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My God and My Neighbor is a “Bible talk show” that looks at religious issues, Christian living and world events in light of the Word of God to give hope. This podcast is a ministry of Tennessee Bible College. TBC offers a bachelor's in Bible studies, a master of theology, and a doctorate of theology in apologetics and Christian evidences. TBC also provides Christian books, audio recordings on the Bible, and free Bible courses in English and Spanish. Tune in to My God and My Neighbor to experience the educational content that TBC has been delivering for nearly five decades!
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Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you've learned with others.
We are in Daniel chapter 2. The Bible says, “Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him. Then the king gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. And the king said to them, "I have had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream.” Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, "O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation.” The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, "My decision is firm: if you do not make known the dream to me, and its interpretation, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made an ash heap. However, if you tell the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts, rewards, and great honor. Therefore tell me the dream and its interpretation.” They answered again and said, "Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will give its interpretation.” The king answered and said, "I know for certain that you would gain time, because you see that my decision is firm: if you do not make known the dream to me, there is only one decree for you! For you have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the time has changed. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can give me its interpretation.” The Chaldeans answered the king, and said, "There is not a man on earth who can tell the king's matter; therefore no king, lord, or ruler has ever asked such things of any magician, astrologer, or Chaldean. It is a difficult thing that the king requests, and there is no other who can tell it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.” For this reason the king was angry and very furious, and gave a command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree went out, and they began killing the wise men; and they sought Daniel and his companions, to kill them” [Daniel 2 verses 1 through 13].
This was the first crisis Daniel faced in his strange new home in Babylon. And it was a major crisis, a life or death situation. The Babylonians were superstitions people. Even the king had magicians and astrologers. If he had a problem or needed to make a decision, especially a decision about the future, he turned to these men called wise men. Now of course Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were not magicians. But that didn’t matter to the king. If he thought any of them could give him an edge, he would use them. In this story he had a dream that bothered him, so he called for his magicians and astrologers to see if they knew what it meant. They did something pretty foolish. They told the king to tell them what he dreamed and then they would tell him what it meant. That’s when the king told them if they didn’t tell him the dream and its meaning, he would have them killed. But they tried again. They said tell us what you dreamed and we’ll tell you what it means. That infuriated the king. He told them they were just trying to stall. And after he warned them again, they admitted that they could not interpret the dream. They said nobody except the gods could do such a thing. That was the final straw for the king. He gave the order to kill all the wise men in Babylon.
Now Daniel and his three friends were not in that meeting. But the king is so angry he said to kill all of them. When Daniel heard about all the commotion, he asked the captain of the king’s guard what all this was about. When he told Daniel about the decree, Daniel went to the king and asked if he would give him time to know the interpretation of his dream. That’s in verses 14 through 16. Now the amazing thing is that the king gave Daniel time. That’s what the magicians asked the king for, but he wouldn’t give it to them. Why? The king wanted an answer right away from them. He said they were trying to buy time. But he let Daniel go to his house and take some time to understand it. Why did he treat Daniel differently? Because he knew Daniel. He could see that he was a good, honest man. And, also, he knew what these magicians were. He had to know that sometimes they guessed right and sometimes they guessed wrong. But here’s something else. These magicians argued with the king. Daniel asked the king. Sometimes it makes a difference HOW you approach a problem. Daniel did something else that was very wise. He went to his three friends and asked them to pray about this situation. “Then Daniel went to his house, and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven” [Daniel 2 verses 17 through 19]. It’s always a good thing to ask others to pray for you when you’re facing a difficult situation.
When God revealed the king’s dream to Daniel, he blessed God. He said, “"Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding” [Daniel 2 verses 20 to 21]. Notice in particular what Daniel said about how God acts in the world. He said God “changes the times and the seasons.” That means appointed times or seasons, things you would expect to happen at certain times or even want to happen. Ecclesiastes 3 verses 1 through 8 says there is a time and a season for everything. It says there is a time to gain and a time to lose, a time of war and a time of peace, a time to weep and a time to laugh. But God sometimes changes those times. He might cut them short in our way of thinking. He might change them suddenly. He might turn a time of war into a time of peace or a time of peace into a time of war. He might turn a time of laughter into a time of weeping. This is interesting. This tells us that God is behind some of the changes we see. And He has reasons for why He changes things. But notice these words in Daniel 2 verse 21: “He removes kings and raises up kings.” God does this. When was the last time you heard a political analyst talk about that side of politics? They don’t because they don’t believe in it. We’re going to see much more about this work of God as we study the book of Daniel. We’ll learn that the hand of God is involved in human affairs, even in human governments. “He removes kings and raises up kings.”
