Daniel 2

Daniel was an unusual person. First of all, he was a teenager no older than 17 years of age, and he's described as someone who has an excellent spirit. In other words, his spirit excelled. It was a top priority, not just that he was a good spirited individual, but his spirit excelled, he was an excellent spirited kid. You know? It's always some encouraging to me to see teenagers turned on for Jesus Christ. There's so much zeal, so much potential. And, you know, sometimes people look at age as a deficit, not at all. The eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the entirety to show Himself strong and those whose hearts are turned toward Him are loyal to Him. God is looking for people to use, he doesn't have age qualifications, young or old, there's not an age that you reach where you're too old to be used or too young to be used.

And I found that maturity doesn't always come with age. I've known very young people who are spiritually mature and the flip side of the coin, I've met older people who are immature spiritually. It's not a guarantee of spiritual wisdom nor maturity. And Daniel had it hard. The day when he was taken from his family they were left in Jerusalem where they were split up, and he and his friends were taken away to the courts of Babylon. He probably was thinking, God, why would you let this happen? What will be my future? It's all over. But he was committed to his God, he prayed to his God, he didn't waver, he was a man of great conviction.

And God honored him with great position. And we're going to see how that position comes about in chapter 2 of the book of Daniel. And we also get a glimpse into the future. Keep in mind that the ancient peoples often believed in fatalism, that history repeats itself in meaningless cycles and it goes nowhere, and it's folly to try to change it. You just go with it, it's going to go somewhere and it just repeats itself, you just go with it.

But the Bible reveals that history is going somewhere and will consummate in an age called The kingdom Age and that God is in control of history and history is merely His story, it's God's story and God can speak history in advance. That's basically what prophecy is, is God tells you the history of the world in advance. And we see in chapter two a succession of kingdoms is foretold by Daniel because of a dream that Nebuchadnezzar gets as he's wondering about the future.

You know? I've always been interested in prophecy, I've seen it as a tremendous evangelistic tool. First of all, the first time I went through the scripture prophetically I was amazed at the detail. God doesn't guess or use approximation, He's so detailed. And because of the details, people have looked at the Book of Daniel and said it has got to have been written-- had to have been written after the fact. It's impossible to write about such detail in advance. There?

Was a professor of Westman college in Santa Barbara, California years ago named Peter Stoner. He wrote a book called Science Speaks and he took the prophecies concerning Jesus Christ. Now, there are about 300 to 330 prophecies concerning Jesus Christ in the Scripture, where he would come from, what he would do, his lineage, his parentage, the things that would occur in his life, at his death, and so forth. Being a Christian, he decided that he would map out statistically the probabilities of any person fulfilling the processes that Jesus fulfilled. And so he used being a mathematician and the dean of the math and science department, his applied times.

Anytime he made a prediction, the more details you add to the prediction, you decrease your odds of fulfillment exponentially. If I predict that there will be an earthquake next year, what are my odds? One in two. Pretty good. Well, if I say there'll be an earthquake somewhere on Earth-- but let's say I said there'll be an earthquake in Albuquerque next year. My odds are either it's going to happen or it's not going to happen. It's roughly one in two. Every detail that I add, I decrease my odds. If I say it will happen on February the 6th of 1992, then it's like one in four. If I add another detail, it'll be after 12:00 noon, one in eight. If I successfully add 10 details to my prediction, the odds of fulfillment are about one in 1,024.

And Peter Stoner took some of the major prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. And he said the odds of one man fulfilling the major 10 or 12 prophecies would be one in 10 to the 17th power. And then he drew or he wrote a description of what that would mean, that you could take that number, 10 to the 17th power, and let's say you transferred that number into silver dollars or coins, you could cover the entire state of Texas two feet thick filled with silver dollars. The odds of one man finding the silver dollar that you have selected, preselected, you painted it orange or something, the odds of one man blindfolded going through Texas finding the one silver dollar would be the same odds of the prophets predicting those 10 or 12 major processes that Jesus fulfilled providing they wrote about them in their own power and strength.

Then he said, the odds of one man in history fulfilling 48 of the processes that Jesus fulfilled would be one in 10 to the 157th power. And so he says silver dollars are too big for the equation, we have to use electrons. And he went on and on. He said, if you take one linear inch of electrons stacked side by side and you were to count one linear inch of electrons at the rate of 250 electrons per minute, it would take you 19 million years.

