put in a position to stand before the king and interpret his dream? And what does this interaction with Arioch teach us about Daniel’s character?
Andy
Well, Daniel has a winsome personality. He’s attractive, he’s appealing, he speaks with tact, he speaks with wisdom as in chapter one when he was able to get the overseer who was in charge of his diet and that of his friends to change his diet. So also here with Arioch, he’s able to persuade him to do certain things. And I think the text gives us the indication that God gave Daniel favor. So it’s a combination of the sovereignty of God, but also Daniel’s winsome personality. And so here’s a man of absolute uncompromising morality and purity, but still he’s likable. That’s a very unusual combination.
Wes
What does Arioch’s response teach us about human nature in verse 25?
Andy
Well, Arioch took credit. “I have found a man among the exiles”, et cetera. It’s like, “Well, he came to him, what did you do?” But this is what people do. This is what non-Christians do. This is what people do in the corporate environment. They take credit for other people’s works, they plagiarize, they lie, they back stab, different things. So I don’t see all that with Arioch, but just that simple statement, “I have found a man who can interpret.” He didn’t do anything. He didn’t. He was just a bridge builder between Daniel, who God had given the revelation to, and Nebuchadnezzar.
Wes
What does the king then ask Daniel once he’s before him, and how does Daniel’s answer reveal Daniel’s perspective on this whole situation in verses 26 through 28?
Andy
Right. Well, Nebuchadnezzar is an incredibly capable man. He knows what he commanded, he has not forgotten and he’s sticking to it. He wants his counselors to, number one, tell him what the dream was and number two, interpret it. And he wants the first so that the validity of the second can be established. Basically, he wants to know what the dream means. He does believe the dream has meaning, which it does. And he wants to be certain that his wise men and counselors and all that are going to be able to tell him the truth and not try to pull one over on him by technique, by dream interpreter technique, which he doesn’t want any part of that. And so he says, “Daniel, are you able to tell me what the dream is and give me the interpretation?”
And so Daniel then gives a very humble answer. He says, effectively what the Babylonian counselor said originally, “It would take a miracle to do this. How can I read your mind? I wasn’t with you. I don’t know what you dreamed. How is that even possible?” Well, Daniel doesn’t go into all that. He just simply says, “No wise man, no enchanter, no magician, no diviner, no one like this can do this. This is impossible. However, there is a God in heaven who is able to do that. And he has revealed your dream to me.”
First and foremost, he says he’s shown King Nebuchadnezzar what is going to happen in the future. And so he then says, “Your dream and the visions that pass through your mind as you lay on your bed are these:” and then he gives them what it was. Now that’s scary. We think of our thoughts as our own. We can think our own thoughts, and no one knows unless we tell them to others. The fact is, God is able to read our minds and it’s as Jesus said, “There’s nothing concealed that that will not be disclosed or hidden, that will not be made known.” That’s why Paul says in Philippians 4, “Whatever’s true, whatever’s noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy, think about those things” (paraphrase of Philippians 4:8), because God’s reading your thoughts at every moment. So Daniel is able in fact, to tell the king what his dream was and then give him interpretation, but not through his own ability. He gives full credit to God.
Wes
What is the dream about according to verse 29? And what does verse 30 show us about Daniel’s character?
Andy
Right. Well, the dream is about history. The dream is about what is about to happen now, history is what happened, past tense, but this is about what is going to happen. And so it’s history ahead of time. And as far as God is concerned, he knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end. So he knows the story very well. In fact, he knew the story very well before the foundation of the world. And so all of that, but this is what the dream is about. It’s about the unfolding history of the world. Four great empires, one after the other. That’s what the dream is about.
And so Daniel says, “God, the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. He showed you the future.” It’s similar to Revelation 1:1, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place,” the things that are in the future.
Parenthetically, it’s important that we understand: only God can do this. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of the Bible is the only one who knows the future, and those to whom he tells it, but it starts with God. And why is that? Because God’s sovereign and any created being that says, “We’re going to do X”, and God says, “No, you’re not.” That ends it. So God knows the future and he alone is able to decree it. Therefore, there are no Islamic prophecies. There are no Buddhist prophecies. There are no Hindu prophecies. There are no prophecies in modern day Christ-rejecting Judaism. There’s no new things like that. God alone is the revealer of the future. Concerning why it is that God wanted to reveal it to Nebuchadnezzar, it’s just for his own purposes. He wanted Nebuchadnezzar to know it. And Nebuchadnezzar is going to go the way of all the Earth. He’s going to die. And so I think part of it might be to humble him and get him ready for the conversion that I believe happens in chapter four. So it’s to work in him. But why was it written down by Daniel for all of us? God wants us to know that he is sovereign over human history.
“The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of the Bible is the only one who knows the future, and those to whom he tells it, but it starts with God.”
Concerning Daniel, we see his humility in Daniel 2:30, “As for me, the mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other men, but just so that you, O king, may know.” “That’s the reason this whole thing was orchestrated. Not because I’m so wise or smart. I didn’t know anything more than any of the other counselors, but God revealed it to me.” So that’s that humility of giving God the full credit and the glory.
Wes
What did Nebuchadnezzar see in his dream according to verses 31 through 33?
Andy
Okay, so simply put, he saw a statue of a man. So you’re looking and you’re seeing a human statue. It’s got a head, it’s got chest and arms, it’s got a belly and thighs, it’s got legs, it’s got feet. It seems to be on a pedestal of some sort or on a platform. It’s standing there and it’s great. It’s huge. It’s massive. You could imagine like a skyscraper. It’s this massive, big, immense, glorious statue. And it’s made up of different metals in that the head is gold. It was pure gold, glittering gold, beautiful gold. So it must’ve been stunning, at least the head was. But all of it is breathtaking and awesome, terrifying really. And so it’s a picture of a statue, and the statue is made of different metals, and those metals change as it goes down the statue. It goes from a head of gold to chest and arms of silver to belly and thighs of bronze to legs of iron to feet, partly iron, partly clay. That’s what he saw. We get the interpretation in a minute, but we also note that these metals become less valuable as the time goes on, but stronger.
