Thou, O king, sawest, and behold, a great image. This image was mighty and its brightness excellent; it stood before thee, and its appearance was terrible.
Daniel now recounts to Nebuchadnezzar the dream the king had lost — a single towering figure, dazzling and frightening at once. Why does world empire appear here as a man? Why does it look so magnificent? And why does the sight leave a king shaken?
The four kingdoms make up one body, and that body is human. The shape itself says who is on display.
Notice at once that the image stands for the times of the Gentiles, from Nebuchadnezzar's day until the kingdom of Christ is set up. Yet it is still one image, and the image of a man. So, as another writer has finely observed, it pictures "the man of the earth" (see Psalm 10:18) — the man of the earth as expressed in government, in all the various phases of his corrupt heart and unrestrained will.
The image dazzles and frightens at the same time. Both belong to one rule.
The times of the Gentiles are marked by the rule of man, in which there is much that calls forth the admiration of men by outward magnificence, and yet strikes terror by oppression. It is a vision of the man of earth in contrast to the God of heaven.
What stood before the king held everything a king values. It still robbed him of sleep.
There stood that image, its appearance frightening, holding such elements of wealth and power, such stores of gold and iron! How mighty, how unstoppable! No wonder the king was troubled, or that "his sleep left him" (Dan. 2:1).
Later chapters of Daniel take the empires apart one by one. Here the king sees something different: the whole course at once, standing in front of him.
He had seen the course of empire, not just in broken pieces one after another, but as a whole. In the later part of the book we get that succession marked out in more detail, with the ways the different powers acted towards Daniel's people. But here it is the general history of the Gentile empire.
The metals named next run from gold down to iron mixed with clay. That order carries meaning.
That is, the empires grew worse as they moved away from the source of power. It was God who gave imperial rule to Nebuchadnezzar. So what stands nearest to the source is seen as "this head of gold." In the Persian empire more of what was human comes in — "the breast and the arms of silver," a lesser metal. And so it goes on down to the legs of iron, and the feet, part iron and part clay.
The same empires appear elsewhere under a completely different picture. Set the two side by side, and you see whose eyes each one belongs to.
There was the likeness of a great image, majestic in size, made of the most costly, lasting, and useful metals. In it was everything that appeals to the world: the splendour and richness of gold and silver, the strength and usefulness of brass and iron. True, there was clay too, but it lay low down in the feet. By comparison, the beauty and brightness of the golden head and silver breast overshadowed it. Here is the world's estimate of imperial power and successful ambition, and people bow down and worship. But the same empires, shown in symbol to the saint, appear as unclean and terrifying beasts.
Because the figure is one, its fall is one. Nothing of the statue survives — not even the gold at the top.
Daniel 2 tells us an interesting and important fact: "the God of the heavens" acted by a dream on the first Gentile head of empire. The dream showed the whole course of the rule then beginning, down to its end — an image gorgeous and terrible, growing worse as it goes down, and closing with great strength and marked weakness together. Then He sets up another kingdom, His own. First He destroys the fourth empire in its last divided state of the ten toes, and with it the remains of all the rest from the first — the gold, the silver, the brass, as well as the iron and clay.
- One man. The four empires appear as one human figure — government in the hands of "the man of the earth," from Nebuchadnezzar to the kingdom of Christ.
- One glance. The king sees the whole course of empire at once, not a succession of details; those come later in the book.
- One descent. Gold to silver to brass to iron and clay: the further rule moves from the God who granted it, the more debased it becomes.
- Two views. Splendid metals to the world that bows to power; wild beasts when the saint sees the same empires in symbol.
- One end. God destroys the last divided empire of the ten toes, and every metal from the gold down goes with it — then He sets up His own kingdom in its place.
This image's head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of brass,
Nebuchadnezzar's dream starts at the top with the most precious metal and works down. Why did God picture world history as a body of falling metals, and what does that say about power He gives to men?
The four empires are not four separate pictures. They form one figure — one man standing before the king.
