Daniel 2:40, commentary and pictures

The fourth kingdom is Rome, the fourth universal empire in succession after Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. It is strong as iron, more fierce and powerful than the kingdoms before it, breaking in pieces, crushing, subduing and bruising the nations of the world. That iron strength shows earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendancy of physical power, in contrast to the Messiah's kingdom which uplifts humanity without carnal weapons or coercion. Each empire was given a period of trial to exalt the one true God, but Rome trampled His law and sank into wickedness and corruption until its glory faded and its power crumbled into pieces. After these temporal kingdoms pass away in succession, God will set up Christ's kingdom represented by the Living Stone, which will break and consume all these kingdoms and endure forever.

Dream Setting and Revelation

The dream came soon after Daniel and his companions entered the king's service, and God gave its interpretation through Daniel to help the king out of his difficulty and to rescue Daniel and the other wise men from death. That interpretation had been given more than half a century before later events in Babylon. The events surrounding the dream revealed the power and faithfulness of the God of Israel to an idolatrous nation.

The dream reveals what kingdoms of men will come to pass, with God making the future known through the dream and its interpretation. It is a symbolic revelation of future events in world history, taught to Daniel to understand and record for later generations through the close of time. It is a figurative outline of historical events leading to the close of earth's history, whose waymarks must be guarded and whose events must be correctly applied in their order.

The dream was opened to the Hebrew captives who felt themselves exiles in a strange land with God as their only dependence, not to those charmed by the splendor of Babylon. God first silenced the wise men of Babylon by requiring them to revive the king's forgotten dream in his mind, placing them where they had to acknowledge their inability and the inefficiency of their scientific power. This was in order to show human wisdom to be folly and to show the superior wisdom possessed by those who worship Him. By revealing the divine science of eternity He sought to lead princes and people from broken cisterns to the living fountain. The same treasures of eternity and glories of the eternal world are revealed today to medical missionaries who refuse to be charmed by things of time and sense and who come out from the world and are separate while faithfully performing their assigned duties. The failure of Babylon's wise men to reveal the dream represents the failure of learned people who lack knowledge from God to understand prophecy, whose lessons God gave for people living in the present day.

The interpretation exalted Jehovah as more powerful than earthly rulers and than every earthly kingdom. It showed the God of heaven as Ruler over all monarchs and kings of earth, God over all gods, with rulers of earthly kingdoms having a Ruler in the heavens. God's providence incessantly working over human affairs brought the idolatrous king into reasoning relation with Daniel for that purpose, reaching even idolatrous minds. The idolatrous nation was given knowledge of the kingdom the Lord was to establish and by His power maintain against all the power and craft of Satan. All, king or subjects, are to read dreams and providence in the light of the living Oracles and the Scriptures, not read Scripture in the light of dreams, for Daniel interpreted the dream in the light of the Scriptures.

Nebuchadnezzar perverted that light by reading the interpretation through his own idolatrous mind and human understanding and ambitions to exalt Babylon and himself. He set up a golden image identified with the dream's image to convert all nations to worship the excellence of Babylon, presenting an earthly object of worship in place of God. The image was meant to make God's purpose known, but it was rejected and misused to glorify human power and hinder the spread of God's knowledge. Despite that defiance, the prophesied fall of Babylon still came at an hour of feasting and revelling.

God gave this prophetic history to Daniel in pictures and symbols, appealing to understanding through sight so lessons could be given to the people and understood better than in any other way. These symbols were to be represented plainly upon tables so that he who reads can understand. God's own use of such pictures and symbols shows that picture-making itself is not sin and is not prohibited by the second commandment, which prohibits image worship.

Fourth Kingdom Strong Iron

The fourth kingdom is the fourth universal empire in succession after Babylon, following Babylon and the two kingdoms after it in the order Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. It is Rome, represented by the iron legs of the image within metallic divisions portraying four great world-moulding empires before the end of human dominion, with Babylon as the head of gold.

That fourth kingdom is strong as iron, stronger, more fierce, determined, forceful and powerful than the kingdoms before it. Like iron that breaks in pieces, crushes, subdues and bruises all things, it subdued and broke in pieces the nations of the world and held sway over the earth with crushing power. Its iron represents strength to subdue the nations of the world, and its power and place in history remained subject to God's rule by which kingdoms rise and fall according to His purpose.

The iron strength means earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendancy of physical power, breaking in pieces and subduing, while the Messiah's kingdom is marked by a lamb and is to be established to uplift and ennoble fallen humanity, banishing every carnal weapon and every instrument of coercion. The later image of iron mixed with clay shows that this kingdom would become divided, partly strong and partly broken.

Decline and Testing of Empires

The metals of the image decrease in value from the gold head downward, and that descent signifies a decline in power and glory and in moral worth and value. The nations represented grow less valuable as they separate further from God, casting off allegiance to Him and to His law and forgetting Him, and as they forget God they grow morally weak. Within that declining succession the fourth kingdom is stronger and more forceful than those before it, fierce, determined and powerful, subduing nations and breaking them in pieces like iron.

