Nebuchadnezzar Dreams of the Great ImageBible World
2:33Daniel 2:33
His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
The legs of iron are a fourth kingdom, Rome, more fierce and powerful than those before it, as strong as iron to subdue and break in pieces all nations. The feet and toes part of iron and part of clay are the divided kingdoms that followed Rome, with the ten toes being ten kingdoms into which Rome was divided between A.D. 356 and 483. The metals grow less pure and valuable from head to feet, showing kingdoms decreasing in glory and power as they move farther from God. This chain of kingdoms was foretold hundreds of years beforehand and has been fulfilled with wonderful exactness, giving testimony to the inspiration of Scripture. The stone strikes the image at its feet in the days of those divided kingdoms, when God will establish His everlasting kingdom that supersedes all earthly kingdoms and endures forever.
Dream Setting and Revelation
Daniel 2:33 belongs to Nebuchadnezzar's dream and to Daniel's God-given interpretation of it, which made known remarkable events in prophetic history and revealed a secret no human wisdom could uncover when the king's wise men could not explain it. That interpretation was given to help the king resolve his difficulty. In making it known Daniel explained to Nebuchadnezzar a dream from God, leading the king to recognize God as revealer of secrets and ruler over kings, while the verse's details about the legs and feet of the image are not explained in that connection.
The revelation of the dream and its interpretation spared Daniel and the other wise men from being killed. It was the king's forgotten dream, made known by Daniel many years before Belshazzar's feast, when the queen-mother remembered him in the midst of the revelry.
Its interpretation revealed heavenly glory to the Hebrew captives, who depended on God rather than being captivated by Babylon's splendor, showing that God's wisdom surpasses human wisdom and that earthly learning cannot supply what God reveals. The failure of the wise men to reveal the dream represents the failure of learned people without knowledge from God to understand prophecy, and the lessons of the king's prophetic dream were given for people living in the present day. The verse is part of the great image in the dream that Daniel explained to the king.
Symbolic Means of Teaching
Daniel 2:33 belongs to the symbolic image God used to reveal important future events concerning the nations and to make known His purpose for them. The meaning given to that image was truth, yet it could be misinterpreted and misused to promote human power and to hinder knowledge of God's purpose. Nebuchadnezzar and his counselors rejected that God-given meaning and tried to replace it with an image glorifying Babylon and human power.
God teaches prophetic history through pictures and symbols that appeal to understanding through the sense of sight in a way better understood than if given in any other way. Such symbols are to be represented plainly upon tables, that he who reads may understand. The second commandment prohibition of image worship does not forbid this instructional use of pictures and symbols.
Nebuchadnezzar read the interpretation with an idolatrous mind, through his own dreams, fancies, ambitions and human understanding, and perverted it. He made a statue that resembled the vision's image in general form but differed in material, being entirely of gold, turning the image associated with Babylon's glory and power into an object of worship. That golden image represented the glory, excellence and power of Babylon and especially himself, rather than accepting the dream's message that earthly kingdoms are not enduring and will be followed by the kingdom of heaven filling the whole earth. The iron legs and feet made partly of iron and partly of clay showed a decline in value from the head of gold, but he rejected this progression and claimed by his all-gold image that Babylon was eternal, indestructible and all-powerful and would break all others and endure forever. His aim was to bring all nations to its worship and to glorify human power.
The dream must be read in the light of the living Oracles of Scripture, not Scripture and providence read in the light of dreams and human understanding. Daniel did this work as a faithful statesman in a most critical, trying position in Babylon while refusing any work against God, and God in providence brought the idolatrous king into reasoning relation with Daniel for this purpose. Nebuchadnezzar supposed the interpretation gave authority for idolatry and set up the golden image to convert all nations to its worship. Despite that perversion the prophesied fall of Babylon still came at an hour of feasting and revelling, while God honored the three faithful servants who would not bow by Christ walking with them in the fiery furnace, leading Nebuchadnezzar to believe in God's superior power.
Meaning of Iron and Clay
The legs of iron are a fourth kingdom, more fierce, determined and powerful than any kingdom before it, strong as iron to subdue and break in pieces all the nations of the world. Each kingdom rises and falls according to God's purpose, with its own period of testing in which obedience or disobedience affects its course. The verse describes the iron legs and the feet and toes made partly of iron and partly of clay, continuing the same image of the kingdoms of the world. They stand within the great image representing successive kingdoms after Babylon.
