Take your Bibles please and turn with me to Daniel chapter 2 as we continue on with our intensive in the book of Daniel, Sunday mornings and evenings, Wednesday nights throughout the month of January. This is a long passage, so let me simply give you our three headings that we will be considering and then we’ll dive right in. First of all, in verses 1 through 13, we are going to see emptiness exposed. The emptiness of human achievement in Nebuchadnezzar’s insecurities and the emptiness of vaunted human wisdom in the wise men’s inability. Emptiness exposed. Then 14 through 19, we’ll notice Daniel’s response to the whole situation and learn about power through prayer. Daniel runs to prayer and gets his friends praying with him. Emptiness exposed. Power through prayer. And then finally, we need to turn to Daniel’s interpretation of the king’s dream in verses 20 through 49 where we see the ruler revealed, not Nebuchadnezzar, but the living God, the one true sovereign. Emptiness exposed, power through prayer, and the ruler revealed. Before we read the passage together, let’s bow our heads and ask for the Lord’s assistance by His Holy Spirit. Let us all pray.
O Lord our God, send us the promised Holy Spirit that Jesus said would be another Comforter like Him, who would lead us into all truth. Grant that ministry of the Spirit of Christ through this portion of Your Word in all our hearts, for we ask it in the name of Jesus and for His sake. Amen.
Daniel chapter 2. This is the Word of God:
“In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. And the king said to them, ‘I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.’ Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, ‘O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.’ The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, ‘The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream and its interpretation.’ They answered a second time and said, ‘Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show its interpretation.’ The king answered and said, ‘I know with certainty that you are trying to gain time, because you see that the word from me is firm – if you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the times change. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation.’ The Chaldeans answered the king and said, ‘There is not a man on earth who can meet the king’s demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.’
Because of this the king was angry and very furious, and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed. So the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed; and they sought Daniel and his companions, to kill them. Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. He declared to Arioch, the king’s captain, ‘Why is the decree of the king so urgent?’ Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel. And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time, that he might show the interpretation to the king.
Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said:
‘Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king’s matter.’
Therefore Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: ‘Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation.’
Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him: ‘I have found among the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation.’ The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, ‘Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?’ Daniel answered the king and said, ‘No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these: To you, O king, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this, and he who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be. But as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your mind.
You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all – you are the head of gold. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.’
Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. The king answered and said to Daniel, ‘Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.’ Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king’s court.”
Amen, and we praise God for His holy Word.
The tennis player, Boris Becker, was once as you probably know, at the very top of his game. He said, “I’ve won Wimbledon twice before, once as the youngest player; I was rich. I had all the material possessions I needed. It’s the old song of movie stars and pop stars who commit suicide. They have everything, and yet they are so unhappy. I had no inner peace. I was a puppet on a string.” Seven-time SuperBowl ring winner, Tom Brady, after he won his first three rings made this statement – “Why do I have three SuperBowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, this is what is.’ I reached my goal, my dream, my life, me, I think, it’s got to be more than this.” Successful novelist, Jack Higgins, was asked what he would like to have known as a boy. His answer, “That when you get to the top, there is nothing there.”
In many ways, that is the lesson of the first part of Daniel chapter 2. Look there with me please. Verses 1 through 13. Notice emptiness exposed. Emptiness exposed. Nebuchadnezzar is having nightmares. He had dreams, his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him, verse 1. Believing his dreams were more than just the result of too much cheese before bed, he called together his wise men – his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and Chaldeans – to get an explanation. These are the court magicians, his counselors, maybe the faculty of the pagan university in which Daniel and his friends have been trained. They are steeped in the occult traditions of demonic Babylon. But the king is as shrewd as he is unsettled. Perhaps he suspects if he simply tells these men up front who are allegedly in touch with the supernatural the content of his dream, they will only interpret it in a way that will flatter him and promote their own interests at the court. And so he decides to test their powers. He wants them to tell him both the content of the dream as well as the meaning of his nightmare visions. Already you get to see something of the man’s insecurity, don’t you? He does not trust these wise men.
