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 —