We now come to the content of Nebuchadnezzar’s
dream. Here are a few brief notes about
the setting. First, from Dan. 2:4 through
the end of Chapter 7, Daniel wrote in Aramaic.
The rest of Daniel is Hebrew except for 15 words in Persian and 3 in
Greek. Second, in summary, the subject
of the dream is the latter days (2:28) and what will come to pass
after this (i.e. things in the future, v29), and specifically, secrets
made known by God in heaven who reveals secrets.
In 2:31-36 Daniel does what the Chaldeans
acknowledged they could never do, which was to describe the dream without Nebuchadnezzar
revealing it to them. Then, in 2:37-45,
Daniel gives the interpretation. The
dream itself is not complicated. The
king saw an image with a gold head, silver torso and arms, bronze hips, iron
legs and feet of iron mixed with clay.
Then he saw a stone cut out of a mountain that crushed the image to
pieces, and then the stone became a great mountain.
Understanding Daniel’s interpretation is also
not particularly difficult. The
different parts of the image represent various kingdoms. Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon were the head of
gold, the rule of one king being the most efficient type of government. The torso with the two arms were the kingdom
that would replace them, the Medo-Persians.
The “monarchical oligarchy” (a king who was subject to laws, and other
rulers of equal strength but lower position) was inferior. The kingdom of bronze was the Greeks of
Alexander (Dan. 8:20-21 specifically names Greece as the third kingdom). It was a military rule. The kingdom of Iron was Rome. The governing approach was inferior, but it
was strong and involved more territory.
The two legs represented the eventual east and west division of Rome.
The iron and clay kingdom was related to Rome (the
iron). Some have concluded the mix
represents a kingdom that involves dictatorship (iron) and socialism or
democracy (clay). This kingdom is
somewhat loosely joined, as iron and clay do not adhere to one another. Daniel notes the ten toes, some of which are
iron and some clay. The kingdom of God
(the one He sets up) destroys the other kingdoms, first smashing the feet so
that the image falls, and then pulverizing the entire image.
This kingdom will never be destroyed; it will
stand forever. This happens in the
days of these kings (v44). This is a
key truth in explaining why these empires are singled out in history. For one thing, they were all “tower of Babel”
types of empires, established in an attempt to gather all people under
their authority (Gen. 11:4). Second,
they were to be the kingdoms under which Israel would serve during what the
Bible calls “the times of the Gentiles.”
This prophetic dream, given to a pagan king, was given for the sake of
God’s earthly people. It tells us that
while Israel suffers under the rule of the nations, their God has a plan that
will eventually result in their salvation.
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