"Kingdoms In Conflict" (Audio) - Dec 12, 2004 Text: Daniel 2:31-47
December 12, 2004 Daniel 2:31-49
Larry Kirk
KINGDOMS IN CONFLICT
Years ago a series of popular short movies was shown weekly in most American theaters. The series, produced by Time-Life, was called The March of Time. Exciting music, the voice of an enthusiastic announcer, and a series of scenes from around the world impressed the viewer with all that seemed to be happening in this "fast-paced" age. The title of the series summed it up. Time really did seem to be marching along. It was an age of progress. Even in the midst of bad news, there was a strong sense that time would eventually take care of things and that progress was inevitable.
Things have changed. Today people are not so sure that progress is inevitable. Progress requires planned and directed motion, and that requires both a planner and a plan. A lot of people don't think that either a planner or a plan exists. The optimistic, progressive view of history has given way to a view that sees history as just a series of unrelated and uncontrolled events.
Does history march? If it does, to what drummer does it march? The book of Daniel, as much as any other book in the Bible gives us the answer to these questions and does so in a way that helps us connect the march of history and the everyday matters of life. The whole story of the Bible tells us that there is a plan in human history, there is a heart behind the plan, and understanding the perspective of history that is taught in the Bible gives both wisdom and strength for all of life.
As dramatic and exotic as the story of Nebuchanezzer's dream may seem, it really teaches a lesson that is both practical and powerful. It's challenging and encouraging at the same time. Why is that? First of all, because it tells us that . . .
There Is a God in Heaven Whose Invisible Hand Is Guiding All of Human History
That truth comes through in a couple of ways in this story. In chapter 2, verse 37, Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, “You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all.”
Daniel is saying: “Nebuchadnezzer, you are the greatest king on earth, but God has given you that position.” At the end of the story, Nebuchadnezzar recognizes this truth when he says, verse 47, "Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings.” The king’s dream reveals that a number of kingdoms would emerge in human history, but the assurance being given is that all of history, even future events, is known to God and being guided by His purposes.
God's Hand Is Guiding History Even When It Seems It Is Not
The reason Daniel was in Babylon was that the Hebrew people had been carried away to Babylon as captives. It would have been easy for someone who was looking at all of this to conclude that God wasn't keeping His promises to care for His chosen people. Isn't that what happens in our lives sometimes? We go through hard times, we get our hearts broken, we suffer in one way or another, and when we do, sometimes we ask. “Where's God, and where are all those great promises He made to care for us?”
Well, what's the answer? The truth is . . .
Sometimes We Go Through Hard Times and Get Our Hearts Broken Because of Our Own Choices
Here's what happened to the Hebrew people. After King Solomon died, the people divided into two nations. The ten tribes in the north were called Israel. The two tribes in the south were called Judah. The centuries that followed tell a miserable story. Israel and Judah continually fought each other and the nations around them as they turned farther and farther away from God. The Lord sent a string of prophets who warned them to turn back to God, and sometimes, for a while, they did. But then they turned away again.
After God showed them great patience and mercy, His judgment finally came. First the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel about 720 years before the birth of Christ. Then the Babylonians became the world superpower. They came in two stages and conquered the southern kingdom of Judah. About 580 years before the birth of Christ, they broke down the walls of Jerusalem and even destroyed God’s temple. Then all but just a small, poor remnant of the people were taken away to be slaves and refugees in Babylon.
Sometimes what we think is God's failure to keep His promises is actually His faithfulness to His promises. God had promised His people, the children of Abraham, that he would be their God forever, make them a great nation, give them the Promised Land, and bless the world through them. Those were unconditional promises, and He has and will keep them. But God also promised them the same thing that He promises you--that He would be involved in their lives and would correct them when they needed correction. Any individual or generation that turned away and disobeyed Him would experience His love not in the form of blessing but in the form of correction and discipline.
No other book in the Bible is more full of the love and grace of God than the New Testament book of Galatians. Yet it is in Galatains 6:7 that the Scripture says, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
Don't misunderstand. All of our hardships are not caused by our sins. But some of them may be. Sometimes we do go through hard times and get our hearts broken because of our own choices We have to face that possibility honestly.