And the back and forth between them in verses 3 through 11 is almost comic if it weren’t laced with Nebuchadnezzar’s murderous rage. The magicians begin diplomatically enough, don’t they, in verse 4. “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream. We will show you the interpretation.” But Nebuchadnezzar is having none of it. “The word from me is firm. If you don’t make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb.” He is a charming man! The panicky wise men now try again, verse 7, but the king’s insecurities cannot be hidden. So verse 8, “I know with certainty that you are trying to gain time. You guys are stalling!” And so he repeats his death threat, and verses 10 and 11 record for us the final defeated and deflated reply of the court sorcerers.
And really it strikes right at the heart of Nebuchadnezzar’s issue, doesn’t it? Look at what these wise men say. Verses 10 and 11, “There is not a man on earth who can meet the king’s demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing the king asks is difficult and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.” Nebuchadnezzar was the greatest man in the world at that time. Even Daniel addresses him as king of kings to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the might and the glory. But a simple nightmare exposes his fundamental impotence. Nebuchadnezzar is not a god, although as we are going to see in the book of Daniel, he will later set himself up as one or something like it. And the enchanters and the magicians of the king’s court, they are just as inept, aren’t they? All the king’s achievement and all the so-called wisdom of the king’s advisors gets him nowhere, nowhere.
When Daniel later tells him the dream in verse 31, the way he does it subtly points out that Nebuchadnezzar is not the main actor and the central figure in his own dream. No, Nebuchadnezzar is nothing more than a passive spectator as this vision of world history unfolds before him. Later in chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar will be out for an evening stroll on the palace roof and he’ll say to himself, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence for the glory of my majesty?” He is the consummate self-made man. He has built an empire, built Babylon itself with its magnificent hanging gardens. He was in control, and yet this one, bad, sleepless night of nightmares exposed all of that for the allusion that it really was. “Only the gods,” say the wise men, “can tell the dream. No human being can tell you what you want to know.” And that rips open the festering sore of the king’s deepest insecurity. He isn’t a god. He isn’t in charge. And he doesn’t control destiny – not his own nor anyone else’s. He’s gotten to the top and discovered there’s nothing there, hasn’t he? All the achievements of the world’s greatest man at that time and all the learning and the wisdom of the brightest minds of his generation, they’re all exposed by this one bad dream for the empty shells that they really are.
And how we need to heed this lesson today with care. As our Lord Jesus told the crowd, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of things,” Luke 12:15. Do not look to your successes for your identity, your value, your purpose, your worth. And don’t think to find them in great learning or in human wisdom. Riches, Nebuchadnezzar, power, achievement, accomplishment, learning, the wise men, riches and learning they make terrible gods. They are never satisfied and they never satisfy. Here is emptiness exposed. Emptiness exposed. Riches and learning make terrible gods. They never satisfy and they are never satisfied. Emptiness exposed.
But then think with me, secondly, about power through prayer. Daniel will quickly turn in this crisis – now he is required to give the dream and its interpretation – he will quickly turn in this crisis to prayer and to praise. But before we notice how he does that, there are some preliminary points to make that provide some important context that help us make sense how it is that Daniel’s instincts for prayer are so finely tuned.
And the first thing has to do with the training of providence. The training of providence. The king’s insecurities, having now been exposed, turn as insecurity is often want to do, to violence. He decrees all the wise men are to be put to death, which of course is a group that extends to Daniel and his three friends. And notice carefully what Daniel does when Arioch, the chief of the guards, comes to arrest him. Daniel, at this point, is about 16 or 17 years old. He’s about to be murdered by the king’s henchman. The king has already flown off the handle because he felt the wise men were stalling for time. And what does Daniel do? He goes to the king, in verse 16, and asks – in the ESV it says “that the king would appoint him a time,” but it may actually be better understood as “the king would give him time.” That is, allow him some space, and he promises he will tell the interpretation, both the dream and the interpretation.
