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GOD OF DREAMS AND HISTORY (Daniel 2:1-49 August 21, 2005)

I am one of those people who have very few dreams – but when I have them – they are so vivid, so realistic, so emotional – it almost seems as if there is a message in them. Dreams have always intrigued men. They leave such and impression that many societies in history have believed that dreams are a way that gods or angels or the dead – communicate with us. Therefore those who could interpret dreams were afforded a place of honour. Dreams remained in this realm of mysticism until the 20th century until science decided to turn its hand to dreams – but even science has had little success. Sigmund Freud was the first to look for a rational purpose for dreams. He theorised that dreams were a way to keep us sleeping for the full seven hours our body needed – when other things like hunger would try and wake us up. Carl Jung had a different idea. He claimed that the function of dreams is to compensate for those parts of our psyche that we perceive to be inadequate. If we are timid in life – we are brave in our dreams. It gives balance to our lives we can get through the day by living in fantasy at night. And they were just the start. There have been many theories about dreams – and the truth is no one knows for sure why we dream. The most popular theory right now is that our minds just like to stay active – they don’t turn off – even in sleep. So while we aren’t doing anything – our minds simply create stories to themselves busy while our bodies rest. So despite them being a strange and pervasive part of our life – for you and I – dreams would be no more than an oddity – something that happens that we aren’t quite sure why – except for the fact that they are mentioned throughout the Bible. In the Scriptures we find that at various times God Himself used dreams to declare Himself to men – pagans and godly men – Jews and Gentiles. So because God used dreams as revelation in the past, some believe that dreams are a way that God regularly speaks to men today. They quote passages like Acts 2:17:

‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams.

So we end up with churches like the Dream Centre – whereby God is said to lead the church through the dreams of the senior pastor.

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Or we get website’s like Destiny’s Gate which says:

Those of us that believe in Jesus need to pay more attention not only to His word, but also to His message through dreams.

So as Christians, what are we to make of dreams? Are your dreams a way for God to speak to you? Does God sill speak through dreams? There is an area of mystery here, but what I can say is this. From time to time in history – God has chosen to reveal Himself in dreams. It has been rare – but when it happened – men knew for certain that it was God speaking with them. Could it happen today? There is nothing in Scripture to say it can’t – but I would think it unlikely that God would reveal Himself in this way at this time. Why? Because in Scripture, God used dreams to change the course of redemptive history. But he used these dreams in two ways. First, He often communicated directly with people at crucial points in redemptive history. God commanded men and women in such a way that His purposes were achieved. Abimelech – a pagan king – is about to violate Sarah – the one through whom Messiah’s line would come – and he is told in a dream not to touch Sarah. Jacob is given a dream of a ladder leading to heaven. In this way, God tells him that Israel should settle in the Promised Land. Joseph has a dream of the sun, moon and stars which led his brothers to sell him into captivity – so that he could save the nation of Israel. Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father was led by dreams to take Mary as his wife and flee to Egypt to save the infant Jesus. But there is a second way God used dreams. Pagans believed dreams came from their gods – they were messages from the gods. But on two occasions God used the dreams of pagan kings to demonstrate His supremacy as the One true God and at the same time to demonstrate His power to direct world affairs and to change the fate of Israel. In Genesis – God used dreams to show Pharaoh His supremacy and raise Joseph from prison to rule over Egypt – that He might save the nation of Israel. In Daniel – God used dreams to show Nebuchadnezzar His supremacy and raise Daniel from servitude to rule over Babylon – that He might demonstrate His plan for Israel and the world.

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So God has used dreams in these specific ways. But since He spoke once for all in His Son, it doesn’t seem there is a need for Him to direct redemptive history in this way. Put it this way – God doesn’t send dreams that tell you what colour to paint your house or which job to choose. Dreams were for major purposes. Unless He wants to change the direction of church history – I see no reason for Him to speak in dreams – we have the very clear message of Christ. Don’t get me wrong, it is possible that He may do so at crucial times – and Scripture seems to indicate that this indeed will happen – but it would be rare. But that doesn’t mean men don’t claim to regularly have a word from God through dreams. But Scripture does tell us to test anyone who says – I have a dream from God. Deuteronomy 13:1-5 says this:

“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counselled rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you.