And so you don’t want a sword of gold to take on the battlefield. You’re going to have a sword of gold, you want to mount it on the wall so it looks pretty. All right. Same thing with silver. It’s soft. Gold and silver are soft. Bronze is stronger. And so the Bronze Age soldiers made, there was improved metallurgy, and they were able to make swords out of bronze, which were stronger than lesser forms of metal. But then iron comes along and it was able to shatter the bronze that preceded it. So that’s what he saw. Statue of a man made of different materials.
Wes
What’s the significance of the rock mentioned in verse 34, cut out, but not by human hands? And how does Daniel describe what happened to the rock after it strikes this statue?
Andy
Right. So the dream is it’s basically a motion picture. It’s not just a still photo. It’s like there’s the statue, it’s described in this way. No, something happened. It’s an action scene, but at first it’s not. It’s just an immovable statue doesn’t go anywhere. It’s not alive, but it’s just there. And suddenly a rock, we are told, cut out, but not by human hands, strikes the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashes the entire thing.
So I picture to some degree, despite the materials that it’s made of, namely gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay, the whole thing seems to be like it’s made of crystal. It just shatters and becomes like a pile of powder, a pile of nothing. It just goes down to nothing. It smashes the whole statue on its feet of clay and it becomes like a pile of chaff on a threshing floor. So if you think of it this way, wheat and chaff, wheat is the heavier part of the plant. And on a threshing floor, the way that they worked, it was they would take a flail and they would beat the wheat and break it into its component parts. And then they would take a fork and they would flip it up in the air and the wind would come and it would blow away the lighter chaff, but the wheat would settle back on the ground. You do that enough over and over, you have 90%; I would say almost mostly wheat, still a little chaff down there. It’s because it’s lightweight. And so basically this entire statue is lightweight compared to the rock cut out, but not by human hands. And this rock that strikes the statue at its feet and turns it into a pile of chaff that the wind comes and blows away. And it says, without leaving a trace, there’s nothing left, like it was never there. But the rock that was cut out, but not by human hands that struck the statue and destroyed it, became a huge mountain that filled the whole earth. That’s the whole dream.
Wes
And Daniel says as much in Daniel 2:36, he says, “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation.” Why does Daniel call King Nebuchadnezzar the king of kings as he addresses him? And what’s the true significance of this title?
Andy
Well king of kings, it’s just the way that the mighty empires, the big time empires did their business. They would come in, they would defeat some local kings, some small city state king’s army. Kill a lot of his soldiers, but basically gain control of the land. They didn’t want to kill everyone because they wanted the people there to work the land and to grow things and mine things out of mines. They wanted money and resources. And so they would leave a local puppet king under the great king. The Assyrians did this, the Babylonians, they all did it. Romans did it. And so we have in the time of Jesus, we have Caesar Augustus issuing a decree that a census would be taken of the entire Roman world. And we have Herod the Great who’s ruling that little part of Judea where Jesus was born. And so that’s a king, Caesar Augustus, of a lower king Herod the Great, king of kings.
And so it’s been even long before Rome is that the mighty empires ruled over dominions that were smaller and had lesser kings that were subservient to the greater king. And Nebuchadnezzar was that way. He left a puppet king in the line, the lineage of David after him, after he had defeated the Judean armies and took over Jerusalem, he left a puppet king there. But eventually the puppet king rebelled against him, and Nebuchadnezzar came back and destroyed everything. So that’s it. This king of kings means the ruler over puppet kings.
Wes
Why is Nebuchadnezzar represented by a head of gold, and what is God’s role in Nebuchadnezzar’s reign?
Andy
Well, he is the Babylonian empire. The implication is he doesn’t say, “The Babylonian empire is the head of gold.” He says, “You are the head of gold.” So he’s very much focused on Nebuchadnezzar. You get the feeling that Nebuchadnezzar was an autocrat, a solitary ruler, a monarch, all those words, autocrat or monarch means the only one ruling, the absolute complete powerful ruler. The reason you know that is that he’s able to give a command that all of his counselors would be slaughtered. And usually something like that happens with a man with lesser control. He’s going to get assassinated. There’s no way it’s going to be able to happen. But Nebuchadnezzar is truly the head of gold. He is the Babylonian empire. And it says, “You, O king are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory.”(Daniel 2:37) And then he gives him this statement, “In your hands, he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all.”(Daniel 2:38) Now, this is a foretaste of the next dream he’s going to have in chapter four where he’s represented as a tree, a vast mighty tree where the birds of the air perch in its branches and the beasts rest under its shade and it’s got fruit. And he is the provider, the protector, he’s everything. It all comes down to him. But he has not yet learned the lesson that Daniel gives him here, namely, “The God of heaven gave you your dominion and power. You don’t acknowledge it.” So we’ll work on that later, but he is the head of gold.
Wes
What does verse 39 then teach us about the kingdom that follows Babylon, and why does Daniel say so little about it here?
Andy
Yeah, it is interesting. He says almost nothing about it, but it’s the Medo-Persian empire. And Jeremiah had already clearly predicted it would be the Medes and the Persians, but Nebuchadnezzar hadn’t read that scroll. Daniel read it and he knew that the whole thing would last 70 years, but he says very little about it because he doesn’t want him thinking about it because then it might affect history. It’s similar to Jacob not knowing that Joseph was alive down in Egypt because if he had known it, he would’ve done something about it. So if he knows the Medes and Persians are coming next, he’s going to go hunt them down because they’re subject to him at that point, and he would affect history. So he wants him to not know. He doesn’t give him much info, but he does also uses this word inferior. It could mean just simply, “Lower than you on the statue,” but the implication, I think most of the translations say it’s inferior to yours. It’s not as great a kingdom, but in one sense it was greater. There was a larger geographical extent, and there were other attributes. But in one sense, it didn’t have the purity and the glory and the majesty that Nebuchadnezzar had.
Wes
How’s the fourth kingdom described and why was iron the metal chosen for this description?
