My introduction to this series is here. The Babylonian captivity was a very trying time for the Jews. Even though it was the judgment of God upon them for their sins, yet God did not abandon them, He raised up Daniel and through him spoke of their hope of Messiah.
Daniel 2 is the story of a dream Nebuchadnezzar had and its interpretation by Daniel.
1-12 Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream and called the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, all the wise men of Babylon, to tell him the dream and its interpretation. These folks complained this thing was too hard, no one could tell another what he had dreamed. Since they couldn’t tell him what he dreamed he sentenced them to death: For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
13-24 And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. Daniel requested an opportunity to make the thing known. He and his friends prayed and God revealed the dream to Daniel.
25-30 Daniel was brought before the king and gave glory to God, saying, he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.
31-45 The Dream and Its Interpretation
31-36 The dream
31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
32 This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
36 This is the dream…
What an interesting dream: a great image made of gold, silver, brass, iron, and feet of iron and clay; a stone breaks the image and becomes a great mountain. What??
36-45 The interpretation
36 …and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.
39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, 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.
42 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.
43 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.
44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
This image represents four great kingdoms: Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. Just a couple of passing observations about the kingdoms represented by this image
(1) The quality of the metal goes down – gold, silver, brass, iron, iron mixed with clay. This seems to suggest decline or deterioration. Or, as Daniel says, each one is “inferior” to the previous one.
(2) Jesus called the period of these kings the times of the gentiles (Luke 21:24). This is a period in which Jerusalem is trodden down of the Gentiles, when Israel is under bondage to Gentiles and not free.
So, this is the history of the nations as it relates to Israel. Where is Christ in all this?
44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
Ah, he is the stone cut out of the mountain without hands. The different parts of the image represent both a kingdom and its principle king, so this stone speaks of the kingdom of God and of Christ its king. Daniel says, And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Oh, this was the hope of Israel, that the God of heaven would set up a kingdom, his kingdom. We read of this in the prophets: a time marked by righteousness, peace, and joy; Israel would be the head and not the tail; a day when “we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; that he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.” All this will come to pass when Christ comes. He is the stone cut without hands.
This was Israel’s hope and expectation. You can imagine the excitement when the angel announced at the birth of Jesus: “unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord”; and at John’s declaration, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand”; and then at Jesus “saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” You can also easily imagine their confusion when his ministry looks nothing like this scene in Daniel 2!!
The kingdom of God
Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
Jesus began his ministry saying the kingdom of God is at hand. Then, in Matthew 12:28 he declared, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” The kingdom had arrived, as demonstrated by him healing all manner of sickness and disease and by casting out unclean spirits, yet it does not look like Daniel 2.
The mystery of the kingdom
Mark 4:11 Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:
Mystery in the Bible refers to something that was not revealed before but is now being explained. There is a mystery about the kingdom - the kingdom has come, but it has come spiritually. The first manifestation of the kingdom is spiritual; it is concerned with deliverance from sin, it is about the gathering of a new people from every nation; and the biggest shock is it is resistible. It is not a political or military force, concerned with taking over countries or enforcing by might its ethics. It is not until Jesus returns in glory that there will be great voices in heaven crying out, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
The question then is, Does this dream refer to the first or second advent of Christ? And the answer is, Yes. Daniel didn’t see clearly, he simply saw the manifestation of Christ and the coming of the kingdom of God. Yet the emphasis seems to be on the second coming. As the earliest comments on this by the Fathers demonstrates:
Irenaeus‡, “the great God showed future things by Daniel, and confirmed them by His Son; Christ is the stone which is cut out without hands, who shall destroy temporal kingdoms, and introduce an eternal one, which is the resurrection of the just; as he declares, ‘The God of heaven shall raise up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.’ ”
Hippolytus†, “The stone that smites the image and breaks it in pieces, and that filled the whole earth, is Christ, who comes from heaven and brings judgment on the world.”
“For when the iron legs that now hold the sovereignty have given place to the feet and the toes, in accordance with the representation of the terrible beast ... then from heaven will come the stone that smites the image, and breaks it; and it will subvert all the kingdoms, and give the kingdom to the saints of the Most High. This is the stone which becomes a great mountain, and fills the earth.”
Yes, Christ has come. He is Jesus of Nazareth, who was born of the virgin, taught and healed for three and a half years, was crucified, dead and buried, and who rose from the dead. He brought the kingdom of God, and through Him we have tasted the powers of the world to come (Hebrews 6:5; Romans 14:17; Luke 1:68-79). And he is coming again in power and glory to establish his kingdom. This begins with the millennium, the thousand year reign of Christ on the earth, and continues in the new heaven and earth (Rev 20-22). "This is the stone which becomes a great mountain, and fills the earth.”
Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
‡ Irenaeus, (140—202); bishop of Lugdunum (Lyon) and leading Christian theologian of the 2nd century. Adversus Haereses (Against Heresies), Book 5, ch 26
† Hippolytus of Rome (170–235 AD) was one of the most important third-century theologians. His is the earliest commentary on Daniel.
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