Sometimes We Face Difficulties Not Because of Our Choices but Because of God's Purpose for Our Lives
That's the way it was with Daniel. There's no indication that Daniel was in Babylon because of bad choices he had made. Daniel is actually one of those rare people in the Bible about whom nothing negative is ever said. Captured as a young man, he was gifted by God and raised to a prominent place in the king’s palace in Babylon. Even in that place of great danger, where it would be easy to submerge one’s convictions in order to survive the situation, Daniel lived for God. He saw himself as God's servant, serving the Lord in the government of a pagan king. He was a man of prayer and faith. He experienced the presence and the guidance of the Lord, and He was used by God to accomplish much good.
During the time of exile, God worked in the lives of other individuals like Daniel. There were people such as Esther and Nehemiah. We read their stories, and we see the good that God brought out of their experiences. But they didn't know how it would all work out in the end. They had to live by faith in God when their courage and confidence was tested. That's how we're called to live. Daniel shows us that His hand is guiding history even when it seems it is not. Faith assures us of the Lord’s presence and care. That gives strength. But we have to choose to believe Him in the challenges we face.
God Knows What Is Going to Happen in History Before It Happens
That's the point of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel stands before the king and tells him exactly what he has dreamed (verse 31). The dream is about a statue and a stone. Let's look first at just the statue.
Daniel says, “You looked, O king, and there before you stood . . . an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.” Since Nebuchadnezzar had told no one his dream, it was obvious that God was revealing the truth to Daniel.
What He revealed in the dream was sort of an outline of future history. If you look at the end of verse 38, you get the explanation. First, Daniel says, “You [Nebuchadnezzar] are that head of gold.”
The First Kingdom, the Head of Gold, Is Babylon
That was the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar.
The Second Kingdom, Represented by the Arms of Silver, Is the United Kingdom of the Medes and the Persians
Verse 39 begins, "After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours.” Although the second and third kingdoms aren't named in this verse, we know who they are. You see, this is just the first of a series of similar prophecies of the four kingdoms. In Daniel 7, Daniel sees four beasts that represent the same four kingdoms. Then in chapter 8, Daniel has a third vision in which the second kingdom is identified as the united kingdom of the Medes and the Persians. Because it is a united kingdom, it is pictured as the two arms of silver. History confirms that the Babylonians were conquered by the Medes and the Persians about sixty years after Daniel gave this interpretation of the dream.
The Third Kingdom Is the Kingdom of Greece
Verse 39 continues: “Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.” And when you compare Daniel 2 with Daniel 7 and 8, the third kingdom is identified as Greece. Again, history tells us this is what happened two hundred years after the Medes and the Persians and more than two hundred years after Daniel explained this to Nebuchadnezzar, the Greeks conquered the Medes and the Persians. The Greek king was Alexander the Great.
The Fourth Kingdom Is the Roman Empire
After Alexander the Great, the Greek empire was completely conquered by the Romans over a period of time ending about five hundred years after Daniel and sixty years before Christ. The Roman Empire started out very strong. Verse 40: “Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron--for iron breaks and smashes everything--and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.”
But the Empire changed. Verses 41- 42: “Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. What happened to Rome was accurately pictured by the vision Daniel saw. The Roman Empire lost its unity and eventually cracked into pieces as Europe and the Mediterranean divided into separate nations. The Roman Empire fell away in name as a unified empire, and yet its spirit and essence continued and its legacy remains to this day.
In his book How Should We Then Live, Francis Schaeffer writes:
Roman civilization is the direct ancestor of the modern Western world. From the first conquests of the Roman Republic down to our own day, Roman law and political ideas have had a strong influence on the European scene and the entire Western world. Wherever Western civilization has gone it has been marked by the Romans. (p. 20)
Europe, Great Britain, and America are all part of the lasting legacy of the once unified Roman Empire. Our form of government is adapted from the Romans. The institutions and ideals of the Roman government and legal system live on in all the nations of the West. Those nations still hold the greatest concentration of power in the world. If the Western world continues to turn away from God, it's not hard to imagine how it will end up more and more like ancient Rome in its rejection of God, its worship of pleasure, and its persecution of Christians.
