PHIL HARRIS
Introduction
The Bible as well as secular history indicate that there were two, father and son, who went by the name Nebuchadnezzar. While the father sat on the throne in Babylon, the son commanded the army that conquered Jerusalem. Here in chapter two we read of the son who has now ascended to the throne and is in the second year of his reign. Apparently he knew little or nothing of Daniel’s reputation gained during the reign of his father.
There are those who don’t believe that Daniel was a prophet of God because he wrote of future things; they do not understand that God is the one who revealed these events to Daniel. For Christians it is enough that the promised Jewish Messiah, Jesus the Son of God, had this to say of Daniel:
“So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains (Matt. 24:15-16).
Nebuchadnezzar Had a Dream
In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. 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. And the king said to them, “I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.” Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation” (Dan. 2:1-4).
Nebuchadnezzar is troubled and unable to sleep because of a dream he has had, so he calls in the pagan wise men. The king tells them that he is troubled in his spirit because of a dream he appears to have forgotten, yet wants them to both tell him his the dream and explain its meaning. They respond by saying, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.”
This situation echoes of the account of Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Egypt. In Genesis chapter 41 we read of pharaoh, king of Egypt who had a pair of troublesome dreams that could not be interpreted by his wise men:
So in the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh (Gen. 41:8).
As it was with the Pharaoh, what Nebuchadnezzar would soon learn is that when God gives you a dream, the meaning can only come through his providence.
Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer. (Gen. 41:16)
As it had been for the Egyptian Pharaoh, the same would be true for Nebuchadnezzar.
The Wise Men are Troubled
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. 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.” They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show its interpretation.” 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—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.” (Dan. 2:5-9)
Nebuchadnezzar offers riches or ruin
The king informs them that if they do as he decreed they will receive “gifts, rewards and great honor; otherwise, they will all suffer a horrible death which would include their respective households.
Pagan wise men have a dilemma
They repeat what they first said: they could not tell him what the dream was. The king, therefore, knows they are but telling corrupt words, so he repeats what he first said. For the pagan wise men this was an impossible situation.
Nebuchadnezzar’s sure test
As we will soon see, God gave Nebuchadnezzar the dream but leaves him only with a troubled spirit. Therefore it is God who puts it into the mind of Nebuchadnezzar to demand that his pagan wise men reveal both the dream and its meaning.
Just as it was for Joseph, God has foreknown and positioned Daniel to be the only person who would be able to respond to Nebuchadnezzar’s demand.
Wise Men Cannot Comply
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. 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).
These pagan wise men had no choice but to respond by saying that no one “except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh”, could provide Nebuchadnezzar an answer.
Death Sentence
Because of this the king was angry and very furious, and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed. So the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed; and they sought Daniel and his companions, to kill them (Dan. 2:12-13).
What God has intended all along is now about to happen in God’s own holy righteous way.
Daniel’s Prudence and Discretion
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. 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. And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time, that he might show the interpretation to the king (Dan. 14-16).
While Daniel hadn’t been called in with the other wise men of the king’s court, he still had access to the throne.
Upon learning of the king’s decree, Daniel went before Nebuchadnezzar and tactfully requested a time when he would both reveal and interpret the dream. Daniel knew that if he asked of God in prayer, God would give him the answer.
Christians, those who have been saved by the blood of Christ, can approach God with the same courage and confidence that Daniel had:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it (John 14:12-14).
In Prayer the Mystery Is Revealed
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thess. 5:12-18).
Daniel’s next action was to go to his friends where together they took the matter to God in prayer:
Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, 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. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven (Dan. 2:17-19).
As with what God did for Pharaoh through Joseph many years earlier, God now reveals the mystery of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream along with its interpretation through Daniel.
Blessed Be the Name of God
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him (Eph. 1:3-4).
Before returning to the throne of Nebuchadnezzar Daniel spontaneously blesses God:
Daniel answered and said:
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. 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; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. 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).
Daniel Returns To the King
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God (Rom. 13:1).
With the knowledge of what God has shown him, Daniel requests and is brought before the king:
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.” 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” (Dan. 2:24-25).
Only God Reveals Mysteries
For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:11).
Daniel declares to Nebuchadnezzar that no man, not even himself, can reveal the king’s dream without it first being shown to him by the one and only God of heaven.
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?” 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, 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: 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. 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 (Dan. 2:26-30).
In verse 29 underlined above, Daniel reveals to Nebuchadnezzar that this dream of his was preceded by his own thoughts where he was wondering about “what be be after this”. Daniel was not only responding to what Nebuchadnezzar had asked but also revealed to the king his own thoughts that led to the dream God had given him.
The king was about to learn far more than he realized he was asking.
Behold A Great Image
Through the blessing of God, Daniel now shares with the king what his pagan wise men could not do. Upon now hearing Daniel recount his dream, Nebuchadnezzar is ready to hear and believe the meaning of his dream.