The kingdoms that followed Babylon and Medo-Persia became even more base and corrupt, sinking lower and still lower in the scale of moral worth. Rome, the vast iron empire, cast God off and forgot Him and trampled the law of God under foot, so that wickedness, blasphemy and corruption prevailed in it and it sank lower than the kingdoms that preceded it until it crumbled into pieces. Its physical strength therefore went together with moral deterioration.

Each empire was allowed a period of trial to prove whether it would exalt the one Ruler, the only true God, and its place and continuance turned on obedience or disobedience. Each failed, lost its glory and power, and was replaced by another, and Rome likewise failed to fulfill God's purposes so its glory faded and its power departed. That succession shows God alone supreme, humbling human pride, bringing rulers down and setting others up and laying human glory in the dust as He moves history toward His everlasting kingdom. The rise of the fourth universal kingdom after Babylon and the two after it was predicted hundreds of years before it came upon the stage of action, demonstrating 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 by bringing nations forward at the predicted time to fill their appointed place, with the prophecy pointing also to events fulfilled in the last days.

Fulfillment and Everlasting Kingdom

The prophecy to which the iron kingdom belongs has been fulfilled with wonderful exactness, in the most literal manner, in the record of ancient history in the rise and fall of kingdoms together with the signs of the times, at definite times and at a definite time. This exact and literal fulfillment testifies to the inspiration of the Scriptures and gives an anchor for faith amid rationalism and skepticism. Shown plainly to those with no clear idea of the connected chain, that definite historical fulfillment gives tangibility to faith in the second coming of Christ and makes a deep impression on those interested in prophecy but without definite knowledge of when it was fulfilled.

The rise of the fourth kingdom was predicted hundreds of years before it came upon the stage of action to fill its appointed place in the succession after Babylon and the two kingdoms after it. The rise and fall of kingdoms is known beforehand by God and foretold through His prophets, and rulers who think they are carrying out their own purposes nevertheless fulfill His word and plan. Kingdoms rise and fall according to His purpose, for God is the ruling power in the affairs of the world who changes times and seasons and removes kings and sets up kings to fulfill His own purpose, bringing nations forward at the predicted time. Like the kingdoms before it, the iron kingdom was given a period of trial to prove whether it would exalt the one Ruler, the only true God, with its place and continuance turning on obedience or disobedience.

Earthly kingdoms are temporal and must pass away, with Babylon to fall and other earthly kingdoms to rule in succession until God sets up a kingdom that supersedes all earthly powers. That kingdom will never be destroyed or pass away but will fill the earth, which is Christ's kingdom represented by the Living Stone. The stone kingdom set up by God will ultimately break and consume all these kingdoms, including the powerful and destructive fourth kingdom and its later divided form of iron mixed with clay, partly strong and partly broken, and will endure forever. Nebuchadnezzar's golden image defied that message by presenting an earthly object of worship in place of God.

The fourth empire passes away in connection with the coming of Christ and the illustrious establishment of His kingdom at the expiry of the great prophetic periods of Daniel and John about this age of the world, including the 2300 days. That passing away does not mean the physical conflagration of the world at that time, nor a spiritual coming of Christ in the power of the gospel, the outpouring of the Spirit, and providence for the moral regeneration and conversion of the world. The vision shows the course of history toward the end in a figurative outline of events leading to the close of earth's history, whose waymarks must be guarded and whose events must be correctly applied in their order, with kingdoms of decreasing value beginning with Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom as the head of gold. In that succession God alone is supreme, humbling human pride, bringing rulers down and setting others up as He moves history toward His everlasting kingdom, with events being fulfilled in the last days.

Warning and Moral Application

The fourth kingdom is the vast empire of Rome with iron power to subdue all things. Like the kingdoms before it, it trampled the law of God under foot, and wickedness, blasphemy and corruption prevailed in it, so that it sank lower in moral value because it cast God off and forgot Him and became even more base and corrupt than the kingdoms that preceded it, until it crumbled into pieces. The image represents the decline of earthly kingdoms in power and glory and the decline of religion and morality among their peoples. Its history fitly pictures deterioration of religion, that moral and spiritual weakness grows just in proportion as God is forgotten, and as nations forget God they grow morally weak.

In Rome physical strength went together with moral deterioration, because it cast off God, trampled His law, and sank lower and lower through wickedness, blasphemy and corruption until the vast empire crumbled into pieces. It was strong as iron, more fierce, determined and powerful than any kingdom before it, subduing and breaking in pieces all nations. That same iron strength therefore teaches that when men forget God and refuse to obey His law they grow weak morally and spiritually. They are humiliated and tested by God, and receive the penalty of transgression if they do not humble their hearts and confess their sins.