Here in Daniel 2, Daniel doesn't give all the details of future prophecy, but he lays the foundation for later prophecies, even those in the book of Revelation. Daniel gives us an amazing picture of the kingdoms of man through the course of History.
It is humanly unexplainable that Daniel would have been able to predict the major kingdoms that would follow Babylon. He was able to do this because he and the Scriptures he wrote were inspired by God. The Lord was not only showing that His word was trustworthy but that His hand was guiding history.
The book of Daniel reminds us that although life can appear to be a confusing collage of unconnected events, it is in reality the perfect unfolding of an infallible plan. That is true of the great movements of history, and that is true of the little matters in your everyday life. God has revealed this to us because He wants us to understand. He wants mothers to teach their children that there is a God who knows the future before it happens. He wants anxious adults who tend to worry about the future to pray for God's will, to work for what's right, and not to worry about the future. God knows the future, and God keeps His promises.
The world doesn't understand that the Lord’s presence is at work in our world and that His plans are going forward. God gives you the Bible so that you will read it and live your life enlightened by its truths. There is great strength in knowing that you belong to the God who is guiding human history and that He has given you His Word to guide you through every aspect of your personal life.
Yes, there is a God in heaven whose invisible hand is guiding all of human history. And . . .
There Is a Kingdom, Set Up by God, That Will Endure Forever
Verse 44 says: “The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed.” The king’s dream pictures this powerfully. To use the words of verse 31, the kingdoms of man appear dazzling and awesome. But look at verses 34-35. In God's time a rock comes. It's like a rock cut out of a mountain but not cut with human hands. It strikes this colossal figure of human power and glory and shatters the whole thing into fine dust. The wind blows through like a summer breeze, and it all literally disappears. Verse 35 says without a trace. But then the rock begins to grow. And it becomes a huge mountain that fills the whole earth.
Let's try to answer two questions: (1) What does this teach us about God's plan, and (2) What does it teach us about our lives?
What Does It Teach Us About God's Plan?
The kingdom that will ultimately conquer all other kingdoms in human history will not be a work of man but a work of God. The rock is not cut out with human hands. The statue is a work of human hands, but the rock is supernatural. It's not the product of human ingenuity or workmanship at all.
When Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, a little over two thousand years ago, that little child, born of a virgin, was the rock cut out but not with human hands, whose kingdom shatters all the earthly kingdoms of mankind. When the angel appeared to Mary to announce the birth of Christ (Luke 1), the angel explained in plain language what the dream of Nebuchadnezzar pictures with powerful images
The angel said: “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end" (Luke 1:32-33). The whole Bible unfolds the story and adds the details.
The kingdom that will ultimately conquer all other kingdoms will not appear impressive at first, but in the end will fill the earth. In the dream we have gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay. But even iron and clay take processing. The rock, however, seems to be the least valuable of all the substances, yet that's what God chose to characterize His kingdom. Why? Because in the eyes of the world the kingdom of God does not appear valuable but weak and unimpressive.
Christ was born as a king, but He was born in humility. The Wise Men from the East come to worship Him as king. But He didn't look like a king. Why was that? Because in order to bring you into His eternal kingdom, He has to save you from your sins. So He came first to suffer, to sacrifice, to live the life of obedience and love for God that we have not lived, and then to die to pay for our sins on the cross. Because of His love for the world, He gave Himself. And then He rose from the dead to be the resurrected king of an eternal kingdom.
The rock cut without hands seems unimpressive at first, but it ultimately proves to be all powerful. It smashes every earthly kingdom and grows to be a huge mountain that fills the earth and endures forever. In fact, the ultimate victory and supremacy of the kingdom of God is so certain that in the dream the whole statue that represents all the man-made, man-centered kingdoms of human history as one great human endeavor crumbles into dust when Christ and His kingdom come.
There's is a lot here to think about theologically. There is also a lot to think about practically.
What Lessons Do We Learn from This for Our Daily Lives?
First, understand the value of belonging to God's kingdom. All man's kingdoms are going to fail. It's true historically, and it's true personally. If you are building your own kingdom, it will crash. There is only one kingdom that will endure. God isn't just telling you His kingdom is coming and it's going to shatter every other kingdom. He's inviting you to enter His kingdom and become one of its citizens.
