Remember, how Nebuchadnezzar was troubled? What troubled him? _______________________________________________________________________________
Nebuchadnezzar was troubled by the news from the north and from the east (click here to review – go to the section titled: King of the North and King of the South Introduction).
Another troubling issue was his dream.
Important Concepts to Daniel’s Prophecy
In Daniel 1, the king of the south* pushes against the king of the north**. The king of the north pushes back against the king of the south and defeats him. Once the king of the south is defeated, the king of the north turns his attention to the glorious land (God’s people) who are in Jerusalem and he seeks to enforce the wine of Babylon.
*The ‘king of the south’ is atheism as defined as non-believer of the God of heaven / God of the Bible. Egypt is representative of this, and even though the worshipped many gods – the refused the God of heaven. This tells us that the king of the south is ANY entity that is anti-two witnesses, meaning anti-Old and New Testaments…anti-Bible. So what does this mean? This means that the ‘king of the south’ includes atheism, agnosticism, humanism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and every religion and non-religion out there that is anti-two witnesses. So, the ‘king of the south’ encompasses everyone that is not part of the ‘king of the north’, EXCEPT GOD’S CHURCH.
**The ‘king of the north’ pushes fermented wine (wine of Babylon); meaning false doctrine, and false worship. So, it has the appearance of Christianity. Since it is not the ‘true’, then it must have apostatized and therefore is a counterfeit.
There is much more about these two kings, that there will be future post(s) with much more information. But it is fitting to say here, that the power behind both is the same power, though many human entities have been used in each. God will cut off the head and the tail. Both of these kings heart do mischief and they speak lies at one table (Isaiah 9:14-16, Daniel 11:27-28).
This is scenario is foundational because we will see as we continue to study that what happened then, will happen again. The king of the south will always represent a secular, non-religious atheistic body. This body pushes against the king of the north but is defeated by the king of the north. The king of the north then turns the attention to God’s people and goes after them. Remember, that this ‘king of the north’ is not the true King of the North (Jesus). Also, keep in mind that Nebuchadnezzar professed God with his lips, but his heart was far from God. He also made a law regarding worship and set forth a death decree for those who rebelled against this law (Chapter 3). These are features of the end-time scenario as we will see.
In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar (king of the north) is now troubled. He is troubled by news that he hears from the north and from the east. We read the literal history of Daniel 1 and now Daniel 2 is actually helping to set the foundation for what we are going to understand in Daniel 11 because everything is leading up to Daniel 11.
*Egypt was pagan and worshipped pagan gods, but they did not worship the God of heaven. So, when Egypt is associated with atheism, that is how it is defined – non-believers in the God of heaven which is the God of the Bible.
Nebuchadnezzar (king of the north), is troubled by a couple things:
1. the news that he hears coming from the north; which is the stone that is coming from Mt Zion and it is going to hit the image on the feet and the image crumbles.
2. Babylon is going to fall to another kingdom. Literal Babylon is going to fall to Cyrus the Persian and Darius the Mede. The Medes were from the north and the Persians were from the east…the two powers were combined (Medo-Persian Empire). Nebuchadnezzar understand the implication and is troubled by news that he literally hears about the north and the east in his dream.
What is the fix?
People look to religion for a fix to what is happening…the calamities, immorality, violence, etc. Religion looks to get civil power to help fix it. In reality, the fix is Jesus Christ, the gospel…not a civil power.
You cannot convert people through passing of laws. Christians in general are trying to set up a good society through implementation of Christian laws. Though the intention may sound good, unfortunately this would just use force to convert behavior – this is what Daniel 2 is speaking against. Conversion comes through the work of the Holy Spirit not through laws…this is the fix a heart/mind change to godliness.
The Ten Commandments and Civil Law
Now there are laws regarding the last six commandments (commandments 5-10, how we deal with each other) that establishes morality in a civil society, but Paul never quoted the first four commandments which have to do with worshipping God and how we related to God. The first four laws are never to be legislated by civil power, and countries have done so we find out it never turns out good. Look at the Dark Ages for example. Sad to say, we are going to see it on a larger/stronger scale in the future. The USA is a county that really established the separation of church and state, but there is a lot of people, especially Christians, that are questioning that.
As Christians, we cannot mingle with the secular…it will not stick. We need to allow Jesus to take us out of the miry clay and place us upon the Rock which is Him.
Feet and Toes of Iron and Miry Clay
Then there are the feet and toes of iron mixed with clay which takes us clear to the end of time. The brokenness is symbolic of the Roman Kingdom becoming divided, however there remains elements of iron. Out of the Roman Empire’s demise, rose the Roman Papal power – having not only civil power (iron), but also ecclesiastical powers (clay). The clay is miry because it has mingled with iron.
What are features of the feet/toes that are mixed iron and miry clay? ___________________________________________________________
Even though the Roman Empire became divided, the divided kingdoms would have the strength of the iron empire. The toes and feet were part iron and part clay meaning the kingdoms would be partly strong and partly broken; but the kingdoms would not cleave one to another but remain independent from one another.
Remember the Fifty Things (click here, go to the section titled: I Tell You Beforehand). There is no scientific explanation for prophecy. What this demonstrates is the fifty things that we used as an example in a previous post.
The whole world runs on prophecy. People try to foretell the weather, financial institutions tried to foretell the financial market, corporations try to forecast their upcoming fiscal budges, political analyst predict what is going to happen politically, etc. Science is the art of prophecy. Prophecy is a strong witness for existence of God. People trust when prophecy is accurate, and this is what the Bible is demonstrating that we can trust biblical prophecy so we know what the future holds.
This is not an exhaustive study, but an introduction. We have jumped ahead just a bit, but be assured that we will continue to dive deeper.