God Reveals the Future

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Turn to Daniel 2. We’re going to study ESCHATOLOGY today – the study of the end times. Some Christians belittle or ignore the study of the prophetic Word. Not us. We love to see and know that God has pre-written history and He has a grand plan. Just like kids live in hope when dad says we’re going to Holiday World, prophecy gives God’s people hope for the future.  Let me give you some quick blessings that flow from the prophetic Word of God.

1. Builds your confidence in the Word as inerrant and infallible. Every prophecy about Christ’s first coming was fulfilled literally, even the piercing of His hands and feet (Psalm 22:16). And there are far more prophecies about His second coming.
2. Builds your faith in God’s controlling all human history. We are not evolving purposelessly into a dark, unknown future, blown along by time and chance. This train is headed to the station and guaranteed to arrive. 
3. Keeps your perspective right. This world is passing away. Don’t anchor your heart in it. We’re just pilgrims on our way to the celestial city.
4. Stirs up concern about your relationship with Christ. I John 3:3, “He who has this hope in Christ’s return purifies himself as He is pure.” You want to be ready to give a good account when He returns. 
5. Stirs up concern for lost people in your life. We know the end of the story. Every knee will bow, here or hereafter! This godless world cannot save anyone!

Daniel is prophesying around 600 BC, long before most of what he is going to say will come to pass. Liberal and critical scholars cannot believe Daniel could have prophesied these things hundreds, even thousands of years in advance. That’s impossible…unless you have a God who knows the end from the beginning. James Montgomery Boice says, “He is able to foretell what will happen because He has determined what will happen and because He has the power to make it happen.” 

Now, remember King Nebuchadnezzar had a nightmare. Daniel has told him he knows what he dreamed. You can imagine the king is all ears as Daniel begins to unfold the dream.  We’ll look at the passage in four parts.

THE DREAM

Daniel 2:31-35, “You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. 32 “The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 “You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. 35 “Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”

Nebuchadnezzar saw a single great statue standing right in front of him. It was overwhelming and brilliant in its metallic content and struck terror into Neb’s heart (ESV says “frightening”). Babylon was full of huge, high pillars, thick walls, and grand architecture, including the hanging gardens.  However, this statue stood out even greater. When we go down I-65 by Birmingham, we look for the Vulcan statue overlooking the city which has a history of iron and steel works. It is the largest cast iron statue in the world at 56 feet. It is a great work, but not intimidating like this statue in Daniel. 

The metallic value of Neb’s statue descends in worth from top to bottom, but hardens in substance – gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Progressives think mankind is becoming better and better and claim today is better than yesterday and tomorrow will be better than today. Not so. Our world is just the opposite. The human race in all its forms and sophistication is no better spiritually than it ever was. Man’s heart is still desperately wicked. We are not heading to a man-made utopia. 

The statue’s destruction was sudden and shocking – v. 34. A stone came smashing into the feet like a huge cannon ball or jagged asteriod, bringing the entire statue down into a pile of chaff blown away by the wind, without a trace found. You’ve seen demolition crews plant charges at strategic locations in a building, then stand back and detonate the charges, bringing the entire building down into a mass of dust and dirt. But here there isn’t even dust and dirt left over. So shall the glory of this world with all its human splendor be wiped out in a moment. Then the stone transforms into a huge mountain, a biblical image of a kingdom, and it fills the entire earth. This event does not happen gradually; this destruction is sudden and total.

King Neb is dumbfounded as Daniel describes his dream in the minutest detail.  And Nebuchadnezzar is all ears because he knows Daniel is speaking truth. He thinks, “Yes, that’s exactly what I dreamed. But what does it all mean?” Remember, only the infinite, eternal, sovereign God can reveal the future, and that’s exactly what He’s going to do now through Daniel.  We’ll see more details later in Daniel, but this is a starter course on eschatology. 

THE INTERPRETATION

Daniel 2:36, “This was the dream; now we will tell its interpretation before the king.”

This statue represents four world kingdoms. That crushing stone will take us from Babylon to the second coming of Christ. In Luke 21:24 Jesus talked about the times of the Gentiles that will rule over Jerusalem. Israel and Jerusalem have been trodden under the foot of Gentile powers to this very day. Even though Israel became a nation in 1948, she is far from what she’ll be in the coming millennial kingdom. She is currently surrounded by Gentile enemies and the Muslim Dome of the Rock sits where the temple should be. Hamas is shooting rockets at Israel and Iran wants her totally destroyed. We’re not at the end yet. 

First there is this great Babylon.

Daniel 2:37-38, “You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; 38 and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold.”

You can almost see Neb getting the big head, “Wow, I’m the head of gold,” until he heard that all of his power, strength and glory were given to him by God Almighty. This is true of every kingdom.  World leaders have no clue that they are pawns of the invisible hand of our sovereign God, which includes down to our own age today. God lifts world leaders up and brings them down. Nations unknowingly continue to fulfill the will of God. 

The second empire represented by silver in the statue is Medo-Persia, begun by Cyrus the Great when the Persians defeated Babylon in 539 BC during Belshazzar’s feast in Daniel 5. 

Daniel 2:39,  “After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.”

