A Lasting Kingdom

Good morning, encourage to open Bibles to Daniel 2.

Last week, we saw that there would be a Messiah, a Savior of God’s people, who would come in the role of a righteous, humble and saving King.

We would be remiss if we did not, then, have some questions concerning the Kingdom. While we may have had some glimpses of the King and His rule, what will be the defining marks of such a Kingdom?

And there is where we find our focus this morning. What would Daniel 2 tell us about this Kingdom of God?

The text we read together this morning is Daniel’s closing words of God’s interpretation of the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar.

Read Daniel 2:44-45- And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”

Pray.

Just a bit of context is necessary.

And before we begin, I’d highly encourage you sometime in the very near future to sit down and slowly read through Daniel 2, especially if you are unfamiliar with this particular text.

There is much to be seen and enjoyed here, and we simply don’t have the time this morning to read through it all, but I would recommend each of us finding time on our own to do so.

God’s people find themselves in captivity under the world power of Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar.

The King has a dream that no one is able to interpret and this is where God’s prophet Daniel steps on to the scene.

Daniel tells the king that he dreamed about a giant statue made out of many metals along with other materials. Each level of the statue was made of a different sort of metal.

While Nebuchadnezzar, in his dream, looked at the statue, a giant stone, uncut by human hand, rolled into the statue and demolished it completely, to the point that what was left simply blowing away in the wind until they were completely gone.

Finally, the stone grew into a mighty mountain that took over the entirety of the earth, filling it completely.

Upon the dream being confirmed, Daniel went on to interpret the dream, stating that Nebuchadnezzar is the golden head of the statue, and that every level of metals underneath were future and inferior kingdoms.

This takes us to our verses, 2:44-45, in which God will set up a kingdom that will be eternal and will break into bits all of the kingdoms of the world, no matter the appearance of their strength.

In fact, being likened to chaff is meant to remind of an act of judgement upon the wicked.

Remember Psalm 1:4- The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

The point being made by the Psalmist is that there is a certain lack of substance to the wicked, and such truth could be directly applied to the kingdoms of the earth represented in the kings statue.

This Kingdom of God is represented by both the stone and the mountain that fills the earth.

Our goal for the morning, just like last week, is to have a right understanding not only of the King, but of the kingdom over which He would rule.

Where I would like to focus our attention for the morning is on a number of pieces of the whole narrative that jumped out at me as I’ve been studying our passage this week.

There are three that I’d like to bring to our attention.

1. The description of the kingdoms mirrors the creation narrative.

For this point, we must go back a few verses in Daniel 2.

When Daniel begins to interpret the dream for Nebuchadnezzar, the wording that he uses to describe the rule of the king caught my attention.

Notice what Daniel says in Daniel 2:37-38- You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold.

Now briefly, lets turn our attention to the words of Genesis, when God gave Adam and Eve authority over the earth and all that is in it. Genesis 1:28- And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

So where are these two texts similar?

The rule of both Adam and Nebuchadnezzar were both given, or granted, to them. Both characters could not create or sustain their own authority, but instead depended completely upon God for it to be given them.

Every ounce of rule, over all of the known world and everything in it, was given and could just as easily be taken away.

Now, why is this important? Because it means that we can observe the pattern of the creation narratives in Genesis 1-12 to see what can be expected of the kingdoms of this world.

First, we see the glory of man.

It is in this stage that we find the king, glorious and powerful, just as Adam had been created in the first couple chapters of Genesis.

But what should be expected of one who possesses such power and glory?

By the time we get to Genesis 3, we see the fall of Adam- no amount of power or authority would ultimately keep him from falling. He made decisions from a place of pride rather than from a place of devotion to God and God’s commands.

Thus, we know what will happen to the kingdom of Babylon. Even if it will not happen during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, we know that pride and self-indulgence will ultimately lead to the demise of the kingdom.

We also find in Genesis the consequences of the sin of Genesis 3, meaning that throughout chapters 4-11, we observe a downward spiral of sinfulness and chaos, highlighted in part by both the experiences of judgement at the flood and chaos at the tower of Babel.

