Daniel Tells Nebuchadnezzar the Dream of the Statueby Danial
2:36Daniel 2:36
This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
This is the dream, and now its divine interpretation will be told before the king, marking the turn from recounting what was seen to explaining its God-given meaning reaching to the close of time. Nebuchadnezzar had demanded both the forgotten dream and its meaning to test his wise men, who confessed no man on earth could reveal it, but Daniel sought mercy of the God of heaven with his companions and received the secret in a night vision, so that as he related it the dream came fresh to the king's mind. God had taken the dream from the king so no false interpretation could be attached to it, exposing the limits of human wisdom and giving prophetic understanding instead to dependent Hebrew captives. What was told was that the image foretold four earthly kingdoms, Babylon the head of gold then Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome deteriorating in glory and morals, followed by God's everlasting kingdom that will never be destroyed and will fill the earth. That revelation shows God rules in world affairs to remove kings and set up kings, and its fulfillment with remarkable exactness in history anchors faith against skepticism and makes plain to the prayerful student that the coming of the Lord is at hand.
Setting Before the King
Nebuchadnezzar demanded not only the interpretation but the forgotten dream itself from his magicians, astrologers, sorcerers and Chaldeans, to test whether they could truly interpret it, and they confessed that no man on earth could reveal it, insisting they could interpret it only if he first told them what he had dreamed. Daniel asked the king for time and joined Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah in seeking the mercies of the God of heaven for the secret, and the Spirit of the Lord revealed it to Daniel in a night vision. As Daniel related the facts the dream came fresh to the king's mind, and the king recognized it and was prepared to hear its meaning.
God had taken the dream from the king so the wise men could not attach a false interpretation to it, thereby exposing the limits of human wisdom and scientific power. The verse marks the transition from recounting the dream to telling its divine interpretation before the king. In that telling God gave Daniel prophetic understanding to explain future mysteries through symbols in plain form, revealing remarkable events in prophetic history reaching to the close of time and to the end of time.
God revealed the meaning to the dependent Hebrew captives rather than to those captivated by Babylon's splendor, as instruction to help the king out of his difficulty. The revealed interpretation spared Daniel, his companions and the other wise men from death when they were facing death, enabling Daniel to answer the king. That making known of the forgotten dream and turning to tell its interpretation established Daniel as a prophet of God able to make known hidden things, so that many years later the queen-mother remembered it at Belshazzar's feast when Daniel was called to read and interpret the writing on the wall.
Kingdoms Foretold in Image
This is the dream's interpretation: the human-shaped image represents human rule and the kingdoms of men, a prophecy God gave to reveal what would happen in the future through four great empires that would shape the world before the end of human rule on earth. Beginning with Babylon at the height of its power under Nebuchadnezzar, its divisions trace those empires in order to the close of earthly dominion.
The head of gold is Babylon, then so strong and far-reaching that no foe seemed able to take its scepter, yet destined to pass away despite its magnificence and be succeeded by another kingdom. The breast and arms of silver are a second kingdom to follow it, identified as Medo-Persia, and the sides of brass are a third kingdom to follow the second, identified as Greece. The legs and feet and toes of iron mingled with clay are a fourth kingdom, identified as Rome, more fierce, determined and powerful than any before, as strong as iron to subdue and break in pieces all the nations of the world and then crumbling into pieces.
The metals grow less and less pure and valuable from the head down, showing deterioration in power and glory and in morals. That decline came because the kingdoms made void the law of God, turned further from Him and forgot Him, sinking lower and lower in wickedness, blasphemy and corruption. As nations forget God they grow weak morally and spiritually in the same proportion, and the image also fitly represents this deterioration of religion among the people of those kingdoms.
Each empire was allowed its place and given a period of trial to see whether it would exalt the one Ruler, the only true God, and fulfill the purpose of the Watcher and the Holy One. Proved by obedience or disobedience and failing to do this, its glory and power faded and it gave way to another arising at the predicted time to fill its appointed place. Babylon, though then a universal empire, would not last forever but would pass away despite its magnificence and be superseded, showing that earthly kingdoms are temporary and must pass away.
