The course of Gentile rule from Nebuchadnezzar to Christ's kingdom is outlined through Daniel chapters two and seven, which offer complementary perspectives on world empires. Daniel chapter two presents these kingdoms through the external splendor of precious metals—gold, silver, bronze, and iron—representing Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, respectively. In contrast, Daniel chapter seven views them as ravenous beasts, highlighting their moral and spiritual decadence. The prophecy culminates in a stone, cut without hands, which strikes the image on its feet and grows into a mountain filling the earth, symbolizing the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ that will replace all earthly powers. This divine kingdom will be established not through gradual societal transformation but through Christ's return to demolish opposing human kingdoms.
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pleasure for me to be with you this evening. I've heard a number of you speak about how cold it is down here and you learn that everything is relative to where you've been. I started this morning in Chicago, Illinois and it was zero and stepped off the plane to temperatures in the fifty and it seems awfully nice to me. I'm delighted to represent the work of the American Board of Missions to the Jews, or as it's now known, Chosen People Ministry. What some of you may not know is that better than fifty years ago, my father was witnessed to by the resident missionary of this organization.
He was a young man, ready to begin his studies for service to God as a rabbi in the Orthodox Jewish faith. And through the testimony of Reverend John Solomon, who now is in glory, my father came to know Jesus Christ as his Messiah. And for these better than fifty years, he has served our Lord Christ as a minister of the gospel of our Lord and Savior. If you are interested in knowing more about this work, I encourage you to take copy at the table in the back of the Chosen People magazine.
And then there's a little brochure called ABMJ, Chosen People Ministries. And if you will either write your name and address clearly on the little folder here or on... Slip at the back. The mission will be delighted to send you a free subscription to this magazine. I think you will enjoy it. And I think most of you would like to have this little brochure. You can tear off this section and put this little folder in your Bible. Serve a twofold purpose.
First of all, whenever this turns up in the pages of the Bible, it will remind you to pray for the American Board of Missions to the Jews. Then on the back, there is the plan of salvation taken only from the Old Testament, which is a great tool to have tucked away in your Bible if you happen to come across either an unsaved Jew or an unsaved Muslim, both respect the Old Testament as God's word, and I encourage you to get a copy of this. I have also some tapes and books of my ministry. I have not had a chance to put the prices for those, but I'll be at the back and glad to talk with you after the service is over.
What you might also be interested in knowing is that my mother was raised also in an Orthodox Jewish home. She was born in Russia, a little city called Koval, about a hundred miles from Kiev. And during the end of the First World War with the Bolshevik Revolution and the persecution of the Jews, she was forced to leave Russia spending much of the latter years of that war, fleeing oppression through the forests of Germany, on into England and then into the United States through Ellis Island.
And what she could not possibly know as a young girl settling in the city of Chicago, hearing the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ shared again by another Jewish missionary agency, coming to know Jesus Christ as her personal Savior, what she could not know was that sixty years later, her oldest son would be privileged to return to the place almost of her birth. Because on the ninth of August, I had the incredible privilege of preaching the gospel of the amazing grace of Jesus Christ in the large Baptist church at Leningrad, the Soviet Union, six hundred miles from where my mother was born.
We serve a great and a glorious God. Well, brothers and sisters, in the meetings that I shall be privileged to be with you, I would like to speak on the book of Daniel. As you can imagine, a book as full of importance as Daniel is, is more than we could possibly cover over a series of four messages. But what I'm going to try to do is to carry for you the prophetic argument of the book of Daniel. I will try to speak on the prophetic portions of this great portion of God's word.
Tonight I'd like to speak on Daniel chapter two and Daniel chapter seven. And I have entitled them the course of Gentile rule. What we need to see immediately is that chapter two and chapter seven are companion chapters. Daniel chapter and chapter seven view the same material from different perspectives. Daniel chapter two and Daniel chapter seven give us the course of Gentile rule from the time of Nebuchadnezzar all the way to the establishment of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ on this earth in the glorious millennial reign of our Savior.
