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Five Kingdoms to Come:
The Vision of the Great Image—Daniel 2
The second chapter of Daniel tells about the dream of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. The king had a dream that left him very troubled, so troubled that “his sleep left him” (Dan. 2:1). When the king woke up, he called in his magicians and wise men and demanded to know the meaning of his dream. Of course the magicians were helpless even to guess because the king could not tell them the content of the dream.
In his desperation, the king threatened to have all the wise men put to death.
At this crisis point, Daniel, a Hebrew captive who was living at the king's court, stepped forward and asked the king for time to seek the answer from his God. That night God answered Daniel's prayer and gave Daniel the dream and its interpretation. Then giving all credit to God, Daniel delivered the prophecy that is recorded in Daniel 2. “There is a God in heaven who reveals secrets,” he began, “and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days” (Dan. 2:28).
Daniel was not guessing. He was delivering God's revealing of the future. God gave the information to Daniel, and Daniel relayed it to the king, also writing it down so that we have it today.
“You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image!” Daniel explained, and he continued to describe the “great image, whose splendor was excellent, and its form awesome” (Dan. 2:31). The image had a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
What happened to the image? “You watched,” Daniel said to the king, while a supernatural stone “cut out without hands,…struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and 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 whole earth” (Dan. 2:32-35).
Daniel was not speculating. He knew because God had revealed it.
What Did It Mean?
In the verses that follow Daniel explains with all confidence the meaning of the dream as God revealed it to him. The explanation is precise and amazing in its parallel with recorded history. God was revealing to Nebuchadnezzar—and us—a succession of four major, world-dominating kingdoms, to be followed by a fifth power that would sweep away every remaining vestige of the former powers and fill the earth.
 
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