If any dream leads us away from the pure worship of God as revealed in His Word – it is wrong. It has come from Satan or that man’s sinful heart. Don’t listen. And if that so-called dream from God has a prophecy involved – if it fails to come to pass – you know it is false. Jeremiah 23:25-32 gives a similar warning. There God says:

I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’ How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart, who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal? The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares the Lord. Is not My word like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock? Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who steal My words from each other. Behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who use their tongues and

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declare, ‘The Lord declares.’ Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams,” declares the Lord, “and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit,” declares the Lord.

Beware of those who say – I have a dream from God. So let me say again – God used dreams to direct people at crucial points in redemptive history. I needed to cover this because this morning we come to a chapter that deals with God sending a particularly vivid dream to Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar. But what we will see is that God used this to declare His supremacy and show that He and He alone directs the history of the nations and indeed the purpose of Israel and this world. So turn with me to Daniel chapter 2 verses 1-4: Daniel 2:1-4:

Now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. Then the king gave orders to call in the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. The king said to them, “I had a dream and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream.” Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic: “O king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servants, and we will declare the interpretation.”

Before I look at this verse I want to point something out that is not easily picked up in our English Bibles. Form Chapter 1 verse 1 – the book is written in Hebrew – the language of Israel. Then in chapter 2 verse 4 beginning with the words of the Chaldeans – the book is written in Aramaic – the language of Babylon. This continues to the end of chapter 7 and then for the rest of the book – the book is written in Hebrew again. What is going on? What is going on is that chapters 2 to 7 form one unit. When you read through Daniel chapters 2 to 7 – you cannot help but be struck by the similarities between chapters 2 and 7 and 3 and 6 and 4 and 5. Over these six chapters you will feel some déjà vu. But you are meant to feel that.

Chapter 2 Chapter 7 Chapter 3 Chapter 6 Chapter 4 Chapter 5

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King has dream of statue of four parts

Daniel has dream of

four beasts

King demands worship

King demands worship

King exalts his power

King exalts his power

Interpretation Four

Kingdoms

Interpretation Four

Kingdoms

S,M,A refuse and trust God

Daniel refuses and trusts God

God issues a divine warning

God issues a divine warning

All other kingdoms

superseded

All other kingdoms

superseded

King sentences

them to death

King sentences

him to death

Daniel interprets

the warning

Daniel interprets

the warning

God of Heaven sets up

everlasting kingdom

Ancient of Days sets

up everlasting kingdom

S,M,A preserved

by God – no injury. Son of the gods with them. Warriors

killed

Daniel preserved

by God – no injury. Aneld

with him. Commiss

and satraps killed

Judgment on the King

Judgment on the King

God alone King of eternal

kingdom

God alone King of eternal

kingdom

God alone is to be

worshipped

God alone is to be

worshipped

God alone is supreme

God alone is supreme

Chapters 2 and 7 and 3 and 6 and 4 and 5 – use similar imagery and stories to make the same point.

For example in chapters 2 and 7 you have dreams about four kingdoms ending in the everlasting kingdom of God. In chapters 3 and 6 we have the necessity to worship God and God alone. A few elements seem different – the three friends in one Daniel in the other. A lion’s den instead of a fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar in one, Darius in the other.

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In chapters 4 and 5 there is a warning, an interpretation and a judgment. In chapter 4 we find Nebuchadnezzar cut down in mid-boast about his greatness. In chapter 5 it is Belshazzar who is in the midst of boasting of his greatness when he is cut down. In chapter 4 – the wise men cannot interpret the warning so Daniel is called – one in whom a spirit of the gods lives. These events are similar – purposefully similar. In fact even the words used are very similar. Take chapters 3 and 6. After Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego are pulled out of the fiery furnace – we read:

In regard to these men that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men nor was the hair of their head singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had the smell of fire even come upon them. Daniel 3:27