So that in Daniel chapter two, in Daniel chapter seven, you have laid out for us the entire scope of human history from the sixth century BC all the way to the new heavens and the new earth. These chapters are some of the most basic and some of the most important to be found anywhere in God's Word. Why then, if they are supplementary to one another, why is it that the Spirit of God gave this material in two chapters?
Why didn't he just use chapter two or chapter seven to convey this information? Well, the answer, I think, is that we have two different perspectives. In Daniel chapter two, we have the course of these Gentile kingdoms viewed from the external glory and magnificence of these kingdoms. The kingdoms that will come on the scene of history and then past, are viewed in terms of precious metals, gold, silver, bronze, and then some non-precious metals like iron.
And these metals express the outward grandeur and the brilliance of the kingdoms of this world. Those of you who've had the privilege to visit various places throughout the world where you see the seat of government, you know the magnificence, the outward splendor of these places of government, where we're privileged to see Versailles. Magnificent, the Barnes of Louis XIV.
Most of us would feel quite proud to live in, to be this past summer at the winter and the summer palace of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great in the Soviet Union, and to see the gilded gold domes of these magnificent buildings awe-inspiring. that needs to be counterbalanced by the message of chapter seven. There these same kingdoms are viewed not in terms of their external splendor and beauty, but in terms of their moral and spiritual fiber.
And in chapter seven, we find that the outward Splender is amassed for moral and spiritual decadence. These kingdoms are no better than ravenous beasts of the field." So with that in mind, will you turn to chapter two of Daniel. We have in this chapter one of the longest and yet one of the most important passages. in all of the Bible. What I shall try to do is to go through this second chapter and comment on the verses as I read, focusing my attention on verses thirty-six through verse forty-six, where we have the interpretation of the dream, and then supplement that with material particularly about the fourth kingdom from Daniel chapter seven.
Verse one, we read now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Dear friends, that is not without profound significance. For you see, this prophecy comes not to a Jewish prophet, but to a pagan prophet. Gentile king. This is to let us know immediately that God is setting aside His people, Israel, because of their sin. It is to alert us that there is beginning with the rise to power of Nebuchadnezzar, a time which our Lord Jesus Christ calls in Luke chapter twenty-four, verse twenty-one, the times of the Gentile.
A time that stretches all the way from Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century BC, all the way to the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said that Jerusalem will be trodden under of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled. Dear friends, this is a time where God, because of the sin of his people, Israel, will allow the Gentile nations of the world to gain political and social supremacy over his people, Israel. And it is only once Jesus Christ returns and the eyes of God's people, Israel, are opened.
And Zechariah the prophet says, They shall look on him whom they pierce. and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only son. It is then and only then that a redeemed and saved Israel shall be given their place exalted among the nations of the world. Only then shall be true what Ezekiel the prophet says. They shall declare the glory of God to the nations of the world. We read Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. Notice the plural.
Nebuchadnezzar either had a number of dreams or what I think is more likely as he lay on his bed dreaming. What he saw was so startling, what he saw was so awe-inspiring that periodically he would wake up. and then he would go back to sleep and the Spirit of God would either give him again the dream or would allow him other portions of the dream. But this dream that we find in chapter two came, I gather to Nebuchadnezzar in portion. And his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him.
Nebuchadnezzar did not know the interpretation of these dreams, but he recognized that dreams were a means of communication by God to individuals. He recognized that this was a communication of importance, and so his spirit was troubled and he was unable to sleep. When the morning came, the king gave orders to call in the magicians and the conjurers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dream. So they came in and stood before the king. It's common for the kings to have, if you will, a brain trust. Justice President Reagan has a cabinet.
He has advisors. So these Babylonian monarchs had a retinue of people who advised them. And because they believed in portents, because they believed in magic, they had among those people individuals who were skilled in magic and sorcery. And they came to tell the king his dream. So they came in and stood before the king. And the king said to them, I had a dream. And my spirit is anxious to understand the dream.
And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic. And chapter two, verse four. through seven twenty-eight, happens to be one of the portions in the Word of God that is written not in biblical Hebrew, but in Aramaic. They said to the king in Aramaic, O king, live forever, tell the dream to your servants, and we will declare the interpretation. We are at your service, sir. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, the command from me is firm. If you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb for limb."