The metals of that image become less and less pure and valuable and baser, showing a succession of kingdoms leading toward the end that decrease in value. That decrease is also in power and glory as nations move farther from God and separate further from Him. Babylon is the first empire, the head of gold, a kingdom God gave for His glory. It is one of four great world-moulding empires to rule before the close of human rule on earth.
Fulfillment in World History
The legs of iron and feet part of iron and part of clay are one link in a connected chain of figurative prophecy that sets out historical events in their order, foretelling the rise and fall of kingdoms. The rise and fall of these universal kingdoms was predicted hundreds of years before the nations came upon the stage of action by the Omniscient One through His prophets. Nation after nation arose at the predicted time and filled its appointed place, unconsciously witnessing to truth whose meaning it did not know.
The prophecy, including its iron legs and feet of iron mixed with clay, has been fulfilled with wonderful exactness in the most literal manner as seen in the historian's record. This exact fulfillment is a testimony to the inspiration of the Scriptures that anchors faith amid rationalism and skepticism. Showing this literal fulfillment gives tangibility to faith in the second coming of Christ and makes a deep impression on those interested in prophecy who had no definite idea of when it is fulfilled.
The iron legs are Rome's worldwide rule, which succeeded Greece, as strong as iron to subdue and break in pieces all nations. The feet of iron mixed with clay are the divided kingdoms that followed Rome, showing that vast empire crumbling into pieces. The ten toes represent ten kingdoms into which Rome was divided between A.D. 356 and 483.
The prophecy is not an unintelligible mystery but can be understood and explained even by children and used to interest parents and others. Studying Daniel's prophecies led to the belief that the Lord's coming was near and at hand, a solemn and important truth to be brought before the people. Its major waymarks lead toward the close of earth's history and must be preserved and applied correctly, not replaced by theories that cause confusion.
God's Rule Over Nations
The interpretation of the dream set forth prophecies concerning Babylon and the kingdoms that would follow it, and in doing so made known that Jehovah is mightier than earthly rulers and kings. Through Daniel light flashed from the throne of God into idolatrous Babylon to reveal the true God to that nation. That light declared that the God of heaven rules over all monarchs and kings of earth, that the rulers of earthly kingdoms themselves have a Ruler in heaven, and that His name goes forth as God over all gods.
The rise and fall of the kingdoms shown in the vision display God humbling human pride and bringing human glory to nothing while He governs the rising and falling of rulers. The legs of iron and the feet of iron mixed with clay belong to that history of kingdoms whose course exposes the emptiness of human exaltation. The prophecy looks forward to God's everlasting kingdom, and its events are in process of fulfillment in the last days.
The succession was foretold hundreds of years before the nations appeared, by the Omniscient One through His prophets, with Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom to be superseded by a second, then a third, then a fourth strong as iron to subdue the nations of the world. Each kingdom had its day and its period of trial and testing whether it would exalt the one Ruler, the only true God, and obedience or disobedience proved it and shaped its course. The prophecy thus traces Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, and each had its time of testing, each failed, lost its glory and power, and was succeeded by another. These predictions recorded on the prophetic page and traced on the pages of history demonstrate that God is the ruling power in the affairs of this world, who changes times and seasons and removes kings and sets up kings to fulfill His own purpose. Nations arose one after another at the predicted time to fill their appointed place, unconsciously bearing witness to truth whose meaning they themselves did not know, for the voice of God heard in past ages sounds down along the line from century to century, the centuries have their mission, and every moment has its work.
Christ's Kingdom and Present Call
The dream made known what was to come, revealing the kingdoms that would follow Babylon and showing that earthly kingdoms are temporal and will not last forever but must pass away. Only Christ's kingdom is eternal, represented by the Living Stone, which shall never pass away. Babylon would fall and other earthly kingdoms would follow until God's kingdom superseded them all and endured forever, filling the whole earth.
