Meditation Archives

"You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. This image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image 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 crushed together, and became like the chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

"This is the dream, Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all--you are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of me; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.

"And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold--the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure" (Daniel 2:31-45).

Why did God give the Babylonian king this dream? "There is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days... He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be (Daniel 2:28, 29).

What did the head of gold represent? "you are this head of gold" (Daniel 2:38). King Nebuchadnezzar being the head of state represented Babylon which was the dominant ruling world power from about 612-539 BC. This prophecy was given about 600 years before Christ was born.

There would be another kingdom according to the prophecy represented by the "chest and arms of silver". In fact, Medo-Persia would overcome Babylon and become the ruling world empire from about 539 to 331 BC.

Yet a third kingdom would arise represented by the "belly and thighs of bronze." Alexander the Great crushed Persia and Greece became the dominant world ruler from 331 to 168 BC.

And yet another kingdom would become the dominant world government represented by the "legs of iron... the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others." Rome enjoyed world supremacy from 168 BC. till about 476 AD.

Following the fourth kingdom, the prophecy speaks of the feet being "partly of iron and partly of clay... Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided... they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay." From the days of Rome there has not been a united dominant world empire. Many men have attempted to reunite the kingdoms formerly under the rule of Rome and all have been unsuccessful, as according to the prophecy.

We are living in the days of the divided kingdoms, in the "feet partly of iron and partly of clay." According to the prophecy, yet another kingdom will follow the divided kingdoms, "And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed... and it shall stand forever... the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure."

God gave Nebuchadnezzar, and all mankind, a panoramic view of what would come following His rule, and the rule of Babylon. Other prophecies provide more detail with regard to the succeeding kingdoms and the establishment of God's everlasting government. Down to our own time, the prophecies given to Daniel have been fulfilled with incredible accuracy and detail. With such foresight and knowledge, we can be certain that "The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure."