In my previous study, we looked at what Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar he had dreamed (Daniel 2:31-36). Before interpreting it, he described what the king saw and what disturbed him, though he couldn’t recall it, even though he had dreamed the same dream continually for some time, until sleep, itself, was robbed from him (Daniel 2:1). Nebuchadnezzar called for the wise men of Babylon to help him, but, when they failed to do so, perhaps in a maddened condition through lack of sleep, the king condemned all the wise men throughout Babylon to be executed (Daniel 2:12). When it was told Daniel, who was also to be executed with his three brethren, what the king demanded, he asked for and received clemency for at least a night. Daniel then communed with God, seeking an answer to the seemingly hopeless dilemma. The Lord answered Daniel’s prayer, and Daniel was brought before Nebuchadnezzar to reveal and interpret the king’s dream.
Having described the image, which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, Daniel began to interpret what the dream meant. The image, although in four parts, was one. It represented the regal power or influence the kings of each kingdom had over the people, especially over God’s people. The thing, although begun in hope (Genesis 9:5-6), quickly deteriorated into something evil, and no longer served the Lord’s original intent. Men used their power and influence over others to steal, kill and destroy whatever pleased them. Therefore, as the latter days of the Lord’s covenant with them approached, the Lord, himself, came to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream and revealed what was about to occur to the governments of the world in those latter days.
The head of the figure in the king’s dream was of gold and represented Nebuchadnezzar himself. He was the king of kings, and the Lord made it known to him that he, alone, gave him his authority, his strength and his glory (Daniel 2:37), and Nebuchadnezzar, the king, enjoyed unchallenged majestic influence and power over man and beast throughout his kingdom (Daniel 2:38).
After him, inferior kingdoms would arise, each inferior to the previous. Just as silver is inferior to gold, and bronze is inferior to silver, and iron inferior to bronze (Daniel 2:39-40), so the four kingdoms represented by these metals in the image, which Nebuchadnezzar saw, would be inferior to the kingdom one each replaced, until the coming of the end. Scholars are not united in the identities of these kingdoms,[1] but this study identifies them as: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome.
The fourth and final kingdom before the end would be strong like iron, and would completely overrun the other kingdoms, destroying any possibility of their rising again. Just like iron is used to cut other metals into smaller and smaller pieces, so the fourth kingdom would cut up and destroy the previous kingdoms’ authority and influence over the people (Daniel 2:40).
Next, Daniel turned his attention to the feet and toes of the fourth kingdom, disclosing that the fourth kingdom would seek to mix with other countries, but their intention to become one people would fail. They would be party strong (iron) and partly fragile (clay), showing that the prejudices of men against one another would keep the fourth kingdom from mixing together and become one people (Daniel 2:41-43).
Finally, Daniel came to describing the toes, ten of them. Later he would describe them as ten horns, which have the power of kings, in another of Daniel’s visions that occurred during the reign of Belshazzar. He was the final king of Babylon, before it was overthrown (cp. Daniel 7:7, 20, 24). In the days of these ten rulers the Lord God would set up his Kingdom, which would never be destroyed or left to another, because the Kingdom of God would exist forever (Daniel 2:44-45). The Kingdom of God would eventually break all other kingdoms in pieces. That is, he would break their regal power and influence over the people, vis-à-vis the influence of the Gospel consumes their great power of influence. In other words, God’s Kingdom would be made up of all nations. That is, the nations wouldn’t themselves be destroyed, but all would be one people, in spirit, because all nations would eventually worship the same God (cp. Acts 15:14; Hebrews 8:10 and 1Peter 2:9-10).
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[1] See Wikipedia for the source, but the claim is that most scholars determine that Babylon is the head, the Medes are the chest and arms, the Persians are the thighs and legs, and Seleucid Syria and Ptolemaic Egypt are the feet. Other scholars make Rome to be the feet, and Christian scholars make the thighs and legs to be Greece and the feet Rome. I don’t know why the scholars depart from the text in the third and fourth kingdoms. They leave out the belly and make the thighs and legs to be the third kingdom, where the thighs are bronze and the legs are iron (Daniel 2:32-33). I agree with the Christian scholars, as to the identity of the kingdoms, but I make bronze, which includes the belly, and thighs to be Greece (Alexandrian Greece, and Seleucid Syria and Ptolemaic Egypt) and iron, which includes both lower legs and both feet to be Rome (the Republic of Rome and Imperial Rome).
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