The legs of iron are Rome's worldwide rule and the feet of iron mixed with clay are the divided kingdoms that followed Rome, with the ten toes representing ten kingdoms into which Rome was divided between A.D. 356 and 483. The stone strikes the image at its feet in the days of these divided kingdoms, when God will establish the everlasting kingdom. That kingdom had not yet been established, and it was not set up at Christ's first advent, before Rome's division. Nebuchadnezzar's decision to make an image entirely of gold opposed the dream's message that earthly kingdoms are not enduring, and set up an idol for worship.
The legs of iron and feet of iron and clay belong to the light given in Babylon to make the true God known to an idolatrous nation, revealing the kingdom God would establish and by His own power maintain against all the power and craft of Satan. It shows that the God of heaven is Ruler over all monarchs and kings of earth, that rulers of earthly kingdoms have a Ruler in heaven, and that His name goes forth as God over all gods. In contrast to earthly kingdoms that rule by ascendancy of physical power, the kingdom thus foretold is Christ's kingdom, whose ensign is a lamb. It was established to banish every carnal weapon and instrument of coercion and to uplift and ennoble fallen humanity, and its glory sheds light for God's faithful watchmen in the last days.
The same image represents the deterioration of religion and of morality among the peoples, for the descent from gold to silver to brass to iron mingled with clay shows decline in power and glory and also in purity and value. The legs of iron are a fourth world kingdom, more fierce, determined and powerful than any kingdom before it, as strong as iron to subdue and break in pieces all the nations of the world, and the feet and toes of iron mingled with clay continue the same image of the kingdoms of the world, with that vast empire crumbling into pieces. The kingdoms from Babylon through Medo-Persia and those following grew less pure and valuable and increasingly corrupt as they cast God off, made void the law of God, forgot God, and sank lower and lower in wickedness, blasphemy and corruption, bringing humiliation, testing and the wrath of God. This happened because rulers failed to keep the fear of the Lord before them, which would have given wisdom and power to bind them together and keep them strong, and moral and spiritual weakness grows just in proportion as God is forgotten. That deterioration is seen in the Church of Rome boasting of infallibility and hereditary power while keeping the people in ignorance of the will of God, and in Protestants leaving the old landmarks for forms, ceremonies and outward display, so that sin ruins nations now as in time past.
The legs of iron are a fourth kingdom, Rome, more fierce and powerful than those before it, as strong as iron to subdue and break in pieces all nations. The feet and toes part of iron and part of clay are the divided kingdoms that followed Rome, with the ten toes being ten kingdoms into which Rome was divided between A.D. 356 and 483. The metals grow less pure and valuable from head to feet, showing kingdoms decreasing in glory and power as they move farther from God. This chain of kingdoms was foretold hundreds of years beforehand and has been fulfilled with wonderful exactness, giving testimony to the inspiration of Scripture. The stone strikes the image at its feet in the days of those divided kingdoms, when God will establish His everlasting kingdom that supersedes all earthly kingdoms and endures forever.
Dream Setting and Revelation
Daniel 2:33 belongs to Nebuchadnezzar's dream and to Daniel's God-given interpretation of it, which made known remarkable events in prophetic history and revealed a secret no human wisdom could uncover when the king's wise men could not explain it. That interpretation was given to help the king resolve his difficulty. In making it known Daniel explained to Nebuchadnezzar a dream from God, leading the king to recognize God as revealer of secrets and ruler over kings, while the verse's details about the legs and feet of the image are not explained in that connection.
The revelation of the dream and its interpretation spared Daniel and the other wise men from being killed. It was the king's forgotten dream, made known by Daniel many years before Belshazzar's feast, when the queen-mother remembered him in the midst of the revelry.
Its interpretation revealed heavenly glory to the Hebrew captives, who depended on God rather than being captivated by Babylon's splendor, showing that God's wisdom surpasses human wisdom and that earthly learning cannot supply what God reveals. The failure of the wise men to reveal the dream represents the failure of learned people without knowledge from God to understand prophecy, and the lessons of the king's prophetic dream were given for people living in the present day. The verse is part of the great image in the dream that Daniel explained to the king.
Symbolic Means of Teaching
Daniel 2:33 belongs to the symbolic image God used to reveal important future events concerning the nations and to make known His purpose for them. The meaning given to that image was truth, yet it could be misinterpreted and misused to promote human power and to hinder knowledge of God's purpose. Nebuchadnezzar and his counselors rejected that God-given meaning and tried to replace it with an image glorifying Babylon and human power.
