Daniel 2:31-45 (NIV2011)
31 “Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance.32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.
The most important part of the interpretation comes from putting yourself into the sandals and cloak of the people to whom the book was written. The interpretation of this does not rely on the complex interpretations of today. The interpretation has to be very S - I - M - P - L – E so the uneducated unlearned people of their day could understand the prophesy. This is the best test of our 21st century interpretations – would our 21st century interpretations be intelligible to the people to whom the book was written? If not – we have a problem with our interpretation.
The traditional five Kingdoms apply - easy to comprehend to anyone - especially after 30AD - after the crucifixion.
1. Babylon
2. Medo-Persian
3. Greek
4. Roman
5. Eternal kingdom of Jesus.
34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them.
35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.
The coming of the New Covenant - which will multiply and move over the whole world. Jesus became the King of Kings at the cross and is now ruling the world. Today it is popular to believe that His rule will begin at some future time - not so. Our mistake is that we don't ask how God rules and reigns. We think he reigns like the world does – through might, force, coercion, and intimidation. He doesn't. He rules by righteousness. He cannot and will not force people to serve him and to obey and love Him. His method of rule is almost exactly opposite that of the world system. That is why it appears that He is not ruling today.
The New Testament people have always stood up for righteousness even to a point of being put to death for their stand. To date there are over 70,000,000 martyrs since the cross. They died as rulers on the earth. The great dream of the Jews, the Disciples, and a lot of Christians since, was that God would come in power and He would set up this righteous Kingdom and intimidate or force the ungodly to do what is right - it will never happen. God's character is always to allow people their own free will so they can spiritually have the freedom to become what they want to become. On this they are judged. His literal Kingdom does come - after the Second Coming – when the sheep and the goats are separated forever.
36 “This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. 37 Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory;
38 in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold. (Babylon)
39 “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. (Medo-Persian) Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. (Greek - Alexander)
40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. (Roman Empire)
41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay.
42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle.
43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
The clay and iron represented the lack of cohesion or solidarity of the Roman Empire and its conquered lands, which eventually led to its downfall and destruction. If you read much history it is obvious what this means. Conquerers like Rome captured many lands and peoples. They killed off many, plundered their possessions, and sold them into slavery. Is this the behavior of a “benefactor?” Who would want to live under this kind of occupation of a foreign power. No one did – including the Jews. But you had to consider the cost of trying to get out of this situation. A lot of people had settled into their new lot in life and had adapted into their forced lifestyle. But all through the history of Rome they had to fight many wars to maintain control of their conquered lands. The destruction of Jerusalem began with a battle between those who thought they could win a war with the Romans and those who did not. None of them wanted to live under Roman occupation. And so the first two factions in the destruction of Jerusalem in 66AD were the “Peace Party” and the “Rebels.”
As time went by and the Roman Empire was weakening – their enemies knew it and rallied against Rome. In the 4th and 5th centuries the nomadic marauding tribes began taking away the conquests of Rome. Rome kept withdrawing. John alludes to this in the book of Revelation 16. He prophesied that there would be a great Earthquake (in his future) – which was the massive migration of the tribes in Europe (shaking). The city of Rome was prophesied to split into three parts – which it did. Because of the threatening approach of Alaric the Visigoth – the government of the city of Rome was split into three parts in 395AD. One – the senate remained in Rome. Two - The western capital was moved to Ravenna (via Milan) and third - the eastern capital was moved to Constantinople. In 410AD Aleric plundered the city and after this the population of the city plummeted precipitously. This was God's final judgment of the city and corrupt government of Rome.
44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.
This is very telling – God set up his kingdom in the time of those kings – of course this would be the last kingdom – Roman. This kingdom was in operation during the time of Rome – which ended in the 5th century as we know from hindsight.
45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. “The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”
Of course everyone knows who “The Rock” is in scripture.