Andy
So the fourth one is iron. So in between we have the bronze. Let’s talk about the progression. We go from the Babylonian empire to the Medo-Persian empire to the Greeks, and they were characterized by bronze helmets and bronze shields and bronze swords. So that makes sense that they were represented by bronze. But after that comes iron, and iron, it’s characterized by strength and it smashes everything else. And so the fourth kingdom, Rome, represents a terrifying destructive power. And Daniel’s going to see him as the fourth beast coming up out of the sea, which isn’t even given a name in Daniel seven, “A terrifying beast that comes and destroys everything.” And so you get the feeling of Rome being this mindless machine that just destroyed everything. It wasn’t quite like that. There was an enlightenment to the Romans, like I said, king of kings, they knew how to subject to people, make them fear the legions and then do what they were told. So that prosperity poured into Rome. Caesar Augustus said, “I found Rome a city of brick, and I left it city of marble.” Where did all that wealth come from? It came from the empire. They weren’t mindless at all, but they were terrifying, and they ruled for a thousand years in some parts of the world, that’s a record that will never be broken, except of course by the eternal kingdom that’s mentioned in this chapter, the Kingdom of Christ.
Wes
Now in stark contrast to the limited detail that were given about the kingdom that follows Babylon, in verses 41 through 43, we get a significant amount of detail describing the feet and toes. What is Daniel teaching us about these toes?
Andy
Well, first of all, in our common expression we talk about somebody having feet of clay, and that’s like an Achilles heel, for example, or a fatal flaw. A weakness, a character flaw. And so it comes from this as feet of clay, and it’s a fundamental weakness. The entire statue rests on these feet and therefore the whole thing is weak. Now, in one sense, if we’re going to follow the progression approach, we’re going from Babylon to the Medo-Persian empire, to the Greek empire, from Alexander the Great to the Romans to what? And so we’ve got these feet and they’re mingled. It’s mingled of iron and clay. So it’s partly strong, it says, and partly brittle. And we have these 10 toes that are specifically mentioned and these are mingled together. And verse 43 even speaks of an intermarriage, or the seed of man or the mingling of the race. And so I think it just has to do with perhaps a final form of politics after the Romans. So we would imagine city states in post Rome, the fall of Rome. So you’re talking about Germanic peoples and the Franks and the Huns and a lot of different peoples. And I think fundamentally we’re dealing with peoples. In Revelation 7, it says, “After this I looked and there before me was a multitude that no one could count from every tribe and language and people and nation.”(Paraphrase of Revelation 7:9)
So sometimes I picture human history like a waffle, and you know how you pour syrup and it just goes over these ridges and into these valleys and you get this whole waffle thing. And that’s what basically human history is. Even defined by topography, defined literally by mountain ridges and rivers and valleys, and people kind of pour into that area and find a good place. There’s no one here or there are some people there, but they’re not as strong as you are, and you either amalgamate with them and intermarry with them or you slaughter them and take their place. You settle in there and you have a culture and you have a language, and you have a history, and you develop some strength and some of those rise up and become militarily strong and they conquer each other. But this goes on for centuries, and it’s one of the ways that God chose to keep the wicked corrupt human race, the seed of the devil. Now that we followed the devil in rebellion against God and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and became corrupt ourselves from being too strong. It’s like the Tower of Babel itself where Babylon came from. God confused the languages saying, “If as one people speaking one language, they’ve begun to do these things, then nothing they propose to do will be too difficult for them.”(Paraphrase of Genesis 11:6) And so God separated them and kept them weak and did not allow them to unite by language. Well, you get the same image here. They don’t adhere to each other. They don’t stick together.
Now, let’s go back to the progression of human history. Some people believe that this refers to a final form of the Roman Empire because it’s characterized by iron, yes, but also clay, which is not iron, something else, and the weakness of a kind of final form. Then you’ve got the 10 toes, which they line up with Revelation 17, which 10 kings come together to give their power to the one king, the Antichrist. Then you also have the beast, the fourth beast in Daniel 7, and there’s 10 horns that come up on. So you get this number 10 again and again. 10 toes, 10 horns, 10 kings. And so people put all that together and I think there’s reasons for doing that. And so it may well refer to the final form of human history which Jesus will destroy by his second coming.
Wes
Daniel 2:44-45 says this, “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all of these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.” When does the kingdom described in these verses get set up? What’s it like and what’s the relationship between this final kingdom and all the others?
Andy
Well, we have to start from the end and work back. There is no doubt whatsoever that the kingdom being described here is the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ. Since that is the case, then we look at the New Testament’s teaching on the kingdom, of which there’s much. Jesus talks about the kingdom a lot. He tells parables about the kingdom, introducing the parables saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like X.” And so we learn a lot about the kingdom.
One thing we do learn about the kingdom is it began at the first coming of Christ. He established the kingdom. “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” He said in another place, “The kingdom of God is in your midst.” The kingdom has begun. It’s inaugurated, it started, but we also know the kingdom hasn’t been consummated yet. It’s not finished yet because we should pray, “May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth is it is in heaven.” So the kingdom was begun at the first coming of Christ. The second coming of Christ, which is recorded for us in Revelation 19 is military. It’s an invasion from heaven. And he comes with a sword coming out of his mouth, metaphorically I’m sure, but he comes to fight with the antichrist and the forces, the kings. Revelation 19:19 describes this that are assembled to wage war against the people of God. And so he comes down to whip up on those people and destroy them completely, slaughter them. And who can stand up against him? He is almighty God. No one can defeat him because he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And so the kingdom is the kingdom of Christ, and it is a rock cut out, but not by human hands. That refers, I think at least to the virgin birth, the origination of Jesus himself. But then the origination of the kingdom of God is not by human means. It’s not by human power or human wisdom or anything. It is not a kingdom of this world. As he said to Pontius Pilate at his trial, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”(John 18:36) So that’s origin language. “My kingdom doesn’t come from this world, but from heaven.” It doesn’t proceed or progress the way the world’s kingdoms do, namely by the sword, by conquest. It’s a different kind of kingdom. And so fundamentally, it’s not earthly. It doesn’t have feet of clay. It’s a rock cut out, but not by human hands. But it’s violent. It attacks and destroys the kingdoms of this world.