God teaches prophetic history through pictures and symbols that appeal to understanding through the sense of sight in a way better understood than if given in any other way. Such symbols are to be represented plainly upon tables, that he who reads may understand. The second commandment prohibition of image worship does not forbid this instructional use of pictures and symbols.
Nebuchadnezzar read the interpretation with an idolatrous mind, through his own dreams, fancies, ambitions and human understanding, and perverted it. He made a statue that resembled the vision's image in general form but differed in material, being entirely of gold, turning the image associated with Babylon's glory and power into an object of worship. That golden image represented the glory, excellence and power of Babylon and especially himself, rather than accepting the dream's message that earthly kingdoms are not enduring and will be followed by the kingdom of heaven filling the whole earth. The iron legs and feet made partly of iron and partly of clay showed a decline in value from the head of gold, but he rejected this progression and claimed by his all-gold image that Babylon was eternal, indestructible and all-powerful and would break all others and endure forever. His aim was to bring all nations to its worship and to glorify human power.
The dream must be read in the light of the living Oracles of Scripture, not Scripture and providence read in the light of dreams and human understanding. Daniel did this work as a faithful statesman in a most critical, trying position in Babylon while refusing any work against God, and God in providence brought the idolatrous king into reasoning relation with Daniel for this purpose. Nebuchadnezzar supposed the interpretation gave authority for idolatry and set up the golden image to convert all nations to its worship. Despite that perversion the prophesied fall of Babylon still came at an hour of feasting and revelling, while God honored the three faithful servants who would not bow by Christ walking with them in the fiery furnace, leading Nebuchadnezzar to believe in God's superior power.
Meaning of Iron and Clay
The legs of iron are a fourth kingdom, more fierce, determined and powerful than any kingdom before it, strong as iron to subdue and break in pieces all the nations of the world. Each kingdom rises and falls according to God's purpose, with its own period of testing in which obedience or disobedience affects its course. The verse describes the iron legs and the feet and toes made partly of iron and partly of clay, continuing the same image of the kingdoms of the world. They stand within the great image representing successive kingdoms after Babylon.
The metals of that image become less and less pure and valuable and baser, showing a succession of kingdoms leading toward the end that decrease in value. That decrease is also in power and glory as nations move farther from God and separate further from Him. Babylon is the first empire, the head of gold, a kingdom God gave for His glory. It is one of four great world-moulding empires to rule before the close of human rule on earth.
Fulfillment in World History
The legs of iron and feet part of iron and part of clay are one link in a connected chain of figurative prophecy that sets out historical events in their order, foretelling the rise and fall of kingdoms. The rise and fall of these universal kingdoms was predicted hundreds of years before the nations came upon the stage of action by the Omniscient One through His prophets. Nation after nation arose at the predicted time and filled its appointed place, unconsciously witnessing to truth whose meaning it did not know.
The prophecy, including its iron legs and feet of iron mixed with clay, has been fulfilled with wonderful exactness in the most literal manner as seen in the historian's record. This exact fulfillment is a testimony to the inspiration of the Scriptures that anchors faith amid rationalism and skepticism. Showing this literal fulfillment gives tangibility to faith in the second coming of Christ and makes a deep impression on those interested in prophecy who had no definite idea of when it is fulfilled.
The iron legs are Rome's worldwide rule, which succeeded Greece, as strong as iron to subdue and break in pieces all nations. The feet of iron mixed with clay are the divided kingdoms that followed Rome, showing that vast empire crumbling into pieces. The ten toes represent ten kingdoms into which Rome was divided between A.D. 356 and 483.
The prophecy is not an unintelligible mystery but can be understood and explained even by children and used to interest parents and others. Studying Daniel's prophecies led to the belief that the Lord's coming was near and at hand, a solemn and important truth to be brought before the people. Its major waymarks lead toward the close of earth's history and must be preserved and applied correctly, not replaced by theories that cause confusion.
