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Daniel Chapter 2 |
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The exciting prophecies and visions, which were revealed to Daniel, began with the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, King of the Babylonian Empire and conqueror of Israel. It is interesting to note that the initial revelation was given to a gentile and apparently not even a believer of Jehovah, but a pagan! But the proof of the fact that Nebuchadnezzar's dream was from God can be seen in the evidence that only Daniel, by God’s revelation, could tell Nebuchadnezzar what he dreamed and then give the interpretation. Imagine such a thing, no one could possibly calculate the probability of this happening, to tell a man what his forgotten dream was. Daniel, himself, bore testimony that this whole matter was from God and gave the purpose of God's giving the dream when he said to Nebuchadnezzar, "But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days." So here is the story of this amazing event.
The Introduction
In verse 1 Nebuchadnezzar has his dream, which gives him great trouble. He calls for the psychics of his court to give him not only the interpretation, but also what the dream was. However, all that they could do was to complain of the impossibility of doing this unless he tells them what he dreamt. On hearing this reply the king's anger raged and a sentence of death was given for all the “magicians” including Daniel and his three fellow countrymen. Daniel and his companions prayed unto God to give the knowledge of this thing. God answered their prayer and Daniel was able to tell the king not only his dream but also its interpretation.
The Dream
The dream is told in verses 32 through 35. It was about a great image with the following description: the head of gold, the breasts and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, the legs of iron, and the feet of iron and part clay. Then a stone was “cut out without hands,” and struck the image at its feet of iron and clay and broke it into pieces (literally, beaten small). The pieces were as chaff and the wind carried them away. That stone then became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
The great image was described as “terrible” with an excellent brightness. Its vision caused much distress to Nebuchadnezzar.
The Interpretation
Every element in the dream is representative of an Empire. What makes each of these kingdoms a standout is the fact that they were (or would be) world powers. Each in their day ruled the then – “known world.” More specifically, their rule was over the promised land of Abraham as given in God's Covenant with him. As each Empire came into being their kingdoms expanded in ever-greater geographic territory. The first Empire mentioned, Babylon, conquered the nation of Israel, and they have never recovered from the consequence of that loss. Thus it was that each of these Empires in their turn dominated the land of Judea. The succession of these kingdoms reaches a climax in the last days of this age, “The Day of The Lord.”
| First Empire: The Head of Fine Gold. |
| This empire is identified with Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian empire. Nebuchadnezzar is unconditionally called the head of gold (verse 38).
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| Second Empire: The Breast and Arms of Silver. |
| Historically, both in Biblical and secular sources, this is representative of the Medo-Persian Empire. The two arms are expressive of the union of two nations, Medes and Persians, into one Empire. This Empire is stated to be inferior to the Babylonian Empire. The inferiority is not in the expanse of that Empire but in its quality. |
| Third Empire: The Belly and Thighs of Brass. |
| Again, historically this is recognized as the Grecian Empire. Daniel states this Empire shall rule over all the earth (verse 39). This word “earth” is the same as found in Gen. 1:1. The statement is puzzling, because the Greek Empire did not encompass the entire earth (globally), and later the Roman Empire covered far more of the world than it had. In what way are we to understand this phrase, “all the earth?” There are two figures of speech, which may be referred in order to explain the phrase. First is the hyperbole, which is a gross exaggeration of fact in order to emphasize what is being said. In this case it would be used to exaggerate the size of this Empire in order to make it impressive as to how large it was to be. The second possible figure of speech is the synecdoche. This figure is used in such a manner where the whole is substituted for the part or the part is substituted for the whole. Thus the phrase “all the earth” has been substituted for part of the earth. This is also used to emphasize of the size of area. However, a more reasonable meaning of the phrase is to take it literal, that for Daniel and his contemporaries, this Empire would encompass the whole world, as they knew it. Thus to those who first heard this prophecy it was probably understood as meaning the limit of the then-known world. The point is that God has inspired the usage of this word (earth) to be applied to a certain geographical area of the world. If this prophecy speaks of “all the earth,” being applied to a small section of the earth (in this case Judea at the heart and neighboring regions thereabout), should we leap to the conclusion that other prophecies may not be limited in the same way? (i.e., will the "antichrist" literally rule globally - universally all the earth, world?) This same global-limitation applies to Nebuchadnezzar in verse 38; whereas, he did not literally rule over all – “wheresoever the children of men dwell.” |
| Fourth Empire: Two Legs of Iron. |
| This is the Roman Empire. There are several unique features about this Empire, the first of which is that it became divided. This Empire was strong as iron, in that it breaks into pieces and bruises. It subdues all. In the year 364 A.D. the Roman Empire split into two branches, the Eastern and the Western. Prior to this time (313, 314 A.D.) the unholy union of Church and State came into being. Constantine made the marriage of the Roman government with the apostate “Christian” churches. These loosely knit churches became solidified into what is called the “catholic” or universal church. With the political and geographical division of the Roman Empire came the same division within the Catholic Church. There were now two Emperors, both popes, both claiming to be heads of power over the other. It went so far that each pope excommunicated the other. The result was the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church. From that, we have the two legs of the one Empire. |