God will establish a kingdom that will never be destroyed, which will supersede all earthly powers and fill the earth. It is represented by the Living Stone and is Christ's eternal kingdom, made known even to idolatrous Babylon as the kingdom the Lord would establish and by His power maintain. It was revealed to uplift and ennoble fallen humanity, ruled not by ascendancy of physical power and coercion but by the Lamb.
God's Rule Over Rulers
The predictions given before the king demonstrate that God is the ruling power in world affairs, changing times and seasons and removing kings and setting up kings to fulfill His own purpose. Hundreds of years beforehand He foretold the rise and fall of universal kingdoms, with Babylon to be superseded by a second kingdom, then a third, then a fourth strong as iron to subdue the nations of the world. Each kingdom was given a period of trial whether it would exalt the one Ruler, the only true God, and failing by obedience or disobedience its glory and power would fade and pass away. Nations arose at the predicted time to fill their appointed place and unconsciously witnessed to truth they did not understand, while His voice sounds down the line from century to century.
Through the interpretation God revealed that Jehovah is more powerful than earthly rulers and kingdoms. He is sovereign over kings and kingdoms to enthrone and remove them, and He reveals what human wisdom cannot. The king recognized the dream as Daniel confirmed it and was prepared to hear its meaning reaching to the end of time. What was foretold about Babylon and the other kingdoms was thus made known before the king as proof of divine power over the kingdoms of the world.
The interpretation was light from God's providence, given in the light of the Scriptures and the living Oracles to exalt Jehovah and to bring God into close contact with idolatrous minds. It was meant to awaken Nebuchadnezzar to his responsibility to Heaven and to show that Babylon's prosperity and power came from God who made it the head of gold. Nebuchadnezzar was shown that the God of heaven is Ruler over all monarchs and kings of earth, that rulers of earthly kingdoms have a Ruler in the heavens, and that His name was to go forth as God over all gods. It was part of the witness of the scattered Hebrew captives shining amid heathen darkness, confirmed by God's rescue of the three captives from the flames, and it made known the kingdom the Lord would establish and by His power maintain to uplift and ennoble fallen humanity, a kingdom ruled not by ascendancy of physical power and coercion but by the Lamb.
The kingdoms represented in the vision show God bringing down proud rulers and human pride and glory and raising up others. God alone is great, and He will establish His everlasting kingdom.
Prophecy Fulfilled and Understood
The interpretation beginning here in Daniel 2:31-45 has been fulfilled with remarkable and wonderful exactness, as seen in historians' records of ancient history and in the rise and fall of kingdoms in the most literal manner. That exact fulfillment provides testimony and proof of the inspiration of Scripture. It gives an anchor for faith against rationalism and skepticism, leading to positive faith. Shown together with the signs of the times, this literal fulfillment gives tangibility to faith in the second coming of Christ and makes a deep impression on those who had no definite idea when the prophecies had their fulfillment.
The prophecy belongs to the sure word of prophecy God gave to guide all who wish to know His will and to make known the things that must shortly come to pass, made known to Daniel by angels and by Christ Himself. It concerns salvation and is not left involved in mystery nor revealed to perplex and mislead the honest seeker after truth. It is plain to all who study it with a prayerful, humble, teachable heart, and every truly honest soul will come by it to the light of truth sown for the righteous.
The prophecies of Daniel are not unknowable mysteries but can be understood, explained, and presented in familiar form as a foundation for Bible teaching and as a means of helping people understand Scripture. Even children can listen, understand, and explain them, and through children grown people can be led to study and understand Scripture. The prophecy is to be studied carefully and applied in the order of its fulfillment, as a connected chain and figurative outline of historical events leading to the close of earth's history. Its study shows that the coming of the Lord is at hand, a solemn truth of great value and importance to be brought before the people.
