DANIEL 2:19

The Bible says in Daniel 2:19-22, “Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.[20] Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:[21] And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:[22] He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.” God gave Daniel wisdom. There are few things more important than wisdom. If only we had more wisdom. If only we knew, and if only we understood. We have so many decisions to make in our lives, and how great will be the consequences to many of them. We need wisdom from God. That is where Daniel got His wisdom. It says in James 1:5, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” The most important wisdom to have is the wisdom that comes from Christ concerning the salvation of your soul. Whoever does not turn to Christ is foolish. It says in First Corinthians 1:19-25, “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.[20] Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?[21] For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.[22] For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:[23] But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;[24] But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.[25] Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

The Bible says in Daniel 2:23-28, “I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter.[24] Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said thus unto him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will shew unto the king the interpretation.[25] Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation.[26] The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?[27] Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king;[28] But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;” Notice first of all in verse 23 how thankful Daniel was to the Lord. Daniel knew that the wisdom that he had came from God. Everything that we have comes from God. It is amazing how much people get praised for the gifts and abilities that they possess, when it is God that gave them the gifts and abilities.

In Daniel 2:28 we are given what is perhaps the greatest value of the book of Daniel. From this book we obtain important information about the last days. Daniel said, “But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.” The “latter days” still have not happened yet, and so we are also greatly enlightened about the latter days. Someone said to me recently, “The book of Daniel is the Old Testament version of the book of Revelation.” That is very true. If you want to know what the Bible has to say about the last days, then you especially need to know the contents of both the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation.

The Bible says in Daniel 2:29-30, “As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.[30] But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.” Daniel is speaking in these verses and he is making it very clear to King Nebuchadnezzar that Daniel should not receive credit for what is being revealed about the king’s dreams. God had His purposes for the dreams: it was God’s method of revealing what will take place in the last days. How matchless and mysterious are the ways of God, and how impossible to figure them all out. The nation of Israel was conquered by Babylon. Some of the Israelites came into prominence as captives, and Daniel was among that number. The king had dreams that troubled him, but his wise men could not reveal the dreams or their meaning. God used all of these things and more so that Daniel would be used to reveal what would happen in the last days. Of course, all of this happened for the benefit of every believer. God wants believers to understand that human history is under His control, and everything is going to work out just fine for the believers. God has not revealed everything to us, but He has revealed many things to us so that we can be confident and happy as we look to the future.

The Bible says in Daniel 2:31-43, “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.[32] This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,[33] His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.[34] Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.[35] Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.[36] This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.[37] Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.[38] And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.[39] And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.[40] And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.[41] And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.[42] And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.[43] And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a great image. Different parts of the great image represented four kingdoms. These four kingdoms represent all of human history from the time of Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar unto the end time. Of course, this is from an Israel-centric point of view. Four great world powers conquered the known world surrounding Israel and beyond. Those kingdoms were Babylon, Media-Persia, the kingdom of Alexander the Great, and Rome. Babylon was the first kingdom and Rome was the last. The fact that these four kingdoms made up one great image demonstrates the similarity of the kingdoms. The kingdoms were similar by the way in which they dominated and ruled over many peoples in parts of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

In addition to these four kingdoms, every human kingdom has demonstrated the principles of domination and control. God gives to man freedom, including freedom of choice and freedom of will. But man takes away freedom from his fellowman through any means possible, and especially through government. That is seen in the first human kingdom described in the Bible: the kingdom of Nimrod. It says in Genesis 10:8-10, “And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.[9] He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.[10] And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.” The word “Babel” means “Babylon.” Human kingdoms tend to be like Babylon in greater or lesser degrees. They tend towards domination and control of people. Nimrod was described in verse 8 as being “mighty.” That means that he was mighty compared to other men. In what way did Nimrod use his power and might? The answer to that question is repeated twice in verse 9, “He was a mighty hunter before the LORD.” Notice first of all that this verse uses the phrase “before the Lord.” That has the same meaning as a similar phrase found in the first of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:3, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” To translate a little differently, it means: “Thou shalt have no other gods before my face, which would be an affront to me.” The fact that Nimrod was a mighty one was an affront in the face of God. You see, Nimrod was a hunter. What was he hunting? He was hunting people because that is how he established the kingdom of Babylon. The way that human beings establish kingdoms is that they conquer and dominate people. Nimrod was the forerunner of this, and he established a kingdom called Babylon in following such a method.

Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon during the time of Daniel. Babylon was the first of these last four kingdoms. The last was Rome. It is interesting that the book of Revelation calls the last kingdom “Babylon,” even while describing the city of Rome. The kingdoms are so similar that they are as one. They certainly formed one image in the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had. The golden head represented the Kingdom of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar. That is made very clear in verse 38 that says, “Thou art this head of gold.” Why was the most precious metal used to symbolize King Nebuchadnezzar, and why did it say in verse 39, “And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee.” Perhaps it is because Nebuchadnezzar became a believer in the one true God, and perhaps because Nebuchadnezzar came to the point of treating the Jewish people very well. Wise is the country that treats Jews and Christians well. The country that does not is a tool of the devil and faces the same destiny as the devil: hell.

We know from history and elsewhere in the book of Daniel that the second kingdom was that of the Medio-Persian Empire that conquered Babylon. Alexander the Great’s Empire is the third Kingdom, and the Roman Empire was the last and the fourth kingdom. The Roman Empire was the strongest kingdom because it was made of iron. But it was not strong enough because it was made of iron mingled with clay. It had some kind of inherent weakness: probably the weakness that all flesh is heir to. One of the reasons that human kingdoms fail is because of the divisions among people. Jesus said in Mark 3:24, “And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.” It says about the Roman Empire in Daniel 2:43, “they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another.” The Roman Empire still exists because it is the last of the four kingdoms. But something has happened to the Roman Empire. It has been divided up into many pieces. It says in Romans 2:41, “And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.” There have been attempts to bring the Roman Empire back together, attempts to manifest the iron instead of the clay, such as with Napoleon and Hitler and today with the European Union. One final attempt will succeed in the last days, but this will have a sudden end to it. The final manifestation of Babylon and the Roman Empire will be overthrown by the Christ. The Kingdom of Christ will be the kingdom that will be eternal. Jesus and His kingdom are alluded to in Daniel 2:34 where Jesus is called “a stone.” It says, “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.” One of the actions of the Messiah when He comes will be to destroy the last vestige of human government and to replace it with His perfect kingdom, where freedom and righteousness will reign forevermore.

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