When Daniel is pulled out of the lion’s den – we are told:

No injury whatever was found on him. Daniel 6:23 At the end of chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar decrees:

Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses reduced to a rubbish heap, inasmuch as there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way.” Daniel 3:29

And at the end of Daniel 6, Darius decrees:

Then Darius the king wrote to all the peoples, nations and men of every language who were living in all the land: “May your peace abound! I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom men are to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel.” Daniel 6:25-26

And in case we are really slow and miss it – these chapters are linked in another way. In Daniel 2 I told you that in chapter 2 verse 4 beginning with the words of the Chaldeans – from that point until the end of chapter 7 – the book is written in Aramaic – the language of Babylon. Daniel is written in Hebrew – except for chapters 2 to 7. These chapters are linked by being written in Aramaic and they are linked by being reflections of each other. So why have the chapters as mirror images? It is a very Hebrew way to reinforce the point. When you read these chapters over and over you realize that they all deal with the truth that God alone is sovereign. He is to be worshipped by every nation.

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In these chapters, He shows His superiority over the gods of the Babylonians. He declares that He is the one true God – He alone is to be worshipped among the nations – and He will not tolerate any rivals. Since this message is for all the nations and to mark it as one unit – it is written in the language of the Babylonians – Aramaic. Then chapters 8 to 12 – deal primarily with the future of Israel – the coming of Messiah and His kingdom – so it is written in the language of Israel – Hebrew. The point of the whole book is that God is sovereign over all men – Jew and Gentile and all must bow the knee before Him. But each of these linked pairs of chapters focuses on a slightly different aspect of the sovereignty of God. We will deal with that when we come to chapters 5 to 7. For now, we will deal with chapter 2. Notice that this chapter opens with the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. The Babylonians counted the years of their king’s reign a little differently to us – and for the Jews any part of a year is counted as a year – so the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign would be the third year of Daniel’s training.

Daniel’s Training

Nebuchadnezzar’s Rule

First Year Accession year (Year 0) Second Year First Year Third Year Second Year

So this event happened just after Daniel finished his training. The view of the day was that your gods – who were linked with your land – wanted to help you. And they communicated with you through various signs and omens. But, it took men of great learning to interpret the signs. And the Chaldean wise men were noted for this ability. Give them a fresh sheep liver, a foetus, a sign in the heavens – and they could tell you the message from the gods. And one of the most common ways the gods were supposed to communicate was through dreams. What the Babylonians did was draw up charts of what various signs and symbols in dreams meant. In fact we have dug up some of these charts. King Nebuchadnezzar is having a recurring dream. It kept him awake at night. It troubled him. He was sure that the gods were sending him a message. And as we will

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find out the dream involved a manlike statue being crushed to chaff. Nebuchadnezzar had been King for only a few years and Kings in those days were notoriously short lived – so he was desperate to find out the meaning of the dream. He called in his wise men – the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans. These were men skilled in the various arts of divination and interpretation. You can imagine them turning up with their books and charts – ready to give the interpretation. And they say – O King – we are ready now – so tell us the dream and we – the great and learned ones – will tell you what it means. But Nebuchadnezzar is a little wiser than that. Look at verses 5-9:

The king replied to the Chaldeans, “The command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb and your houses will be made a rubbish heap. But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me gifts and a reward and great honor; therefore declare to me the dream and its interpretation.” They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation.” The king replied, “I know for certain that you are bargaining for time, inasmuch as you have seen that the command from me is firm, that if you do not make the dream known to me, there is only one decree for you. For you have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the situation is changed; therefore tell me the dream, that I may know that you can declare to me its interpretation.”

Nebuchadnezzar has a shrewdness about him. He suspects that these men really don’t know what the dream means – that their divination may be speculation. In fact verse 9 seems to indicate that they knew it was foolishness – because they conspired to agree on the interpretation. Get their story straight before the King. Nebuchadnezzar suspected this and he wouldn’t stand for it. This dream so concerned him that he had to know that the interpretation was true. He reasons that the only way to know this for sure is to have them tell him the dream – this would show they really understood the god’s message. So Nebuchadnezzar says:

Look if my dreams are a communication from the gods and you are wise men who know how the gods communicate – then you can tell me both the dream and its meaning.

