Nebuchadnezzar had a fiery, unreasonable temper in this matter. He literally was going to kill off anyone of his advisors who were wise, educated and had insight to help him. It wasn’t that he was season as king and didn’t need them. He was new at this and needed them more than ever. And he was going to kill them all off.
Why? Because he had a dream. And that dream he knew was important. To test his wise men and diviners, he told them they had to tell him his dream or die.
??
Such a thing had never happened before but Nebuchadnezzar was firm in this. His anger was violent when they couldn’t tell him his dream. Fear struck in the hearts of all the advisors throughout the Babylonian kingdom Even Daniel.
Except Daniel knew the Lord. He asked for more time so that he could seek God for the dream. It was granted but if the dream wasn’t given to him, he would die the most horrific death.
Already it was bad enough. When the Babylonians wanted to kill people, they tied each of their arms and legs to 4 flexible trees that had been firmly over. When the person was tied to each of those, the rope was cut and the trees would spring back into place, ripping out the arms and legs out of the joints if not entirely off their bodies. It was terrible. If God did not give Daniel the dream, this is what he would face. Or worse.
Daniel went back to his friends and together they sought the Lord. In the middle of the night God gave Daniel the dream. He was taken immediately to Nebuchadnezzar where he told him the dream and the interpretation.
The dream was of a statue with a head of gold, a chest of silver, legs of bronze, and feet and toes of iron and clay. We know with 100% certainty from the text here and the rest of Daniel that the head represented Babyon, the silver was the Medo-Persians, the legs of bronze are the Greeks. We can have reasonable certainty too that the feet of iron and clay are the Romans even though the text doesn’t say this. But they were the next conquerors.
Daniel says the dream is of the conquering and declining kingdoms, but then a new kingdom will come. It will strike the feet of the statue (Rome) and will grow to become the largest kingdom. It will be an eternal kingdom that no one can stand against.
So here are some questions.
- What is that kingdom?
Considering the nature of the kingdom that it lasts forever, which is emphasized several times, I think we can have confidence that this is the kingdom that Jesus speaks about, the heavenly kingdom. We can be further reassured of this as this kingdom is established during the time of the Romans, which is the time frame of when Messiah came.
2. What about the 10 toes?
When I read this text, the emphasis on the 10 toes here is that they are made of iron and clay and will be partly brittle and partly strong. This is Daniel’s interpretation (v. 42).
In v. 44 though he says “in the time of those kings.”. Is he talking about the kings of the great kingdoms (gold, silver and bronze) or is he talking about kings represented by the toes? Because we also have 10 horns in Dan 7:24. And those we know are 10 kings. Or figurative for power. But it would seem like these are 10 kings.
Also it says “in the time of those kings” is when the kingdom will be set up (v. 44). This then would be during the time of the Romans.
Some say that this is Emperors. Others say it is the Roman papacy. We will get more into this later.
3. So why did God give this dream to a pagan king and not Daniel and one of the exiles?
I think for several reasons
- To humble Nebuchadnezzar. Kings wanted to feel immortal and yet this dream says the kingdom of the Babylonians would be conquered
- To raise Daniel up. It’s a hard pill to stomach but sometimes God intervenes into the wickedness of man to establish his people in righteousness.
- And most importantly, to let the nations know that there is only one God and he is the God of the nations and the God of the times and seasons. He raises kings up and takes them down. It is a Psalms 2 kind of proclamation where the king is being warned to serve the one and only true God. That the king is not God.