We should understand that in God, every individual lives and moves and has his being. When God takes away the life breath of a king, they die. Look at Acts 12 when blasphemous king Herod was struck down by an angel of the Lord and was eaten by worms and died that day. Nebuchadnezzar was shown more grace. He was struck with insanity and then given his throne back for a little while until he died, and I hope went into glory. So fundamentally, it is violent. Jesus is in fact a threat to Pontius Pilate. He is a threat to Caesar Augustus. He’s a threat to every human being because as Psalm 2 says, he is the king that God establishes at his right hand and he warns all the kingdoms of the earth to not wage war against the kingdom of Christ or to plot or scheme against it. And so I take this whole thing, this violent rock that strikes the statue and destroys the kingdoms and then grows and grows to become a mountain that fills the whole earth, to represent the entire span of Christ’s kingdom from its inauguration at his first coming to its consummation of the second coming. I do not look to the millennial kingdom in any way here because it is an eternal kingdom that has no end, whereas the millennial kingdom has an end. So that may be a phase of Christ’s kingdom, but ultimately it is the eternal kingdom of Christ and of God, and it fills the whole earth. And I take it right at that point to Habakkuk 2:14, “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Now, the growth of the rock that becomes a mountain could be gradual over 2000 years through the preaching of the gospel, or it could be instantaneous if God wills. But I still think of it more as gradual, little by little by little, the kingdom grows through missions and evangelism and then instantly finishes its military work at the second coming of Christ. And then I believe based on the book I wrote on heaven, it will keep growing forever because we will continually learn more and more about the greatness and the glory of God.
“We should understand that in God, every individual lives and moves and has his being. When God takes away the life breath of a king, they die. “
Wes
And lest the king think that this is something that he can somehow maneuver or manipulate, Daniel concludes by saying, “The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy.”(Paraphrase of Daniel 2:45)
Andy
Amen.
Wes
Why does Nebuchadnezzar respond the way that he does? And based on verse 47, do you think Nebuchadnezzar understands who God is at this point?
Andy
It’s happening, but gradually. It’s like a dimmer switch, and I think little by little things are happening. It reminds me of that parable of the seed planted, which grew day and night. Whether the owner of the field or the planter knew what was happening, the seed grew and grew, and then at the right time, he, the one who planted it, harvested it. So the same one who had no idea how the growth was happening and didn’t do it, that’s clearly a human being not God, puts the sickle to it and the harvest comes. And so Mark 4, the picture is of the concept of the kingdom growing and growing in an individual heart until it’s time to cross over from death of life. So I think some ideas are definitely getting planted in Nebuchadnezzar’s mind. Look what he does. He falls prostrate before Daniel. He’s not falling prostrate before Daniel per se, but before God and the God that Daniel represents. And so he’s in awe.
Why is he reacting like this? It’s a miracle. He’s in the presence of a wonder worker, a miracle worker. The thing itself is a miracle. Why? Because to be able to tell another man his dream when he never said a word about it is a miracle. But what’s even more amazing is the significance of the dream, what it meant, and he knew it was true. He knew that that was not just some story that Daniel made up. God told him what was going to happen. And so he’s amazed and he’s on his face before Daniel, and he speaks words of praise, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries for you were able to reveal this mystery.”(Daniel 2:47) So I think he thinks of God similar to his own authority, king of kings, like there’s lots of gods, and then there’s this one great God, and he kind of rules over all the lesser gods. Well, maybe it’ll take time for him to realize there is one and only one God.
Wes
In the final two verses of this chapter, we learned that Daniel is promoted by the king. As a part of his response, he raises Daniel up to this place of prominence, and it seems that Daniel recommends that the king also promote Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Why does all of this take place at the end of this chapter and what final thoughts do you have for us today?
Andy
Well, this is what kings can do, and they can give honors and privileges and preference and all that. And Daniel’s going to say this to be Belteshazzar, those whom the king wanted to elevate, he elevated and those whom he wanted to kill, he killed. And so he had the power to open his hand and give him earthly things. And so that would be power and money and nice clothes and privileges and things like that. And so he wanted to do that. It was his way of saying thank you and his way of honoring. And also, he wanted future counsel. He wanted more counsel. Now, what he’s going to do in the next chapter is a whole different ballgame, making that statue he wanted everyone to bow down to. We’ll get to that. But the fact is at this point, he’s in awe and he wants to honor Daniel and he wants to honor also his friends at Daniel’s request. He has Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, those are their Jewish names, but Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego appointed. And that sets up the next story. So the final word I get out of this is God is absolutely completely sovereign over human history. And the issue of history is this rock cut out, but not by human hands that destroys all other kingdoms and itself becomes a kingdom that fills the whole earth for all eternity. That is the kingdom of Christ. And it makes me think of the statement that Jesus makes. “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well.” There’s nothing more important than the Kingdom of God.
“God is absolutely completely sovereign over human history. And the issue of history is this rock cut out, but not by human hands that destroys all other kingdoms and itself becomes a kingdom that fills the whole earth for all eternity.”
Wes
Well, this has been episode three in our Daniel Bible Study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode four, entitled “Faith Vindicated in a Trial by Fire,” where we’ll discuss Daniel 3:1-30. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today’s episode.
This is episode three in our Daniel Bible Study podcast. This episode is entitled “Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream Revealed and Explained,” where we’ll discuss Daniel 2:24-49. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, truly Daniel 2 is one of the unique and great chapters in the Bible. It’s unique because it gives us, in dream form and symbolic form, the unfolding of human history from the Babylonian empire, possibly even to the end of the world, and we’ll talk about that. It also gives an incredible picture of the greatness and the majesty of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, again in prophetic vision. So there’s a lot of details. There’s a lot of big picture, this soaring vision of God’s sovereignty over human history, but some mind-boggling details and we’ll try to walk through some of those in this podcast.