They know they are in trouble – so they say:

Ah your majesty – it doesn’t work that way. You tell us the dream and we tell you the meaning.

And the King says:

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Here is how it is going to work – tell me the dream and its interpretation or I know you are phonies and you are all dead.

Archaeologists have managed to dig up many of the Babylonian dream charts. But they are not the only ones who came up with dream charts. Go to Google – type in Dream Interpretation or Dream Dictionary – and you will find literally hundreds of these charts that tell you what certain things in your dream mean. A few years ago there was a show that on ABC radio 612. It was 30 minutes of talk back dream interpretation with Jane Anderson and they had the cheek to call the show – “Reality Matters.” Despite the name – there was no reality involved. People would call up and tell about their dream – falling naked through the sky with a talking octopus – or something as bizarre. And then Jane Anderson would interpret the dream – this symbol means this and that means something else. I did a little web-surfing this week to a few of the hundreds of online sites where you can find the interpretation of dreams. And surprise surprise – every dream interpreter has their own ideas about what dreams mean. At random, I picked one topic – spiders – and went to Jane Anderson’s site and the first four dream interpretation sites that popped up on Google. Jane Anderson’s Dream Network site says – Spiders often show up in dreams as symbols of power of the intuitive type. The Dream Moods site says – To see a spider in your dream, indicates that you are feeling like an outsider in some situation. The Dream Doctor says – Spiders frequently symbolize “creepy people” who would like to “trap us in their webs.” The Soul-Future site says – A spider may symbolize the number 8 and irrational or hidden fears and phobias And the Dream Dictionary says – All spiders except tarantulas are omens of good luck. The larger the spider, the bigger the rewards. Basically, it is all a fraud. Now while many of the sites said the dreams were merely your own subconscious speaking to you – there were just as many who claimed that that they were the communication of spirit guides or other new age forces using dreams to tell us about the future. They call these precognitive dreams or physic dreams. But there was one thing every site had in common. You told them the dream and they interpreted it.

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No one – not even those who claimed to have a relationship with the spirits – would say that they could tell you the dream and the interpretation. But I think Nebuchadnezzar is onto something. If I were Prime Minster, I would set up a Dream ombudsman who would proclaim:

The way it will work from now on is this. If you claim to be a dream expert – then you will have to tell the client what their dream is – and what it means – or else you go to jail as a fraud.

I tell you the numbers of these charlatans would dry up to nothing. They are frauds – like Nebuchadnezzar’s wise men. But these court sages tried to save face. Verses 10-11:

The Chaldeans answered the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who could declare the matter for the king, inasmuch as no great king or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any magician, conjurer or Chaldean. Moreover, the thing which the king demands is difficult, and there is no one else who could declare it to the king except gods, whose dwelling place is not with mortal flesh.”

O King – You are asking too much. No one – not the greatest of wise men – can do this – it is impossible. Only the gods can do it – but they don’t come down among us – so since it is impossible – just tell us the dream. In one sense they are right – their statues of wood are mute. But there is a profound sense in which they are wrong – there is a true God who dwells among His people. Verse 12:

Because of this the king became indignant and very furious and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar for all his faults is no fool. If the gods give a man a dream – then to interpret it correctly means you have to have contact with the gods. These wise men had just signed their own death warrant. They were caught out. And the king was not happy. So he said – tell me the dream or die. Verse 13

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So the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they looked for Daniel and his friends to kill them.

Daniel and his friends were classed among the wise men – so they were in the firing line. Verses 14-16:

Then Daniel replied with discretion and discernment to Arioch, the captain of the king’s bodyguard, who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon; he said to Arioch, the king’s commander, “For what reason is the decree from the king so urgent?” Then Arioch informed Daniel about the matter. So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him time, in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king.

