Daniel 2:24-49

The Kingdom of God in a Nightmare: Part Two

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on January 22, 2017 at Beacon Church

What do we fear? (24-30)

What do we hope for? 

Last week we saw that Daniel, captured by the Babylonian army when he was only a teenager, robbed of everything that made him who he was, and forced to serve the King of Babylon, in spite of his suffering, believed in God. He hoped in God. And he was willing to be used by God even when he couldn’t yet see the reason and purpose for what God was doing. Because he learned to see God’s hand behind even unwelcome events, and to trust God’s goodness and wisdom even when those events weren’t good for him personally. He learned from two or three prophecies in the Bible that his life was caught up in something God was doing among the nations—God wasn’t just making history in Daniel’s lifetime, He was fulfilling prophecy. And as we will see, that’s often the same thing.

There’s a line in “O Little Town of Bethlehem” that goes, “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight”.[i] I wonder if that’s true of our hopes and fears? Did they all come together in a fusion of awe and trust when we first heard that Christ had come to this world? I felt really kind of sad for President Obama on Friday watching his face as President Trump outlined his plans. What kind of legacy will Obama leave behind that Trump will not wipe out? Presidents seem to think a lot about their legacy, their mark on the world, how they will be remembered for what they accomplished. But we all do that in some way. It’s in how we talk about our hopes and fears. But we don’t have the sort of power that American Presidents have at their disposal.

William Ewer once wrote, “How odd of God to choose the Jews”[ii], but didn’t the Jewish-rabbi-turned-Christian-apostle, Paul, write that God’s power is made known in our weakness? (2 Cor 12:9) Isn’t His grace magnified in our need, and His glory in our dependence upon His sufficiency? It’s worth taking note, then, not to miss the testimony to God’s grace here in Daniel 2, that when God answered Daniel and his friends’ prayers for wisdom to be able to know and interpret the king’s dream (earlier in chapter 2), God also used that situation to save lives. 

24 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."  25 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."  (Dan. 2:24-25 ESV)

As if to prepare his readers for the biggest rescue mission in history, when Jesus Christ died to save sinners, God used this young Jewish exile to save the lives of some of the most undeserving sinners in Babylon.

One of my favourite lines in any hymn goes, “I once was blind, but now I see”. We could apply that to King Nebuchadnezzar in these verses: "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?" (Dan. 2:26 ESV). Even notice the name he calls Daniel, “Belteshazzar” (the name’s meaning invokes a prayer to a false god for the kings’ protection!). The king “saw” a vision he didn’t understand (v26), but the captive Jew shows the meaning nobody could know; in the middle of their blindness, Daniel’s God gives miraculous sight. 

27 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,  28 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:  29 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.  30 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.  (Dan. 2:27-30 ESV)

The “thoughts of the king’s mind” (v30) made him afraid. It seems to me that he was afraid of death, that all his work was for nothing, and that none of what he did would last. But the same dream that frightened the king also held the promise of everlasting hope.

What do we worship? (31-35)

Consider Man's feeble fist vs. God's mighty hand.

I don’t think there is anything more run-of-the-mill and ordinary in our world today than “images”. Selfies, photos of our food on Facebook, and Instagram, make it easy to forget what an “image” meant in the world of the ancient near east. The Bible says humans are created “in God’s image”, that Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15) and the exact imprint of God’s nature (Heb 1:3); that believers are being transformed into Christ’s image (Rom 8:29, 2 Cor 3:18); that many unbelievers would worship the “image of the beast” (Rev 13:15). An image is a likeness, a portrait, a representation. An image captures and displays the essence and glory of something. So the image in the king’s dream contrasts Man's glory (& image) vs. God's glory (& image). ""You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening," (Dan. 2:31 ESV). Verse 31 says that the image was “frightening” to the King, maybe filling him with awe, since Daniel says that the image itself, in the dream, was “great” and “of exceeding brightness”. So if this image is a reflection, it is a very bright reflection of something very bright, and very great. Carefully reading Daniel’s interpretation of the dream suggests to my mind that God meant to cause the king to be very impressed by what he saw in this image, and then very afraid because of what happens to the image. And with that in mind, I want to suggest that since this image is human in appearance, with a head, and arms, two legs, and ten toes, it represents the glory and greatness of mankind. So this image should have an effect on us too. The more we are caught up in this world, the impressiveness of the human race and our achievements, the more we should be frightened by what this image reveals.

As a reflection of the greatness of the human race, this is bad news. Look how it starts golden and ends in clay, with each part in between worse than the one before it: "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," (Dan. 2:32-33 ESV). Something about the human race, according to this image, seems to get worse as time goes on. Stronger for a while—as iron and bronze are stronger than silver and gold, but less shiny and less glorious—more common. But then the last part of the image that Daniel describes isn’t strong at all, but brittle and weak—iron mixed with clay. That’s a big decline from gold to clay! And the worst is yet to come: if this is the fading greatness of the human race, verses 34-35 depict a catastrophic end. And for King Nebuchadnezzar, as he lay in his bed and saw this vision, this would have been a powerful suggestion to his mind that for all his hopes in power and conquest and glory and greatness, not only would it all decay and decline, in the end it would all be destroyed. Disintegrated. Die. Mortality makes it all meaningless.

