Sermon Tone Analysis

Nebuchadnezzar hatches a plan

Now some people have been critical of Nebuchadnezzar over this claiming that he was being completely unreasonable and that God used Daniel in this passage, in-spite of the kings foolish demands.

But quite honestly I see this very differently.

I take my hat off to Nebuchadnezzar because I think that this is one of the cleverest things he does and it’s a stroke of genius.

Back in the days of the Babylonian courts, it was normal for the kings advisers to be heavily involved in the occult.

What things they could not explain or deal with in the natural were dealt with through witchcraft and sorcery, and the people that were involved in doing this laid claim to special supernatural ability, and they really could get away with a whole lot because by setting themselves up as having special supernatural insight they really put themselves above criticism because how could anyone ever prove that they were wrong.

It was also normal for the kings and rulers of the day to seek the counsel of such people regarding dreams.

But it would seem that Nebuchadnezzar had this one dream in particular that he knew was not ordinary and required precise interpretation.

The trouble is though is that Nebuchadnezzar knows that if the advisers don’t really know how to interpret this dream that they could make up any old nonsense and he would not be able to tell id they were telling him the truth or not.

So Nebuchadnezzar reasons that if they are in fact discerning the meaning of the dream by supernatural forces then surely it would be just as easy for them to find out by these forces and abilities what the dream was without the king explaining it to them.

And if they can somehow tell him what the dream is then that will prove that they are in touch with the giver of the dream.

Naturally the advisers protest and argue that what the king asks is impossible.

This enrages Nebuchadnezzar because it re-enforces his doubts in their ability and he must have thought to himself “what else is there that they claimed to have supernatural ability in? and the whole time it was just a charade”

So the king orders that all the advisers be gathered up and killed.

DANIEL SEEKS THE LORD

All the astrologers, soothsayers and magicians had a problem, because the only way that they could know what Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was, was if they had contact with the one who gave the dream.

They knew that they were not and so it sent them into a panic.

We read of no such panic from Daniel though, and Daniel is able to say to the king quite resolutely that he can definitely answer the king in this matter because unlike all the frauds around him.

He really is in contact with the One who gave the dream.

So Daniel’s response is just “hey, give me a little time to inquire of the Lord who gave the dream and then I’ll come back and tell you”.

What’s more, Daniel had a closeness of relationship with the Lord that even under the pressure of the circumstances he knew that he could trust the Lord to come through with the information.

Daniel

It is so interesting to see and I think a critical point as to why Daniel was used so mightily by God, to see how quick Daniel was to give the credit and the glory to God.

Now in this life and death situation any person who needing to receive revelation from God in order to save their life would be very inclined having heard from God to rush to settle the issue as quickly as possible.

In Daniel’s situation I certainly would have been tempted to rush as quickly as possible to Nebuchadnezzar and give him the good news so that my life would not be in danger for a minute longer than it needed to be.

But Daniel has a higher priority here and it is to first of all give glory and thanks to God.

There is a temptation also for us once we have received what we want from the Lord to stop praying, but for Daniel his praying actually kicks into a higher gear after he has received from the Lord.

DANIEL EXPLAINS THE DREAM

Notice verse 29.

The vision came as Nebuchadnezzar was pondering what would happen in years to come.

Nebuchadnezzar was as powerful and as rich as they come, in fact in terms of absolute power there has probably never been another king since that has had the power that he had.

Yet, for all his power and wealth the future was beyond his control.

People strive for wealth and power because they feel that it will bring security and stability into their life but as this passage is here to show us, that even the greatest in this earth will have no security outside of the Lord God.

Then in verse 30 we see that Daniel is yet again ensuring that the glory goes to God.

31-45

Statue Slide

Head of Gold

The first part of the statue is the head of gold.

This as Daniel tells us represents the Babylonian empire.

This is a very fitting material since even to this day Babylon is a byword for great wealth.

However this is also depicted as gold because from the perspective of the king this was the richest kingdom since the rulers in all the subsequent empires do not have the absolute grip on power as the Babylonian kings did and in fact in terms of the ability for a ruler to govern according to their own will, each kingdom sees a diminishing of power in their rule.

Chest and Arms of Silver

The empire that followed the Babylonians was the Medo-Persian Empire.

It is worth noting that the Lord designed it so that this empire occupies the part of the body that has the arms.

The two arms represent the two sides to this empire since this empire was in fact two empires that became joined as one.

It is this empire that we see conquering Babylon in Daniel chapter 5.

Also represented as a precious metal because it was this empire that perfected taxation and so they were well known for their wealth but nevertheless not as wealthy as the previous Babylonian kingdom.

Belly and thighs of Bronze

Interesting again that this third kingdom should be represented by bronze since this kingdom was highly regarded for its use of bronze weaponry.

This is the Grecian empire, it is the belly because Alexander the Great formed this empire as one single unified empire.

However upon his death the empire was split between four of his generals, but out of those four only two became noteworthy.

The Ptolemaic Empire which took the southern regions and the Seleucid Empire which took Syria, Babylon and Persia.