And if you were to count a cubic inch of electrons, it would take you 19 million cube years, 19 million times 19 million times 19 million years. Roughly the number 1 in 10 to the 157th power. Select an electron, blindfold somebody, have them find it using all the sophisticated equipment and electron microscopes available to them. The odds of somebody isolating the preselected electron would be 1 in 10 to the 157th power. That's 48 prophecies. Jesus fulfilled over 300. So it would be foolishness to say, well, you know, it was a coincidence, these prophecies and their fulfillment. You'd have to be an egghead to think that.

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Prophecy, history written in advance, some of the most amazing predictions about kingdoms rising, kingdoms falling and the succession of Gentile powers are found in Daniel chapter two. And it's interesting that Daniel has been attacked as much as it has. Man is naturally a skeptic. If any other ancient book, like Shakespeare, were attacked for textual evidence, attacked like the Book of the Bible, it could not stand, it'd be torn to shreds. There's more textual evidence for the Bible, manuscript evidence, prophetic evidence, than any other document. And it could stand on its own. Truth is its own best defense. And the Bible has withstood years of that kind of criticism.

We read about in verse one of chapter two in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. Just to refresh your memory, Nebuchadnezzar had a father, his name was Nabopolassar. Strange names, but we're talking about a whole different part of the world, we're talking about Chaldea now. And Nabo had a son, Neby,

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And they were doing pretty good at taking over parts of the world until the Egyptians, under pharaoh Necho decided, that they wanted to get involved. And so Nabopolassar sent Nebuchadnezzar to Carchemish to have a battle. Nebuchadnezzar was defeating the Egyptians hands down and he heard that his father was sick, in fact, near death and his dad died that Summer. On his way back, because some of the kings of Judea were wanting to get involved in the battle, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Judea, threatened Jerusalem, and the first deportation of Jews took place, in which Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were taken into Chaldea in to babble.

Now, in the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him. The king gave the command to call magicians and astrologers and sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. And so they came and stood before the king and the king said to them, I've had a dream and my spirit is anxious to know the dream. And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, oh, king, live forever, tell your servants the dream and we will give its interpretation.

Either Nebuchadnezzar did remember his dream and all he was left with is that he was troubled, or one of two things. Either he remembered his dream or he didn't. If he remembered his dream, he wasn't telling his men so that they would prove their worth because they were on the king's payroll, or he remembered that something troubled him and it troubled him so much but he didn't remember any of the details. You've ever had a dream where you wake up just agitated, troubled, but you don't really remember what it was you dreamed?

Depending on which text of Daniel you read, you could come up with one of those interpretations. I think he knew his dream all along And he didn't tell it to his wise men because, you know, you could tell somebody your dream and they can come up with any fanciful interpretation, that's easy, especially when your job is on the line. These people were paid to interpret dreams. And I could tell you, last night I dreamed that a pig came and attacked my family, and then a neighbor came and shot it. Oh, well, the pig represents your old boss and your neighbor represents-- you could come up with anything. So he withheld it and he said, if you're really worth anything, you'll be able to tell me what I've dreamed and the interpretation.

Well, most of you know the story. But it's interesting that God reveals to a pagan king the future of the Gentile nations. He was wondering what the future was going to behold. And it's interesting that his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. What a horrible position it would be to have tremendous power like Nebuchadnezzar. Some people really aspire for high positions, like, I'd like to be president. Well, God bless you, man, but I wouldn't. That kind of pressure, that kind ' responsibility. This guy is the ruler over the known world and he has this troubling dream, he wonders what it's about.

The king gave the commandments to the magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans. These were all lumped into one group called seers. They were officials. They dabbled in charms, in herbs, in reading the stars, and using occultism to determine the future. So Nebuchadnezzar used all of hi8s available resources to find out what the dream was. It's interesting that Daniel was among this group of seers, though he did not dabble in witchcraft, and at this point no doubt he was still in training rather than being an official. Remember he had a three-year training session before he was allowed to practice his job.