 34 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.  35 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.  (Dan. 2:34-35 ESV)

What do we see? (36-45)

Next, Daniel begins to explain to the king what the dream is about, what it means. And I think we should catch the implication in verse 36-37, that when Daniel says, “that was the dream… you are that head”, it’s as if he says, “this isn’t just a dream, O King. It’s real.” Like one of those dreams where you really want to wake up, but can’t. Nebuchadnezzar already knows this is going to end badly. So with that in mind I want you to notice how Daniel starts by pointing out the wonderful blessings God had given the king:

 36 "This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation.  37 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,  38 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. (Dan. 2:36-38 ESV)

If you knew you were going to die, how do you think it would affect you to be reminded of all the blessings and beautiful things in your life? Now remember this is a dream God gave to this king, and then God sent Daniel to explain it to the king—a message from God. So how do you think this message should affect King Nebuchadnezzar? And how should Daniel’s account of this affect you and me? All of our strength and glory will fade; we will die, the end is coming, and yet God has showered us with so many blessings—what for? What should that tell us?

Moving on from King Nebuchadnezzar, from his rule over the Babylonian Empire—the meaning of the image’s head of gold, Daniel explains that another, inferior kingdom will come afterwards. And then another, bigger empire after that. From the writings of ancient historians like Herodotus and others, from archaeology, and original sources, we now know quite a lot about this period of ancient history. A couple of years ago, Heather and I visited the Museum of the Ancient Near East in Berlin, and we saw the actual reconstructed gates of the city of Babylon, dug up from where the ruins of the city were found buried in the dessert, hauled away to Berlin, and restored to look like they would have looked in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, decorated in blue and brown enamel tiles displaying rampaging lions, bulls, and dragons.[iii] And from all those sources, we also know when the silver kingdom replaced the golden, Babylonian Kingdom, when the next one rose up, and the next. It’s all literally ancient history: "Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth," (Dan. 2:39 ESV).

• Babylon was conquered by Darius the general and vice-regent of King Cyrus of the Persian Empire in the year 539BC.[iv] The city of Babylon in Iraq is mostly uninhabited now.

• The Persian Empire, grew out of what today is Iran, and was conquered by Alexander the Great, the King of the Greek Empire, in 330BC.[v]

• The Greek Empire, which came from Greece, split up after Alexander’s death and lasted in some form or other until the last piece, ruled by Cleopatra in Egypt, was conquered in 31BC.[vi]

Daniel’s interpretation in verses 36-39, then, starting with King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and ending with Alexander the Great’s massive Greek Empire, shows that the image’s golden head, chest and silver of arms, and belly of bronze are a picture and reflection of the greatness and glory of human civilization from about 600BC to 300BC—300 years after God showed Daniel what the king’s dream meant. But we’re just getting started! The details that come next are so specific that it leaves no doubt about how it all happened in history so far, and so it is incredible evidence that the Bible is God’s Word, that it is true, and that God is in absolute control of the future and the past—that God’s plan is unfolding according to His will. [read v40]

• The Roman Empire, starting with Caesar Augustus who conquered the last bits of the Greek Empire, officially became an empire in the year 31BC, and grew more powerful until the last Caesar fell when the city of Rome was conquered in 476AD.[vii]

• Then Daniel saw that the “iron” of the Roman Empire would grow weaker and divide in the feet, getting mixed with clay [read v41], a prediction of the gradual collapse of Rome’s territories, and the emergence of the so-called “Barbarian Kingdoms” in Western Europe.[viii]

• The last part of Daniel’s prophecy of the image focused on the ten toes of Roman “iron” mixed with the clay of the European invaders: [read vv42-43]. By the year 533AD, these 10 kingdoms stood on the ruins of the Roman Empire in Western Europe: Anglo-Saxons, Franks, Allemans, Burgundians, Visigoths, Suevi, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Bavarians, and Lombards.[ix] Today in the same area of Western Europe there are still 10 countries: The U.K., France, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Spain, and Portugal.

The legendary empires of the western world have given way to the clay countries of Europe that still try to hold together and preserve the legacy that’s left from when Rome united them, their populations mix, but they can’t even sustain a shared economy (Brexit!), so “they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay” (v43). Daniel incredibly showed King Nebuchadnezzar 25 centuries of one empire after another beginning with Babylon and ending with Europe the way it is today. But one final kingdom was left, not part of the image, but God’s Kingdom: 

 44 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,  45 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." (Dan. 2:44-45 ESV)

The Kingdom of God will come, it will never pass away, and God’s Word will last forever: All of mankind’s efforts for 2.5 thousand years, shaking a fist at God, are “humbled under the mighty hand of God” (1 Pe 5:6), and brought to nothing by the coming of Christ’s Kingdom. So much for human power. So much for human glory. In the end, Jesus is King.

The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass.

 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

 9 Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"

 (Isa. 40:7-9 ESV)

What do we delight in? (46-49)

46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him.  47 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."  48 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.  49 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. (Dan. 2:46-49 ESV)

Have our encounters with God left us merely contrite? Or converted?

King Nebuchadnezzar had a terrible dream he didn’t understand, but God sent Daniel to explain the prophecy in the dream. The King had an incredible encounter with the Word of God through Daniel! And although it looks like he was really humbled and changed, a closer look shows evidence that the change in him was only skin-deep: a) He bowed to the wrong person (v46); b) He praised the ability of the messenger instead of the God who sent him (v47b; although you give him the benefit of the doubt on this one, what happens next reveals he’s still not very impressed with God); c) He gave gifts to Daniel and his 3 friends, but didn't ask for grace himself (vv48-49). Like a dog to its vomit, King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream seems to change him for a short time, but then he goes back to worshipping human power, human glory: “King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold whose height was 90 feet…” (3:1). I wonder if some of us have a superficial faith in God but deep down really aren’t all that impressed with Him. We aren’t in awe of His power, we don’t delight in His glory, we aren’t overwhelmed by His love for us through Jesus Christ. And we certainly don’t “get it”—that the most exciting thing about the coming of the Kingdom of God is that we will get to see our King Jesus.