It’s extraordinarily bold considering the brink of the precipice, the chasm that he is teetering on in this very moment. Full of course, Daniel displays remarkable poise, given his age and his danger. Now where does he get that from? I think part of the answer here where this sort of poise and courage and wisdom comes from, part of the answer has to do with the experience of chapter 1, surely. He’s already been through some real tests. He’s faced the stress and the fear and the danger of life in exile in the royal court, clinging all the time to the sovereign goodness of a gracious and loving God. Already this has been his experience. Past providence has trained him, you see. He’s already developed faith muscles, spiritual instincts that equip him now for this new crisis.
Friends, when God leads you through times of testing and pressure and challenge, and brings you out the other side, please understand that part of His design is to train the muscles of your faith. He’s been equipping you and training you for more, for more. He’s working to build into us courage and humility and fidelity and dependence upon Him, and He frequently deploys pressure and trials and hardships to do it. Never forget Hebrews 12:11, “For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it.” God is training us in the hard blows of difficult providence so that we will be ready for what comes next. Daniel was trained by providence.
But Daniel also understands, in the second place, the necessity of partners. Part of the wisdom that Daniel has that makes him bold in going to the king and causes him to have the great instinct to run to prayer in the middle of his crisis is a result of the training of providence, but it’s also a result of partnership, of deep spiritual friendship with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. As soon as the king agrees to allow Daniel the space that he needs, he runs to his three friends and sets them praying with him. Never underestimate the power of partnership in kingdom service. We need friends who will march into the spiritual combat zone with us, to whom we can turn, who will pray with us and pray for us. Isolation never breeds strength. Isolation never breeds strength. Perseverance as a Christian requires partners. You need Christian friendships. You need them. I need you. You need one another. Christian friendships that get past the superficial. People who will stand with you when the going gets tough. Daniel had exactly that.
He was equipped by the training of providence, past experience. He was strengthened by deep, spiritual friendship and partnership. And now, Daniel turns to the priority of prayer. He does that never crosses Nebuchadnezzar’s mind. He bows before the living God and seeks His face. Look at verse 18. Daniel told his companions to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his company might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. So Daniel and his three friends seem to have a sense that they have been brought to the kingdom for such a time as this. They wonder if, in the providence of God, they have these important roles in the king’s court in order to do some lasting good. And so they pray. But notice carefully they do not pray directly for the dream and its interpretation to be given to them. Rather, they pray for divine mercy to be shown to them that they might continue to fulfill their callings. They cast themselves on mercy.
What a contrast to Nebuchadnezzar who, when faced with the fact that he is not God, goes to pieces. What to Nebuchadnezzar is literally his worst nightmare, is to Daniel and his friends the ground of all their confidence and hope. God is God and He can do what no one else can. What we need, what any of us always needs, is mercy, divine mercy. Unless and until we can come to Him in that posture, as empty handed beggars seeking mercy, we can’t hope to find assurance that He will ever listen to a single cry of our hearts. Come to Him, not plea-bargaining, not seeking to cut a deal, but abandoned to mercy.
Our God, of course, is a prayer hearing and prayer answering God, and so verse 19, Daniel is given the vision and its interpretation. He sees it in a dream of his own. Now we’ll come back to the content of this song of praise that Daniel sings in just a few moments, but I want to make one more point. The training of providence, the necessity of partners, the priority of prayer, now, the duty of praise. Now that he knows the dream – isn’t it interesting – Daniel doesn’t rush straight in to see the king and explain everything. Now that the urgency that drove them to prayer in the first place has passed, God has answered, Daniel doesn’t simply move on leaving the crisis behind until the next time. No, he stops to mark and register answered prayer with profound praise. After all, this is what God is due, isn’t it? Not just from Daniel but from us all. He hears us when we cry to Him, and we ought to bless His name when He answers us. Practically speaking, praise will help you mark the mercies that you have received and it will strengthen your faith in your Father in heaven who hears your ever petition when you come crying to Him the next time. A failure in the duty of praise weakens faith in the power of prayer. A failure in the duty of praise weakens faith in the power of prayer. But faithfulness in praise will strengthen your faith to persevere in prayer.