Warning Misused and Remembered
Daniel's announcement that he would tell the interpretation before the king was light from God's providence to exalt Jehovah as more powerful than every kingdom and to bring God into close contact with idolatrous minds, but Nebuchadnezzar read it through his own idolatrous mind and human understanding instead of reading his dream in the light of the Scriptures and the living Oracles. He took the head of gold as flattery of Babylon and of himself, and instead of heeding its warning that earthly kingdoms would pass away before God's everlasting kingdom fills the earth, he imagined that his own kingdom would grow still greater. He turned the symbol into an all-gold image representing Babylon and especially himself and demanded its worship, turning the dream's symbol into an act of self-exaltation and false worship. That image later became the model for the golden statue he set up.
The dream was to be understood in the light of Scripture, not reshaped to fit human dreams, fancies, ambitions, or the king's idolatrous ideas. Its symbolism was meant to spread knowledge of God and reveal His purpose for the nations and important events of the future, but it could be misinterpreted and misused to glorify human power and hinder that knowledge. Those who do not love and fear God cannot understand the things of God, while Daniel could explain the dream because he served God faithfully and without compromise and because God gives wisdom to His servants to understand divine mysteries.
Babylon passed away because in her prosperity she forgot God and ascribed the honor and glory of her prosperity to human achievements. When men refuse to obey the law of God they are humiliated and tested, and if they do not humble their hearts and confess their sins they receive the penalty of transgression. Nebuchadnezzar himself was humbled and stripped of wisdom until he acknowledged that the God of Israel is able to create and to destroy. Yet Babylon still fell in an hour of feasting and reveling, in 538 B.C. under Nabonadius and his son Belshazzar, in the same generation in which the revelation was given.
Medo-Persia was visited by the wrath of God because in it His law was trampled underfoot, and the kingdoms that followed were even more base and corrupt and deteriorated because they cast God off, sinking lower and lower in moral value as they forgot Him, until the vast empire of Rome crumbled into pieces. The metals grew less pure and valuable from the head down because the kingdoms made void the law of God and forgot God, sinking lower in wickedness, blasphemy, and corruption. While representing the kingdoms of this earth, the image also fitly represents the deterioration of religion, for men grow weak morally and spiritually just in proportion as they forget God. Sin is ruining nations today just as it ruined those kingdoms in the past.
Wisdom for Faithful Living
The rulers could not grasp heaven's warnings because by transgression they had cut themselves off from God, turning to Him as their strength only when harassed and perplexed after their great men had failed them. Those who do not love and fear God cannot understand the things of God.
Daniel could declare the dream and its interpretation before the king because he honored the living God, was illuminated by heavenly light, and served God faithfully and without compromise. God's servants can understand divine mysteries that those who do not fear Him cannot, because God Himself gives them wisdom. Babylon had been granted to Him for His glory as the head of gold, and the dream pointed beyond earthly kingdoms to God's everlasting kingdom.
God took the dream from the king so the wise men could not fasten a false interpretation upon it. Their inability to recall and reveal it stands for learned people in the present day who lack discernment and knowledge from God and therefore cannot understand prophecy. Mere acquisition of worldly knowledge does not make anyone God's representative unless he listens to His word and receives and shares it.
By exposing the Babylonian wise men's inability to recall the dream, God displayed the limits of human wisdom and scientific power and revealed the superior wisdom of those who worship Him. He did so to turn rulers and people away from false sources of help to divine wisdom, revealing the meaning to dependent Hebrew captives rather than to those captivated by Babylon's splendor. The great men of Babylon were willing to be benefited by that instruction to help the king out of his difficulty, yet they wanted to mix their heathen religion with the faith of the Hebrews. Daniel and his three companions refused any such compromise, though compromise would have made them appear complete as statesmen fit to be entrusted with the affairs of the kingdom, and because they stayed true God upheld and honored them.
Their course teaches to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, with all needed things added. It teaches to keep true science and Bible religion in harmony, and to gain learning without being corrupted by error or by mingling with those who do not seek wisdom from God.
