Daniel 2:41, commentary and pictures

The feet and toes of iron mixed with miry clay mean the kingdom would be divided, yet retaining some of the strength of iron in a mixture of strength and weakness. The ten toes are the division of Rome into ten kingdoms between A.D. 356 and 483 by barbarian incursions, which would never reunite despite attempts by leaders such as Charlemagne and Napoleon, just as iron does not mix with clay. The descent from gold to iron mixed with clay shows the kingdoms sinking lower in value because they separated from God, trampled His law and sought human strength, growing ever more base, corrupt and crumbling. God rules over all these kingdoms, removing kings and setting up kings to fulfill His purpose, permitting each its time of test and bringing its glory to nothing when it fails in obedience, while only Christ's kingdom will stand forever. In its present application the mingling of iron and clay is the mingling of churchcraft and statecraft, especially in upholding the spurious Sabbath above God's seventh-day Sabbath and thus making void His law, which weakens the churches and brings judgment.

Dream Setting and History

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon dreamed a dream he could not bring to remembrance when he awoke, and he called the magicians and astrologers and sorcerers and Chaldeans to tell him the dream. They had no light and could only ask the king to tell the dream first, then confessed that none but the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh could show the matter. The king threatened them with death and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel desired time of the king, and with Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah desired mercies of the God of heaven concerning the secret, and the Spirit of the Lord rested upon them and the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. As Daniel related the facts the dream came fresh to the king's mind, and the interpretation was given showing the remarkable events that were to transpire in prophetic history.

The dream belongs to most interesting and important history, whose historical events mattered to Nebuchadnezzar and whose lessons God gave for people living in later times. It was withheld from the wise men so they could not use their claimed knowledge of mysteries to give it a false interpretation. Their failure represents learned people who lack discernment from God and therefore cannot understand prophecy.

The interpretation was opened to the Hebrew captives as exiles in a strange land who made God their only dependence, and was not shown to those charmed by the splendor of Babylon. The same precious lessons of heaven and treasures and glories of the eternal world are opened to those who refuse to be charmed by things of time and sense and who come out from the world and are separate in faithful performance of assigned duties, even to separated, faithful medical missionaries. It first silenced the wise men of Babylon by placing them where they had to acknowledge their inability to revive the king's forgotten dream, showing the wisdom of men to be folly and the inefficiency of their scientific power against the superior wisdom possessed by those who worship God, to lead princes and people from broken cisterns to the living fountain by the divine science of eternity. That interpretation gave the great men of Babylon help from God through Daniel, though they wanted to blend their heathen religion with the Hebrews' faith.

Daniel explained the dream in the light of Scripture, for the dream showed God's power over earthly kingdoms. He interpreted it in the light of the Scriptures and the living Oracles, with Jehovah exalted as more powerful than any other kingdom, and with light given even to idolater minds for a purpose when God in providence brought the idolatrous king into reasoning relation with Daniel. All, king or subjects, are to read their dreams in the light of the Oracles and Providence, not read Scripture and Providence in the light of their dreams and human understanding.

Nebuchadnezzar was told he was the image's head of gold, then read the interpretation in accordance with his own idolatrous mind and brought it into harmony with his human understanding. He supposed Babylon's excellence sufficient authority to convert all nations. In defiance of the dream's message he chose to make an image entirely of gold, set up in the plain of Dura representing the kingdom of Babylon and more particularly the king of Babylon and himself. The dream's warning about Babylon was fulfilled when Babylon fell during a feast, at an hour of feasting and revelling.

Babylon, the head of gold, was a kingdom God had given for His glory, but the image also showed the end of earthly kingdoms and the establishment of God's everlasting kingdom. That divine purpose stands in contrast to Nebuchadnezzar's prideful ambition to make his kingdom more extensive and powerful.

Divided Kingdom Meaning

The feet and toes formed of iron mixed with miry clay signify a kingdom divided, yet retaining in itself some of the strength of the iron. It is a mingled condition of strength and weakness, iron strength persisting alongside clay. The ten toes signify the breaking of Rome into ten kingdoms, a division accomplished between A.D. 356 and 483.

The iron denotes Rome's strength, and the iron mixed with clay denotes its broken divisions. Those divisions came through barbarian incursions from northern and eastern Europe in the fourth century, which broke Rome permanently. Efforts to reunite the European divisions by intermarriage and by military force, including those under Charlemagne and under Napoleon, failed, for the parts would not hold together any more than iron mixes with clay. That division was fulfilled when Rome's vast empire crumbled into pieces, and the present earthly powers figured by the toes stand in a divided, crumbling condition that will not hold together, pointing to the nearness of the great day of God.

