Sidebar: The Image of Daniel 2 By Stephen Flurry The second chapter of Daniel is about a dream of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Chaldean Empire. The purpose of this dream was twofold: It revealed God’s government, and it revealed what was to happen in the latter days. The book of Daniel was written between 618 and 536B.C. Daniel, a Jew, was a teenager when Judah was taken captive by the Chaldeans. God had given him the special talent of understanding “all visions and dreams” (Daniel 1:17). In the second year of his reign, King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that troubled him greatly. All of the wise men in the empire could not interpret the dream for the king. This angered Nebuchadnezzar. Upon learning of the king’s distress, Daniel made arrangements to go before him to give God’s interpretation of the dream. Daniel knew he could not interpret the dream. “BUT THERE IS A GOD IN HEAVEN THAT REVEALETH SECRETS, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days” (Daniel 2:28). Notice! It is God who reveals secrets! It is His interpretation of the dream—not Daniel’s. And it is for the LATTER DAYS. In his dream, Nebuchadnezzar saw a great image whose head was of fine gold, his breast and arms of silver, his belly and thighs of brass, his legs of iron, and his feet part iron and part clay (verses 31-34). In verse 36, God began to interpret the dream through Daniel. Daniel told the Chaldean king that he and his kingdom were represented by the image’s head of gold (verse 38). “And after thee shall arise ANOTHER KINGDOM inferior to thee, and another THIRD KINGDOM OF BRASS, which shall bear rule over all the earth” (verse 39). God interprets this image to represent successive world-ruling empires. After the Chaldean Empire fell, it was superseded by the even larger and stronger Persian Empire (539-330B.C.). The Persians are represented by the breast and arms of silver. An even greater empire succeeded the Persians—the Greco-Macedonian Empire, ruled by Alexander the Great (approximately 334-323B.C.). Alexander’s empire is represented by the belly and thighs—better rendered loins or sides—of brass. “And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and SUBDUETH ALL THINGS: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise” (verse 40). History reveals this to be the Roman Empire. The Romans attained world domination around the time of 30B.C. and ruled over 500 years until they were crushed in A.D.476. The Roman Empire is represented by the two legs of iron, symbolizing the two ancient capitals—Rome and Constantinople. But if the Roman Empire ended in A.D.476, what has happened since? Isn’t this prophecy for the “latter days”? To understand what has happened since A.D.476, we must consider other prophetic passages. A full understanding of Daniel 2 must include Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 and 17. The other chapters fill in the many details. But Daniel 2 provides the BIG OVERVIEW. In Daniel 7, the four Gentile empires are also revealed by God in vision. Only this time, they are represented by four beasts. The fourth beast, representing the Roman Empire, has 10 horns on its head (Daniel 7:7-8), which represent 10 KINGDOMS that “shall arise” out of the great fourth beast (verse 24). After the Roman Empire fell in 476, 10 SUCCEEDING GOVERNMENTS WERE TO GROW OUT OF IT—the final one preceding the return of Jesus Christ and the beginning of the Kingdom of God. The 10 horns fill the gap in history from 476 TO THE RETURN OF JESUS CHRIST. Among the 10 horns in Daniel 7:8 was a “little horn”—symbolizing the great false church. Three of the 10 horns on the fourth beast were “plucked up by the roots.” When the Roman Empire was restored by Justinian in 554, the three barbarian kingdoms that had ruled its territory since A.D.476 were “uprooted” and never heard from again. That left seven horns—seven resurrections of this world-ruling empire—to be dominated by the little horn, the great false church. Thus, the Roman Empire became known as the Holy Roman Empire. The seven-headed beast in Revelation 17 specifically addresses the seven resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire. Since 554, there have been six resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire, leaving one more to occur before the return of Jesus Christ. That resurrection is now forming. And from Daniel 2, we can prove that the final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire will actually BE IN EXISTENCE when Christ returns. The Roman Empire is represented by the legs of iron on the great image of Daniel 2. But the feet and the toes of this image were made up of iron and clay (Daniel 2:41). This represents 10 contemporaneous kings that will unite together in this end time to resurrect the Holy Roman Empire one final time! It will be short-lived because iron cannot mix with clay. Nevertheless, while it lasts, it will have the STRENGTH OF IRON! The 10 toes in Daniel 2 refer to the nations within a united Europe.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 16:33:37 +0000
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