This is the dream, and now its divine interpretation will be told before the king, marking the turn from recounting what was seen to explaining its God-given meaning reaching to the close of time. Nebuchadnezzar had demanded both the forgotten dream and its meaning to test his wise men, who confessed no man on earth could reveal it, but Daniel sought mercy of the God of heaven with his companions and received the secret in a night vision, so that as he related it the dream came fresh to the king's mind. God had taken the dream from the king so no false interpretation could be attached to it, exposing the limits of human wisdom and giving prophetic understanding instead to dependent Hebrew captives. What was told was that the image foretold four earthly kingdoms, Babylon the head of gold then Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome deteriorating in glory and morals, followed by God's everlasting kingdom that will never be destroyed and will fill the earth. That revelation shows God rules in world affairs to remove kings and set up kings, and its fulfillment with remarkable exactness in history anchors faith against skepticism and makes plain to the prayerful student that the coming of the Lord is at hand.
Setting Before the King
Nebuchadnezzar demanded not only the interpretation but the forgotten dream itself from his magicians, astrologers, sorcerers and Chaldeans, to test whether they could truly interpret it, and they confessed that no man on earth could reveal it, insisting they could interpret it only if he first told them what he had dreamed. Daniel asked the king for time and joined Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah in seeking the mercies of the God of heaven for the secret, and the Spirit of the Lord revealed it to Daniel in a night vision. As Daniel related the facts the dream came fresh to the king's mind, and the king recognized it and was prepared to hear its meaning.
God had taken the dream from the king so the wise men could not attach a false interpretation to it, thereby exposing the limits of human wisdom and scientific power. The verse marks the transition from recounting the dream to telling its divine interpretation before the king. In that telling God gave Daniel prophetic understanding to explain future mysteries through symbols in plain form, revealing remarkable events in prophetic history reaching to the close of time and to the end of time.
God revealed the meaning to the dependent Hebrew captives rather than to those captivated by Babylon's splendor, as instruction to help the king out of his difficulty. The revealed interpretation spared Daniel, his companions and the other wise men from death when they were facing death, enabling Daniel to answer the king. That making known of the forgotten dream and turning to tell its interpretation established Daniel as a prophet of God able to make known hidden things, so that many years later the queen-mother remembered it at Belshazzar's feast when Daniel was called to read and interpret the writing on the wall.
Kingdoms Foretold in Image
This is the dream's interpretation: the human-shaped image represents human rule and the kingdoms of men, a prophecy God gave to reveal what would happen in the future through four great empires that would shape the world before the end of human rule on earth. Beginning with Babylon at the height of its power under Nebuchadnezzar, its divisions trace those empires in order to the close of earthly dominion.
The head of gold is Babylon, then so strong and far-reaching that no foe seemed able to take its scepter, yet destined to pass away despite its magnificence and be succeeded by another kingdom. The breast and arms of silver are a second kingdom to follow it, identified as Medo-Persia, and the sides of brass are a third kingdom to follow the second, identified as Greece. The legs and feet and toes of iron mingled with clay are a fourth kingdom, identified as Rome, more fierce, determined and powerful than any before, as strong as iron to subdue and break in pieces all the nations of the world and then crumbling into pieces.
The metals grow less and less pure and valuable from the head down, showing deterioration in power and glory and in morals. That decline came because the kingdoms made void the law of God, turned further from Him and forgot Him, sinking lower and lower in wickedness, blasphemy and corruption. As nations forget God they grow weak morally and spiritually in the same proportion, and the image also fitly represents this deterioration of religion among the people of those kingdoms.
Each empire was allowed its place and given a period of trial to see whether it would exalt the one Ruler, the only true God, and fulfill the purpose of the Watcher and the Holy One. Proved by obedience or disobedience and failing to do this, its glory and power faded and it gave way to another arising at the predicted time to fill its appointed place. Babylon, though then a universal empire, would not last forever but would pass away despite its magnificence and be superseded, showing that earthly kingdoms are temporary and must pass away.