Some scholars go so far as to say that it was Daniel who got together a group of people, sort of a priesthood, and was given special revelation that was passed down to this group so that 400 years later, their descendants would travel westward following a star to Bethlehem called magi, for this is the area that they came from. And it could be that they were tipped off by Daniel as to the coming of the Messiah because Daniel was given such a clear prophetic plan. We don't know.

The king said to them, I've had a dream and my spirit is anxious to know the dream. the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic. Now, from chapter two verse fours all the way to chapter seven verse 28, the book of Daniel is not written in Hebrew, it is written in Aramaic because this the focus, the spectrum of prophecy deals with Gentile nations, not the nation of Israel, but the future of Gentile nations, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and so forth.

Aramaic was the official language of Chaldea, the Babylonian Empire, and it was spoken by the Jews because of the captivity. In fact, even when the Jews returned to Jerusalem, they still speak Aramaic. It was only the scholars that speak Hebrew. At the time of Jesus, people were still speaking Aramaic, though the Greeks had a tremendous language influence. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, my decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me and its interpretation, I'll cut you in pieces and your houses is shall be made an ash heap. Again, these guys were on the payroll.

This was something that troubled him so much he thought, you know, I pay these guys big bucks, I'm going to see if they're worth what I pay them. Now, you say, this is kind of a harsh commandment and harsh responsibility as it is. And Nebuchadnezzar was kind of known for that. It's recorded in secular history that Nebuchadnezzar would roast his enemies over a slow fire. We know from the Bible that Nebuchadnezzar put the eyes of Zedekiah out after killing his sons in front of them. He throws people in the court into fiery furnaces. We read about in chapter three. He wasn't Mr. Milquetoast, he was a harsh autocrat.

So, I'll cut you in pieces and your houses will be made an ash heap. However, if you tell the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts, rewards, and great honor. Therefore, tell me the dream and its interpretation. And they answered again, and they said, let the king tell the servants the dream and we'll give its interpretation. I'd say that too if Nebuchadnezzar said what he said to me. The king answered and said, I know for certain that you are trying to gain time because you see that my decision is firm. Now, these seers or magicians in the king's court had manuals on dream interpretation complete with symbols on each page telling the interpretation of common symbols that people see in dreams.

And so they thought, look, tell us your dream, we'll look it up in the book and we'll tell you. He said, now, you're just trying to get time in. The king answered and said, I know for certain that you would gain time because you see that my decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me, there is only one decree for you, for I have agreed to speak-- for you have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the time has changed. Therefore, tell me the dream and I shall know that you can give its interpretation. And the Chaldeans answered the king and said, there's not a man on Earth who can tell the king's matter, therefore, no king, lord, or ruler has ever asked such a thing of any magician, astrologer, or Chaldean.

Now, they were right. They were right. No man on Earth apart from God's revelation and strength is able to pull it off. Now, that's my own little parenthetical statement there. , But what a testimony, really, to God in this chapter. Here, Nebuchadnezzar has around him the sum of all wisdom available to him, all intelligence, strength, human resources, they were the best, the cream of the crop, but human resources were completely inept at providing answers. And you know there's a lesson for us in that, It is impossible for us to know the will or the plan of God, the future, or to make sense out of life apart from divine revelation.

Have you ever met a person who says, you know, I picture God as such and such. Or, you know, in my mind God is like-- and they'll give you their own interpretation of what they think God is like. Well, so what? What gives you the right to picture God as a certain way apart from God's revelation of who He is? They couldn't figure out or arrange God's will. It's a difficult thing, verse 11, that the king requires, and there's no other who can tell it to the king except the gods-- take off the s, put a capital G in there, take out "the," and you'd have it accurate-- whose dwelling is not with flesh. For this reason, the king was angry, very furious, and he gave a command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree went out, they began killing the wise men and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them.

You may want to keep your finger here and turn back to the Book of Isaiah and look at a passage of scripture in Isaiah chapter 41. Isaiah 41. In verse 21, this is God's challenge, and God is challenging his people who are prone to worship the false idols and the false gods of nations around them and the gods themselves that the people are worshipping. He says present your case as the Lord, bring forth your strong reasons, says the king of Jacob, let them bring forth and show what will happen. Let them show the former things what they were. That we may consider them and know the latter end of them or declare to us things to come. Show us or show the things that are to come hereafter, that we might know that you are gods. Yes, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed and see it together. Indeed, you are nothing and your work is nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.