So first we saw emptiness exposed, and then we saw power through prayer. Now, let’s look at the final long section of the chapter and see the ruler revealed. The ruler revealed. And I want to simply highlight three lessons for us to take away. Three principles for the Christian life that I want to glean from this material. Principle number one – make the conclusion your introduction. Make the conclusion your introduction. When seminary students are learning to preach, this is sometimes what they are taught to do – tell people up front what this sermon is going to teach them. Do all of your study, identify the big points of the passage, figure out what difference it should make in all the conclusions, and then that should be the first thing that you tell people. The conclusions – that should be the first thing that you tell people. Make your conclusions your introduction. That’s good advice, actually not just for seminarians about the craft of preaching; it’s a good principle for every Christian to learn as we preach to ourselves. Start with the conclusion.
That’s really what Daniel’s song of praise in verses 20 through 23 does for the rest of this chapter. Before we even find out the content of the dream and its interpretation, there is this song of praise. Daniel starts here, before we learn any of the details, with the adoration of God and the praise of His name. These are Daniel’s big takeaways from the revelation given to him of the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar. “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belongs wisdom and might.” God is mighty because, he explains, He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. And He is wise because He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with Him. And in verse 23, Daniel gives thanks also for being given the wisdom and the might that he needs in turn as he seeks to serve his God in the court of the king.
And the big lesson isn’t that God gave Daniel what he needed. That’s not what Daniel lingers over, having received the interpretation of the dream. The big lesson is about the God who gave Daniel what he needed. He is the God of wisdom and might. He knows what is in the darkness. Light dwells with Him. Kings rise and fall only at His sovereign decree. Here is the true ruler revealed. This is Daniel’s takeaway. He is not fascinated with the identity of the subsequent kingdoms and whether or not the ten toes on the king’s feet refer to, you know, ten nations in contemporary Europe or something ridiculous like that. That’s not his concern. That’s not his big takeaway. It ought not to be our big takeaway. The big takeaway is – God is great and mighty and wise and worthy to be adored.
With what are you most fascinated? With obscure, prophetic details? Is that what gets your juices flowing and your hands rubbing together? What is he going to say about the fifth kingdom? Is it the millennium? That’s not what excited and thrilled the heart of Daniel who was given the interpretation to this dream. No, it was the glory and greatness of the God who makes mysteries known and unveils His sovereign purposes as year succeeds to year. Here is the real ruler revealed. Yes, the nightmare exposed Nebuchadnezzar, didn’t it, as the frightened, impotent little man he truly was. But the big revelation isn’t about Nebuchadnezzar, it’s not about Daniel, it’s not about the end times; it’s about God, the God who reigns over all. Here’s a truth to preach to your frightened heart, believer in Jesus. You will often face days when anxiety about tomorrow will steal across your heart like a sudden chill. You will often come face to face with your own limitations of understanding or of strength or of skill. What should you do to help you handle your fearful heart in the face of an unknown and uncertain tomorrow? You must praise the God who knows the end from the beginning and in whose hands you may rest utterly secure. That’s what you must do – rest your head on the pillow of the sovereignty of God. “Our God works all things according to the council of His own will,” Ephesians 1:11. Find your refuge there. This is what makes Daniel’s heart sing. So principle number one – make the conclusion, the big “so what” takeaway of it all, make that your introduction; make that the first thing, the main thing that you preach to your own heart. God is God and He reigns on His throne.
Principle number two – let insight lead to humility. This is really the same point we saw in chapter 1. Here it is again. Insight leading to humility. Arioch, the chief of the guards, brings Daniel to the king, and in 24 through 30, we have Daniel’s preface to the telling of the dream and its interpretation. Look at it with me. Notice he doesn’t come strutting and preening, you know, cocksure and arrogant, into the king’s presence. “I have the answers! None of your charlatan magicians could pull this rabbit out of the hat, but I’ve done it! Aren’t I something special?” No, no, he comes with a wonderful mixture of unflinching boldness and profound personal humility. The king asks, in verse 26, “Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?” Look at how Daniel responds:
“No wise man, enchanter, magician or astrologer can show the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these: To you, O king, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this, and he who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be. But as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your mind.”