God does this. The Bible says in Psalm 75 verses 5 through 7, “Do not lift up your horn on high; Do not speak with a stiff neck. For exaltation comes neither from the east Nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the Judge: He puts down one, and exalts another.” This is what you will see from this point on in the book of Daniel. God is not a spectator sitting up in heaven just watching what happens without doing anything. He works in the world in ways we don’t see. That’s what we’ll learn much about in this book. God intervenes many times in the Bible without working a miracle. A miracle is something that people could see and know was an act of God. Even the enemies of the Lord admitted the miracles He did. In Matthew 12 the Jews couldn’t deny that He cast out a demon, but they were so stubborn and full of hate that they turned right around and said He did it by the power of Satan. They didn’t do what He said [which is an incredible thing when you think about it], but they conceded that He worked miracles. But God often worked to set up kings and put down kings without miracles. That’s what Daniel teaches us in this book.
So now in Daniel chapter 2, Daniel has the answer. He knows what the king dreamed and he can tell the king what it means. He went straight to the captain of the guard and asked him to take him to the king. When the king asked him if he was able to tell him what he dreamed and interpret the dream, Daniel said, “The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days” [Daniel 2 verses 27 to 28]. The first thing Daniel did was to tell Nebuchadnezzar what he dreamed. He said the dream was a great image. It had a head of gold. It's chest and arms were silver. Its belly and thighs were bronze. Its legs were iron and its feet part iron and part clay. Daniel said in your dream you saw a stone that was cut out without hands. That stone struck this image and broke it into pieces. The pieces of the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were crushed by the stone so much that the wind blew them away, and no trace of them could be found. Then he says something to pay close attention to. He said the stone that struck the image “became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” [verse 35].
Now that’s what this powerful king saw that bothered him. He was a man who had everything. He had money. He had power. He had the best of food and entertainment and fame and glory—but, like you and me, sometimes he had bad dreams that bothered him. He was human just like we are. And the same thing is true with the most wealthy and powerful people on earth. They surround themselves with bodyguards and soldiers, but they can't protect themselves from the thoughts and fears that sometimes torment our souls in the middle of the night. So Daniel told him his dream. And you know he has the king’s attention. Nobody else told him what he dreamed. And now Daniel is about to tell him what that dream represents. Remember this is not Daniel's opinion. God told Daniel the meaning of the dream. So this is God foretelling what will happen. And there's one thing clear about this interpretation of the dream. Things are about to change—really change. I'm not talking about a change for the next few years. I'm talking about changes that will affect the lives of thousands and thousands of people over the course of the next 500 to 600 years. I'm talking about changes in the most powerful nations on earth during that time. I'm talking about transitions in power, the overthrow of governments, wars, and everything else that goes with changes in civilizations. God foresaw all this change.
Each one of these metals the image in the dream was made of represented an empire, a kingdom. The first was the head of gold. We don't have to guess about who that represented. Daniel tells us. He said to Nebuchadnezzar, “You are this head of gold” [verse 38]. He's not just talking about Nebuchadnezzar the king. The king is the head of the kingdom. He represents the empire. So the golden head represents the great Babylonian or Chaldean Empire. They were the reigning nation at that time. They were the super power of the day. They had it all. In verse 37 and 38 Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, “You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all—you are this head of gold.” Daniel said the Babylonians had a great empire. They had great power and strength. They had wealth and a strong military. They had glory—fame and glory. The city of Babylon was known all over the world. It was said to be absolutely beautiful. It had hanging gardens that were the talk of other nations. It was situated on the Euphrates river and had all kinds of flowers and trees and luscious fruits. The walls around the city were enormous. Gold was everywhere, so it's no wonder that the golden head represents Babylon. But did you notice what Daniel told the king about all this? He said the God of heaven gave him all that power and glory. Of course, presidents and prime ministers and kings give themselves the credit. And we're going to see a couple of chapters after this one that that kind of arrogance is a huge and dangerous mistake. So the first thing Daniel tells this powerful ruler is that he wouldn't have anything unless God gave it to him. So the Babylonian nation is the ruling empire at this time. But, all that was about to change. It happened to them like it happens to any other nation. When a country is strong and has plenty of wealth and power, it's hard for anybody to imagine that anything can change all that. When a nation is at the height of its power, it seems invincible. But that is an illusion. History teaches us that nations rise and nations fall. Remember what Daniel already said? He said that God removes kings and raises up kings. Babylon the great was no exception. Now Daniel doesn't go into any detail about the fall of Babylon at this point. We’ll learn more about that later as God revealed even more about the future. At this point, God shows that He sees the present in Nebuchadnezzar’s day, and He also sees what will happen after Babylon loses its power. God shows what’s coming next hundreds of years down the road. He doesn’t give us a history lesson at this point about the fall of Babylon. He just says another empire