Wes
Let me go ahead and read Daniel 2:24-49,
“Therefore, Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: ‘Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king and I will show the king the interpretation.’
Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him: ‘I have found among the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation.’ The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, ‘Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?’ Daniel answered the king and said, ‘No wise men, enchanters, magicians or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he is made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these: To you, O King, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this, and he who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be. But as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your mind.
You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all- you are the head of gold. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces, the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation, sure.’
Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. The king answered and said to Daniel, ‘Truly, your God is God of Gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.’ Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king’s court.”
Andy, at the beginning of this passage that we’re looking at in verse 24, how does Daniel get put in a position to stand before the king and interpret his dream? And what does this interaction with Arioch teach us about Daniel’s character?
Andy
Well, Daniel has a winsome personality. He’s attractive, he’s appealing, he speaks with tact, he speaks with wisdom as in chapter one when he was able to get the overseer who was in charge of his diet and that of his friends to change his diet. So also here with Arioch, he’s able to persuade him to do certain things. And I think the text gives us the indication that God gave Daniel favor. So it’s a combination of the sovereignty of God, but also Daniel’s winsome personality. And so here’s a man of absolute uncompromising morality and purity, but still he’s likable. That’s a very unusual combination.
Wes
What does Arioch’s response teach us about human nature in verse 25?
Andy
Well, Arioch took credit. “I have found a man among the exiles”, et cetera. It’s like, “Well, he came to him, what did you do?” But this is what people do. This is what non-Christians do. This is what people do in the corporate environment. They take credit for other people’s works, they plagiarize, they lie, they back stab, different things. So I don’t see all that with Arioch, but just that simple statement, “I have found a man who can interpret.” He didn’t do anything. He didn’t. He was just a bridge builder between Daniel, who God had given the revelation to, and Nebuchadnezzar.
Wes
What does the king then ask Daniel once he’s before him, and how does Daniel’s answer reveal Daniel’s perspective on this whole situation in verses 26 through 28?
Andy
Right. Well, Nebuchadnezzar is an incredibly capable man. He knows what he commanded, he has not forgotten and he’s sticking to it. He wants his counselors to, number one, tell him what the dream was and number two, interpret it. And he wants the first so that the validity of the second can be established. Basically, he wants to know what the dream means. He does believe the dream has meaning, which it does. And he wants to be certain that his wise men and counselors and all that are going to be able to tell him the truth and not try to pull one over on him by technique, by dream interpreter technique, which he doesn’t want any part of that. And so he says, “Daniel, are you able to tell me what the dream is and give me the interpretation?”
And so Daniel then gives a very humble answer. He says, effectively what the Babylonian counselor said originally, “It would take a miracle to do this. How can I read your mind? I wasn’t with you. I don’t know what you dreamed. How is that even possible?” Well, Daniel doesn’t go into all that. He just simply says, “No wise man, no enchanter, no magician, no diviner, no one like this can do this. This is impossible. However, there is a God in heaven who is able to do that. And he has revealed your dream to me.”
First and foremost, he says he’s shown King Nebuchadnezzar what is going to happen in the future. And so he then says, “Your dream and the visions that pass through your mind as you lay on your bed are these:” and then he gives them what it was. Now that’s scary. We think of our thoughts as our own. We can think our own thoughts, and no one knows unless we tell them to others. The fact is, God is able to read our minds and it’s as Jesus said, “There’s nothing concealed that that will not be disclosed or hidden, that will not be made known.” That’s why Paul says in Philippians 4, “Whatever’s true, whatever’s noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy, think about those things” (paraphrase of Philippians 4:8), because God’s reading your thoughts at every moment. So Daniel is able in fact, to tell the king what his dream was and then give him interpretation, but not through his own ability. He gives full credit to God.
Wes
What is the dream about according to verse 29? And what does verse 30 show us about Daniel’s character?
Andy
Right. Well, the dream is about history. The dream is about what is about to happen now, history is what happened, past tense, but this is about what is going to happen. And so it’s history ahead of time. And as far as God is concerned, he knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end. So he knows the story very well. In fact, he knew the story very well before the foundation of the world. And so all of that, but this is what the dream is about. It’s about the unfolding history of the world. Four great empires, one after the other. That’s what the dream is about.
And so Daniel says, “God, the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. He showed you the future.” It’s similar to Revelation 1:1, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place,” the things that are in the future.
Parenthetically, it’s important that we understand: only God can do this. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of the Bible is the only one who knows the future, and those to whom he tells it, but it starts with God. And why is that? Because God’s sovereign and any created being that says, “We’re going to do X”, and God says, “No, you’re not.” That ends it. So God knows the future and he alone is able to decree it. Therefore, there are no Islamic prophecies. There are no Buddhist prophecies. There are no Hindu prophecies. There are no prophecies in modern day Christ-rejecting Judaism. There’s no new things like that. God alone is the revealer of the future. Concerning why it is that God wanted to reveal it to Nebuchadnezzar, it’s just for his own purposes. He wanted Nebuchadnezzar to know it. And Nebuchadnezzar is going to go the way of all the Earth. He’s going to die. And so I think part of it might be to humble him and get him ready for the conversion that I believe happens in chapter four. So it’s to work in him. But why was it written down by Daniel for all of us? God wants us to know that he is sovereign over human history.
“The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of the Bible is the only one who knows the future, and those to whom he tells it, but it starts with God.”
Concerning Daniel, we see his humility in Daniel 2:30, “As for me, the mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other men, but just so that you, O king, may know.” “That’s the reason this whole thing was orchestrated. Not because I’m so wise or smart. I didn’t know anything more than any of the other counselors, but God revealed it to me.” So that’s that humility of giving God the full credit and the glory.
Wes
What did Nebuchadnezzar see in his dream according to verses 31 through 33?