Verses 17-19:

Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, about the matter, so that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven;

Here are these four men – probably still only teenagers. They are under the sentence of death. And they do the best thing they can. They unite in prayer to the God of heaven. No carved statue can reveal the King’s dream – only the true God in heaven can do so. So they pray fervently through the night and then God reveals the dream to Daniel – and he praises God. Look at this great anthem of praise. Verses 20-23:

Daniel said, “Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him.

God and God alone is sovereign over everything. He knows everything. He is all powerful.

“It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings;

God directs history. History is not something that happens – it has a purpose – it leads to the ends God decrees.

He gives wisdom to wise men And knowledge to men of understanding.

God makes what is unknowable – known to men.

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I hope you realise that with all our great advances in science – we barely understand anything about the universe we live in. Bill Bryson put it this way:

We live in a universe whose age we can’t quite compute, surrounded by stars whose distances from each other we don’t altogether know, filled with matter we can’t identify, operating in conformance with physical laws we don’t truly understand.1

The truth is that with our very limited minds – we just can’t grasp the universe we live in. This bothered men like Einstein. He just couldn’t bear the notion that God could create a universe in which some things were forever unknowable.2 But we are men and some things are beyond our ability to know them. It is only when it pleases the Lord and He chooses to reveal truths about Himself, this world and the future that we can know what would otherwise be totally beyond our ability to know. The dreams of another. The future. The fate of the nations. Eternity. This must come from God.

“It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, And the light dwells with Him. “To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, For You have given me wisdom and power; Even now You have made known to me what we requested of You, For You have made known to us the king’s matter.”

Their gods of the Babylonians could not reveal the dream – for they are wood and clay. But the true God – the God of Israel – who does dwell among His people and does hear their cry – He revealed the dream to Daniel. No one could do it but God – and He did it. He is the true God. He reveals what no man, no god, no computer, no mathematical model, no machine can ever reveal. And to Daniel – He revealed a dream – and it was a dream that showed not only the future, but that God directs the future and God has a purpose He will bring to pass in the future. Verses 24-28:

Therefore, Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and spoke to him as follows: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon! Take me into the king’s presence, and I will declare the interpretation to the king.” Then Arioch hurriedly brought Daniel into the

1 Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything (Black Swan Publishers: London, 2003) p.219. 2 Cited in Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything (Black Swan Publishers: London, 2003) p.191.

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king’s presence and spoke to him as follows: “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king!” The king said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?” Daniel answered before the king and said, “As for the mystery about which the king has inquired, neither wise men, conjurers, magicians nor diviners are able to declare it to the king. However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days.

No man could know the dream. But Daniel knew it – and he knew it not because some Babylonian god showed him – but because the true God – the God of heaven – the one who directs the future – He made it known. Verses 28-30:

This was your dream and the visions in your mind while on your bed. As for you, O king, while on your bed your thoughts turned to what would take place in the future; and He who reveals mysteries has made known to you what will take place. But as for me, this mystery has not been revealed to me for any wisdom residing in me more than in any other living man, but for the purpose of making the interpretation known to the king, and that you may understand the thoughts of your mind.

O King – I am a man – and I know this dream not because I am wise or talented – but because my God – the true God showed it to me. And this dream of yours deals with the future. Verses 31-35:

You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendour, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

And then we have the interpretation. Verses 36-43:

This was the dream; now we will tell its interpretation before the king. You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand

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and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold. After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth. Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.

Now I have to tell you – I have had some weird dreams in my day – but nothing like this. Daniel couldn’t have guessed this – He was shown it. And He could never have guessed the meaning – He was shown it. Who knows what the wise men of Babylon would have done with a dream like this even if Nebuchadnezzar had told them of his dream. But God – through Daniel has given us both the dream and the interpretation of the dream – but even with this – there is debate about what it means. The vision is of a statue made of different metals – gold head, silver torso, bronze belly and things, iron legs and feet of iron and clay.

But what does it represent? Some think it refers to four successive kings? – Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian. But in the context, the reference to Nebuchadnezzar as the head – probably refers to him as the leader of a nation – a kingdom – Babylon. So almost certainly this refers to four successive Kingdoms.