God will establish a kingdom that will never be destroyed, which will supersede all earthly powers and fill the earth. It is represented by the Living Stone and is Christ's eternal kingdom, made known even to idolatrous Babylon as the kingdom the Lord would establish and by His power maintain. It was revealed to uplift and ennoble fallen humanity, ruled not by ascendancy of physical power and coercion but by the Lamb.
God's Rule Over Rulers
The predictions given before the king demonstrate that God is the ruling power in world affairs, changing times and seasons and removing kings and setting up kings to fulfill His own purpose. Hundreds of years beforehand He foretold the rise and fall of universal kingdoms, with Babylon to be superseded by a second kingdom, then a third, then a fourth strong as iron to subdue the nations of the world. Each kingdom was given a period of trial whether it would exalt the one Ruler, the only true God, and failing by obedience or disobedience its glory and power would fade and pass away. Nations arose at the predicted time to fill their appointed place and unconsciously witnessed to truth they did not understand, while His voice sounds down the line from century to century.
Through the interpretation God revealed that Jehovah is more powerful than earthly rulers and kingdoms. He is sovereign over kings and kingdoms to enthrone and remove them, and He reveals what human wisdom cannot. The king recognized the dream as Daniel confirmed it and was prepared to hear its meaning reaching to the end of time. What was foretold about Babylon and the other kingdoms was thus made known before the king as proof of divine power over the kingdoms of the world.
The interpretation was light from God's providence, given in the light of the Scriptures and the living Oracles to exalt Jehovah and to bring God into close contact with idolatrous minds. It was meant to awaken Nebuchadnezzar to his responsibility to Heaven and to show that Babylon's prosperity and power came from God who made it the head of gold. Nebuchadnezzar was shown that the God of heaven is Ruler over all monarchs and kings of earth, that rulers of earthly kingdoms have a Ruler in the heavens, and that His name was to go forth as God over all gods. It was part of the witness of the scattered Hebrew captives shining amid heathen darkness, confirmed by God's rescue of the three captives from the flames, and it made known the kingdom the Lord would establish and by His power maintain to uplift and ennoble fallen humanity, a kingdom ruled not by ascendancy of physical power and coercion but by the Lamb.
The kingdoms represented in the vision show God bringing down proud rulers and human pride and glory and raising up others. God alone is great, and He will establish His everlasting kingdom.
Prophecy Fulfilled and Understood
The interpretation beginning here in Daniel 2:31-45 has been fulfilled with remarkable and wonderful exactness, as seen in historians' records of ancient history and in the rise and fall of kingdoms in the most literal manner. That exact fulfillment provides testimony and proof of the inspiration of Scripture. It gives an anchor for faith against rationalism and skepticism, leading to positive faith. Shown together with the signs of the times, this literal fulfillment gives tangibility to faith in the second coming of Christ and makes a deep impression on those who had no definite idea when the prophecies had their fulfillment.
The prophecy belongs to the sure word of prophecy God gave to guide all who wish to know His will and to make known the things that must shortly come to pass, made known to Daniel by angels and by Christ Himself. It concerns salvation and is not left involved in mystery nor revealed to perplex and mislead the honest seeker after truth. It is plain to all who study it with a prayerful, humble, teachable heart, and every truly honest soul will come by it to the light of truth sown for the righteous.
The prophecies of Daniel are not unknowable mysteries but can be understood, explained, and presented in familiar form as a foundation for Bible teaching and as a means of helping people understand Scripture. Even children can listen, understand, and explain them, and through children grown people can be led to study and understand Scripture. The prophecy is to be studied carefully and applied in the order of its fulfillment, as a connected chain and figurative outline of historical events leading to the close of earth's history. Its study shows that the coming of the Lord is at hand, a solemn truth of great value and importance to be brought before the people.