It's God's challenge. Put your money where your mouth is, false gods. If you're really great, you ought to be able to speak the future in advance. You ought to be able to tell us revelation. There are two presuppositions of the Bible, at least two. There's certainly more, but first of all, is that God exists. The Bible takes that for granted. And secondly, that God reveals himself to men. Several scriptures point that out. One is in the book of Hebrews. God who, at different times and in different manners, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his only son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom also he made the worlds. That scripture assumes God exists and it assumes that God reveals Himself to man.

Another scripture in Hebrews. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. And he that comes to God must first movie set He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Again, the same two assumptions, God exists and God reveals Himself. Daniel chapter two makes those same assumption, God exists, God reveals himself to those who seek him, those who are in tune with him. And so the well is dry. All of the wise men, all of the Chaldeans, they said, it's impossible, king. What you're asking is totally impossible, we can't pull it off. And so the decree went out. They began snuffing the wise men, they looked for Daniel and his companions to kill them. Then, with counsel and with wisdom, Daniel answered Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. Again, I'm impressed with young Daniel. 17-years-old filled with spiritual wisdom. And he answered with counsel and wisdom.

You know there's power in guarded speech? The fool is known by the multitude of his words. We all know the power of the tongue, good and bad. And we've all said things that we wish we could take back, but they can't be erased, they're said. And sometimes they're like arrows that cut. But there's power in guarded speech. Words bitterly spoken, wrote Solomon, are like apples of gold and settings of silver. They can minister peace. And with great deliberation and wisdom, Daniel speaks to Arioch-- with counsel and wisdom. And he answered and said to Arioch, the king's captain, why is the decree from the king so urgent? And Arioch made the decision known to Daniel. So Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time, that he might tell the king the interpretation. Not only did he have wisdom in speech, but he had boldness in speech and faith. He heard the decree and he said, hey, wait a minute, give us some time here. Don't be so hasty in your decree.

Now, keep in mind that Daniel had some pull. He was the cream of the crop of the Hebrew youths. He was preselected to go through some training and then be established in the king's court. And so Daniel went to his house and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from the God of Heaven. Notice how Daniel in his writing makes the distinction between gods and, not God, but The God-- that definite article-- because he is immersed in polytheism. People around him believed in many, many gods. Daniel believed in the true God of Israel. And so they were looking for God's mercy. Concerning the secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Number one, discretionary speech, guarded words. Number two, boldness of faith. Number three, prayer. Daniel was a man of prayer. Daniel wasn't hasty. He didn't get his flesh involved, he didn't react, he responded spiritually. He was never too busy to pray. In fact, throughout the book, Daniel was a man of prayer. And keep in mind, we mentioned last week, prayer got him into the lion's den. A lot of times we think, oh, man, I'm in a jam, I'll pray and God will bail me out. Well, God will certainly put you into interesting positions when you pray, but it will always be for His glory. But you know Daniel didn't care that his spirituality might cost him something. He didn't care what other people thought when they saw his spiritual life. It wasn't popular to worship one true god, especially one that wasn't related to the Babylonians. It wasn't popular to go against the decree that no one should pray to any other God except to the Babylonian God. But Daniel didn't care. He always had the convictions, and maintained them, that God in his life was number one. And so he prays.

Verse 19. This is beautiful. And then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Can you imagine how ecstatic He felt? A decree of death is put out in his life. He's not hasty, though. He answers with discretion, he's bold in his speech, he asks for God's mercy with his friends. And notice that Daniel doesn't pray alone, he prays with a group of people-- there's strength in that-- and then God answers him. I'm sure he went to his friends and said, all right, we keep our necks for a little longer. God has pulled through. And so Daniel blessed the God of Heaven. Daniel answered and said-- and in verse 20 and 21 has been called Daniel's Psalm. It's a psalm of worship and praise unto the Lord. And I like that about Daniel.

