Daniel chapter 2

   DANIEL IS GIVEN A VISION FROM HIS TIME UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD

   Daniel "chapter 2:1-3, Now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. Then the king gave orders to call in the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans, 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 anxious to understand the dream." In Daniel 2:4-15, the wise men of Babylon request the dream from the king in order to give the interpretation, but he refuses and threatens their execution. (1), (2)

   NOTES: (1) John MacArthur, MacArthur Bible Commentary, p.951, The king shrewdly withheld the dream, though he remembered it to test his experts. He was anxious for an outright interpretation, with no deception. (2) Andrew E. Steinmann, Daniel Commentary, p124, Nebuchadnezzar received an important revelation from God in a dream. He sensed its importance and divine origin, but since God did not reveal its meaning, it remained a mystery to him.

   Daniel 2:16-23, "So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him time, in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king. Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, about the matter, in order that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his friends might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon." Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven; Daniel answered and said "Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. And it is He who changes the times and epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men, and knowledge to men of understanding, it is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells within Him. To thee, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for Thou hast given me wisdom and power, even now Thou hast made known to me what we requested of Thee, for Thou hast made known to us the kings matter." (1), (2)

   NOTES: (1) MacArthur Bible Commentary, p.951, But Daniel trusted God in prayer and received His supernational interpretation. He also gave credit to God in his prayer and in his testimony before Nebuchadnezzar. This prayer to God sums up the theme of the whole book, that God is the one who controls all things and grants all wisdom and might. (2) Andrew E. Steinmann, Daniel Commentary, Daniel praises God because He alone has all wisdom and power. Even the power given to Nebuchadnezzar derives from God. God is in control of all human authorities and earthly history.

    Daniel 2:24-27, Daniel reports that although the wise men of Babylon were unable to give an answer, the mystery has been revealed to him and he is brought before the king. Daniel 2:28-30, "However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the LATTER DAYS. This was your dream and the visions in your mind while on your bed. As for you, O king, while on your bed your thoughts turned to what would take place in the FUTURE, and He who reveals mysteries, has made known to you what will take place. But as for me, this mystery has not been revealed to me for any wisdom residing in me more than any other living man, but for the purpose of making the interpretation known to the king, and that you may understand the thoughts of your mind." (1), (2)

   NOTES: (1) Andrew E. Steinmann, Daniel Commentary, p.133, Daniel emphasizes that humanly speaking, he is no better than anyone else. Daniel is only the instrument through which Israel's God reveals the mystery to Nebuchadnezzar. God's foreknowledge means He knows the future completely, both the good things and the evil things that will come to pass. Yet God is by no means the cause of evil. Rather evil is caused by the will of sinful people and Satan. Yet God according to His foreknowledge sets limits for such evil; how long it will endure, and when He will punish it. (2) R.C. Sproul, The Reformation Study Bible, p.1467, The Latter Days, this expression seems to range from the "end times" to the future in general. Here it covers the entire sweep of world history from Nebuchadnezzar onward. 

   THE KINGS DREAM

   Daniel 2:31-35, "You O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. The head of the statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them, then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain that filled the whole earth." (1)

   NOTES: (1) Andrew E. Steinmann, Daniel Commentary, p.135, It may be that God uses a motif of successive empires that was familiar throughout the eastern Mediterranean region by the time of Nebuchadnezzar to make the dream more meaningful to him. Clearly, although God may have decided to reveal this dream to Nebuchadnezzar by using a motif that he would have found somewhat familiar, He also intended to rework the imagery for His own purposes. The stone hewn without hands point to divine activity. The wind sweeping away the remnants of the statue points to this being a dream whose meaning is about history and eschatology. The image of the chaff being swept away by the wind is a familiar one in the Old Testament.

   THE INTERPRETATION

   Daniel 2:36-38, "This was the dream; now we shall tell its interpretation before the king. You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory; and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold." (1), (2)

   NOTES: (1) MacArthur Bible Commentary, p.951, Five empires would rule over Israel in the future. In Daniel chapter 7, the same empires are represented by four great beasts. Babylon the head of gold would be the first. (2) Andrew E. Steinmann, Daniel Commentary, p136, Daniel begins his interpretation by a flattering, hyperbolic description of Nebuchadnezzar. This is designed to put the king at ease, since he had been troubled by the dream. Moreover, it softens the news that his kingdom will eventually fall to another.

  Daniel 2:39-43, "And after you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth. Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. And in that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery." (1), (2), (3)

  NOTES: (1) Andrew E. Steinmann, Daniel Commentary, p.136, Daniel next moves to the silver part of the statue, which is said to be a kingdom that arises after Nebuchadnezzar and is inferior to him. Daniel does not state why or in what way it is inferior. Since the subsequent kingdoms, including the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, rule over larger territories than Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian Empire, "inferior" must not be determined by geopolitical reach. The most attention is given to the iron kingdom. The main features of this kingdom is its ability to crush, signified by the iron; its brittle nature signified by the clay. This lack of cohesion signifies the eventual dissolution of the Roman empire, but the continuing influence of its institutions. Much of the heritage of Rome lasts even to this day, especially in the West (Europe and the Americas). (2) MacArthur Bible Commentary, p.952, "Strong as Iron" This metal fittingly represents the Roman Empire which would be characterized by the description predicted. It did have armies in iron armor known as the Iron Legions of Rome, and it had strength and invincibility. The Ten toes represent the same kings as the ten horns in Daniel chapter 7:24. They will rule the final time of the Gentile empire, which Christ will destroy at His second coming. (3) R.C. Sproul, The Reformation Study Bible, p.1468, The four Kingdoms have been widely understood since the time of the Jewish historian Josephus to be the empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. The sequence may describe a consistent downward trend in world history not toward greater glory and unity but toward greater dishonor and chaos until the kingdom of God arrives on earth and fills it with His Glory. 

  Daniel 2:44-45, "And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for other people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will in itself endure forever. Inasmuch as you saw that a stone cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so, the dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy." (1), (2), (3)

   NOTES: (1) MacArthur Bible Commentary, p.952, God's kingdom ruled by the Messiah is the final kingdom never to be replaced. It has a millennial phase and an eternal future, but it is the same king who rules both. The stone cutout without hands is the Messiah. This stone denotes that the Messiah comes from God and is not human origin or power. The mountain pictures God's all transcending government that looms over weak earthly powers. (2) R.C. Sproul, The Reformation Study Bible, p.1468, The fourth kingdom though strong, is as temporary as those that precede it and lacks the glory of the earlier kingdoms. The eternal kingdom is the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. This kingdom was inaugurated with the first coming of Christ but does not come into its fulness until His second coming. (3) Andrew E. Steinmann, Daniel Commentary, p.139-141, The assertion that the stone was hewn from the mountain reaffirms the divine origin and divine identity of the stone, which derives from God, the mountain. The Messiah will establish a kingdom that will grow to fill the entire earth. Jesus identifies himself as this crushing rock in Luke 20:17-18. But He looked at them and said, "What then is this that is written, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust." The central theme of Nebuchadnezzar's dream is the contrast between human kingdoms which are subject to the mortality inherent in sinful human existence, and the kingdom established by eternal God, which itself is everlasting.