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But then the debate comes – are the four kingdoms:

Babylon, Medo-Persian, Greece and Rome Or Babylon, Media, Persia and Greece.

Let me cut to the chase here. This represents – Babylon, Medo-Persian, Greece and Rome. In Daniel – Medio-Persia is viewed as one empire – you will see this when we get to chapter 8. And there the second and third empires are identified by name – Medo-Persia and Greece. There are two reasons that some want to see this as Babylon, Media, Persia and Greece. First, some don’t want to see the fourth empire as Rome because that would mean prophecy is real. They prefer to see this book as written after the events of history – and only claiming to be written by Daniel. But, we now have the Dead Sea Scrolls. These show that Daniel was written before Rome rose to prominence. So if this refers to Rome – then God did actually show Daniel the future – and liberals just can’t have that. We can’t have prophecy being real – then God might be real – and heaven and hell might be real. They want to say that someone – not Daniel – wrote this in the second century BC and wrote it as if they lived in the days of Daniel – to make it seem like prophecy. It might be like me writing about the Third Reich and the USSR and the rise of China – but signing it – Nostradamus – to make it look like prophecy from long ago. The second reason is a little more complex. This statue corresponds with the four beasts of the vision in Daniel 7.

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And the fourth beast grows a little horn. In chapter 8 – a goat grows a little horn. In chapter 8 – the little horn is said to grow out of the kingdom of Greece and it is identified as Antiochus IV Epiphanes. They argue the little horns are the same therefore the fourth beast in Daniel 7 is Greece and the fourth part of the statue is Greece. I will deal with this in chapter 7 – but suffice it to say – there is more than enough evidence in the text to show that the little horns are not the same. Antiochus becomes a model for the antichrists to follow – leading to the final Antichrist who comes out of the fourth beast. So we should view the statue as representing successive kingdoms – Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome.

The golden head is Nebuchadnezzar – who represents the Babylonian empire. But as Nebuchadnezzar will learn the hard way – God raises up kings and empires and He brings them down. And it is God who brings the Babylonian Empire to an end and in its place He raises up the Medo-Persian empire – the arms of silver. This kingdom is inferior. It is not quite as grand or as dominant as Babylon. Then Medo-Persia will be eclipsed by the rise of Greece under Alexander the Great – the belly and thighs of bronze. Finally, Greece is eclipsed by the Roman empire – the legs of iron. But the difficult part comes in verses 44-45:

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In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.

The main point of this is clear. God raises up kingdoms and brings them down. But one day – the kingdoms of men will end and He will establish a kingdom that will supersede all earthly kingdoms and never end. There is no doubt that this is the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. The stone is cut out of the mountain without hands – it is divine not human. But the real difficulty in interpretation comes as to when this happens. There are two suggested possibilities.

The first is that this happened at Jesus’ first coming. The second is that this happened at His second coming.

What leads men to think this refers to the first coming of Christ? In verse – 44 – the text says – In the days of those kings God will set up His kingdom. This might refer to the kings over the four kingdoms – or if the ten toes correspond to the ten kings in Daniel 7 – it might possibly refer to those kings. Either way, since the toes are a part of the legs of iron – it seems that it refers to something happening during the time of the fourth empire. Jesus came while Rome was still in power. And the feet are a part of the Roman empire – and at first glance there doesn’t seem to be a gap of thousands of years and many empires between the ankles and the feet. But then there are several points that indicate this refers to the second coming of Jesus. First and foremost the coming of Jesus did not destroy the empires of the world. Rome continued for centuries after Jesus. Empires have come and gone since then. We are still here 2000 years later. Then there is the description of the two legs. This may suggest the division of the Roman Empire into two – which did not happen until after the days of Jesus. And then we have the description of the feet and toes. They are described as made of clay and iron. A weakness in the empire. Rome did not become weak until after Jesus.

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In verse 44 where it says – in the days of those kings – this may not refer to the kings of the four empires but may be a reference to ten kings represented by the ten toes as in Daniel 7. In Daniel 7:23-24 we read this:

The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it. As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.

