THE AMAZING PROPHECY OF DANIEL 2 5. THE PROPHECY "And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.  And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. Daniel 2:40-45.    "Yes, Daniel," the king must have said, "a rock was cut out without hands and smashed the image and became a mountain that filled the earth." The whole dream was exactly as the king had dreamed it. Imagine how amazed Nebuchadnezzar must have been to be told by this noble young man every detail of the dream just the way he had seen it himself! One thing was absolutely certain to the king, no man could have revealed this to Daniel, no man can tell what someone else dreamed! It could only have come from some divine source. See the Image with Dates:  Nebuchadnezzar's dream, however, predicts the rise and fall of key nations of the earth. The kingdoms represented in his dream have in some way or another influenced every nation of the world, especially in modern times. In just a few words God sketched the main course of history from Babylon's time - 600 years before Christ - to the climax of Earth's history.    This image was perfect to convey to the King the emptiness and powerlessness of earthly pomp and glory. Starting with precious gold and getting more valueless as time goes on, the kingdoms of earth decrease in value until finally the worthless residue is swept away by God and the Heavenly Kingdom set up 'without hands' - man has no part in setting up that Kingdom.  " So would God show to the children of men that earthly kingdoms were to pass away, and earthly greatness and glory, like a gaudy bubble, would break and vanish; and the kingdom of God, in the place so long usurped by these, should be set up, to have no end, and all who had an interest therein should rest under the shadow of its peaceful wings forever and ever."   "Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him. The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth [it is], that your God [is] a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret." Daniel 2:46, 47. "Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king." Daniel 2:48, 49. This is one of the most ancient prophecies in the history of man upon the earth. It is astonishing in its simplicity and startling in its accuracy. No man could have formulated it. It is one of the evidences we have that  there is a GOD, and that the Bible is truly inspired by the Spirit of God! Three World Kingdoms followed Babylon: No more, and no less. Medo-Persia, Greece, then Rome. Each of them was inferior in splendor to the one before it. Then Rome was divided - not followed by another world empire. And to this day it remains divided. "They shall not cleave one to another", says the scriptures and they don’t! Napoleon, the Kaiser, Hitler, and others have tried to reunite them. They always fail. This is still the situation in our day; It remains divided. And it is in this time: the divided time, that we can expect the coming of Jesus to set up a kingdom that shall not be divided or conquered--ever! Rome Divided—The element of weakness symbolized by the clay, pertained to the feet as well as to the toes. Rome, before its division into ten kingdoms, lost that iron vigor which it possessed to a superlative degree during the first centuries of its career. Luxury, with its accompanying effeminacy and degeneracy, the destroyer of nations as well as of individuals, began to corrode and weaken its iron sinews, and thus prepared the way for its disintegration into ten kingdoms. Iron and Clay In this mixture of metal and mud we see a very unnatural situation, the strength of the iron is undermined by the brittleness of clay and the fact that they do not even stick together makes it even worse. But there is a deeper meaning in this symbol and we learn much by looking into it. Iron is used in the Bible as a symbol of ruling power. (see: Psalms 2:9; Revelation 2:27) It stands for Civil or State power. Clay is used in a figurative way in describing God’s people or church. Isaiah 64:8; “But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” (Also see: Jeremiah 18:1-6)  But here we do not see just clay; we are told it is miry or dirty clay. Miry clay denotes filthy or corrupted churches. The combination of the iron and miry clay represents the mingling of State-craft and Priest-craft which is an abomination to God. The feet come into history at the time of the beginning of the Papal supremacy of the 1260 years where the church ruled the secular governments and used them for her own corrupt ends. The ten toes are also of this same material and our attention is called to them by the explicit mention of them in the prophecy. The Roman kingdom was finally divided into ten parts. However the ten toes of the image do not represent the ten divisions of the Roman Empire. We know this because in the division of the Roman Empire, three kingdoms were removed leaving only seven. This we do not see in the ten toes.  Daniel and Revelation are actually one prophetic book with the first part having been given by Christ to Daniel and the second part having been given by Christ to John on Patmos. Any attempts to truly understand these prophetic books separately will yield poor results. In Revelation 17 we see a beast with seven heads and ten horns. The seven heads correspond with the seven kingdoms of the earth and the ten horns here are described:  “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.” Revelation 17:12 At the end of time there will be a confederacy of ruling powers that will have one mind and will give their power to the Beast for a short time. These correspond with the ten toes on the Image of Daniel 2. They are not ten kingdoms, but one kingdom with ten kings. The Kingdom of Jesus: The stone is ‘cut out without hands’.  His kingdom is not earthly, not set up by man's power. The kingdoms of man are swept out of existence ‘like the chaff from the summer threshing-floor’.  This 'Stone' is 'cut out of the 'Mountain' --what is this 'Mountain'? In Daniel 11:45 we read of a 'Glorious Holy Mountain'--this represents God's people. From them a final group will be 'cut out' by the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit. In Revelation we see them called 'the 144,000'. The ‘Stone, cut out without Hands’ represents this final generation of God’s faithful who will be prepared by God to carry forth an important work in the final hours of earth’s history. They carry forth the final message of mercy and warning that leads quickly to the Second Coming of Christ to take His faithful home. We need to be making the choices that will allow us to be among this group that Christ will use to finally bring this earth's sordid history to a close. Do you choose to be among them? God promises: “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29. Do you have a covenant relationship with Christ, the coming King? Do you love His character which is described in His Law? Are you choosing to walk humbly in His footsteps, and, by His enabling grace, obey His laws and His teachings? There is to be no rival kingdom where you can go if you remain an enemy to this, for God’s kingdom is to occupy all the territory ever possessed by any and all of the kingdoms of this world, past or present. It is to fill the whole earth. Happy are they to whom the rightful Sovereign, the all-conquering King, at last can say, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Matthew 25:34.   There are world-wide plans for a "One World Government“ uniting the civil and religious powers. It is in the process now of being implemented, and it will be like the Dark Ages all over again!! As the Bible says in Isaiah 3:5: Isaiah 3:5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.  There will be no safety anywhere because everyone will spy on his neighbor. IT WILL CLAIM TO BE SUCCESSFUL FOR A SHORT WHILE, BUT it will fail. "They shall not cleave one to another," says God’s word. The ‘Stone cut out without hands’, will soon put an end to man’s cruel and proud tyranny over his fellow man. This Final Generation of God's Faithful ones will be a people who have turned from sin and rebellion to totally love, honor and obey God. They will stand in the last generation as a wonder to behold--a small group of faithful people showing the character of Jesus in a world gone crazy with pride and rebellion. We must choose to be among them--because when Jesus comes, only they, with the resurrected righteous dead, will go home with Jesus! Jesus will come for His children who have obeyed His word and accepted His salvation. We must be ready for this coming! All signs foretold indicate it must be soon! Now is the time to seek the Lord with all our hearts and He promises to be found of us--as we study His Word and practice obeying what we learn, He will lead us to be ready to meet Him in peace on that day!

Topical Library Index Library Home Page Children's Library Index

Website Home Page Special Links