The Reason We Have Hope

The Life & Times of Daniel - Chapter 2

OPENING REMARKS

Today we are going to be doing some time travel. We’re going to be looking into the deep past, roughly 2600 years ago in the land of Shinar, in the city of Babylon, where southern Kingdom of Judea has been led into captivity by King Nebuchadnezzar. We’re also going to be looking forwards into the end times, into things which are yet to happen but which have been set in stone by the certain and unchanging sovereign decree of Yahweh.

And as we look both to the past and to the future we want to be mindful of the present moment, of the place in time that we currently occupy, with all of it’s uncertainty and turmoil. I want you to see that there here in this ancient piece of literature that there is a timeless truth and a message of hope for us to grasp in this present moment. I want you to see that what God revealed to King Nebuchadnezzar 2600 years ago is still every bit as true today, and applies to every governmental system on earth today just as it did to the Kingdom of Babylon. I want you to see, as we look both back and forwards into deep time, that God’s purposes are inexorably being worked out in the world of men and so they are in this day.

There is a reason why so many are fearful and hopeless in these times. It is because they don’t believe the message of Daniel 2 . They don’t believe that God is sovereign, they don’t believe that He is the one who raises up rulers and governments and brings them down again, they don’t believe in a God who is in control of this present moment. They don’t believe in the God of Daniel, and so they believe that they are at the mercy of chance, they are at the mercy and whim of the devil and of sinful humanity. The God who is preached from many pulpits across the world is nothing like the God of Daniel 2, the God of pop Christianity is a God who is trying his best but is ultimately at the mercy of the sovereign will of man. He desperately wants to build His Kingdom on earth but He keeps getting thwarted by the free will choices of those He created. I want to put it to you that this weak, insipid version of God who as one popular preacher recently pronounced ‘cannot even override your unbelief’ is nothing more than an idol. It is not the God of the Bible, it is not the God who announces Himself to King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2. It is a worthless idol that cannot give hope to people when they are going through troubles times.

If this book of Daniel tells us anything at all about Yahweh it is that He is sovereign, He rules over all the affairs of mankind, He is in control. Why would this bring comfort to Daniel and his fellow captives? Well as Buky explained last time out, they have seen their holy city ransacked, the precious temple of God looted, they had been humiliated. To their captors, the Babylonians, this meant that their Gods Marduk and Nabu were greater than Yahweh, to their captors it was Yahweh who had been humiliated. This dream that Nebuchadnezzar has in chapter 2 and the subsequent dream he has in chapter 4 show him that he is wrong. These dreams are sources of great hope for Daniel and the other exiles, let’s look at chapter 2 together:

Daniel 2:1–3 ESV

1 In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. 2 Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. 3 And the king said to them, “I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.”

Nebuchadnezzar, a pagan king, not a man who knew God has dreams which trouble him deeply to the point that he stops sleeping at night. It should be noted that God later reveals Himself through the interpretation to King Neb. Why is this of any importance? Simply to show that God speaks to global leaders through dreams. There is no reason to think that this isn’t still happening today. There’s a story actually about Winston Churchill, that when he was a teenager he had a dream that he was going to protect and save London. He told his friend about it and his friend laughed at him. Yet decades later it was Churchill who led England through some of her darkest moments during the blitz. Let’s continue to fast and pray for our leaders that God might reveal Himself to them in a similar manner.

Daniel 2:4–12 ESV

4 Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.” 5 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. 6 But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream and its interpretation.” 7 They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show its interpretation.” 8 The king answered and said, “I know with certainty that you are trying to gain time, because you see that the word from me is firm— 9 if you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the times change. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation.” 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.” 12 Because of this the king was angry and very furious, and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed.

King Nebuchadnezzar is remember both by scripture and by the history books as both a prodigious and successful King but also as a tyrant. He was a man of extremes, he was decisive, confident, bold yet also cruel, arrogant and vicious. There is good reason to take him literally when he says that he will tear his own wisemen limb from limb unless they tell him his dream and it’s interpretation.

The magicians, soothsayers and Chaldeans are unable to tell King Neb his dream, they admit that no human is able to do so, only the gods. Neb flies into a rage and issues a decree that all the wise men of Babylon, including Daniel and his friends should be killed. The King appoints a man named Arioch to carry out this decree and off he goes to find Daniel and his friends to kill them.