Again, let's cover those areas. Discretionary guarded speech. He spoke with integrity and counsel and wisdom. Boldness in speech and character. He prayed to God. And then he praised the Lord for the answer. You know? It would be human nature, as soon as we received the interpretation-- because our necks are on the line-- to just run right into the king. king, king, here it is, God gave it to me-- given the interpretation of Daniel. He made sure that he went first to God and worshiped him and praised him. That was important to him, to offer up a sacrifice of praise before the Lord, for what got it done. So he says, blessed be the name of God forever and ever. True praise, true worship is never forced. It is the result of recognizing some attribute of God. When Daniel received the answer to his prayer, he recognized some things about God, he enumerates seven of them in the psalm, and true worship is never forced, it's never mechanical.

You know? I really get bothered when people try to force worship out of other people. I went into a church one time. I was a young Christian. And the song leader went up there and started singing some songs. It was just a beautiful time. And then the pastor got up and he said, everybody raise your hands right now to the Lord, like this. And I was just-- I was observing. And so everybody went like this. It was mechanical. And I didn't do it, probably partly because I'm a rebel at heart and God's dealing with that part of me. Secondly, because it wasn't the Holy Spirit that instructed me to do it. It was this guy. And during the worship, as people were making a ruckus, the pastor came up to me. It was a small church in the front row and he said, why aren't you raising your hand? I said, I don't feel like God has told me to. He was insulted by that.

But, you know? When you work people up into a frenzy and you-- come on, for some reason, people and often worship leaders think this, that when the people display some outward kind of a display of worship, where they raise their hand, they yell real loud, oh, man, the worship was powerful tonight. And so they always look for that and try to work it up and try to manufacture it. True worship is spontaneous. I tell you what, some of the greatest times of worship I had, I was just driving down the street and I realized something about God's goodness. I go, oh, man, lord. get out of sight, praise the Lord. It's spontaneous, it's fresh, it rises out from a recognition of what God has done in my life. It's not pumped up. It's not like I say 10 times, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, whoo, wow, I was out of sight. I like it when God shows me something of Himself. And so we should never get the wrong idea of worship. Or you shouldn't feel inferior if in your heart you're just joyfully singing to the Lord, but perhaps you're not standing up, kneeling down, or lying on the floor, or whatever. If you want to do that, fine, but some people can do that to draw attention to themselves, to show that they're spiritually superior to others.

With Daniel, it was his recognition of God's goodness, God's power, God lives forever and ever. And he just said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. Now, he had just received an interpretation to a dream and he realizes that wisdom and might don't belong to the Chaldeans, they belong to God. And He changes the times and the seasons, He removes kings and raises up kings, He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things, He knows what is in darkness and light dwells with Him. The Babylonians prided themselves in the worship of their gods, for they declared that the gods of the Babylonian were gods of light, but obviously they weren't able to cough up the interpretation, it was God and God alone who knows what is in the darkness and light dwells with Him.

As you look into your future tonight, for some of you it might look dark. You might be on unstable times, you might have lost a job or a relative by death, or you might be looking into some unknown and you're worried and you wish, God, if you'd only told me what you have in store for me. You really don't want to know, you really don't. If you knew, you'd probably flip out and run the other way. But take comfort tonight, Christian, that God knows that darkness that sits ahead of you, He sees it, it's light to Him. It doesn't intimidate him one bit. But God would have you tonight rest in the knowledge that God knows about your situation and you may feel limited, but you're dealing with a limitless God, one is not limited, one who sees everything, who knows your future, and He's willing to guide you through it.

I thank you and praise you, oh, God of my father's, you have given me wisdom and might and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for you made known to us the king's demand. Therefore, Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and he said thus to him, do not destroy the wise men of Babylon, take me before the king and I will tell the king the interpretation. Confident, isn't he? And Arioch quickly brought Daniel before the king-- notice quickly, people were dying at this point-- and he said thus to him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah who will make known to the king the interpretation. Now, notices Arioch's emphasis, I have found a man. First of all, king, I want you to know that you ought to give me part of the credit here, I take a little bit of credit, I found this guy. And then, the next emphasis is upon the man himself. Now, I want you to keep that in mind because Daniel doesn't take the same credit Arioch gives to him. He says, I have found the man. It's always man's nature to elevate man. We love it to take credit for things or give man the credit for it. But Daniel won't receive any of the credit, as we go on.