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-----Up until this point all of this is history to us. These things have come to pass, so that we have the luxury of hindsight in viewing these four Empires. Now there is a bridge of time till the coming of the feet and ten toes made of iron and clay, the Ten Nation Federation Empire. The word became is not used in Daniel but the implication is there, that is, the Iron Empire became the Ten Nation Federation Empire. The continuity of the metal, iron, and the blending of the two legs into feet and toes, suggests this strongly. If this is true, what does it tell us? It shows that the Roman Empire in reality has never gone out of existence. It still survives to this day within the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church. The fact cannot be denied that the Roman Catholic Church is a recognized political organization. The Vatican is, to some degree, officially represented in nearly every nation in the world. It has a Permanent Observer in the United Nations. They have a political voice and influence with the nations of the world, and they exercise it. Countless missionaries in predominantly Catholic countries tell of the pressures put on local and state governments by the Catholic Church, both officially and through their influence with leaders and businessmen, to obstruct and sometimes cause expulsion of these people or their work. If this hypothesis of the Roman Empire having gone dormant within the Roman Catholic Church is true, then the development of the Ten Nation Federation is seemingly going to come from its geographical ranks. Nor should the Eastern half of the Roman Empire, the Greek Orthodox Church, be ignored. These two churches may never be united, but from them or rather from their ancient geographic regions come the Ten Nations. What area of the world is this? It is that part of the Baltic and Mideast which they once ruled over. More will be seen of this in Daniel chapter 9.----
| The Ten Nation Federation Empire: The Feet and Toes, part of Potters' Clay and part of Iron. |
| Let us review what Daniel wrote of this Federation, "the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” (Verses 41-43) Daniel chapter 7 speaks more about the ten nations, which relate to the ten toes. Since all this is still in our future we can only speculate on the details of these ten nations. As I have mentioned the geographical location of these ten nations can be generalized as consisting of the same area of, at the very least the last Empire, but, and most likely, the common geographic area of all four of the Empires. The mixture of the two differing materials is significant, showing a mixture of peoples who will not solidify together. If we think of “Christian” groups allying with Muslim people we can see how they will not cleave, assimilate, to one another. Another item to note is the phrase “the seed of men.” Other similar phrases to that of “seed of men” have been used in the Bible to signify the ungodly, natural (carnal, fleshly) part of mankind, in contrast to God’s people. Being partly strong and partly broken shows strength and weakness in the various ten nations. |
| The Final Kingdom: The Rock made without hands. |
| This Rock struck the feet of the image, completely collapsing and shattering it into fine pieces (actually the literal idea is to grind to dust), never again to exist. Daniel said that no place was found for these pieces. This is certainly connected with the battle of Armageddon. This stone, which broke the image, then became a great mountain (the expression, mountain, is often used in the Scriptures as signifying a government or kingdom) and filled the whole earth. In the days of these kings shall God set up His kingdom and it shall break all these kingdoms and consume them. But God’s kingdom shall not be left to other people, and it will stand forever. Many Old and New Testament prophecies reveal more information and details of this event and this kingdom. |
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The Summary
It should be kept in mind that the great image is a representation of all these Empires as a whole. The image manifests some unity, which all the Empires have in common. Remember, there are not four or five images but four or five components of the one image. What needs to be analyzed is the common element, which unifies or bonds together these Empires to a whole as they progress one to another. The common element is not the nationality of the people of the various kingdoms, nor does it appear that it is their religion, unless all forms paganism are considered as one grouping.[1] (The Babylonians believed in polytheism and pantheism, while the Greeks and Romans had their system of belief in Mythology.) The forms of government also varied. It is difficult to see any exact correlation or commonality between these Empires except one. The one element, which they all had in common, was that they ruled the land granted to Abraham and his Seed by God. The first four Empires occupied an area of the future Ten Nation Federation. The Babylonian Empire was the smallest and from within its boundaries comes this final stage of the image, the feet and toes.
This concludes Daniel chapter two and Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the image. I am of the firm persuasion that all other prophecies given in Daniel plus many contained in the Gospels, Epistles and the book of Revelation have reference to this first great vision - prophecy. Our goal is to try to come to a reasonable understanding of the Man of Sin; who he is, where he originates, and his coming power and kingdom on earth. If we can achieve this goal we may intelligently have our attention focused on the signs and events occurring in the world. Only by the study of God's word and remaining alert in faith will it be possible for us not to be deceived by what is most assuredly coming upon the world.
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Next: The Land and Nebuchadnezzar's Image |
This page last updated September 14, 2004 at 10:21am
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