“This insight isn’t mine, and I can take no credit. None. Your wise men were at least wise enough to know that no human being can read secret dreams directly from the king’s brain. But that I know your dream at all, that comes only from the one, true and living God. It’s not my wisdom, but His.”
Listen, when we discover the truth of the sovereignty of God, which is really the heart of the vision, when we discover the truth of the sovereignty of God and all its power and beauty and wonder, a curious temptation often creeps across Christian hearts. We can become so taken with our new discovery that we think it our duty to beat everyone else over the head with it – “God is sovereign” – and we become inquisitors on the hunt for other people’s errors. But if that’s us, a prideful self assertion really demonstrates you’ve not yet fully come to understand the real significance of the truth you so carefully weaponize. Every truth of holy Scripture, maybe especially the truth of God’s sovereignty, is designed to humble us and exalt Him. It’s meant to put us in the dust and put Him on the throne of our hearts. Insight, real insight into the truth of God, will empower boldness, to be sure, but that boldness will always, always be marked by godly humility. Daniel neither flinches before the tyranny of Nebuchadnezzar, nor does he exalt himself. He points away to the Lord his God, and he gives all glory to Him. You’ve not yet gained that insight you claim if it does not slay the monster of pride in your believing heart. You do not yet have the insight that you claim if it doesn’t slay the monster of pride in your believing heart.
Principle number one – make the conclusion your introduction. Grasp the big “so what,” the big implication, the main thing. God is God and He reigns. And then let insight, real insight generate humility in your heart. And then principle number three – build optimism, but only on the proper foundation. Build optimism, but only on the proper foundation. Daniel explains the king’s dream in verses 31 through 35 and interprets it, 36 through 45. There are, he says, four kingdoms. The first represented by the golden head of the statue, which is the king himself – 37 and 38. And then two further kingdoms will follow the Babylonian kingdom mentioned in verse 39, represented by the silver chest and arms and the bronze torso, almost certainly a reference to the Medo-Persian empire, and then the Greek empire of Alexander the Great that followed it. And then a fourth kingdom will arise, characterized by iron legs with feet made from an unstable amalgam of clay and iron. It’s marked by remarkable strength – iron breaks all things, but it carries the seeds of its own destruction. It has feet of clay and iron. This represents the Roman empire.
Two quick things to notice about that dream. First, don’t miss the pointed words of verse 39. Yes, Nebuchadnezzar, you are the head of gold. King of kings who rules everyone and everything, but verse 39, “After you another kingdom will arise.” “After you” is a phrase not many of us ever welcome. It is one we have to face. I doubt that Nebuchadnezzar was particularly pleased to hear it. “After you.” You won’t last. Your empire won’t last. Your legacy won’t last. All your stuff, all your glory, you won’t take any of it with you. “There is a real you never see a U-Haul trailer hitched to a hearse,” as they say. You can’t take it with you. There’s always an “after you.” I wonder if you are ready for that, today, right now. Do not think this is a subject for older people, as if, “They must face their mortality, but not me. I’m too young, too healthy. I’ve got my whole life ahead of me. I’m just getting started.” No, no, no, no. There is an “after you” coming. You won’t last. You’d better be ready.
The other thing to notice is the pattern of declension in the success of kingdoms that Daniel lists. The decline in glory, although they seem to increase in hardness. But in the end, the systems of world power rest on an unstable alloy of clay and iron and it will all come tumbling down. So if you are going to found your optimism, don’t found it on any political power. Don’t rest your hope and confidence, your peace and satisfaction your optimism for tomorrow on any human energy or any mighty king. All the powers of the world will come tumbling down. Therefore, Psalm 146, “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.” That’s the point here, surely. There is no political power, not even the political powers that we like and believe in, there is no political power that will last. Don’t rest your hope in any of this world’s leaders.
