Devotions
Rev Gav
Everlasting
Daniel 2.31–45
‘You were looking, O king, and lo! there was a great statue. This statue was huge, its brilliance extraordinary; it was standing before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of that statue was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked on, a stone was cut out, not by human hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, were all broken in pieces and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
‘This was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings—to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the might, and the glory, into whose hand he has given human beings, wherever they live, the wild animals of the field, and the birds of the air, and whom he has established as ruler over them all—you are the head of gold. After you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over the whole earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron; just as iron crushes and smashes everything, it shall crush and shatter all these. As you saw the feet and toes partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom; but some of the strength of iron shall be in it, as you saw the iron mixed with the clay. As the toes of the feet were part iron and part clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with clay, so will they mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall this kingdom be left to another people. It shall crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand for ever; just as you saw that a stone was cut from the mountain not by hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. The great God has informed the king what shall be hereafter. The dream is certain, and its interpretation trustworthy.’
Reflect
In this passage, Daniel interprets a disturbing dream of King Nebuchadnezzar — ruler of the Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire. In it, the king saw a huge statue made from different materials and then a stone cut “not by human hands” struck the feet of the statue, shattering the gold, silver, and other layers.
Daniel explained that the different layers in the statue — starting at the top with the gold and working downwards — represented the different world empires that would follow the king’s reign. At the bottom, a supernatural stone shattered the statue and grew to fill the earth, and this stone represented God’s enduring kingdom that would stand forever — the Kingdom of God.
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was disturbing in of itself, but also disturbing as he was the ruler of the ‘golden empire’ depicted in the dream! Daniel was effectively saying, “Sorry, mate, it’s not gonna last!”
Bible scholars have long debated which empire’s each layer of the statue represent, and there were at least three world empires between his reign and the coming of Christ — the Medo-Persian empire, the Greek empire, and the Roman empire; however, the point is that a ‘stone’ would come along that would establish an everlasting kingdom, and we know who the stone is!
You should be warned that a whole string of modern ‘end-time prophets’ think that Nebuchadnezzar’s vision is about our future and, through merging false interpretations with the Book of Revelation, come up with laid out plans for the end of the world. Sadly, they take advantage of unsuspecting Christians with their pseudo-biblical explanations. Do not listen to them! As a general rule, be suspicious about anyone selling a book or movie or making a ton of money from being a Christian leader!
Of course, there have been world empires since Christ, and this story stands a stark reminder that world empires will come and go, but the Kingdom of God, inaugurated by Christ the King, will endure forever. We may well fall under an ’empire’ whether geographical or political — for example, capitalism, communism, or imperialism — but we are first and foremost participants living under the banner of God’s kingdom, rule, and sovereignty. We pledge allegiance to only one authority and that is the authority of Christ.
Pray
Holy God
Empires come and go,
but your kingdom is everlasting.
Thank you for your Son,
my Saviour, Jesus Christ;
for establishing your rule
and sovereignty on earth as in heaven;
and that I am under
the shadow of your wing.
This day and forever.
and then