In The Word
Read Daniel 2:31-49
The King’s Dream
“You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
The Interpretation—Babylon the First Kingdom
“This was the dream; now we will tell its interpretation before the king. You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold.
Medo-Persia and Greece
After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.
Rome
Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.
The Divine Kingdom
In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”
Daniel Promoted
Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel, and gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant incense. The king answered Daniel and said, “Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.” Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. And Daniel made request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon, while Daniel was at the king’s court.
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Walking In The Word
Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar the dream and its interpretation. The statue represented successive gentile kingdoms that will rule the earth until Yahshua, the Messiah, comes and sets up His kingdom over the whole earth. Daniel stated that King Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom was the head of gold. The next kingdom would be inferior to his. The chest and arms of silver represented the Medo-Persian forces. These two groups united and, according to history, defeated and took over the Babylonian empire. Silver is inferior to gold as represented in the make-up of the statue. We know that the Babylonian king was an absolute monarch; whatever he decreed had to be done immediately. The Medo-Persians kings were subjected to the laws they passed and could not change them once they became law (Daniel 6: 7-9 and Daniel 6: 13-15). As a side note, the Medo-Persian Empire was known as the silver empire in history because they would deal mainly with silver coins in their economy.
Silver, all throughout the Bible, has represented redemption. Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver by his brothers; he would one day rule in Egypt and save his family from severe famine. In Numbers 10, God commanded Moses to make two silver trumpets which would be used to announce the year of Jubilee or the “redemption year.” Most importantly, Yahshua was sold for 30 pieces of silver so that He might be taken and crucified for our redemption. The Medo-Persian kings were the ones who allowed the Jews to return to their land and rebuild the temple, the city of Jerusalem, and the walls of Jerusalem.