is coming. That implies that Babylon will fall. I don’t know how much this king thought about that. I don’t know if that scared him at this point or if he understood or believed what Daniel said. It’s easy for us because we know what happened. But God passes over that part. He just says in verse 39, “But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours.” Daniel doesn't give us the name of that next kingdom. He doesn't tell us what happened. That is, he doesn't tell us in this chapter. He will tell us more in the chapters to come. All he told Nebuchadnezzar is that another kingdom was coming. Now you might ask, “But there were all kinds of nations back then. Which nation is he talking about?” The answer is that God means the next great superpower nation. In any age there is usually one nation that stands out. There is one nation that has more power than the rest. Isn’t that true today? If you turn back the clock about 300 years from today, let’s say, in the early to mid 1700s, Great Britain was the world’s superpower. But that changed in time. It always does. No nation says on top for long. Another nation always takes its place at the top. God is telling Nebuchadnezzar that his empire, the nation of the Chaldeans, will not stay on top forever. Another nation will take its place. Do you remember what the chest and arms of the image in his dream were made of? Silver. That silver represented the nation that took over next after the Babylonians. The silver represented the great Persian Empire. At first they were called the Medes and the Persians, but as they grew it became known as the Persian kingdom. That’s the silver in the dream. Now gold is more expensive than silver. It was back then. So Babylon which was the gold was greater than Persia which was the silver. That’s why Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the next superpower would be inferior to the Babylonian empire. Persia was great, but not as great as Babylon. But that’s all God said about Persia here. All God tells him is, “But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours.” And God doesn’t stop there. God sees everything in the future. He’s only telling this pagan king a little, very very little, about what is coming. Politicians live for the future. They’re always trying to be one step ahead of other leaders. But God already knows which side will win. Listen to Daniel’s words as he continues: “…you are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth” [Daniel 2 verse 39]. Now he’s talking about the belly and thighs of bronze in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. That bronze represents the next superpower of the world after the Persians lose control. Again, God doesn’t go into the details about how Persia fell or how this next nation gained control on the world stage. God is not trying to satisfy our curiosity. He’s not giving a history lesson just to talk about one thing happening after another. And here is something to remember when you read Bible history: God is not as concerned about the history of these nations as men are. These nations get the attention in history books. Little nations and tribes don’t. The most powerful nations are always in the spotlight. That was true then just like it is today. But that is not how God sees nations. The Bible says, “Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket” and “All nations before Him are as nothing” [Isaiah 40 verses 15 and 17]. We may be impressed to read about Babylon and Persia, but God wasn’t. And the same is true with this third, later kingdom that came after the Persian empire. There is no question about which empire that was. The bronze represents the Greek empire. We know that because of history. The Greeks, led by Alexander the Great, defeated and conquered the Persians. That happened well over two hundred years after Daniel said these words to Nebuchadnezzar. Alexander the Great had conquered so many countries that Daniel said this nation, which he doesn’t name here, would rule over all the earth. But the interesting thing is that Daniel, again, writing over two hundred years before this happened, did mention the Greeks by name in Daniel chapter 8. And how many books and documentaries have been made about Alexander the Great? He gets a lot of attention. But God wasn’t impressed by any of these men and their empires. They couldn’t have ruled, they could not even have lived and breathed without God. And here in Daniel chapter 2, God says very little about the great Greek empire that everybody talks about. He tells about something much more important. And that includes the next great world power after the Greeks. That’s the empire—still hundreds of years in the future for Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar—that we read about beginning in verse 40. Daniel says, “And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others.” Remember the legs of iron in Nebuchanezzar’s dream? That iron represents this nation that will take over after the Greeks. And notice the metal—iron. What comes to mind when you think about iron? You don’t say it’s beautiful like gold or silver. You say it’s strong. All the kingdoms before this one were strong, but not like this one. They will crush everything in their path. They will conquer and rule with an iron fist. And there is no doubt who this was: the Roman Empire. If there ever was a superpower, it was the Romans. They ruled. They conquered. They intimidated. They impressed. In terms of earthly progress, they advanced in every aspect of their civilization—science, medicine, construction and engineering, politics, military, education, government, business, agriculture and anything else that solidified their place in world affairs. And it’s the symbol of Rome being like iron that the dream of Nebuchadnezzar emphasized. Now Nebuchadnezzar had no idea who or what this fourth kingdom would be. The land we call Italy was nothing to him. But things change. Nations change. They come and go. They rise and fall. And God is showing us here, as He does often in the Bible, that He already knows what will happen next. And, even more importantly, He reminds us that not only is His eye on the future, but His hand is in the future, even the future of the most powerful forces on earth which to Him are nothing.