The introduction of sin doesn’t end with the introduction, but instead permeates everything from that point forward.

And here is what we notice about the kingdoms of the world. From the top down, sin enters and the consequences are felt thoroughly throughout the entirety of the kingdom.

As rulers care less and less about the instruction of God, societies spin into chaos.

Perhaps we recognize our own kingdom at this stage. Regardless of who is in power, we see little concern for God’s design for ruling, and as a result, we find society reeling and careening into chaos.

Maybe some of us have insulated ourselves so well that we are completely unaware of what is going on around us. But if we pay attention, we will see Genesis 3-11 playing out before our very eyes, and Babylon saw the same.

And as a brief side-note, please recognize that what we see both in creation and in the kingdoms of the world can be rightly discovered in our own lives. We find that we are created in God’s image, and yet that sin and specifically pride, or self-worship, have ruled our lives leading to dire consequences.

The pattern of creation and fall with the need for redemption governs the life of everyone here this morning, and so what we are reading about the lives of Adam and Nebuchadnezzar ought to be of extreme importance to each of us.

So, if we rightly understand sin and its consequences, where might we find hope?

If we pay attention to the beginning of Genesis, then we find it in chapter 12.

Notice the first three verses: Genesis 12:1-3- Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

What is to be done about the curse of Genesis 3? God will bring blessing through Abraham, but more importantly, through the line of Abraham.

And we understand that hope and blessing is only to be found in Jesus. Everything else only leads us back into the downward spiral of curse, and so we find the solution to be the person and work of Jesus, experienced through our faith and and trust in Jesus alone.

I think that this is incredibly helpful as we consider life in the earthly kingdom of America.

Regardless of party, regardless of politician or cause, what will ultimately bring blessing and hope is the person of Jesus Christ, and if we place hope elsewhere, we will find our desire for the people of the world to be blessed to be dashed and destroyed.

There is no hope for real change in the world outside of the redemption offered through Jesus Christ.

And here we find the ending of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, the stone that puts an end to all of the chaotic, disobedient kingdoms of the world as they are reduced to chaff, or dust.

And this leads us directly into our next point.

2. Jesus is the stone.

In the dream, it is the stone that shatters the kingdoms and then grows to fill the whole earth.

For many of us, we would think that the stone represents only the Kingdom of God, which in some ways it does, but in a greater way, the stone represents Jesus Himself.

To see this, we need to look at stone imagery elsewhere in Scripture. We begin, again, in Genesis.

All the way back at the end of Genesis, in chapter 49, Jacob is speaking blessings on his sons and brings up the Messiah figure in his promise to Judah, stating that the scepter shall never depart from the line of Judah.

However, in his blessing of Joseph, he states the following in Genesis 49:24- ...yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel)...

Notice the mention of a “stone of Israel” in a messianic text that can be directly applied to the person of Jesus.

And this will not be the only OT mention of a stone, prior to the writing of Daniel’s prophetic work.

Next, look at Psalm 118:22- The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

In the New Testament, we see this imagery applied as a messianic text to Jesus. So not only is Genesis 49, a reference to a stone, applied to Jesus, but so is this messianic Psalm.

But we continue with one more- Isaiah 8:14-15- And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

Once again, we see a messianic text that is absolutely applied to Jesus, the stone that will cause offense and stumbling to those who completely misunderstand the significance of the stone.

All of this is meant to remind us that prior to the language being used in Daniel’s prophecy, the image of a stone had messianic implications that applied the image to the person of Jesus Christ.

So we see this figure of a stone in Daniel’s retelling of the dream that is uncut by human hand, meaning that there is an eternal aspect to the stone, that it was uncreated and that no human was responsible for it. It did not have its beginning in the world of mankind.

And it is this stone that leads to the demise of all of the kingdoms of the world. In fact, the imagery is clear, there is no victory over the stone by any of the precious metals that are described.

We can see in this the clear promise that there will never be a kingdom on earth that could ever defeat Christ or His work, but we can also see the reverse to be true, that Jesus is of so much greater strength and value than anything that our world has to offer.

