Daniel 2:37–40

It is as "the God of heaven" that God acts in giving power to the Gentiles. As "God of the earth" His throne was at Jerusalem, and will be when He again makes Himself known that way. But His throne on earth has been set aside, because those who held His authority and acted for Him had sinned. So He now acts as "God of heaven," giving authority to the Gentile king.

It was not a question of his own prowess, nor of any special wisdom he possessed. If Nebuchadnezzar had been allowed to carry away these captives, and to triumph over the power of Egypt, it was the God of heaven who had given it to him.

Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar that, as the representative of the Babylonian empire, he is the head of gold. Until now the earth had separate nations, each under its own king. Now, for the first time, a new form of government begins — government by imperial unity. Under it, one empire joins nations and their kings under an imperial head who is a king of kings.

The God of heaven gives Nebuchadnezzar the kingdoms of the earth. The Gentile kingdom soon widens into an empire such as Israel had never seen. Nebuchadnezzar is therefore a king of kings — a small image of Him who will be the "King of kings and Lord of lords," and something of an image too in the absolute authority he had. But there the resemblance ends. How different the character of the man who has this power, and how fast it decays!

Four imperial powers were to follow one another, and God set up Nebuchadnezzar himself as their great head. In certain respects they would grow steadily worse. To me, the special excellence of the head of gold is that it received its authority straight from God Himself. In fact the absolute authority of the first power rested on the gift of the God of heaven. The others came in by God's providence, and to them God was not the direct source of authority. Babylon was the authority God established.

He was nearest God in this external sense, and his responsibility was therefore all the greater.

God had given to the king "a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory" (Dan. 2:37). Despite God's gifts, and the striking way in which He had borne witness to Himself, the king had forgotten Him. The king, at rest in his palace and at the height of his prosperity, credits all his power and glory to himself, and uses his high position to exalt himself. Never was such great prosperity linked with such pride.

In this chapter Daniel speaks more than once of "the God of heaven." This shows that the first Gentile monarch of supreme power held his authority as something given to him from heaven. We believe this fact lies behind the teaching of the Apostle in Romans 13:1. The power in his own day was the fourth one, mentioned in our chapter. But the Gentile powers that exist, whoever they may be at any given moment, hold their authority as delegates of "the God of heaven."

It was not a question of his own strength, nor of any special wisdom he had. Egypt had wanted to dispute who ruled the world. If Nebuchadnezzar was allowed to carry away these captives, and to triumph over Egypt's power, it was the God of heaven who had given it to him... Clearly the Babylonian empire is meant.

This deterioration 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 points instead to its sovereign power. The last three world empires would rule far more land than the first. But in none of them was the imperial power, which stands for the power of God, as clear as in the first empire — the head of gold.

Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom was a direct gift from God... This could not be said of any of the three later kingdoms. They come on the scene through providence. God permits them to govern the earth, and they rise according to His ordering. But their rulers were in no sense direct holders of power, as Nebuchadnezzar was. He was nearest God in this outward sense, so his responsibility was all the greater.

Such dominion as Nebuchadnezzar had was never given to Israel. Not even Solomon's kingdom was anything like the extent of empire that Nebuchadnezzar had... No Gentile has ever realised this enormous gift. The largest empire that ever submitted to the rule of one man never took in the fullness of the gift as declared to the Gentile king. Yet, as it was, it was a weight of glory and power he was unable to bear; he was, as it were, crushed under it. There is a Man coming, the Man of God's right hand, who is able and worthy to bear it.

In Daniel 2:38 we read that the birds of the heavens were likewise given into his hand. In Genesis 1:28 we learn that the fish of the sea were also to come under man. But the fish are not named as part of Nebuchadnezzar's dominion. When Psalm 8 speaks of the dominion of the Son of Man, however, it takes in all of these — and its language covers much more besides.

Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold: God had made him a king of kings, and the power and splendour of the kingdom centred in himself. Little is said of his kingdom; much is said of himself... The kingdom later comes into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar's son, and then into the hand of his grandson. Yet neither of them is the head of gold, and neither has any place in the vision.

Man now gets another trial. Supreme power is put into his hand... How then will he use it? Will it be to the glory and honour of Him from whom he had received it? The result is known. Lifted up in pride of heart, he makes himself a centre. He persecutes God's people for the sake of a religious unity built on idols, apart from God... He loses his moral reason and becomes a beast!

The verse mentions the second and third empires in the briefest way — the breast and arms of silver, and the belly and thighs of bronze. From later visions we learn that the second empire is the Medo-Persian (see Dan. 5:28 and Dan. 8:20) and the third empire the Grecian (see Dan. 8:21). Here we learn only that the kingdoms to come will be inferior to the empire of Babylon.