The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar-- remember he was renamed by the king-- are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation? No doubt he spoke that very skeptically. I don't think he was going, really? Can you? I'm sure after all of the failures of his own court men, all of the Chaldeans and the magicians, he probably folded his arm and said, really? You're able to pull it off, eh? And Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, the secret which the king has demanded the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. Oh, king, I have found a man who can do it. Really? Can you do it? Well, king, nobody can do it. The king's probably thinking, well, why are you here? But notices verse 28, but there is a God in Heaven who reveals secrets. I like his style. He knows how to witness. Are you able to pull it off? He could've said, well, actually yes, I am, I'm wiser than all of these other wiseguys you have around here. You ought to fire them and raise me up. He' basically says, no man can do it, but there's a God in heaven. You've been worshipping all these pagan gods. There is a God in Heaven who reveals the secrets. And he has made known to king Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days, your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed were these.

Now, there's a key phrase in that verse, and that's the phrase "ladder days." It appears 14 times in the Old Testament and it refers to a long period of time that ends with the consummation of the millennial kingdom, the latter days. It's an entire grouping of time. But I think it has technical application to the days that we're living in. If you look at the history of the world and the fulfillment of prophecy in these days, you must conclude, especially as Daniel spoke about the latter times what would happen, that we're living in them. It doesn't mean Jesus will come back in the next five minutes, but he might. And you ought to be ready. No man knows the day of the hour and we're living on borrowed time. But we are definitely-- and I say that, living in the latter times, in the latter days. And here's Nebuchadnezzar, he's worried, he's wondering. His father sent him to Carchemish, he defeated the Egyptians, and now he himself in the second year of his reign is ruler over the known world. But he's wondering, what about my future? How secure am I? And God gives him a dream and Daniel gives him the interpretation to the Spirit.

As for you, o, king-- verse 29-- thoughts came to your mind while on your bed about what would come to pass after this. And He who reveal secrets has made known to you what will be. As for me, the secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes, who made known the interpretation to the king and that you may know the thoughts of your heart. You o king were watching, behold a great image, this great image whose splendor was excellent, stood before you and its form was awesome. I find it interesting that God reveals to Nebuchadnezzar the future by using an idol, an image. And I think it's classic because that was the language he was used to. In Babylon, they were used to shrines, altars, and temples of many gods. And so God is relating on his level, but notice what happens to the statue at the end. The image's head was one of fine gold, its chest of arms, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, or its abdomen. Its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. Don't you know the king was glued to Daniel at this point? He was probably nodding at every detail. That's right, whoa.

You watch, verse 34, while a stone was cut out without hands which struck the image on the feet of iron and clay and broke them to pieces. At first, king, you just saw a stationary image, a polymetallic statue, there was no movement until the very end when a stone that was not cut with hands came like a missile out of space and just obliterated the image. The iron in the clay-- verse 35-- the bronze, the silver, the gold, were crushed together, became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the hole Earth. And listen to the certainty of Daniel in the next verse. This is the dream. We will tell the interpretation of it before the king. Don't you love that? That's confidence. He didn't tell the dream and say, king, was that it? Was I accurate? Can I keep my head? With great confidence. He knew what the dream is, that's why he said, this is the dream, king. That's what you dreamed, and now I'll tell you what it means. And again, I'm sure Nebuchadnezzar was just floored.

You, O, king, are a king of kings, for God, the God of heaven, has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory. Again, no hesitation, authority and great conviction in his voice. In the early days of Billy Graham's ministry, when he went down to Texas, he was going to preach in the Cotton Bowl, and the final night the greatest challenge faced the Billy Graham association, would they be able to fill the 70,000 seat arena? People around Dallas took bets and they ran ads in the newspaper or stories in the newspaper where people said, I bet he won't be able to fill it. It was a Friday evening and the people cheered as the last seat was taken. The next morning, the Dallas newspaper ran an article and the reporter asked a rhetorical question and he answered and goes, how is it that this young preacher with no seminary education is able to fill an arena with 70,000 people while the robed learned pastors of our city preach at half sized congregations and Sunday morning? And then he answered the question, because Billy Graham preaches the Bible with great authority, he believes his message, he says, thus sayeth the Lord. And whenever you preach God's word, you can afford to do that. Whenever you share your own opinions, you can't. When Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount, the last chapter says that the people marveled because Jesus spoke not as the scribes, but one who had authority, full of compassion, but he had authority. And Daniel spoke with authority. He knew what God was up to and he spoke with great conviction.