We may first notice that the Gentile kingdoms are seen as one whole. The point is not their order in history, and not their moral character toward God and man. All the kingdoms together form one figure standing before God — the man of the earth as God sees him, splendid and terrible in the eyes of men.
Gold, silver and bronze are not weaker metals than iron. So the descent measures something other than muscle.
Another feature of the image is that it gets steadily worse from head to feet. The decline is not in the strength of the metals, but in their value. The strength of each metal shows how much land each empire ruled. The value of each metal shows the sovereign power of each empire. The last three world empires would rule far more land than the first. But in none of them was imperial power, which stands for the power of God, as clear as in the first empire — the head of gold.
The finest metal marks the empire that stood closest to the God who gave the authority.
The falling value of the metals showed a decline in the quality of the powers that followed. We may think it a hard saying, but rule by one supreme head is God's ideal in government. It will be seen in righteous yet kind perfection in the millennial reign of Christ. It is worth noting that in this chapter Daniel speaks more than once of "the God of heaven." This shows that this first Gentile ruler of supreme power held his authority as given to him from heaven. We believe this is the fact behind the Apostle's teaching in Romans 13:1.
The same fall shows distance from where power began:
There was a decline as the empires moved further from the source of power. It was God who gave imperial rule to Nebuchadnezzar. So the empire nearest the source is the one called "this head of gold."
The second empire is Medo-Persia. Its inferiority shows in how the ruler could act, not in how much land he held.
God showed Nebuchadnezzar the Medo-Persian power as a chest and arms of silver, and called it "inferior" to his own (Dan. 2:39). This inferiority was not in the size of its lands, but in the character of its rule. Nebuchadnezzar was an absolute monarch — "whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive; whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled" (Dan. 5:19). The power that followed was more limited in this, since the princes and others played an important part in the government. So Darius could not save an innocent man from the den of lions, though he badly wanted to.
The third section of the body points to the empire of Alexander the Great.
Alexander's kingdom is first spoken of as part of the great image Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. It is pictured by the belly and thighs of bronze. That marks a drop in the character of the kingdom compared with the empires of Babylon and of the Medes and Persians, though it covered more ground: it "shall rule over all the earth."
The vision does not stop with the metals. The last thing Nebuchadnezzar saw was not an empire at all.
Last of all in the vision, Nebuchadnezzar saw a stone cut out "by no human hand." He saw the coming of a Kingdom that man did not set up. We know this is the Kingdom of Christ. The stone falls on the feet of the image, but the whole image ends in ruin. The Kingdom of Christ will judge the final form of the last empire. In doing so it will set aside the whole system of government by the man of the earth, and set up a stable, world-wide government, like a great mountain that "filled the whole earth."
- One man. The four empires are one figure — the man of the earth, splendid to human eyes and terrifying at the same time.
- One gift. Nebuchadnezzar held his authority as a gift from the God of heaven. That is why the head is gold.
- One descent. Each metal is worth less than the one above it. That marks falling sovereign power, not shrinking size or strength.
- One pattern. Silver's king cannot do all he wants. Bronze rules more land yet stands lower still. The further from the source, the lower the rule falls.
- One end. The stone cut by no human hand does not repair the figure. It ends the whole system and fills the earth with the kingdom of Christ.
its legs of iron, its feet part of iron and part of clay.
The dream now moves down the great statue, past gold, silver and brass, to legs of iron and feet mixed with clay. Two questions follow. What empire do the iron legs stand for? And why does such a grand image end in common clay?
The metals get cheaper as the eye travels down, but they do not get weaker.
Another feature of the image is that its materials get worse from head to feet. This decline is not in the strength of the metals, but in their value. The strength of the metals shows how far the rule of each empire reached. The value of the metals shows the sovereign power of each empire.
The decline has a cause: distance from the One who gave the authority.
The empires declined as they moved away from the source of power. It was God who gave imperial rule to Nebuchadnezzar. So the part nearest that source is the head of gold. In the Persian empire there is a bit more of what is human: the chest and arms of silver, a lesser metal. And so on down to the legs of iron, and the feet, part iron and part clay. It is quite plain from this that the further we move from the original grant of power, the more debased the rule becomes.