When you read this chapter in its context it is talking about the end of time – the return of Christ. It speaks of Antichrist and the end of time. The description of the crushing of the world empires to dust certainly fits better with the second coming of Jesus – the end of the world as we know it. So what are we to make of this? Most likely what is going on is this. Rome – the fourth Kingdom dominated the earth. In fact it dominated the earth in such a way that most of the other kingdoms that arose later built on what Rome had done. The Holy Roman Empire, British Empire, the US – much of the legal, government and culture derived from Rome. In a sense the Roman empire leads to all the ones that follow. So perhaps we are to envision – Jesus coming during the Roman Empire – but the final crushing of all the earthly empires will not happen until He comes again. It is as if this final empire stretches from Rome and the coming of Jesus to the end of time. As we will see again in chapter 7 – this fourth empire begins with Rome – but stretches to the end of world history. It encompasses all the nations that will rise to power before the final return of Christ. The kingdom of Jesus starts at His first coming and is finally completely established at His second coming. He comes in the days of Rome – but the kingdom continues as Rome divides – as other empires come – as weakness sets in – and finally He destroys everything that came before at His second coming. I think this fits best. And it fits with how Scripture often groups the effect of the two comings of Jesus together. Regardless, the point is clear. God is in control of history. And history is not pointless – it leads to a climax. The seeds of the climax were sown in the first coming of Jesus.

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His cross and resurrection and Holy Spirit planted the seed. The church is growing. His kingdom is coming. Then at time of God’s choosing – the empires of this world will be destroyed – and the eternal kingdom of Christ will be established over all the world. This is an incredible prophecy and even Nebuchadnezzar recognized it. Daniel 2:46-49:

Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel, and gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant incense. The king answered Daniel and said, “Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.” Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. And Daniel made request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon, while Daniel was at the king’s court.”

Nebuchadnezzar was stunned. Even though the prophecy foretold of his own eventual demise – he knew the truth when he heard it. His wise men said – no one can know the dream. But Daniel’s God had shown him the truth. Daniel’s God – Yahweh – must be the most powerful of gods. Your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries. Unfortunately he had not come to realise that Yahweh is the only true God – but he did recognise His power. But the story of this King and the God of Israel is not done yet. But what do we learn from this? Once upon a time – Isaac Newton came up with his famous three laws – and science proclaimed that if you know the true state of the world as it is now – then you can predict what will happen in the future. But then Einstein gave us relativity and chemistry gave us quantum theory and everything moved from certainty to probability. The universe sunk back to the realm of the great unknowable. Stephen Hawking lamented:

[One cannot] predict future events exactly if one cannot even measure the present state of the universe precisely.3

3 Cited in Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything (Black Swan Publishers: London, 2003) p.190.

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In other words we have no idea what is going on right now – so that means it is impossible to know the future. It is all chance, random, unknowable. Stephen Hawking would be as stunned as Nebuchadnezzar if he was shown that God decrees the future. In fact to know there is someone who even knew the future would stun these men. But, the point of this passage is not that God knows the future. What this passage shows us is that God doesn’t just know what the future holds – He orchestrates the future – every atom – every quark – every event – to achieve His purposes. God doesn’t just see the future – He shapes it. It belongs to Him. And He has a plan. That plan ends in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to set up His kingdom – for His people – for His purposes. Kingdoms come and kingdoms go – but God is raising up a Kingdom that will supersede them all and reach to eternity. This must have been so comforting to Daniel. It was not fate that led him to captivity in Babylon – it was God. It was not a bad curry that gave Nebuchadnezzar that dream – it was God. It was not Daniel’s wisdom or the wisdom of the gods that revealed the interpretation of the dream – it was God. It was not luck that made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon – it was God. God was working all things together for good.

Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings.

God is in control. God is the One who orchestrates all things. When trouble comes. When life makes a U turn. When you can only ask – why? – and not see any answers. Remember – God didn’t just foresee what would happen to you – He is there orchestrating your life – because He loves you and has a plan for you. And that plan ends in the glorious kingdom of His beloved Son.