At this point it must have seemed to Daniel and his friends like their fate was sealed, he and his friends have been carried off all the way to Babylon and trained up in their arts and languages only to be slaughtered by the King. The decree had been issued, the assasins sent out. And yet does despair set in? Does Daniel run into hiding? Does Daniel begin to slander the king and attempt to start a rebellion? No, amazingly instead of questioning the severity of the decree he simply queries it’s haste!

Daniel 2:13–16 ESV

13 So the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed; and they sought Daniel and his companions, to kill them. 14 Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. 15 He declared to Arioch, the king’s captain, “Why is the decree of the king so urgent?” Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel. 16 And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time, that he might show the interpretation to the king.

What can we learn from Daniel’s response here in these times, when unjust decrees come from government, what shall our response be? How might we seek to honour God in the way we behave?

Daniel, because of his favour with the king, enters in to the king and asks for him to set an appointment wherby he might show the king the interpretation. This is incredible! Daniel doesn’t know the interpretation at this point, he doesn’t even know the dream and yet he’s that confident that God will come through for them that he’s happy for the king to name the time at which Daniel will give the interpretation. Wow! How confident are we in times of trial that God will come through for us? Time and time again Daniel and his friends demonstrate this unshakeable faith in God’s goodness and power to save them in the face of dire circumstances. Listen to the words of Shadrach, Meshach and Abedego in chapter 4 as they’re about to be thrown into the furnace.

Daniel 3:15–18 ESV

15 Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” 16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Daniel consults these three friends after going in to see the king and asks for them to pray and ask for God’s mercy and deliverance from this situation.

Daniel 2:17–23 ESV

17 Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, 18 and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 19 Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. 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.”

This passage is really the centre piece of the whole chapter, it’s here we find out the reason we can have hope in dark times; God is sovereign over all the earth and all wisdom and knowledge is His to give to whoever he pleases. God reveals the Kings dream to Daniel and it’s interpretation and what is Daniel’s response? That God removes and raises up kings, that He rules over them all. Daniel sees that even though the king has done terrible things to God’s people, even though he has brough persecution upon them, God has raised him up and God will eventually cast him down.

Every governmental system in this world today has been raised up by God and will ultimately be cast down by God. No matter how evil and despotic a ruler might be, they are just a pawn on God’s great chess board and they are only in power as long as God permits. Even the evil acts they do will be used for good towards God’s chosen people. So while we might experience persecution, pain, injustice and even death at the hands of worldly authorities ultimately it’s God who has the last laugh, it is His name which will be glorified.

Daniel saw his own city destroyed and likely many of his family and friends too, he was taken to a foreign land, potentially even castrated and made to serve the King who had done all this. He never saw his city again in his lifetime, he never saw his people delivered from exile. But he had peace in seeing the bigger picture, in seeing that God’s purposes rolling out throughout the ages and culminating in ultimate victory. Though he himself didn’t live to see those days, He took comfort in knowing they were coming.

Now let’s look at the dream itself.

Daniel 2:24–45 ESV

24 Therefore Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation.” 25 Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him: “I have found among the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation.” 26 The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?” 27 Daniel answered the king and said, “No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, 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: 29 To you, O king, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this, and he who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be. 30 But as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your mind. 31 “You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. 32 The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 36 “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. 37 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, 38 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. 39 Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. 40 And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. 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. 44 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, 45 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.”

Daniel comes in before Nebuchadnezzar and is asked whether he is able to interpret the dream. Interestingly, he doesn’t say; ‘yes sir, I have the interpretation.’ He doesn’t take any of the credit for what God has revealed to Him, all the glory goes to God.

Daniel then recounts to the King the details of his dream, he saw a great statue, with a gold head, its chest and arms made of silver, it’s belly and thighs of bronze it’s legs of iron and it’s feet partly of iron, partly of clay. Then a stone, not cut by man strikes the statue on the feet and destroys the thing entirely, there’s nothing left of it but dust. And the stone becomes a great mountain which fills the earth.

We have to be careful here not to push the interpretation further than warranted by scripture. But this dream is prophetic, it’s apocalyptic, it reveals to us what will happen in the end times. It’s one of the most important passages in the Bible concerning the end times and it interlinks with other apocalyptic passages like Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. This passage of scripture shows us the following;

That 4 earthly kingdoms will be given power to rule on earth.

