Chapter 2
Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. Whether he remembers it or not I cannot tell. If he does remember, he refuses to tell his magicians what it was, lest they come up with a concocted interpretation. Neb believes that if they are legit, they will also know the dream. They give this answer, the third time he asks them for help:
10 The Chaldeans answered the king and said, "There is not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. 11 The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh." [Dan 2:10-11 ESV]
This is a nice set up. From the mouths of those who profess themselves to be the kings foremost experts, we hear that only gods can know the dreams others have, and that they are not in contact with any gods because gods don't speak to flesh and blood. Turns out there is one God who does!
Note also that Neb is living up to his reputation. No King has ever asked the impossible of his magicians before, and the sentence for non-performance is not just death, but to be torn limb from limb and have your house - and presumably this happens with your family inside - laid in ruins. Truly this is a King who exercises his power through threats, fear, and physical violence. Perhaps more so than any King ever before him.
Nebuchadnezzar loses his temper - a dangerous thing for everyone else. He orders all the wise men and magicians and such in all of Babylon killed. A blanket death sentence for all of them. Think how imprudent this is, to wipe out all the qualified advisors in the whole country and leave yourself no one to consult. Such supreme arrogance.
When they come to kill Daniel and his friends (and who knows how many had already died from this order), Daniel answers "with prudence and discretion". Wish I could do that!
Once Daniel learns what is going on - apparently the King was not required to give you the reason he was having you killed - Daniel says he can do that, and asks for an appointment.
Then he and S, M, and A all pray, and the dream and its interpretation are revealed to Daniel. Daniel prays a prayer of Thanksgiving. In the middle of it is this verse:
21 He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; [Dan 2:21 ESV]
Wisdom is given to the wise (to those who already have it) and knowledge to those smart enough already to grasp it. This is repeated over and over in Proverbs. Proverbs also tells us how to be wise in the first place..."The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". Prov 1:7, and 9:10 both use almost these same words. Those who don't fear God lack enough wisdom to "cultivate". Daniel and his friends were far beyond this problem.
This whole section of Daniel's prayer is interesting. It says so much about God - setting God apart from all other gods, placing Him above all things, in charge of all things. Here is the whole prayer:
20 Daniel answered and said: "Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. 21 He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; 22 he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. 23 To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king's matter." [Dan 2:20-23 ESV] He knows what is in the darkness. Nothing is hidden from God, nothing scares God. In Jordan Peterson's terms, chaos does not exist for God. There is no unknown for Him. Wouldn't this mean we should have no fear of chaos either? That any time we do fear it, we should turn to God, who knows what is there, and depend on Him? Should we ever seek chaos? Or am I putting too much into what Peterson said? He was talking about yin and yang, so he was going further than just daily unknowns. He is talking about chaos as an entity, and saying keep one foot in chaos. After reading this, I am not sure that is correct. Chaos in the sense of "I haven't read that book yet", or I have not yet had Thermodynamics, that kind of unknown I am ok with. But I don't know about more than that, about seeking what we fear. But...isn't seeking what we fear and conquering it the stuff that heroes are made of? And do we want to be heroes...or servants? Wait though...chaos is what builds faith. Trusting without knowing. How can you trust unless there is an unknown. Trust requires the unknown, the unseen. So, the question is whether God encourages us to delve into the unknown, to build our faith, or whether He made the world like it is so there would always be unknowns and so always reason to trust. The Chinese missionary...he was always "creating" situations that tested God to see if his trust in God was strong or weak. If he asked for the seemingly impossible, did his faith really get over the bar? How impossible was it. So this man I believe, did put one foot into chaos on purpose. But is this the same thing?
Ah, the courage and compassion Daniel shows in vs 24. He tells Arioch, captain of the King's Guard, who is charge of killing all the wise men, not to kill the wise men of Babylon. So first, Daniel says don't kill these other guys. They were polytheistic pagans, but Daniel didn't want them killed. I'm sure he made some friends in the enemy camp that day! Then he tells Arioch that he can answer the King's questions.
Arioch immediately takes Daniel in to see the King. The King asks Daniel if he can really answer, and Daniel does not hesitate, nor stall, nor dissemble. Daniel tells the King, firstly, what the dream means, and then tells him the dream. This powerful statement should not be overlooked:
28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these: [Dan 2:28 ESV]
Beginning in vs 31 Daniel tells the dream, of the giant statue, bright in appearance, and made of gold, silver, iron and clay. This statue foretells what MSB calls the future history of the Gentiles. All is summarized here. We get this, because once Jerusalem and Judah were conquered, the Age of the Gentiles had begun. It truly began with Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews were to be doubly punished for their unfaithfulness, and God would start a "new timeline" with the Gentiles, to whom He would send a great light! The suffering savior was for the Gentiles! The Conquering King, yet to come in the Millennial reign, is for the Jews! THIS is how it ties together!!!