But gloriously, notice there is a fifth kingdom. Another kingdom will arise. Verse 44, “In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed.” Now some interpreters think this refers to a coming millennium at the very end of human history. I think that is entirely incorrect. This all happens, verse 44 says, “in the days of those kings,” talking about the four preceding kingdoms. The kingdom of God will overlap and break in upon the kingdoms of this world. And notice the features of this kingdom. It will be universal, verse 35 times. It will become a great mountain and fill the whole earth. It will be indestructible. Verse 44 says, “it shall never be destroyed.” It will be eternal. Nor shall the kingdom be left to other people. It shall stand forever. It shall be utterly victorious. Verse 44 again, “it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end.” All this, because unlike all the other kingdoms of the world, it will be divine. Verse 44, the stone, the symbol of this fifth kingdom, this fifth king and his kingdom, cut from a mountain by no human hand. That is, by the hand of God alone. It is supernatural and divine in its origin and character.
This is unmistakable the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ that was inaugurated in His first coming, those distant days when He was born in Bethlehem in Judea, and will be consummated at His final return at the end of the age. That’s what this kingdom is. Matthew 21:42 through 45, Jesus said, “Have you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.’ This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing fruit. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him” – referencing the vision that King Nebuchadnezzar saw and Daniel interpreted. Jesus is the stone that shatters the kingdoms of the world. His is a kingdom, Hebrews 12:28, “that can never be shaken.” And at the end of the age, the day will have come at last when, as Revelation 11:15 puts it, “The kingdoms of this world will have become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever.”
Now let’s face it, this was not happy news for Nebuchadnezzar. God’s word to him, as verse 30 puts it, unmasks the thoughts of his mind, which is often the unsettling experience many of us have when we sit under the Word of God. Isn’t it? The thoughts of our minds are suddenly exposed to view. And so when, as Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 14:25, “the secrets of our hearts are disclosed” – how should we respond? When God, it feels like the preacher has been reading your diary, and God puts His finger on some issue in your heart and the secrets of your heart are laid bare – what should you do? What the thoughts of your mind are disclosed by God and His Word and Spirit, what should you do?
Well, Nebuchadnezzar, being a pagan, does what pagan’s do, what none of us should do. In verse 46, he bows down to Daniel and offers worship to Daniel. And yet even there, in that, in this king’s wrongheaded behavior, we get a hint of the right response. He is only a fallible sinner, Daniel, but he was, nevertheless, God’s agent and representative. And one day, God’s man will come, the man who knows no sin, and He will stand before the world, and before Him “every knee will bow” – Philippians 2:11- “and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is indeed Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” What should you do when God exposes the thoughts of your mind by His Word? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14, when the secrets of your heart are laid bare, you should fall on your face and worship God and declare, “God is truly among you!” Or Psalm 2, that we read as our Call to Worship says, “Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” What should you do when your heart is unmasked by the Word of God? You should bow down, you should bend your knee, you should step from your throne like Nebuchadnezzar and bend your knee – not to Daniel or to any earthly instrument by which God communicates His Word. You should bend your knee, repent and surrender to the King of kings and the Lord of lords – the Lord Jesus Christ.
This was unsettling news for Nebuchadnezzar, but at the same time you can imagine the encouragement it provided Daniel and the believing exiles in Babylon. The kingdoms of this world, every power that oppresses and opposes the will and Word of God, they will all crumble to the dust. The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. Jesus conquers. He reigns and His victory, already secured at the cross, will be complete when He returns at the end of the age. And so Daniel, be patient. Face the future with sober realism and unwavering optimism. Unwavering optimism – not because you see things around you getting better or you have confidence in anyone’s policy or power, but because you know the Lord has triumphed already and His kingdom will not fail.
Emptiness exposed. Power through prayer. And the great ruler revealed. May the Lord bless His Word to us and cause us all to bend our knee to King Jesus. Let us pray.
Father, thank You for Your holy Word, for its beauty and its intricacy and its depth. Thank You that it shows us what You are like, who You are – the sovereign and true King. Forgive us for putting our hope in princes, in men who will and do fail and fall. Teach us instead to hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, the true King of kings and the Lord of lords. For we ask it in His name, amen.