Andy
Okay, so simply put, he saw a statue of a man. So you’re looking and you’re seeing a human statue. It’s got a head, it’s got chest and arms, it’s got a belly and thighs, it’s got legs, it’s got feet. It seems to be on a pedestal of some sort or on a platform. It’s standing there and it’s great. It’s huge. It’s massive. You could imagine like a skyscraper. It’s this massive, big, immense, glorious statue. And it’s made up of different metals in that the head is gold. It was pure gold, glittering gold, beautiful gold. So it must’ve been stunning, at least the head was. But all of it is breathtaking and awesome, terrifying really. And so it’s a picture of a statue, and the statue is made of different metals, and those metals change as it goes down the statue. It goes from a head of gold to chest and arms of silver to belly and thighs of bronze to legs of iron to feet, partly iron, partly clay. That’s what he saw. We get the interpretation in a minute, but we also note that these metals become less valuable as the time goes on, but stronger.
And so you don’t want a sword of gold to take on the battlefield. You’re going to have a sword of gold, you want to mount it on the wall so it looks pretty. All right. Same thing with silver. It’s soft. Gold and silver are soft. Bronze is stronger. And so the Bronze Age soldiers made, there was improved metallurgy, and they were able to make swords out of bronze, which were stronger than lesser forms of metal. But then iron comes along and it was able to shatter the bronze that preceded it. So that’s what he saw. Statue of a man made of different materials.
Wes
What’s the significance of the rock mentioned in verse 34, cut out, but not by human hands? And how does Daniel describe what happened to the rock after it strikes this statue?
Andy
Right. So the dream is it’s basically a motion picture. It’s not just a still photo. It’s like there’s the statue, it’s described in this way. No, something happened. It’s an action scene, but at first it’s not. It’s just an immovable statue doesn’t go anywhere. It’s not alive, but it’s just there. And suddenly a rock, we are told, cut out, but not by human hands, strikes the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashes the entire thing.
So I picture to some degree, despite the materials that it’s made of, namely gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay, the whole thing seems to be like it’s made of crystal. It just shatters and becomes like a pile of powder, a pile of nothing. It just goes down to nothing. It smashes the whole statue on its feet of clay and it becomes like a pile of chaff on a threshing floor. So if you think of it this way, wheat and chaff, wheat is the heavier part of the plant. And on a threshing floor, the way that they worked, it was they would take a flail and they would beat the wheat and break it into its component parts. And then they would take a fork and they would flip it up in the air and the wind would come and it would blow away the lighter chaff, but the wheat would settle back on the ground. You do that enough over and over, you have 90%; I would say almost mostly wheat, still a little chaff down there. It’s because it’s lightweight. And so basically this entire statue is lightweight compared to the rock cut out, but not by human hands. And this rock that strikes the statue at its feet and turns it into a pile of chaff that the wind comes and blows away. And it says, without leaving a trace, there’s nothing left, like it was never there. But the rock that was cut out, but not by human hands that struck the statue and destroyed it, became a huge mountain that filled the whole earth. That’s the whole dream.
Wes
And Daniel says as much in Daniel 2:36, he says, “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation.” Why does Daniel call King Nebuchadnezzar the king of kings as he addresses him? And what’s the true significance of this title?
Andy
Well king of kings, it’s just the way that the mighty empires, the big time empires did their business. They would come in, they would defeat some local kings, some small city state king’s army. Kill a lot of his soldiers, but basically gain control of the land. They didn’t want to kill everyone because they wanted the people there to work the land and to grow things and mine things out of mines. They wanted money and resources. And so they would leave a local puppet king under the great king. The Assyrians did this, the Babylonians, they all did it. Romans did it. And so we have in the time of Jesus, we have Caesar Augustus issuing a decree that a census would be taken of the entire Roman world. And we have Herod the Great who’s ruling that little part of Judea where Jesus was born. And so that’s a king, Caesar Augustus, of a lower king Herod the Great, king of kings.
And so it’s been even long before Rome is that the mighty empires ruled over dominions that were smaller and had lesser kings that were subservient to the greater king. And Nebuchadnezzar was that way. He left a puppet king in the line, the lineage of David after him, after he had defeated the Judean armies and took over Jerusalem, he left a puppet king there. But eventually the puppet king rebelled against him, and Nebuchadnezzar came back and destroyed everything. So that’s it. This king of kings means the ruler over puppet kings.
Wes
Why is Nebuchadnezzar represented by a head of gold, and what is God’s role in Nebuchadnezzar’s reign?
Andy
Well, he is the Babylonian empire. The implication is he doesn’t say, “The Babylonian empire is the head of gold.” He says, “You are the head of gold.” So he’s very much focused on Nebuchadnezzar. You get the feeling that Nebuchadnezzar was an autocrat, a solitary ruler, a monarch, all those words, autocrat or monarch means the only one ruling, the absolute complete powerful ruler. The reason you know that is that he’s able to give a command that all of his counselors would be slaughtered. And usually something like that happens with a man with lesser control. He’s going to get assassinated. There’s no way it’s going to be able to happen. But Nebuchadnezzar is truly the head of gold. He is the Babylonian empire. And it says, “You, O king are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory.”(Daniel 2:37) And then he gives him this statement, “In your hands, he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all.”(Daniel 2:38) Now, this is a foretaste of the next dream he’s going to have in chapter four where he’s represented as a tree, a vast mighty tree where the birds of the air perch in its branches and the beasts rest under its shade and it’s got fruit. And he is the provider, the protector, he’s everything. It all comes down to him. But he has not yet learned the lesson that Daniel gives him here, namely, “The God of heaven gave you your dominion and power. You don’t acknowledge it.” So we’ll work on that later, but he is the head of gold.
Wes
What does verse 39 then teach us about the kingdom that follows Babylon, and why does Daniel say so little about it here?