God's Rule Over Nations
The interpretation of the dream set forth prophecies concerning Babylon and the kingdoms that would follow it, and in doing so made known that Jehovah is mightier than earthly rulers and kings. Through Daniel light flashed from the throne of God into idolatrous Babylon to reveal the true God to that nation. That light declared that the God of heaven rules over all monarchs and kings of earth, that the rulers of earthly kingdoms themselves have a Ruler in heaven, and that His name goes forth as God over all gods.
The rise and fall of the kingdoms shown in the vision display God humbling human pride and bringing human glory to nothing while He governs the rising and falling of rulers. The legs of iron and the feet of iron mixed with clay belong to that history of kingdoms whose course exposes the emptiness of human exaltation. The prophecy looks forward to God's everlasting kingdom, and its events are in process of fulfillment in the last days.
The succession was foretold hundreds of years before the nations appeared, by the Omniscient One through His prophets, with Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom to be superseded by a second, then a third, then a fourth strong as iron to subdue the nations of the world. Each kingdom had its day and its period of trial and testing whether it would exalt the one Ruler, the only true God, and obedience or disobedience proved it and shaped its course. The prophecy thus traces Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, and each had its time of testing, each failed, lost its glory and power, and was succeeded by another. These predictions recorded on the prophetic page and traced on the pages of history demonstrate that God is the ruling power in the affairs of this world, who changes times and seasons and removes kings and sets up kings to fulfill His own purpose. Nations arose one after another at the predicted time to fill their appointed place, unconsciously bearing witness to truth whose meaning they themselves did not know, for the voice of God heard in past ages sounds down along the line from century to century, the centuries have their mission, and every moment has its work.
Christ's Kingdom and Present Call
The dream made known what was to come, revealing the kingdoms that would follow Babylon and showing that earthly kingdoms are temporal and will not last forever but must pass away. Only Christ's kingdom is eternal, represented by the Living Stone, which shall never pass away. Babylon would fall and other earthly kingdoms would follow until God's kingdom superseded them all and endured forever, filling the whole earth.
The legs of iron are Rome's worldwide rule and the feet of iron mixed with clay are the divided kingdoms that followed Rome, with the ten toes representing ten kingdoms into which Rome was divided between A.D. 356 and 483. The stone strikes the image at its feet in the days of these divided kingdoms, when God will establish the everlasting kingdom. That kingdom had not yet been established, and it was not set up at Christ's first advent, before Rome's division. Nebuchadnezzar's decision to make an image entirely of gold opposed the dream's message that earthly kingdoms are not enduring, and set up an idol for worship.
The legs of iron and feet of iron and clay belong to the light given in Babylon to make the true God known to an idolatrous nation, revealing the kingdom God would establish and by His own power maintain against all the power and craft of Satan. It shows that the God of heaven is Ruler over all monarchs and kings of earth, that rulers of earthly kingdoms have a Ruler in heaven, and that His name goes forth as God over all gods. In contrast to earthly kingdoms that rule by ascendancy of physical power, the kingdom thus foretold is Christ's kingdom, whose ensign is a lamb. It was established to banish every carnal weapon and instrument of coercion and to uplift and ennoble fallen humanity, and its glory sheds light for God's faithful watchmen in the last days.
The same image represents the deterioration of religion and of morality among the peoples, for the descent from gold to silver to brass to iron mingled with clay shows decline in power and glory and also in purity and value. The legs of iron are a fourth world kingdom, more fierce, determined and powerful than any kingdom before it, as strong as iron to subdue and break in pieces all the nations of the world, and the feet and toes of iron mingled with clay continue the same image of the kingdoms of the world, with that vast empire crumbling into pieces. The kingdoms from Babylon through Medo-Persia and those following grew less pure and valuable and increasingly corrupt as they cast God off, made void the law of God, forgot God, and sank lower and lower in wickedness, blasphemy and corruption, bringing humiliation, testing and the wrath of God. This happened because rulers failed to keep the fear of the Lord before them, which would have given wisdom and power to bind them together and keep them strong, and moral and spiritual weakness grows just in proportion as God is forgotten. That deterioration is seen in the Church of Rome boasting of infallibility and hereditary power while keeping the people in ignorance of the will of God, and in Protestants leaving the old landmarks for forms, ceremonies and outward display, so that sin ruins nations now as in time past.