Commentators read the four sections of the statue as four world powers in turn, ending with Rome. The direction of travel is downward, not upward.
The fourth great empire to rise during the times of the Gentiles, pictured by the two legs of iron, is the iron empire, Rome. Here, then, is history written in advance. God, who knows the end from the beginning, revealed in this dream the course of the times of the Gentiles... Notice how the make-up of this image gets worse: gold, silver, brass, iron, and at last less iron, with clay taking a leading place. It shows that in political terms the times of the Gentiles are not improving.
Iron fits what Rome did, and the dream follows that empire past its united days.
The Roman empire did break in pieces and conquer the civilized world, and it lasted as one united empire for centuries. Its unity broke up, as we know. Yet the dream still treats it as existing in some form until its last stage at the end of its story, when it appears as ten kingdoms and clay is mixed with the iron. The result is a kingdom partly strong and partly brittle.
Every other material in the statue is metal. Clay is not, and Scripture uses it in a particular way.
The mixture of clay and iron is a fitting symbol, for they are completely different in character. Iron is a metal, worth less than gold but stronger. Clay is not a metal, and Scripture uses it as a picture of what is human as against what is Divine: see Job 10:9 and Job 33:6, and the places where man is like clay in the hands of God, who is the Potter.
Commentators differ on what the clay stands for in history. Some see foreign peoples pressing into the empire:
That metal stands for the original Roman element in its strength. The clay was a foreign ingredient, and it brought in weakness when it tried to fuse with the iron.
Others read it as a way of ruling, not a group of people:
We see no reason to doubt a very common reading of the clay: it stands for popular, democratic forms mixed with absolute government. Absolute rule and the will of the people do not belong together. They can never be fully welded into one, and the very try at joining them becomes a source of weakness.
The blow that ends the statue lands exactly where this verse leaves off — and that placement settles what the smiting is.
This final blow does not fall on the head of gold, the silver chest, the belly and thighs of brass, nor even on the legs of iron. It falls on the feet of iron and clay. This alone proves that the striking of the image is not the arrival and slow spread of Christianity, as many have supposed. It is a blow struck by divine power while the fourth empire is in its divided and mixed state.
- Downward — the metals drop in value from head to feet. Each empire stands further from God, who first gave the rule to Nebuchadnezzar.
- Iron — the legs are Rome, the power that broke the civilized world in pieces. Rome loses none of the strength; it loses the value.
- Clay — the one non-metal in the statue, a picture of what is human. Commentators differ: some see foreign peoples, others see popular rule mixed with absolute rule.
- Brittle — iron and clay never truly bond, so the final form of the empire is partly strong and partly fragile.
- Powder — the stone strikes the feet, not the head. The end of Gentile rule comes by a direct act of God, not by slow improvement.
Thou sawest till a stone was cut out without hands; and it smote the image upon its feet of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces.
Nebuchadnezzar's dream reaches its turning point here. He watches a stone, shaped by no human hand, strike the huge statue at its weakest point and shatter it. Three questions follow: what is the stone, why does the blow land on the feet, and is this slow or sudden?
The phrase "without hands" rules out any human origin.
The stone fell on the feet of the image. The stone is described as "cut out without hands" — that is, with man having nothing to do with it — not human but divine in origin. In prophecy the Lord Jesus is first called the Stone in Genesis 49:24. There old Jacob, while blessing his sons, broke off to exclaim, "from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel." He appears under this figure again in Isaiah 28:16, and on into the New Testament.
Where the stone lands settles the timing.
Destruction comes only when Gentile supremacy exists in its last form. This final blow falls not on the head of gold, the silver breast, the belly and thighs of brass, nor even on the legs of iron, but on the feet of iron and clay. This alone proves what the striking of the image is not. It is not the introduction and gradual spread of Christianity, as many have supposed. It is a blow that divine power inflicts when the fourth empire is in its divided and mixed state. It existed in full unity and power for centuries after Christianity began.