Andy
Yeah, it is interesting. He says almost nothing about it, but it’s the Medo-Persian empire. And Jeremiah had already clearly predicted it would be the Medes and the Persians, but Nebuchadnezzar hadn’t read that scroll. Daniel read it and he knew that the whole thing would last 70 years, but he says very little about it because he doesn’t want him thinking about it because then it might affect history. It’s similar to Jacob not knowing that Joseph was alive down in Egypt because if he had known it, he would’ve done something about it. So if he knows the Medes and Persians are coming next, he’s going to go hunt them down because they’re subject to him at that point, and he would affect history. So he wants him to not know. He doesn’t give him much info, but he does also uses this word inferior. It could mean just simply, “Lower than you on the statue,” but the implication, I think most of the translations say it’s inferior to yours. It’s not as great a kingdom, but in one sense it was greater. There was a larger geographical extent, and there were other attributes. But in one sense, it didn’t have the purity and the glory and the majesty that Nebuchadnezzar had.
Wes
How’s the fourth kingdom described and why was iron the metal chosen for this description?
Andy
So the fourth one is iron. So in between we have the bronze. Let’s talk about the progression. We go from the Babylonian empire to the Medo-Persian empire to the Greeks, and they were characterized by bronze helmets and bronze shields and bronze swords. So that makes sense that they were represented by bronze. But after that comes iron, and iron, it’s characterized by strength and it smashes everything else. And so the fourth kingdom, Rome, represents a terrifying destructive power. And Daniel’s going to see him as the fourth beast coming up out of the sea, which isn’t even given a name in Daniel seven, “A terrifying beast that comes and destroys everything.” And so you get the feeling of Rome being this mindless machine that just destroyed everything. It wasn’t quite like that. There was an enlightenment to the Romans, like I said, king of kings, they knew how to subject to people, make them fear the legions and then do what they were told. So that prosperity poured into Rome. Caesar Augustus said, “I found Rome a city of brick, and I left it city of marble.” Where did all that wealth come from? It came from the empire. They weren’t mindless at all, but they were terrifying, and they ruled for a thousand years in some parts of the world, that’s a record that will never be broken, except of course by the eternal kingdom that’s mentioned in this chapter, the Kingdom of Christ.
Wes
Now in stark contrast to the limited detail that were given about the kingdom that follows Babylon, in verses 41 through 43, we get a significant amount of detail describing the feet and toes. What is Daniel teaching us about these toes?
Andy
Well, first of all, in our common expression we talk about somebody having feet of clay, and that’s like an Achilles heel, for example, or a fatal flaw. A weakness, a character flaw. And so it comes from this as feet of clay, and it’s a fundamental weakness. The entire statue rests on these feet and therefore the whole thing is weak. Now, in one sense, if we’re going to follow the progression approach, we’re going from Babylon to the Medo-Persian empire, to the Greek empire, from Alexander the Great to the Romans to what? And so we’ve got these feet and they’re mingled. It’s mingled of iron and clay. So it’s partly strong, it says, and partly brittle. And we have these 10 toes that are specifically mentioned and these are mingled together. And verse 43 even speaks of an intermarriage, or the seed of man or the mingling of the race. And so I think it just has to do with perhaps a final form of politics after the Romans. So we would imagine city states in post Rome, the fall of Rome. So you’re talking about Germanic peoples and the Franks and the Huns and a lot of different peoples. And I think fundamentally we’re dealing with peoples. In Revelation 7, it says, “After this I looked and there before me was a multitude that no one could count from every tribe and language and people and nation.”(Paraphrase of Revelation 7:9)
So sometimes I picture human history like a waffle, and you know how you pour syrup and it just goes over these ridges and into these valleys and you get this whole waffle thing. And that’s what basically human history is. Even defined by topography, defined literally by mountain ridges and rivers and valleys, and people kind of pour into that area and find a good place. There’s no one here or there are some people there, but they’re not as strong as you are, and you either amalgamate with them and intermarry with them or you slaughter them and take their place. You settle in there and you have a culture and you have a language, and you have a history, and you develop some strength and some of those rise up and become militarily strong and they conquer each other. But this goes on for centuries, and it’s one of the ways that God chose to keep the wicked corrupt human race, the seed of the devil. Now that we followed the devil in rebellion against God and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and became corrupt ourselves from being too strong. It’s like the Tower of Babel itself where Babylon came from. God confused the languages saying, “If as one people speaking one language, they’ve begun to do these things, then nothing they propose to do will be too difficult for them.”(Paraphrase of Genesis 11:6) And so God separated them and kept them weak and did not allow them to unite by language. Well, you get the same image here. They don’t adhere to each other. They don’t stick together.
Now, let’s go back to the progression of human history. Some people believe that this refers to a final form of the Roman Empire because it’s characterized by iron, yes, but also clay, which is not iron, something else, and the weakness of a kind of final form. Then you’ve got the 10 toes, which they line up with Revelation 17, which 10 kings come together to give their power to the one king, the Antichrist. Then you also have the beast, the fourth beast in Daniel 7, and there’s 10 horns that come up on. So you get this number 10 again and again. 10 toes, 10 horns, 10 kings. And so people put all that together and I think there’s reasons for doing that. And so it may well refer to the final form of human history which Jesus will destroy by his second coming.
Wes
Daniel 2:44-45 says this, “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all of these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.” When does the kingdom described in these verses get set up? What’s it like and what’s the relationship between this final kingdom and all the others?
Andy
Well, we have to start from the end and work back. There is no doubt whatsoever that the kingdom being described here is the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ. Since that is the case, then we look at the New Testament’s teaching on the kingdom, of which there’s much. Jesus talks about the kingdom a lot. He tells parables about the kingdom, introducing the parables saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like X.” And so we learn a lot about the kingdom.