These 4 kingdoms come one after the other, they succeed one another.

They are part all of the same structure, the image of a man. Showing that they are all forms of human government.

These four earthly kingdoms are represented by different metals; Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron which is mixed with clay at the feet.

The metals decrease in value but increase in strength as they head towards the feet where there is weakness.

It is here that the statue is struck by a stone which is cut out of a mountain, not by human hands. And the Stone destroys the statue entirely and grows into a mountain which endures forever.

We know who is represented by the head of the statue because Daniel tells us; it’s King Nebuchadnezzar, it’s the Kingdom of Babylon. We are told that Nebuchadnezzar has been appointed as king by Yahweh. We can speculate as to why his kingdom was represented by gold but we we’re not specifically told so in the interests of time we’ll move on.

We know that it was the Medo-Persian Empire that ruled immediately after the Babylonian empire, and it is this empire that is represented by the silver. The two arms representing the dual nature of that empire, it was an empire of the Medes and the Persians together.

The Medo-Persians ruled for several hundred years until the rise of the Greeks under Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. We’re not told much about either of these two kingdoms by Daniel other than the fact that the Kingdom of bronze would rule over all the earth. This fits perfectly with the Greek empire under Alexander, who ruled from Greece all the way to India. The Bronze Kingdom is Greece.

Daniel tells us that the Iron legs represent a Kingdom coming after the Greeks which will crush and shatter all things and break them in pieces. The Roman empire rose out of nowehere in the 1st century BC under the General Pompey and went on to rule the entire civilised world with an iron fist. It stretched from Britain in the north to Egypt in the south and from Spain in the West to modern day Iraq in the east. The Kingdom of Iron is Rome.

The feet and toes of the iron empire are mixed with clay, and it is here at this point that the stone strikes it. This point on the statue represents a point in history, a point in the future. When, I believe there will be a revival of sorts of this Roman system of government, at least it will look like that system but it won’t be as strong or effective, it will be mixed with clay. And there will be 10 rulers represented by the 10 toes of the statue. These 10 toes relate to the 10 horns of the beast in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. At the time of these rulers we are told that the antichrist will arise, the little horn of Daniel 7, and utter blashemies against God before being utterly destroyed by the Lamb who is the stone we see in Daniel 2.

The stage is being set for that moment right now. We are in the final moments of the history of this age. None of us knows the precise moment when these things will take place but we do know that the stone has been cut from the mountain. That stone is the cornerstone, Christ Jesus; Matt 21:44

Matthew 21:44 ESV

44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

The Kingdom is now, but also not yet. The stone is tumbling towards that statue even as we speak.

So what can we take from this? That formidable and strong as earthly governments might look they are temporary, they will pass away. They have been appointed by God and the terms of their leadership are marked out by Him. Eventually every human form of government will end, and God’s Kingdom will be set up on the earth and He will rule forever, no one will ever take His Kingdom from Him and He will reign in love, in righteousness and in peace over all His people.

Are you ready for that moment? Have you made your peace with the King of kings?

Nebuchadnezzar, the man who believed he was king of kings and Lord of lords, the man who thought that he had vanquished Yahweh has now been told that he is just a pawn in God’s hand. That the kingdom of babylon was given to him by Yahweh and it will be taken away. He has been told that there is only one kingdom that will endure forever and that is the Kingdom of God. What is his response? His response is worship.

Daniel 2:46–49 ESV

46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. 47 The king answered and said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.” 48 Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. 49 Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king’s court.

Worship is always the natural response whenever God reveals Himself. Though we will see in the coming chapters that King Nebuchadnezzar isn’t submitted to God as this stage he acknowledges that Yahweh is God of gods and Lord of kings. He promotes Daniel and his friends over all the wise men of Babylon.

Remember that no matter what comes our way in the coming months, God is in control, He is sovereign, and nothing can happen to us apart from His decree. Trust in Him just like Daniel did. Remember that our government has been put in place by Him for His own purposes. Let’s remember that we are emissaries of a higher government, we are subjects of a greater Kingdom. Let’s be good ambassadors for Christ, let’s not forget to pray for our leaders whether we agree with them or not. Let’s remember that someday sooner or later our King is coming back, and when He does, no one will stand in His way and we shall reign with Him in glory.

Pray