It is at this point we learn and know Daniel was a prophet of God:
“You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 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. 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 (Dan. 2:31-35).
A great image stands before the king
The image has:
- A head of fine gold
- Chest and arms of silver
- Middle and thighs of bronze
- Legs of iron
- Feet of iron mixed with clay
- A stone cut by no human hands strikes the feet and destroys the whole image.
At the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Israel is in bondage in Babylon under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar. From the context of Judaism, world history will culminate when the world’s kingdoms have been replaced by the eternal rule of the “Stone” that strikes the feet and destroys the image. Israel as a nation will repent and accept Jesus Christ as their promised Messiah, thereupon all God’s promises for them will be fulfilled.
By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion” (Ps. 137:1-3)!
The First Three Kingdoms
“This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. 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. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth” (Dan. 2:36-39).
The first three kingdoms portrayed in the image have passed into history:
- The head of gold was Babylon ruled by Nebuchadnezzar during Daniel’s lifetime.
- The chest and arms of silver anticipated the dual rule of the Medes and the Persians where Daniel also held a position of distinction.
- The middle and thighs of bronze was Alexander the Great’s Greek empire that didn’t hold together after his early death.
Legs of Iron
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 (Dan. 2:40).
With our present understanding of world history, the “Iron that breaks to pieces and shatters all things” seems to depict the rigid, autocratic rule of Rome. The two legs of iron would then portray when the Roman Empire separated into two kingdoms: the western, Roman Empire with the other being the Byzantine Empire initially centered in Constantinople. While these empires no longer exists, this autocratic rule, though greatly fractured, is still with us in our own time.
Feet Mixed With Iron and Clay
Now we come to the prophesied “feet and toes” of a divided kingdom which is a mix of iron and clay:
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. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. 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).
Notice that each worldly kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream has less transient glory but with more evil power than the kingdom before it.
The iron mixed with clay of the ten toes suggests that this is an evil alliance of the ten kingdoms of the world who openly worship the first beast (the Antichrist) of Revelation 13:1-4.
As for the clay in the toes that weakens the iron, there is much speculation. Perhaps it’s simply a description of the many evils of which we daily see or hear in the world around us today.
The Stone That Breaks All the World’s Kingdoms
“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” (Dan. 2:44-45).
Jesus is the Stone cut out of the mountain by no human hand that destroys all the satanic kingdoms of the world.
The Jewish Council should have been well aware of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream when the apostle Peter told them:
“This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:11-12).
Nebuchadnezzar Pays Homage to Daniel
Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. 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.” 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. 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 (Dan. 2:46-49).
- Nebuchadnezzar, the absolute ruler of Babylon, falls upon his face and pays homage to Daniel.
- Nebuchadnezzar now understands the dream that had troubled him
- Nebuchadnezzar learns that there is only one true God.
- Nebuchadnezzar gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts.
- Nebuchadnezzar declares that Daniel is now the ruler of the province of Babylon.
- Nebuchadnezzar places Daniel over all the wise men of Babylon.
- Nebuchadnezzar appointed Daniel’s three friends over the affairs throughout the province of Babylon.
- From now on Daniel was to remain in Nebuchadnezzar’s court.
The Message For Our Own Time
- Nebuchadnezzar learned that when the one and only true God responds to one’s questioning mind, we should be prepared to learn far beyond what we think we’re asking. Little wonder he was astounded and paid so much homage to Daniel.
- Everything in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream has now been fulfilled except for the last part. The turmoil we see and hear of daily in the world today will only lead to wars and more wars. This is a fulfillment of “the clay that cannot mix with iron”. Daily we learn of problems that have no solution without God—who does have the one and only solution.
- Two thousand years ago God’s solution culminated at Calvary. All that is needed is for us to believe in faith that Jesus died, was buried for three days, and arose from the grave three days later for our sin. At that point we’ll be sealed into the Book of Life and the kingdom of God by the promised Holy Spirit.
- The last part of the dream God gave to Nebuchadnezzar is that of the Stone that will be cut from a mountain by no human hand that destroys Satan’s kingdom—the one who is to be cast eternally into the Lake of Fire. Jesus Christ the Son of God is this Stone. Jesus the Lamb of God will set up an eternal kingdom where sin and death are no more.
- We need to keep in mind that even though Nebuchadnezzar’s city and empire fell and no longer exists, there is something of Babylon that does exist but will have an eternal fall in the end times:
After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. And he called out with a mighty voice,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living” (Rev. 18:1-3).
All biblical quotes taken from the ESV
- Daniel 5: Babylon Is Fallen! - April 25, 2024
- Daniel 4: The Stump Bound By Iron and Bronze - March 7, 2024
- Daniel 3: The Fiery Furnace - December 21, 2023