The third empire represented by bronze is Greece. In 334 BC Alexander the Great with his 35,000 highly disciplined soldiers began a whirlwind blitzkrieg of shock and awe from Macedonia, across Asia Minor, down the Palestinian coast, met the high priest of Jerusalem, conquered Egypt, destroyed the Persians, and kept going, conquering everything in his way, all the way to India, when his troops finally said, “Enough already!” He came back to Babylon and died in June 323 BC at the age of 32, either of malaria or in a drunken stupor or possibly poisoned. His kingdom was divided among four generals, which takes us into the times of the Maccabees. This is the time of the 400 silent years between Malachi and Matthew when there was no revelation from God until the time of Christ.

The fourth empire represented by iron is Rome.

Daniel 2:40-43, “Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. 41 “In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. 42 “As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. 43 “And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.”

Here’s where it really gets interesting. Between 200 BC and the time of Christ, Rome conquered the entire Mediterranean world through her iron heel of military might. She ruled far longer than the other kingdoms, but weakened through internal corruption and luxury. Rome divided into the east and west around 395 AD. The west was conquered by barbarians from the north in 476 AD. The east, the Byzantine Empire, was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 AD. 

Now, out of this fourth empire Europe emerged in its various nations and continues to our very day.  My favorite commentators assert that Rome in its laws and republican form of government, as well as Latin and the romance languages, continues in western nations to our day and will be revived before Christ returns.

The feet and ten toes of iron and clay are the most fascinating as they develop into this revived Roman Empire of the last days. The ten toes of iron and clay, strong but brittle and weak, harmonize with the ten horns of Daniel 7:24 and the ten kings of Revelation 17:12. These will apparently make up a global ten-nation coalition out of which that little horn in Daniel 7:24-25 will emerge. This little horn, namely the anti-Christ, will enforce universal submission and even worship.  

Daniel 7:23-25, “Thus he said: ‘The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it. 24 ‘As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings. ‘He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.”

And then, as if that wasn’t enough, there are the ten horns in Revelation 17.          

Revelation 17:12-14, “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. 13 “These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. 14 “These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.”

The fifth empire is from heaven!

Daniel 2:44-45, “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. 45 “Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

So how will this statue be destroyed? Not gradually by the church. That would be postmillennialism. No, suddenly when Christ returns at His second advent He will crush and demolish the whole thing without leaving a trace. Revelation 19 clearly tells us Christ will come from heaven and destroy His enemies and in Revelation 20 He will set up His millennial kingdom. All secular humanism and atheism and Marxism and Freudianism and Darwinism and every false religion and cult will be gone. Righteousness and truth will fill the coming kingdom of God.

Notice several truths about this fifth kingdom that comes and smashes the whole statue.

1. God will set it up, not man.
2. It will never be destroyed like all the others.
3. It is unique, unlike all the surface glitter and glitz of man’s kingdoms. It is just a plain old stone. But a powerful stone! Christ is this stone over which men stumble. It is the Lamb who was slain for the redemption of sinners and then raised as conqueror of sin and death, ascended to the right hand of God and returning in the future. 
4. It is earth’s final kingdom, not left for another people. God’s people will inhabit it.
5. It comes with judgment, crushing and demolishing all these kingdoms. When we pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” we are praying for this final earthly judgment.
6. It will continue forever, beginning with the 1000 years of Revelation 20 and on into the eternal City of God in Revelation 21.
7. There is no question or doubt that this will take place; it is true and trustworthy. God will keep His Word. There is no way of changing what God has determined. The only thing to do is to kiss the Son, as Psalm 2:12 says. God has clearly laid out His predestined plan for human history. You either submit to His Son in simple faith and find eternal life and forgiveness and a place in His kingdom or you reject Him and face his wrath that is sure to come.

Are we in this statue somewhere?  Yes. We’re in the feet headed for the toes of iron and clay, which could be the iron fist of totalitarianism and the weakness of the corrupt human heart. Every effort at globalism fails because of the total depravity and corruption of the human hearts, including the hearts of the world leaders. All those leaders sitting around those tables at the G-7 meeting this week are as corrupt as all the previous world leaders. Remember the Tower of Babel? God divided the peoples into nations to hinder man from uniting into one global rebellion against Him. Nations are for the good of the human race. Each nation is to seek God, as Paul said in Acts 17:26-27.

THE PROMOTION

Daniel 2:46-49, Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel, and gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant incense. 47 The king answered Daniel and said, “Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.” 48 Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. 49 And Daniel made request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon, while Daniel was at the king’s court.

Neb recognizes who the true God is and did all he knew to be right before Him – pay homage to Daniel and confess Daniel’s God as a God of gods. He realizes there truly is a God in heaven who rules in the affairs of men. He honors Daniel with gifts and a high position. Of course Daniel doesn’t forget his friends. So at the top of the greatest kingdom on earth at this time sit four young Hebrew men, still in their teens, representing the true and living God of Israel. They don’t make a nuisance of themselves. That is, until the government legislation tries to force them to offend their consciences. Then they take their stand to honor their God.

THE LESSON

How does God want this prophecy to change your life? This should help you realize how temporary this world is, even in its most spectacular condition. All men are sinners and the world is headed for destruction. While our modern world is highly sophisticated and we have so many conveniences, luxuries, technologies, the world’s progress is all superficial and doesn’t touch the heart. Don’t love it or live for it. Be in it, but not of it.

You must be prepared to meet Christ. Just as Christ will come and crush the kingdoms of man, you need to let Christ come into your life and crush your personal kingdom of ego and pride and sin and set up His rule in your heart. Does He rule your heart to bring you forgiveness and submission to His good will? Kiss the Son! Receive Him as your Lord and Savior now.