Prophecy Fulfillment Confirmed

This part of the prophecy is not an unknowable mystery but can be understood, and it can be presented so plainly that even children can listen, understand and explain it and thereby draw grown people to study it. It was given hundreds of years before the nations came upon the stage of action, foretelling under dictation of the Holy Spirit the peoples coming upon the stage and the kingdoms that would rise and fall. Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian kingdom would have its day and be superseded, followed by a second kingdom, then a third kingdom occupying its place, then a fourth kingdom strong as iron to subdue the nations of the world, with Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome each occupying its place in succession for its period of test and trial.

Its fulfillment has taken place with wonderful exactness in the most literal manner, as seen in the historian's record and confirmed by the signs of the times. That exact, literal fulfillment in the rise and fall of kingdoms in connected chain is a testimony to the inspiration of the Scriptures and an anchor against skepticism and rationalism. Showing this literal fulfillment gives tangibility to faith and makes a deep impression even on those who have been interested in the prophecies but have had no definite idea when they were fulfilled. Study of this prophecy leads to positive faith and to the belief that the coming of the Lord is at hand, a solemn and important truth to be brought before the people.

Its figures and symbols record events in the history of the world through the close of time, tracing the rise and course of the world's great empires. The visions given to Daniel are in process of fulfillment, and the events foretold will soon be complete as God establishes His everlasting kingdom.

God Rules Moral Decline

The dream declares that God is the ruling power in world affairs, ruling over all kingdoms and mightier than any earthly ruler, who changes the times and seasons and removes kings and sets up kings to fulfill His own purpose. Hundreds of years before the nations came upon the stage of action it was foretold that Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon would have its day and be superseded, then a second kingdom, then a third, then a fourth strong as iron to subdue the nations, with each arising at the predicted time to fill its appointed place. Each empire is permitted to occupy its place only for a period of test and trial whether it will exalt the one Ruler, the only true God, and is proved by obedience or disobedience, with all human merit consisting in obedience to God's requirements. History shows God bringing down mighty rulers and setting up others, humbling human pride and bringing human glory to nothing, so that Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome each in turn failed, faded in glory and lost power to another.

The great image is a prophecy of the kingdoms of men and what shall come to pass, in which the feet and toes divided yet retaining some of the strength of iron show that earthly kingdoms are temporary and must pass away. Babylon's universal empire would fall and other kingdoms rule in succession until every earthly power was replaced, while only Christ's kingdom, represented by the Living Stone, is eternal and fills the earth. That coming kingdom is Christ's, whose character is to uplift and ennoble fallen humanity rather than to rule by ascendancy of physical power, banishing every carnal weapon and instrument of coercion under the ensign of a lamb. It is the kingdom the Lord establishes and through His power maintains against all the power and craft of Satan, with rulers of earthly kingdoms shown to have a Ruler in the heavens whose name goes forth as God over all gods, and its light is to shine from faithful watchmen in these last days with the accumulated light of centuries.

The metals from head to feet become less and less pure and valuable, gold and silver and brass followed by iron mixed with clay, meaning the kingdoms represented deteriorated in value and sank lower and lower. That deterioration is moral, seen in growing immorality as the result of making void the law of God, failing to keep His fear before them, separating from God by transgression, and seeking human strength instead of the wisdom and power that would have bound them together and kept them strong. Babylon passed away because in prosperity her rulers forgot God and ascribed honor to human achievement, the Medo-Persian kingdom was visited by wrath because God's law was trampled underfoot, the kingdoms that followed became even more base and corrupt because they cast off God, and the vast empire of Rome crumbled into pieces filled with immorality, wickedness, blasphemy and corruption. The same mingling of iron with miry clay fitly represents deterioration of religion as well, for men grow weak morally and spiritually just in proportion as they forget God.

Present Warning and Duty

In its present application the iron mixed with miry clay is the mingling of churchcraft and statecraft, the investing of the church with the power of the state and the uniting of political strength with the papacy. The iron retains strength, but this union weakens all the power of the churches and will bring evil results. God's sacred work is now represented by the feet where iron is mixed with miry clay, showing this present time.

In particular it means statesmen upholding the spurious sabbath, the child of the papacy, mingling religious faith with its observance and placing it above the seventh-day Sabbath which God sanctified and blessed as the sign between Him and His people. By this exaltation of the spurious sabbath above the true they make void God's law. If the government honored the Sabbath as God commanded, it would stand in the strength of God and in defense of the faith once delivered to the saints. Men by this union have almost passed the point of God's forbearance, and the time will come when God will punish those who have made void His law, and their evil work will recoil upon themselves.

God's chosen people in this time of the feet must have sanctified discernment and loyalty to the commandments, with the seventh-day Sabbath as the distinguishing feature of faith. They are not to lay wood, hay, and stubble upon the foundation. The symbolic prophecy reveals important future events among the nations. Yet its truth can be misinterpreted and misused to promote human power and to obstruct the knowledge God intends the world to receive, so that truth used to exalt self and advance human plans becomes a force for evil.