The Medo-Persian power was shown to Nebuchadnezzar as a breast and arms of silver, and pronounced "inferior" to his own (Dan. 2:39). This inferiority was not in extent of dominion, but in character of 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 next power was more limited here, since the princes and others played an important part in the government. So Darius found himself unable to save an innocent man from the den of lions, though he badly wanted to. The next empire — the Grecian — was more military in character, and its generals had a strong influence over its ruler.

There was deterioration, as the empires departed from the source of power. It was God who gave imperial rule to Nebuchadnezzar. So the empire nearest that source appears as "this head of gold." More of what is merely human comes in with the Persian empire — "the breast and the arms of silver," an inferior metal — and so on down. It is quite plain from this that, as we descend from the original grant of power, there is a gradual debasement.

This deterioration is not in the strength of the metals, but in their value. The material strength of the metals sets out the extent of the dominions of each empire. The value of the metals signifies rather the sovereign power of each empire. The last three world empires would each stretch far wider than the first. But none of them showed the imperial power, which represents the power of God, as clearly as the first empire — the head of gold.

The Grecian Empire is called "a kingdom of bronze," as inferior to the Babylonian and the Persian: Dan. 2:39. It was not inferior in extent. Yet the verse says it "shall rule over all the earth"; but as an empire it was not consolidated, and hardly had any capital. An army had to be left in Greece under Antipater to keep the peace. When Alexander died the empire was not conquered by others, but fell to pieces of itself.

Who could have imagined an empire far wider than any before it, coming from the vain and quarrelsome Greeks, led by the despised Macedonians and their boy king? Up to that time, apart from Sparta, what were they but a cluster of jealous, divided states struggling for leadership? Only God could have led the king to dream, and the prophet to interpret, the Greek or Macedonian kingdom.

There is but little said in this chapter of the second and third empires. The chapter highlights the truth about the first kingdom, which received its dominion directly from God, and about the fourth. In the last days of the fourth, the whole structure will be set aside, with not a trace remaining.

Persia's might may look great, and Greece's too. Their disputes may fill up the history of the world. Yet God thinks little of them. He disposes of the records of centuries in a few words.

When we come to the fourth kingdom, its character is given in much more detail. That is not only because it is the last kingdom of the times of the Gentiles, but because it is the one kingdom Christ will deal with directly in judgment. This clearly marks the fourth kingdom as the Roman Empire. The world was under the rule of the Roman Empire when Christ came to earth. That empire clashed with Christ when He left the world. And it is the revived Roman Empire that Christ will judge when He comes again (Luke 2:1-2; John 19:10-11; Rev. 17:7-14).

But someone may ask, How do you know these things? It is not said that the second empire is Medo-Persia, or the third Macedonia, or the fourth Rome. I think it is. It may not be said here, but Scripture does not always hang the key right by the door. We do not often find the explanation of one part in the very next verse.

The main mark of the fourth kingdom is that it is "strong as iron." Iron is stronger than gold or silver or brass, but not as precious. In the pictures Scripture uses, gold always speaks of what is divine, and iron of what is human. In the fourth Empire there is a huge increase of all that is human, and a great loss of all that is divine. Its government will show more and more human wisdom, human cleverness and human resources, and less and less recognition of God. With that goes a growing loss of God's supreme and absolute power in government. As the times of the Gentiles come to their close, people will try more and more to rule the world without any thought of God, until the world is ripe for judgment.

Notice how the materials get worse—gold, silver, brass, iron, and clay. There is no loss of force, except in the clay, for iron is a tougher metal than gold. But there is a loss of glory shown in this way.

Here strength is the great feature of the kingdom, and the metal matches it. But it is the commonest sort of metal, not one of the precious ones. Perhaps this is because of what marked out the Roman empire: in name it was the people who governed. However harsh the emperor was, he always pretended, in theory at least, to consult the people and the senate. Even under the empire, the Romans still kept the look of their old republic, while in fact one man had taken all the real power for himself.

One well-known historian, when speaking about the empires, describes them in the liveliest imagery, derived from these very symbols of Daniel the prophet. He could find no figures so apt as those which the Spirit of God had consecrated to their use already, though every one knows it was from no lack of imagination, any more than from the wish to accredit Scripture.

This kingdom plainly continues until the kingdom of Christ is set up, so other Scriptures have to be consulted to understand it. In history, the Roman empire followed that of Greece, and, "strong as iron," it broke in pieces and subdued all things. Its power seemed unstoppable at the time, and it ruled most of the world then known. All this is history. But a question arises: if this Roman empire must exist on the eve of Christ's appearing, where is it now, and where will it come from when it appears again? The book of Revelation gives the answer. The outward form of this kingdom has plainly disappeared; to human eyes it does not exist. In God's eyes it does exist, but hidden for the moment, waiting to burst out and astonish the world by its return.