What is being revealed in the imagery of the stone is both its strength and the various metals’ comparative weakness.

David Helm- If you can walk away after reading this and continue living life for your own glory and kingdom, then be warned: God has established his kingdom, and we either are built into it or we will be crushed by it. Gold, silver, bronze, even iron—none can stand against God’s eternal King.”

Thus, we are faced with a question. In what will we put our hope?

And here is the difficulty in which we find ourselves. Seeking the Kingdom of God, shown most clearly in the life and ministry of Jesus, does not come easily or naturally.

In fact, everything in our existence seems to pull us toward investing in our various worldly kingdoms rather than seeking first God’s Kingdom.

Iain Duguid- Which kingdom are we building? Are we pouring ourselves into the pursuit of the power and the glory of this world’s kingdoms, a power and glory that must inevitably decay and topple into obscurity? Or are we instead pouring ourselves into the pursuit of God’s kingdom, the only kingdom that will truly last?

We are meant to be constantly asking ourselves these questions. Where is our hope? In what do we put our trust? How might we display that our hope is in Christ rather than the kingdoms of this world?

If one response to the dream is to ignore the supremacy of the Kingdom of God and live as though it doesn’t matter, much as many people today do, immersing themselves completely in the kingdom of the world, there is another equally dangerous response.

It is also possible to find the kingdoms of the world, and our own lived experiences in such kingdoms, as completely meaningless.

We might think that because Jesus and His Kingdom outlive and outlast all worldly kingdoms, that the kingdoms of the world matter little.

But it is interesting to see the response of Daniel and his friends. After telling Nebuchadnezzar about the interpretation of the dream, the following text speaks of Daniel and his friends being promoted in the kingdom and immediately got to work serving the people and kingdom of Babylon.

Rather than isolating themselves from the kingdom of Babylon, they poured themselves into the earthly kingdom keeping in mind the priority of God’s everlasting Kingdom.

And this is meant to be the example for all of us who are seeking to figure out how to live simultaneously in a kingdom of the world and the Kingdom of God.

What we are to see is that an awareness of God’s Kingdom and a life devoted to God’s Kingdom will have major implications for our lives in the midst of a worldly kingdom.

Remember Mordecai’s words to his cousin Esther, saying in Esther 4:14- For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Have we recognized the various ways that we might be used by God in the midst of a worldly kingdom, no matter how just or unjust that kingdom is?

Remember, our work is one of redemption through the life, work, death, resurrection and Kingdom of Jesus Christ. So we look around and ask, how might God use me…here…in these circumstances, to redeem His world.

We need to make sure that our awareness of the stone that demolishes the kingdoms of the world does not divert our attention from our usefulness in the world that God has created.

Where has God placed and enabled you to work on His behalf?

Yes, we are to seek the Kingdom of God as stated in Matthew 6, but we are to seek God’s Kingdom with a priority of devotion that will cause us to live differently in our own given circumstances.

Daniel was first and foremost devoted to the Kingdom of God.

So what does all of this mean for this time of Advent leading up to the celebration of Christmas?

What we celebrate at advent is a celebration of the stone. Our Coming King is that very stone, and thus we do not have to place hope and trust in worldly conquest, in worldly riches or in worldly kingdoms.

Here’s the difficulty- the way that many of us celebrated Christmas has subconsciously turned our attention to the stuff of this world, and here I’m speaking specifically of the giving and receiving of gifts.

This means that we need to work hard to redeem the act of gift giving and receiving, to make sure that gaining more and more stuff in the kingdom of this world will not be the sole focus of what we observe this Christmas season.

Instead, we find the alternative of trusting in Jesus, trusting in His plans, trusting in His Kingdom that will outlive, outlast and outshine everything of this world.

And such trust will cause us to live in our kingdoms in a drastically different way. We seek the glory of the Father, the glory of the Son, the glory of the Spirit. We seek to help others get ahead rather than self. We devote ourselves to the characteristics and qualities of God’s Kingdom, even while living in broken worldly kingdoms.

And we are reminded of this at Advent.