The Babylonian King dreamed of a fourfold world kingdom that will be replaced by the kingdom of God.
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream he could not
remember. Troubled, he summoned all the “astrologers, enchanters, sorcerers
and the Chaldeans to tell him his dream,” and commanded them to reveal its contents.
The “Chaldeans” declared that only the
gods could do what the king demanded. Furious at their response, he determined
to destroy “all the wise men of Babylon,” an action that would have
included Daniel and his Jewish companions - (“The decree went forth that the
wise men should be slain, and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain”).
However,
Daniel approached the king and requested time to reveal the dream and its
interpretation. Then, he and his companions prayed for God to reveal the matter.
When Yahweh answered his prayer, Daniel declared:
- (Daniel 2:20-23) – “Let the name of God be blessed from age to age, for wisdom and might belong to him. And he changes times and seasons, removes kings, and sets up kings, giving wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who are skilled in understanding. He reveals the deep things and the hidden, knows what is in the darkness and light with him dwells. Unto you, O God of my fathers, do I render thanks and praise, for wisdom and might you have given to me; yea, already you have made known to me that which we desired of you, for the matter of the king have you made known to us.”
His words anticipated the interpretation of
the dream and expressed the theological core of his book - God
gives the nations to whomever He wills. And by the king’s dream, God
had revealed what “must come to pass in later days.”
He next described the contents of the dream.
Nebuchadnezzar saw a colossal image consisting of a head of gold, breast and
arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, and legs of iron with both feet of
mixed iron and clay. The image represented a single entity
despite its four divisions.
Next, the king saw a “stone cut out
without hands” that struck the feet of the great image, pulverizing the “iron,
clay, brass, silver and gold.” The stone then “became a great
mountain that filled the whole earth.”
In the interpretation, Daniel declared Nebuchadnezzar
was “the king of kings.” Nevertheless, his kingship was derived
from “the God of the heavens.” The head of gold represented him (“You
are the head of gold”), and, so, Babylon was the first of the four empires
that would comprise the World-Power.
Daniel provided little information about the
second and the third kingdoms. The second was made of silver and was “inferior”
to the head of gold. The third was represented by bronze. It would “bear
rule over all the earth,” signifying its political and military prowess.
The fourth kingdom was strong as iron - it “shattered
and crushed all things.” Just like iron crushes, this empire would “shatter
and crush.” The feet and toes of the final realm were “partly clay
and partly iron,” a mixture that suggests division. It would be strong
like iron but brittle like clay.
The interpretation concluded with the
establishment of the everlasting kingdom of God, the “fifth” and final kingdom.
Yahweh would establish his kingdom “in the days of those kings,”
referring to the four preceding realms. Thus, the stone that was carved “without
hands” struck the single “great image” on its feet, shattering “all
these kingdoms.” Sovereignty passed from one kingdom to the
next, but the earlier regimes did not disappear completely. Something from each
survived in its successors until the final destruction of the entire structure.
The image was destroyed by the stone “cut
from the mountain,” and this symbolized a “kingdom that will never be
destroyed.” Its sovereignty “shall never be left to another people.”
To be “cut out without hands” points to divine intervention, not to human
effort. Daniel concluded his interpretation:
- “The great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof sure.”
In response, Nebuchadnezzar prostrated
himself before Daniel, foreshadowing the future replacement of the World-Power
by the kingdom of God. Thus, the sovereign “head of fine gold” lay
prostrate before the powerless representative of the kingdom that was “cut
out without hands.”
This stone “became a great mountain
that filled the whole earth.” Likewise, the pagan king of
Babylon made Daniel great, gave him authority to
govern the “whole province of Babylon,”
and appointed him a “great one over all the wise
men of Babylon.” In this way, the dream found a proleptic
fulfillment in the elevation of Daniel to the governorship of the
province.
The chapter concludes by reaffirming the central theme of the book - Yahweh is the “God of gods, Lord of kings” - He is sovereign over the kingdoms of the world. Wittingly or not, the Babylonian king acknowledged that his authority was derived from the God of Israel.
At this point, the words of Daniel create as
many questions as they answer. Do the four kingdoms follow each other
consecutively, or are they concurrent realities? Does each realm occupy the
same territory? Who and what are the other three kingdoms (only the head of
gold is identified - Nebuchadnezzar)?
What the story does is establish the fourfold
structure of the World-Power that will be revealed in greater detail in the
prophet’s later visions, especially the vision of the four “beasts ascending
from the sea” and the “little horn” of the “fourth beast.” The
latter is the figure that became the model for the single “beast from the
sea” in Revelation, and the Apostle Paul’s “man of lawlessness”
- (2 Thessalonians 2:1-9, Revelation 13:1-10).