How do you enter the kingdom of God? The two misconceptions many people have are either that everyone enters in the end or that you earn entrance into God's kingdom by your goodness. The Bible says neither view is true. One of the most famous statements Jesus ever made was when He said, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again" (John 3:3). That is a very confrontational statement.
What Christ was saying is that it doesn't matter how well you think you have lived or how much good you have done in the world. Entrance to His kingdom requires a spiritual rebirth. That birth is something that happens on the inside. You realize that you have a soul and there is a God. You realize that you need to be right with God. You come to realize that the Bible is all about what God has done in love for you, so that you can be in His kingdom and know His love. The new birth is experienced when you come to see that and you say, “Lord Jesus, I want you to be my Savior. I place my trust in You. Come into my life.”
There is a place in the twenty-first chapter of the gospel of Matthew where Jesus describes Himself as the stone which many people have rejected but which God has made the capstone of His kingdom and of our lives. In Matthew 21:44 Jesus says this: “He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.” Those are the options Christ gives you. You can fall on Him and be broken in the sense that your stubborn independence, pride, and self-will are broken as your receive Him as your Savior. Or, if you refuse His love, then one day you will be faced with His judgment, and it will crush you.
Stop and ask yourself, ”Do I know that I belong to His kingdom? Have I experienced the spiritual rebirth by which you enter the kingdom of God?” If you don't know the answer to those questions, you need to know that you can know. You can know that you belong to Christ because He tells you that He will not turn away anyone who sincerely comes to Him in faith, seeking His presence and grace for life and eternity.
Come to Him, trust in Him. Invite Him into your life. Know that you belong to His kingdom and understand the value of belonging to His kingdom. Belonging to His kingdom means love and forgiveness and truth and His presence now and for eternity.
Hebrews 12:28 speaks to people who have received that new birth into God's kingdom. It says, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.” Understand the value of belonging to God's kingdom.
Second, as you live your life on earth, seek first the kingdom of God. In Matthew 6:33 Jesus says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Jesus is talking about something very practical here. He's saying, “Make the values of the kingdom of God your highest priority in life.”
The part of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar that best fits our present age is that of the growth of the kingdom. Notice that in the dream it isn't a mountain that strikes the statue but a rock, which then grows into a mountain that eventually fills the whole world.
The Bible teaches that there are two aspects to the kingdom of God: the now and the not yet. In this present age, the kingdom of God is already here and growing right now, but it has not yet filled the whole earth and reached its fullest expression. It starts as a stone and grows into a mountain.
Isn't that what has been happening for 2,000 years? What started out as a little group of Jewish believers in Israel over 2,000 years ago has now spread to more nations, cultures, and ethnic groups than any other religion in the world. The kingdom of Christ has grown and grown and is impacting more and more of the world and its cultures.
If we understand how the kingdom grows in this present age, we will better understand how to “seek first the kingdom of God.”
The kingdom is growing at the present time in several ways. When people come to faith in Christ and churches are established and grow as communities of disciples, the kingdom grows. When the rule of Christ grows in the life of an individual believer, the kingdom is growing. Romans 14:7 tells us what the key qualities of the kingdom are in this present age. It says: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” So when righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit grow in your heart, your family, and your church, the kingdom of God is growing. To seek first the kingdom of God is to make the growth of God's kingdom in your life and through your life, the highest priority for your life. Is that your priority? How is that priority seen in your actions, disciplines, and choices?
What Christ wants from you is not just an intellectual understanding of the truths of His kingdom but the immediate surrender of your heart to the reality of His kingship.
Look at the love God has shown you in inviting you into His kingdom. The story of Jesus is the story of the love of God, giving, sacrificing, and suffering for us in order to open the kingdom and invite imperfect people like us to enter and enjoy it through faith in Christ.
So turn away from all the foolish ways by which we all try to build our own kingdoms or live for someone else's kingdom and let Christ truly be your king. You'll find that His righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit will grow in you. Don't live for anything less than the kingdom of God. Fall in love with the King of kings, who loves you and invites you to enter and enjoy His kingdom and seek first the kingdom of God.