Each material in the feet stands for something:
From the iron we learn that there will be an imperial rule, while the clay points to ten separate kingdoms (Rev. 17:12-13). It is on the feet of the image that the stone falls... This event, still future, is the end of the "times of the Gentiles."
Many read the stone as the gospel slowly winning the world. One writer answers by asking what the stone does.
God's gospel is the revelation of Christ. The Spirit of God applies it to save sinners, Jews and Gentiles who believe. But the "little stone" stands for something else. It is a power, small in appearance, which at once destroys all that is high, great, and strong on the earth. Its first blow reduces the entire imperial system to powder. So trying to make the gospel out of it fails completely... It is plain that the "little stone" is not the gospel or the church, but the kingdom of God which Christ enforces when He returns.
The stone strikes before it spreads.
The instrument of this destruction was not formed by the wisdom or the schemes of man. It is "cut out without hands." It does not act by a moral influence that changes the character of the object it acts on. It destroys that object by force. It is God who establishes it and gives it that force. The stone does not gradually increase in size to displace the image. Before it spreads, it destroys the image. Note that God does not destroy the image in some other way and then set up the kingdom. The kingdom He is establishing strikes the feet of the image as its first act.
Daniel's interpretation speaks of a kingdom. In Matthew, the same figure points to a Person the builders refused.
He was the Stone, refused by the builders. The Lord Jesus went on to warn them, "The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him" (Matt. 21:44). These last words are close to those we have considered in Daniel 2:34. While in Daniel the emphasis was on the kingdom, here in Matthew it is very clearly on the Person of Christ... If the Lord Jesus had come in power to free the nation from Roman rule, it might have been different. But His lowly character and meekness exposed their hypocrisy. That did not suit them, and so they stumbled.
Those who come to Him now know Him in another way:
We know Him as the "Living Stone," and we have already come to Him, as 1 Peter 2:5 reminds us. We are His already, and we share His nature as "living stones." So we are built up, under His authority, into that spiritual house and holy priesthood. He is the King of that coming kingdom predicted in Daniel 2. When He falls in judgment, it will be to demolish completely. While we wait for that, we know His attractive power, and its effect is to build up.
- Origin — "Cut out without hands" means the stone owes nothing to human wisdom or effort. Its origin is divine.
- Aim — The blow lands on the feet, not the head. That is the last stage of the fourth empire: imperial rule mixed with ten kingdoms.
- Method — This is a blow, not an influence. The stone does not transform the image; it shatters it.
- Order — Destruction comes first, growth second. The stone becomes a mountain only after the image is gone.
- Person — The Stone is Christ. The builders refused Him. He is a foundation to build on now, and a crushing weight in the day of judgment.
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken in pieces together, and they became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
The stone is a kingdom which is not built up or formed by the wisdom of statesmen, or founded on victories won by military leaders. No mortal hand carves out its destiny or builds up its power; it is set up by the God of heaven. It is the introduction of Christ, according to Psalm 2, where God says, "As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill."
The contrast with the statue is deliberate. One is a manufactured object; the other is untouched material.
An image is something on which the hand of man has worked; the stone is untouched by the hand of man. It is a kingdom altogether different from everything that had gone before it.
There is a sense in which even literal Babylon, Persia and Greece still exist. Persia exists to this day. So does Greece. This, I believe, explains Daniel 2:35. The four kingdoms are included here as sharing a common doom.
No statement could show more clearly that the proper kingdom of Christ does not yet exist.
Crushing the image of Gentile empires to powder is in no way and at no time the church's work. The once rejected but now exalted Stone will do it, as He declared in Matthew 21:44 and in other scriptures.
Christians pray, with more or less understanding and warmth, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come." When the stone moves against the image, that will be the answer to this prayer. Christ is the stone. But the rejected stone has been raised up. And "when it falls on anyone, it will crush him" (Matt. 21:44). No other word is needed to show us who and what the stone is.
- Cut — the stone is shaped by no human hand: not by statesmen, not by armies, but set up by the God of heaven.
- Falls — its first act is a blow, not an influence; the statue's character is never changed, only shattered.
- Scatters —
- Fills —
- Reigns —