One thing we do learn about the kingdom is it began at the first coming of Christ. He established the kingdom. “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” He said in another place, “The kingdom of God is in your midst.” The kingdom has begun. It’s inaugurated, it started, but we also know the kingdom hasn’t been consummated yet. It’s not finished yet because we should pray, “May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth is it is in heaven.” So the kingdom was begun at the first coming of Christ. The second coming of Christ, which is recorded for us in Revelation 19 is military. It’s an invasion from heaven. And he comes with a sword coming out of his mouth, metaphorically I’m sure, but he comes to fight with the antichrist and the forces, the kings. Revelation 19:19 describes this that are assembled to wage war against the people of God. And so he comes down to whip up on those people and destroy them completely, slaughter them. And who can stand up against him? He is almighty God. No one can defeat him because he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And so the kingdom is the kingdom of Christ, and it is a rock cut out, but not by human hands. That refers, I think at least to the virgin birth, the origination of Jesus himself. But then the origination of the kingdom of God is not by human means. It’s not by human power or human wisdom or anything. It is not a kingdom of this world. As he said to Pontius Pilate at his trial, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”(John 18:36) So that’s origin language. “My kingdom doesn’t come from this world, but from heaven.” It doesn’t proceed or progress the way the world’s kingdoms do, namely by the sword, by conquest. It’s a different kind of kingdom. And so fundamentally, it’s not earthly. It doesn’t have feet of clay. It’s a rock cut out, but not by human hands. But it’s violent. It attacks and destroys the kingdoms of this world.
We should understand that in God, every individual lives and moves and has his being. When God takes away the life breath of a king, they die. Look at Acts 12 when blasphemous king Herod was struck down by an angel of the Lord and was eaten by worms and died that day. Nebuchadnezzar was shown more grace. He was struck with insanity and then given his throne back for a little while until he died, and I hope went into glory. So fundamentally, it is violent. Jesus is in fact a threat to Pontius Pilate. He is a threat to Caesar Augustus. He’s a threat to every human being because as Psalm 2 says, he is the king that God establishes at his right hand and he warns all the kingdoms of the earth to not wage war against the kingdom of Christ or to plot or scheme against it. And so I take this whole thing, this violent rock that strikes the statue and destroys the kingdoms and then grows and grows to become a mountain that fills the whole earth, to represent the entire span of Christ’s kingdom from its inauguration at his first coming to its consummation of the second coming. I do not look to the millennial kingdom in any way here because it is an eternal kingdom that has no end, whereas the millennial kingdom has an end. So that may be a phase of Christ’s kingdom, but ultimately it is the eternal kingdom of Christ and of God, and it fills the whole earth. And I take it right at that point to Habakkuk 2:14, “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Now, the growth of the rock that becomes a mountain could be gradual over 2000 years through the preaching of the gospel, or it could be instantaneous if God wills. But I still think of it more as gradual, little by little by little, the kingdom grows through missions and evangelism and then instantly finishes its military work at the second coming of Christ. And then I believe based on the book I wrote on heaven, it will keep growing forever because we will continually learn more and more about the greatness and the glory of God.
“We should understand that in God, every individual lives and moves and has his being. When God takes away the life breath of a king, they die. “
Wes
And lest the king think that this is something that he can somehow maneuver or manipulate, Daniel concludes by saying, “The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy.”(Paraphrase of Daniel 2:45)
Andy
Amen.
Wes
Why does Nebuchadnezzar respond the way that he does? And based on verse 47, do you think Nebuchadnezzar understands who God is at this point?
Andy
It’s happening, but gradually. It’s like a dimmer switch, and I think little by little things are happening. It reminds me of that parable of the seed planted, which grew day and night. Whether the owner of the field or the planter knew what was happening, the seed grew and grew, and then at the right time, he, the one who planted it, harvested it. So the same one who had no idea how the growth was happening and didn’t do it, that’s clearly a human being not God, puts the sickle to it and the harvest comes. And so Mark 4, the picture is of the concept of the kingdom growing and growing in an individual heart until it’s time to cross over from death of life. So I think some ideas are definitely getting planted in Nebuchadnezzar’s mind. Look what he does. He falls prostrate before Daniel. He’s not falling prostrate before Daniel per se, but before God and the God that Daniel represents. And so he’s in awe.
Why is he reacting like this? It’s a miracle. He’s in the presence of a wonder worker, a miracle worker. The thing itself is a miracle. Why? Because to be able to tell another man his dream when he never said a word about it is a miracle. But what’s even more amazing is the significance of the dream, what it meant, and he knew it was true. He knew that that was not just some story that Daniel made up. God told him what was going to happen. And so he’s amazed and he’s on his face before Daniel, and he speaks words of praise, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries for you were able to reveal this mystery.”(Daniel 2:47) So I think he thinks of God similar to his own authority, king of kings, like there’s lots of gods, and then there’s this one great God, and he kind of rules over all the lesser gods. Well, maybe it’ll take time for him to realize there is one and only one God.
Wes
In the final two verses of this chapter, we learned that Daniel is promoted by the king. As a part of his response, he raises Daniel up to this place of prominence, and it seems that Daniel recommends that the king also promote Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Why does all of this take place at the end of this chapter and what final thoughts do you have for us today?
Andy
Well, this is what kings can do, and they can give honors and privileges and preference and all that. And Daniel’s going to say this to be Belteshazzar, those whom the king wanted to elevate, he elevated and those whom he wanted to kill, he killed. And so he had the power to open his hand and give him earthly things. And so that would be power and money and nice clothes and privileges and things like that. And so he wanted to do that. It was his way of saying thank you and his way of honoring. And also, he wanted future counsel. He wanted more counsel. Now, what he’s going to do in the next chapter is a whole different ballgame, making that statue he wanted everyone to bow down to. We’ll get to that. But the fact is at this point, he’s in awe and he wants to honor Daniel and he wants to honor also his friends at Daniel’s request. He has Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, those are their Jewish names, but Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego appointed. And that sets up the next story. So the final word I get out of this is God is absolutely completely sovereign over human history. And the issue of history is this rock cut out, but not by human hands that destroys all other kingdoms and itself becomes a kingdom that fills the whole earth for all eternity. That is the kingdom of Christ. And it makes me think of the statement that Jesus makes. “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well.” There’s nothing more important than the Kingdom of God.
“God is absolutely completely sovereign over human history. And the issue of history is this rock cut out, but not by human hands that destroys all other kingdoms and itself becomes a kingdom that fills the whole earth for all eternity.”
Wes
Well, this has been episode three in our Daniel Bible Study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode four, entitled “Faith Vindicated in a Trial by Fire,” where we’ll discuss Daniel 3:1-30. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
