Nebuchadnezzar’s 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.
What was Nebuchadnezzar wanting to glean from his dream?
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Daniel, by God’s grace, tells the king his dream. The people in the ancient world believed that dreams were messages from the gods. The last thing the superstitious king wanted was to miss an important message or omen.
History is essential to understanding the Bible and understanding the faith. Ecclesiastes 1:11 illustrates the point very well. Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes and he says, “There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.”
What is the message of this text?
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All the kingdoms of this world will not stand forever. There will be an end and that is when an eternal kingdom is established. The dream was to give us hope that the conditions of fallen humanity would end and a more excellent condition will be established in its place. These are the things hoped for which is the substance of faith, and the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).
Paul tells us in Romans 15:4, why Scripture was given to us. It was given to us for a good reason, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
What is the climax of this great prophecy?
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It is in the days of the last kingdoms of iron and clay, that the kingdom of Christ will come. Christ will return, not as the Lamb of God, but as King of kings, as a mighty conqueror. His kingdom does not depend on human support, it is the kingdom of Heaven, a stone cut out without hands. His kingdom, unlike the human kingdoms, is everlasting and shall stand forever.
Jesus will soon return, but before He does He seeks first to establish His kingdom in the hearts of men. Dear friend, will you allow the Prince of Peace to rule your heart now, so that when He comes you may inherit the Kingdom of Heaven?
Solomon’s Wisdom
There is no remembrance of the earlier things. Dial history back 5,000 years, 2 months, and 1 day, and tell me what happened. You probably cannot. I cannot. On our own we would not know what happened in history past. The only way we can know what occurred in the past is when someone has written about it. The Old Testament or the New Testament did exactly that.
Solomon was absolutely correct. He said, there is no remembrance of earlier or later things which will occur.
Solomon’s point is that we do not know what occurred in the past. The point is that to know history, we need someone to have written about what happened in the past. To know the future, we have to understand prophecy that was given to holy men of God who wrote it down for our understanding.
Scripture is written for our instruction. It is our instruction manual that gives us everything that we need to know about how we got here, what our purpose was, what happened, why it happened, the remedy, and the restoration of all things.
For us living now in the present, the Bible chronicles the past and explains the future – all of which was written for our understanding and instruction. First Corinthians 10:11 says almost the same thing. It says:
Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
The dream in Daniel 2, is 100% prophetic of future events which includes the rise and fall of kingdoms, divided kingdoms, apostacy in the church, and Christ’s second coming. This chapter sets the foundation for the remaining prophetic chapters in Daniel. With each prophetic chapter, there is a repeat and enlarge principle at work which provides more and more detail. Daniel is the key to unlock Revelation.
Without Daniel 2 we cannot correctly understand the rest of the book, portions of other prophets, some of Jesus’ parables, most of the prophecies in the New Testament, and especially the book of the Revelation.
Daniel 2 provides the A-B-C’s of prophecy. It helps us put prophecies about the end time together.
From our vantage point today, as we look back part of Daniel’s prophecy is history. This should provide us with great encouragement for that which remains and is yet future. God’s word is sure, and it will take us all the way to the end of time.