Look at all the information contained in 2:36-45. Strong, worldwide kingdoms for a while - Babylon, Persia and the Medes, Alexander, and Rome...but after Rome, no true world power is successful. Germany tried, but it did not succeed as the previous four had. They were un-challengeable. Since Rome fell, kingdoms have been small, they have dealt with neighbors rather than the "known world". They come and they go, some strong, like iron, others fall apart at the first sign of trouble. Ultimately, at the end of the Gentile Age, Jesus returns - with his army - and puts down all the Gentile Kingdoms then in power. This will include the one world government of the Antichrist, which still has kings and kingdoms under it, ruling as vassals under him. God will crush this, and set up the Millennial Kingdom in it's place. It is all here, in summary form, revealed to Babylon, whom God had given power over all the earth so that it could exact God's wrath from the Jews.
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream, Dan. 2:31-35 | Interpretation, Dan. 2:36-45 | Daniel's Beasts, Dan. 7:3-8 | Interpretation, Dan. 7:15-27 | The ram and the goat, Dan. 8:3-11 | Gabriel's interpretation of the ram and goat, Dan. 8:15-27 |
Head of gold | Nebuchadnezzar/Babylon | Lion with eagles wings | First King, Babylon we think |
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Chest and arms of silver | Kingdom after Babylon | Bear, with three ribs in its mouth | Second, Medo-Persia makes sense if Babylon was right. No specific King named - but Darius was a name often used more as a title. So Darius. | Ram with two horns, one higher than the other. | Horns are the kings of Media and Persia. |
Middle and thighs of bronze | A third kingdom | Leopard, with four wings and four heads | Third, Greece, first under Alexander, then split into four. Each very powerful. | A male goat, charging from the west. One conspicuous horn. This horn breaks eventually, and four come up in it's place. | The King of Greece, and the single horn the first King - Alexander the Great. When Alexander dies, four kingdoms take the place of the one. |
Iron legs, clay/iron feet | Fourth kingdom - Rome to now. Many splintered kingdoms, some strong, others weak, mixed together, but won't hold. An unstable world of nations | Not mentioned. Perhaps considered a sub-set of the Leopard, not a separate entity. Many parts reporting to a whole, but never really a whole. Always rebellions. | Not mentioned. Perhaps because it was made of so many parts. Not united really. Emperors not really all-powerful as in the first three. |
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| Iron teeth, 10 horns, different, eyes in the horn, mouth speaking great things. | Fourth kingdom, Final world kingdom, first with 10 divisions. Ruled by Antichrist/Satan. That makes it different. (MSB says the fourth, different, is Rome, which will rise again as the 10 kingdoms.) | A little horn, from the four, challenging even the Prince of peace. He takes the regular burnt offering for himself for 2300 mornings and evenings. | The little horn that grows great is Antichrist of the future, many think he was Antiochus Epiphanes in the "near" fulfillment. |
The Stone cut out without hands | God's indestructible Kingdom. | One like a son of man | Not a beast, this is Jesus as Conquering King. The Kingdom given to the people of the saints of the Most High, an everlasting kingdom. Same kingdom as the one above, but different ruler. |
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This all-powerful King then falls on his face - he bows! - before Daniel!!! He commands an offering and incense to Daniel - as if Daniel is a god! Daniel and his three friends are catapulted to the top of the power pyramid in Babylon...likely losing the friends made by stopping the executions. People are fickle.
2025 - Notice the details here:
41 And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. [Dan 2:41-43 ESV].
Two kinds of clay. Potter's clay and soft clay. NASB95 calls it common clay. I expect that common clay means non-nobility ruling over kingdoms. Iron is old school nobility. The potter's clay is at least a little separated from common clay, at least partially "gifted" for rule. And then plain old clay. Kings, then oligarchy's, then the bourgeoisie running it all. It has indeed gone that way.
Here is another interesting thing. Vs 42 is not about the feet, but about the toes, of which there are ten. Ten kingdoms. Ten horns. Just as in Revelation. This is not a coincidence. All the world, at some point, will divided into 10 kingdoms...or perhaps only the Middle East and Turkey will be ten. But there will be ten unmistakable kingdoms in the latter days.