He says, you are the king of kings, for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory. And wherever the children of men dwell or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, he has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold. Babylon was known as the Golden city. The Babylonians decorated their temples, their shrines, their statues with gold. Nebuchadnezzar, you're the head of gold, you're the first medal on this statue, on this image, you're it. But after you-- now, this troubled Nebuchadnezzar with those words. What do you mean, after me? I'm the king of kings, right? I'm the head of gold. What do you mean, after me? Yep, after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours, then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall bear rule over the Earth.

In 539 BC recorded in Daniel chapter 5, Darius, along with the Medes and the Persians, an unusual coalition that brought great strength to two empires, came together and defeated Babylon. At that time, Belshazzar was the king of Babylon and he was having a party, he was getting drunk, and he was taking some of the vessels from the Tabernacle in Jerusalem and just, you know, just downing keggers. He was just drunk as a skunk, blaspheming God. And during the party somebody crashed it, His name was God, a hand came out of nowhere and started writing on the wall, "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN." You've been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. He didn't know what it meant, he couldn't read the handwriting on the wall. Of course, probably at that point, being so drunk couldn't read much of anything. But he called Daniel in because Daniel was a man of no compromise and he had a history of reading these things. And Daniel told him and said, that handwriting means that you're history, buddy, tonight. The kingdom is given to the Medes and the Persians. You're out of here.

And it happened, 539 BC. Coalition of the Medes and the Persians, just like the vision predicted. The head of gold, the chest and arms of silver, and then Daniel said, according to the dream, would be another kingdom. After the Babylonian, after the Medo-Persian empire, would be the stomach and the thighs of bronze, which shall bear rule over all the Earth. We know from history that this was the Grecian empire under Alexander the Great. Greece started by Alexander's dad, basically, Philip of Macedon, passed the empire on to his son Alexander. He became Alexander the Great because in 11 years Alexander swept through the known world, rapidly conquered the outposts of the Medo-Persian empire, did not lose one single battle. He arrived in Babylon at 31 years of age and he laid down in his couch and he wept because there were no more worlds to conquer. He was an aggressive, dynamic, ruthless leader. But he died at 32 from pneumonia because he was drunk at a party in Babylon. And after that, the kingdom was divided and given to his four generals. And those kingdoms finally deteriorated until another kingdom arose, the Roman Empire, which is also predicted in verse 40. The fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, and as much as the iron breaks in pieces and shatters all things, like iron to crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all of the others.

The Roman Empire is not named, you say none of these empires that you mentioned, Skip, are named. Oh, yes they are read the rest of the book of Daniel. And Daniel gives their names in advance. He names the Medes and the Persians. He names the Grecian empire before the empires were of any substantial strength. The Roman Empire is not mentioned, but we know that the Roman Empire eventually did take over the Mediterranean world and took over the Grecian empire. It ruled with a rod of iron, it crushed any rebellion that came against it. One has only to look at the history of the Jews. When hundreds and even thousands of Jewish men, called insurrectionists, who didn't abide by with Roman law were crucified on the road from Galilee to Jerusalem. Although the Romans instituted what they called world peace, Pax Romana, peace instituted by the Romans, it was peace with an iron heel.

And then, verse 41, whereas you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay. Now, let's back up. There's a polymetallic image, many metals. It's not just a hodgepodge of metals thrown together for effect. There's a progression. The metals decrease in value, gold, silver, bronze, iron. They also decrease in specific gravity. I think the specific gravity of gold is 19, that of silver is 11, bronze, 8.5, iron, seven, and then, of course, iron and clay mixed together. They decrease in value, they decrease in specific gravity, but they increase in strength. Silver is stronger than gold, bronze is stronger than the both, iron is stronger than them all. And that happened in the empires. The governmental structure was poor at the Medes and the Persians, but they were stronger because they had more people, greater armies. And also there was a decrease in structure and splendor of the Grecian empire for years, but there was an increase in strength and then also with the Roman Empire.