Warning Misused and Remembered
Daniel's announcement that he would tell the interpretation before the king was light from God's providence to exalt Jehovah as more powerful than every kingdom and to bring God into close contact with idolatrous minds, but Nebuchadnezzar read it through his own idolatrous mind and human understanding instead of reading his dream in the light of the Scriptures and the living Oracles. He took the head of gold as flattery of Babylon and of himself, and instead of heeding its warning that earthly kingdoms would pass away before God's everlasting kingdom fills the earth, he imagined that his own kingdom would grow still greater. He turned the symbol into an all-gold image representing Babylon and especially himself and demanded its worship, turning the dream's symbol into an act of self-exaltation and false worship. That image later became the model for the golden statue he set up.
The dream was to be understood in the light of Scripture, not reshaped to fit human dreams, fancies, ambitions, or the king's idolatrous ideas. Its symbolism was meant to spread knowledge of God and reveal His purpose for the nations and important events of the future, but it could be misinterpreted and misused to glorify human power and hinder that knowledge. Those who do not love and fear God cannot understand the things of God, while Daniel could explain the dream because he served God faithfully and without compromise and because God gives wisdom to His servants to understand divine mysteries.
Babylon passed away because in her prosperity she forgot God and ascribed the honor and glory of her prosperity to human achievements. When men refuse to obey the law of God they are humiliated and tested, and if they do not humble their hearts and confess their sins they receive the penalty of transgression. Nebuchadnezzar himself was humbled and stripped of wisdom until he acknowledged that the God of Israel is able to create and to destroy. Yet Babylon still fell in an hour of feasting and reveling, in 538 B.C. under Nabonadius and his son Belshazzar, in the same generation in which the revelation was given.
Medo-Persia was visited by the wrath of God because in it His law was trampled underfoot, and the kingdoms that followed were even more base and corrupt and deteriorated because they cast God off, sinking lower and lower in moral value as they forgot Him, until the vast empire of Rome crumbled into pieces. The metals grew less pure and valuable from the head down because the kingdoms made void the law of God and forgot God, sinking lower in wickedness, blasphemy, and corruption. While representing the kingdoms of this earth, the image also fitly represents the deterioration of religion, for men grow weak morally and spiritually just in proportion as they forget God. Sin is ruining nations today just as it ruined those kingdoms in the past.
Wisdom for Faithful Living
The rulers could not grasp heaven's warnings because by transgression they had cut themselves off from God, turning to Him as their strength only when harassed and perplexed after their great men had failed them. Those who do not love and fear God cannot understand the things of God.
Daniel could declare the dream and its interpretation before the king because he honored the living God, was illuminated by heavenly light, and served God faithfully and without compromise. God's servants can understand divine mysteries that those who do not fear Him cannot, because God Himself gives them wisdom. Babylon had been granted to Him for His glory as the head of gold, and the dream pointed beyond earthly kingdoms to God's everlasting kingdom.
God took the dream from the king so the wise men could not fasten a false interpretation upon it. Their inability to recall and reveal it stands for learned people in the present day who lack discernment and knowledge from God and therefore cannot understand prophecy. Mere acquisition of worldly knowledge does not make anyone God's representative unless he listens to His word and receives and shares it.
By exposing the Babylonian wise men's inability to recall the dream, God displayed the limits of human wisdom and scientific power and revealed the superior wisdom of those who worship Him. He did so to turn rulers and people away from false sources of help to divine wisdom, revealing the meaning to dependent Hebrew captives rather than to those captivated by Babylon's splendor. The great men of Babylon were willing to be benefited by that instruction to help the king out of his difficulty, yet they wanted to mix their heathen religion with the faith of the Hebrews. Daniel and his three companions refused any such compromise, though compromise would have made them appear complete as statesmen fit to be entrusted with the affairs of the kingdom, and because they stayed true God upheld and honored them.
Their course teaches to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, with all needed things added. It teaches to keep true science and Bible religion in harmony, and to gain learning without being corrupted by error or by mingling with those who do not seek wisdom from God.