That’s why God says so little about the history of these empires. In just a few words in Daniel 2 verses 37 through 40—in just 4 verses—He talks about the next 500 plus years like you and I talk about what we did yesterday. Those years were filled with wars and bloodshed and surprises and disappointments, and yet God just calmly says here’s what will happen. Here’s what you need to know. And, here’s something that will stand the test of time and live on when all these empires are lying in the dust.
Verses 41 through 43 are an amazing prophecy of what happened inside the Roman civilization. Verse 41 begins, “Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom” [that’s the Roman Empire] shall be divided.” When Rome was in its prime, no nation was strong enough to defeat it. Their military was too big and too powerful. But there were weaknesses inside the Roman Empire. They were divided. And when people are divided, they can't stand together against their enemies. Do you remember what Jesus said about this? He said, “Every kingdom divided against itself, is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand” [Matthew 12 verse 25]. That’s what brought the great Roman Empire to its knees. They were too busy arguing and fighting with each other to defend themselves against their enemies. Their house was crumbling from within. Homes were falling apart because there was a high divorce rate. Citizens were aggravated because the taxes went higher and higher. And as the stress of daily life kept them on edge, the people of Roman entertained themselves with shows and parties and carousing. They indulged themselves with food and alcohol and loved to go to coliseums to watch gladiators fight to the death. There were chariot races and shows and outdoor amphitheaters. They lived for entertainment. But they had no interest in morals and religion. They lived for the moment. The church was established in the city of Rome in the first century, but it was small. Many Romans looked at Christianity as just another superstition. The kingdom of Rome was falling apart. That didn’t happen all at once. It didn’t happen in one battle. It didn’t happen in a few years. Rome fell because of problems on the inside, not forces on the outside.
The Bible says, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, And all the nations that forget God” [Psalm 9 verse 17]. “Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach to any people” [Proverbs 14 verse 34]. People reap what they sow. That’s true of individuals and it’s true with nations, even the strongest nations. That was the fate of Rome, and Daniel foretold this hundreds of years before the Romans even came to power. Let’s listen to Daniel foretell the history of Rome before it happened. He continues in verse 41 and says, “Yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.” That’s verses 41 through 43. The illustration is simple. Iron and clay don’t mix. But that’s what the Romans tried to do. They tried to blend all the different cultures and ideas and values of so many different people, and it didn’t work. They held it together for a while—a long while compared to other civilizations. But it didn’t last.
Rome was the fourth great empire in Nebuchadnezzar's dream. It was the legs of iron he saw. But the same thing would happen to Rome that happened to Greece and Persia and Babylon. As strong as it would be, it would fall too. This is an amazing prophecy about these nations. And there are many more prophecies in the book of Daniel that have been fulfilled. This prophecy is an overview of the next several hundred years to come from the time of Daniel. But the most important thing about this prophecy is not Babylon or Persia or Greece or Rome. It is another kingdom—a kingdom that would be different from all these other kingdoms. A kingdom that would never fall. A kingdom that God established, not men. That's what Daniel tells us about beginning in verse 44. “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.” Now we see the final item in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream: the stone that crushed all these other kingdoms. Daniel said God would set up this kingdom. What is that kingdom? The Bible tells us. We know it was in the future for Daniel. We know God would establish it in the days of these kingdoms, that is, in this timeframe. And the last kingdom he mentioned, the fourth great empire, was Rome. God sent Jesus when the Romans ruled. And as we read the New Testament beginning in Matthew, right away it talks about Jesus the king and the kingdom He came to establish—the very kingdom Daniel foretold in Daniel 2 verse 44. In Matthew chapter 2 the wise men came to see Jesus because they believed he would be king of the Jews. In Matthew 3 verse 2 John the Baptist said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” In Matthew 4 verse 17 Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Then in Matthew 16 verses 18 and 19 Jesus tells us what the kingdom is. He told Peter, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” He said that He would build the church and give him the keys to the kingdom. When you build something and then say I’m giving you the keys to it, it’s obvious that He’s talking about the same thing. The kingdom is the church. Daniel said it will never be destroyed. Jesus said the same thing about the church. He said the gates of hades [death] will not overcome the church or the kingdom. That’s why you read later in Colossians 1 verse 13 that the Christians there were in that kingdom. If that’s not the church, then what is it? That’s also why the apostle John said he was in the kingdom in Revelation 1 verse 9.
So all this change we read about in Daniel 2 was necessary. God saw it all coming and intervened at times to make sure that His Son came into the world at just the right time to die for the sins of man and set up this kingdom, a kingdom that God said will stand forever. Nations come and go. They fight wars. They rise and fall. But not God’s kingdom the church. It’s a spiritual kingdom that time cannot destroy. So don’t be afraid when things change all around you. Here is one thing that never will.
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.