Now, all of these things have been fulfilled except verse 41 on down. Indeed, the Babylonian Empire bore rule. 539 BC, the Medes and the Persians wiped them out. The Grecian empire came along and Alexander the Great took control. And then, finally, the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire lasted, incidentally, from that time all the way up through the time of Christ. We read in Luke's gospel-- what is it? Chapter 2-- it came to pass that a decree went out by Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be taxed. They were still under Roman occupation, under Roman rule. Question, who took over Rome? The Medes and the Persians took over Babylon. Greece took over Medo-Persia, Rome took over Greece, who took over Rome? Answer, no one. Rome fragmented. And according to Francis Schaefer and other historians, it fell because of its inward immorality, it lacked inward strength and eventually it fragmented. All of those fragments, as they broke off, eventually tried to gain world control. Adolf Hitler with Germany, Mussolini in Italy, England, and so forth tried to-- and they almost were able to occupy and bear control over the world but they didn't succeed.

But there is this final prediction that the feet and the toes partly of potter's clay partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, yet the strength of the iron shall be in it just as you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron, partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. Because of this scripture, for 2,000 years, scholars have looked for the reunification of the Roman Empire in some form because Rome fragmented into Western and Eastern Europe. Biblical scholars looked for the time when a strong leader would unite Europe, would oppress Israel, and become the Antichrist. That's why when Adolf Hitler came to power with his pogroms against the Jewish people, although he wasn't very successful in uniting Europe, people looked to him that he might get 10 nations together. People said, oh, he is the Antichrist.

But all of the predictions have been premature because the nation of Israel was not in the land yet, as happened in 1948. You see, the key to prophecy, as we'll read about in Daniel chapter 9, is the nation of Israel. And we'll get to that later, we don't have enough time to cover it tonight. But notice this, as in the future, these 10 nations come together, in the days of these kings, the God of Heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms that shall stand forever. That's how we know it's yet future because that hasn't happened yet. Everything has happened so far except a 10-nation coalition in Europe. And in the days of those kings, God coming back and establishing his kingdom. Some look to the European Common Market, where there's 12 nations, there may be some fulfillment of prophecy in that. Dave Hunt believes it's not European nations, but 10 nations of the world gathered together and somehow federated under Europe. It could be that the common market will in the future fall and there'll be another system implemented. We don't know. But we do know that in the days of the kingdom of these 10 nations that the God of Heaven will set up a kingdom, and that's the good news.

As the ancient people saw that history repeated itself meaninglessly, Daniel was there to say, no way, king, history's going somewhere and God's in control pulling the strings. And he'll set up a kingdom, it'll be better than yours, it'll be better than the Medo-Persian, Grecian, Roman, or any empire. It will never end. Inasmuch as you saw the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and a broken piece of the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, the gold, the great God is made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, the interpretation is sure. Boy, I wish Christians had the same conviction of scripture that Daniel had. It will happen. Not will, maybe it'll happen. It will. And kingdom Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face. Prostrate before Daniel and commanded that they should present an offer, an incense to him. He's completely blown out of the water.

The king answered Daniel and said, truly your God is the God of gods. That was the intended result. The Lord of kings, a reveal or of secrets, since you could reveal the secret. The king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, the chief administrator over all the wise men of Babylon. And Daniel petitioned the king and he said, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon, but Daniel sat in the gate of the king. Beautiful. It's 08:30 and I wish we had time to speak a little bit more about future events, but we're at the end of our chapter and it'll be a few weeks before we get to chapter three, which is one of the fieriest trials ever recorded in scripture. It's literally a fiery trial. And we'll see God's deliverance and God's greatness.

Lord, the dream is certain. The interpretation is sure. What you have said will surely come to pass, though we may look at it with skeptical eyes or disbelieve it or walk in doubt, it does not alter. It is sure, it is certain. Lord, I pray that though we have faith, help our unbelief. Lord, bring us to that point where we just so fully rest upon you and all of your promises to us are yay and amen. Our cause is to lean hard upon you. Lord, thank you that we look to the future with such hope, such confidence. Make us men and women like Daniel, of great conviction, not bowing before the decree of the king, not intimidated by people like Nebuchadnezzar, but people who are in tune, in touch with you, people to whom you reveal your secrets and your truths, that we could stand boldly and confidently. And father, that as we are before kings, before nations, representing you, that we would be quick not to receive any glory that belongs to you, but when people ask us, say there is a God in Heaven and it's because of Him that I stand before you. In Jesus' name, Amen. Let's all stand.