Daniel 2:24-49
When the dream of Nebuchadnezzar was revealed to Daniel in his dream, he approached Arioch very next day and confirmed his readiness to interpret King’s dream. Nebuchadnezzar could not believe who was in front of him. A fresher who just finished his course in Babylonian wise men training was claiming that he could not only interpret but ready to tell the dream he dreamt. In chapter 2 verse 26 Nebuchadnezzar wanted to confirm again if Daniel can tell his dream?
Daniel did not take any credit for himself while interpreting the dream before the king. Instead, he gave all the glory to God. He made it clear that revealing someone’s dream is beyond the skill level of magicians, astrologers, enchanters, and diviners.
The Dream
Nebuchadnezzar saw a large statue with Golden head with chest and arms in silver, belly, and thigh in bronze, legs in iron and its feet in partly iron and partly clay. While the king was seeing the statue, a rock stuck the feet of the statue and it broke the entire statue down to pieces. The entire statue was blown away like a chaff without any trace.
Daniel interpreted the five different metals (Gold, Silver, bronze, Iron, Iron + Clay) as five kingdoms. He did fix the Golden head as the Babylonian kingdom and mentioned the kingdom that followed the Babylonian kingdoms are the silver and bronze part of the statue. The kingdom that followed the Babylonian kingdom was the Persian kingdom. They conquered Babylon in BC 539 under the leadership of Cyrus the great. The historian Herodotus documented the fall of Babylon and how Cyrus temporarily changed the course of Euphrates river to enter the city. Hence the Babylonian empire only survived 64 years after the dream was explained by Daniel in BC 603. Since the Persian empire was the next kingdom after Babylon this should be the silver portion of the statue.
The Persian empire continued (approx. 200 years) till a young man from Greek started capturing the world’s attention. His name was Alexander the great. The last king of the Persian empire was Darius III, who lost to Alexander in the year BC 330 in the battle of Gaugamela. Though Alexander ruled only 12 years and died at the age of 32 years, the kingdom he had established continued until replaced by Romans empire. The bronze portion of the kingdom should be Greek empire created by Alexander after defeating the Persian empire.
The Roman empire though formerly established in BC 27 by Augustus, it was ruled under Roman republic much before that. The iron portion of the statue should be Roman empire as it succeeded the Greek empire.
The last and final kingdom is a mixture of iron and clay. Is this modern-day Europe and European Union? Well, its open to discussion. But we are clear on the stone, which destroyed the entire statue. This is the kingdom of Jesus Christ, who will rule the earth forever and ever. The final battle described in the book of Revelation (19:11-21) between the heavenly armies and the beast also includes the kings of the earth.
The statue shown to Nebuchadnezzar in his dream covers the history of the world from BC 603 to the coming of Christ as king. When he heard the interpretation from Daniel, the king bowed down and offered praises to God. Nebuchadnezzar died in the year BC 562 and his kingdom of Babylon rapidly collapsed within the span of 25 years after his death.
Daniel was made the ruler of the entire province of Babylon. What a transformation in the life of Daniel over the course of three years!!
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