Daniel Chapter 2

Daniel

chapter 2: The Man of Metal

As Daniel prepares to interpret the dream for the king, notice the tact and respect with which he treats this egotistical man. He is not condescending. He does not talk down to this pagan. He lifts him up and treats him with love and thoughtfulness.

Although the wise men appeared to separate the king from the gods by suggesting that he was out of touch with the god he served, Daniel affirms the king's role by declaring that he was not only in touch with the true God, but that God cares about him personally. What a contrast to the insulting way the king was treated by his advisors!

Daniel 2:29-30

As for you, O king, your thoughts came into your mind upon your bed about what should come to pass in the future. And he that reveals secrets makes known to you what shall come to pass.

But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than anyone else, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that you might know the thoughts of your heart.

Daniel begins by telling the king something he hadn't asked for: what he was thinking about before he went to sleep. This goes far beyond the ability to interpret a dream or even to know what the dream was.

He informs the king that his ability to tell and interpret this dream has nothing to do with Daniel's capabilities but comes from God alone. This dream and its interpretation is purely designed to show Nebuchadnezzar that God is sovereign by revealing the future, something only God can do.

Daniel 2:31-33

You, O king, looked, and saw before you a great image of a man. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you; and the form of it was terrible.

This image's head was of fine gold, his chest and arms of silver, his belly and thighs of brass,

His legs of iron, his feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

The statue is a man, representing kingdoms of men. Four metals are shown in their order of value. Four kingdoms are represented by these metals: Babylon (the head of gold), Persia (the chest and arms of silver), Greece (the belly and thighs of bronze) and Rome (the legs of iron later mixed with clay).

Daniel 2:34-35

You looked until you saw that a stone was cut out without hands, which smashed the image upon its feet of iron and clay and broke them to pieces.

Then the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold was broken to pieces all at once, and became like fine dust on the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them. The stone that smashed the image became a great mountain, filling the whole earth.

The Rock is cut out of a Mountain. There are many references throughout the Scriptures describing both God and His promised Messiah as a rock or stone. As the "Son of God," the metaphor of a rock cut out of a mountain could not be more clear.

After the terrible and glorious Day of the Lord, the "Maschiach Nagid" (Messiah the King) Jesus Christ will take the throne of David and His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom that covers the whole earth. Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is the Lord of lords and King of kings.

It's interesting that the rock, when it crushes these kingdoms of men, crushes all of them together. This reference to all the prior kingdoms still somehow being in place on that day is clarified in Daniel's vision described in chapter 8.

Daniel 2:36-38

This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation of it before the king.

You, O king, are a king of kings: for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

And wherever people live, the beasts of the field and the birds of the air have been given by him into your hand. He has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold.

Babylon was a kingdom blessed by God in some unique ways (God Himself referred to Nebuchadnezzar as "His servant" in Jeremiah). The Chaldean Empire was used by God as an instrument of judgment for the nation of Judah. It was taken over by the Persians in 539BC.

Daniel 2:39a

And after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you.

The Persian kingdom was at first a single kingdom (the Medes) but was then manipulated by Cyrus into a Persian-dominated coalition often referred to as the Medo-Persian Empire. It was destroyed by Alexander the Great around 330BC.

Daniel 2:39b

After that will come a third kingdom of brass [or bronze], which shall rule over all the earth.

Alexander's Greek kingdom swept the world rapidly. In just 11 years it grew substantially larger than the previous ones, literally covering the known world from Spain to India and down into Egypt.

After Alexander died, his kingdom was eventually broken into four pieces. Much of the later prophecies of Daniel deal with the continuing battles between two of these kingdoms for hundreds of years.

Daniel 2:40-43

Then a fourth kingdom will come that will be strong as iron. For as iron breaks into pieces and subdues all things, shall it break in pieces and bruise all these.

And the feet and toes you saw, partly of potters' clay and partly of iron, shows that the kingdom will be divided; but it will have the strength of the iron, just as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay.

And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

And as you saw iron mixed with miry clay, the people will mingle themselves but they will not be unified with one another, even as iron does not mix with clay.

The reference to iron smashing and breaking everything is a remarkable piece of detail, because unlike the kingdoms of Babylon, Persia and Greece, the Roman style was to crush the nations it conquered. The previous empires were sensitive to the cultures and people of the nations they conquered; they valued their strengths and showed respect for what had been established because it gave them strength. The Romans, on the other hand, simply destroyed everything and replaced it with their own systems and people with brute strength.

Note the reference to the people of the Roman empire not remaining united. That has happened. Remember that the Roman empire was never destroyed. It continues to exist, and will eventually be revived in some meaningful form.

Daniel explained that this last kingdom will feature nationalities very much intermingled in their gene pool, but very diverse in their philosophies and cultures.

The book of Revelation describes a revived Roman empire in the last days that will include 10 dominant nations, making the 10 toes remarkably meaningful. The coming one-world leader will arise from these and subdue three of them politically but the 10 kingdoms or nations will be crushed by Jesus when He returns on the Day of the Lord.

Daniel 2:44-45

And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed. That kingdom will not be left to other people, but it will smash to pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever.

For as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke into pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold; the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. The dream is certain, and the interpretation of it sure."

There is a reference to "the time of those kings." This specifically means the time of the 10 kings represented by the 10 toes of iron mixed with clay. The setting of the final dominion of Jesus will take place in the days of a revived Roman empire in which 10 primary nations play a key role. The coming world leader will arise suddenly on the world stage, politically manipulate his way over three of those 10 nations so that he controls them, then he will begin to rule with an iron hand, showing his true colors. There is more on this in later chapters of Daniel.

Psalm 2 represents a conversation between the three figures of the Trinity, in which they discuss the folly of the final battle of Armageddon when human armies set out to battle God. In this Psalm, God affirms to His Son, Jesus Christ, that He will rule over the nations forever:

"You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery."
-- Psalm 2:9

Can you imagine anything more foolish than setting a human army to battle God? Yet the Bible tells us that the coming world leader will do exactly that when the time comes.

The coming kingdoms

Nebuchadnezzar was shown several future empires in his vision. The first was his own Babylonian (or Chaldean) empire. The second was the Persian empire. Then would come the Greek (or Macedonian) empire under the command of Alexander the Great. Finally would come the Roman empire, which from God's point of view still exists because it was never conquered by a different religious and cultural power.

Of the four, Alexander's empire was the largest. No other ruler after that would achieve the same kind of unified power.

In the future, another ruler arising out of a revived form of the Roman empire will gain massive control during which he will attack the Jewish people with a ferocity unseen in past history.