This is why the third kingdom starts as the unified belly but then is represented as the thighs since it splits into two.

The Legs of Iron

Next we have the Roman Empire, signified by two legs of iron.

Iron because it is symbolic of strength and if we should pick only one word to sum-up the Roman Empire it would surely have to be strength, and of course the Romans were in fact well known for their extensive use of iron.

Two legs because the Roman empire was ruled firstly in Rome but then later on in the Byzantine era from Constantinople as the Emperor Constantine took the very unusual step of moving the empires capital.

And notice throughout that while the strength of the materials varies the values of the each material decreases with each successive empire.

We are so often led to believe by the media that the human race is capable of attaining greater levels of glory and perfect harmonious living is achievable without religion.

But the reality of what we see here is not evolution but devolution.

Feet of Iron and Clay

In reality we are not actually seeing a fifth empire here since in actual fact this is a continuation of the fourth.

Previously every kingdom has been overthrown by it’s subsequent empire, the Babylonians were conquered by the Medo-Persians, the Medo-Persians were conquered by the Greeks, the Greeks were conquered by the Romans but the Roman Empire was never conquered.

Instead Rome fractured and divided into various nations.

Some retained great strength and others not.

Many people like to speculate about exactly how this representation of the feet and clay will exist.

But since at least some of this pertains to circumstances that have not yet happened we will ere on the side of caution.

All too often even very knowledgeable bible scholars make assertions of this passage only to find that world political circumstances change and their understanding proved to be wrong.

So will focus on what we can clearly see rather than speculate on what we can’t.

So what we can clearly see is that there will be in the last days, a coming together of nations that were formerly part of the Roman Empire, since we see that this continues from the Romans and that there is iron throughout.

It is interesting how we see an attempt in this day and age to recreate the strength and unity of the Roman Empire through the European Union.

Now I am not here to argue for ‘Remain’ or ‘Leave’ but I personally choose not to get drawn into the whole debate since the scripture shows that there will always be division among the countries of the former Roman Empire until the Lord’s return.

The iron mixed with clay means that there will be some strength present in the fabric of the material because it is mixed with clay which is weak it will not hold its strength.

It would seem that this empire will have more the appearance of strength than the reality of it.

The ten toes of the statue are also very symbolic except we are not sure exactly how this will be.

In Daniel chapter 7 we see these same empires and events being portrayed from a different angle as Daniel sees the vision of four beasts.

And in this, rather than 10 toes he sees 10 horns and we are told that these 10 are 10 rulers that will arise.

People have speculated that this will be a confederation of 10 nations which may be the case but we need to exercise great care because does not say 10 nations but 10 rulers and that the Anti-Christ will arise from among them.

Now I understand that the reason scholars interpret this as being 10 nations since there are 10 rulers and we would assume that each represents a nation but we must not be quick to jump to conclusions, this may be the case but equally there can be other ways to fulfill this.

Either way we as Christians watch world events with great interest and we keep a watch for this alliance of either 10 nations or 10 rulers that will come to symbolize the 10 toes on this statue.

The rock which comes down from heaven is Jesus Himself, he is referred to many times in scripture as a stone or rock but the occasion that we often think of the most is in “the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone”.

Mountains are in the scripture symbolic of ‘Kingdom’ and so we told that in the days of the rulers of the European Confederation that Jesus will return and shall put an end to the current rule and also wipe out all remembrance of the previous empires.

As much as all these empires had great strength and appeared impressive they nevertheless hold no strength against the Lord.

And as impressive as they may appear in the eyes of men, there was nothing in them that the Lord chooses to retain.

Verse 35 tells us how just as the summer wind blows away the chaff so that nothing remains, so also will the Lord obliterate every scheme of man.

Besides the people themselves there is literally nothing in these empires that the Lord wishes to preserve, every piece is rotten.

But the Kingdom that the Lord establishes upon His return will never be overthrown, will never fracture and will remain for all time.

Everything that is done for this world system is vanity and temporary but Lord says “do not store up treasures on earth but treasures in heaven” () because what is stored up in heaven remains with us the Lord’s everlasting Kingdom, what is stored up here will vanish.

In this day an age there is a huge amount of uncertainty and instability.

I know people who are looking to stockpile goods, such is their worry about future instability.

Only a few years ago we saw the price of gold sky-rocketing as people retrieved their money out of banks and investment funds in order to put their wealth into something that is physical and tangible such is their worry about future markets.

But as we read Daniels 2 we read in verse 45

While there may be uncertainty in everything else, Daniel assures that “this dream is certain and it’s interpretation sure”.

There are not many “sure things” around in this day and age.

But the return of the Lord and the establishing of His Kingdom is a sure thing.

Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians how in the last days there will be an illusion of security, but it is at precisely this time that we ought to be the most alert.

1 Thes

Why do we preach this if it is a sure thing and can’t be changed?

Does it make any difference if we talk about it or not?

Well Paul instructs us to comfort one another with the knowledge of the Lord’s return, and so this evening we enjoy a comforting as we ponder the wonderful news.