Nebuchadnezzar begins with an astonishing statement. He says, I have decided and there is no room for negotiation. I not only want the interpretation, I not only want the interpretation of the dream, but I want you to produce the dream. And he says, failure to do so will result in the most severe judgment upon you. You will be torn limb for limb, and your house will be made a rubbishy. Must anyone think that that was a sort of arrogant kind of boast that Nebuchadnezzar could never bring about?
Read about Shadrach, Nishak, and Abednego. When dear old Nebuchadnezzar gets mad, he can do some pretty outrageous things, can't he? But, you know, he isn't a totally unreasonable fellow, is he? Because look at what he has to say. But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me gifts and a reward and great honor, therefore declare to me the dream and its interpretation. You will be given great reward and renown if you can do this. Well, the sorcerers and so forth answer a second time and said, Let the king tell the dream to a servant and we will declare the interpretation.
They had a temporary case of hearing loss, didn't they? Some of you. here know what that's about I was told to speak directly into this mic because some of you are listening to me through hearing aids if you don't hear me it will be one of the first times I have failed to be heard my problem is that when I teach in a class I not only teach my class but the one next door on either side well They had a case of temporary hearing loss.
And the king answered and said, I know for a certain that you're bargaining for time, inasmuch as you've seen that the command from me is firm, that if you do not make the dream known to me, there's only one decree for you. For you have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the situation is changed. Therefore tell me the dream that I may know that you declare to me its interpretation." Nebuchadnezzar says, I can tell that you are stalling for time. You make statements about how the alignment of the stars and the various kinds of entrails of animals say that there'll be some better time to tell you the dream.
He says, get on with it, I want to know. Now, there is some disagreement over whether Nebuchadnezzar actually forgot the dream or not. Some Bible scholars believe that Nebuchadnezzar did forget the dream, that what he saw was so magnificent and he was so awestruck that he forgot what he saw. Others believe that he knew the dream and he realized that many magicians and sorcerers really didn't know what they were doing. When they were given a dream, they would concoct an interpretation that was favorable to the king in hopes of gaining reward and renown.
And so what Nebuchadnezzar says is, I want you to produce the dream and the interpretation, and I have a test whereby I know whether you're telling the truth. Now from the text, I don't think there's any way you can know which is the case. At any rate, these sorcerers now realize that they're in trouble. And listen to what they have to say. I love the God's sense of humor. Listen to what they say. The Chaldeans answered the king and said, There's not a man on earth who could declare... the matter for the king inasmuch as no great king or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any magician, conjurer, or Chaldean.
Moreover, the thing which the king demands is difficult, and there's no one else who could declare it to the king except the gods. And then they say real quickly, don't seek to put a person-to-person call through to them because their dwelling place is not with mortal flesh. The magicians and the sorcerers say, look, Nebuchadnezzar, you are outrageous in what you are demanding. Only the God whose dwelling place is in heaven knows the answer to this, and men have no access. So you're in serious trouble.
Well, because of this, the king became indignant and very furious And he gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain. Since Daniel was among the wise men, they looked for Daniel and his friends to kill him. They found Daniel. Dear friends, if you don't love Daniel before this series, I hope you go away with a love for this man. Here is a soul of incredible personal piety and unusual common sense.
Chapter one, he didn't say, well, here I am away from home. God's forgotten me. I can do whatever I want. Some people would say that, wouldn't they? And when the man that is placed over the captives says, look, you don't want to eat food from the king's table. Do you realize if I bring you into the king and you look a little peeked, my head might roll? Daniel says, yes, I appreciate that. So let's give it a fourteen-day trial. And if God wants to honor his servant for faithfulness to his word, God can give us rosy cheeks.
And you know, this is a teenage boy. This is a teenage boy. We can't help but marvel at his piety and his good common sense. Now look at what he does. They came and told Daniel, and Daniel replied with discretion and discernment to Ariok, the captain of the king's bodyguard. who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. He answered and said to Ariok, the king's commander, For what reason is the decree from the king so urgent? Then Ariok informed Daniel about the matter. Daniel says, Why is the king in such a hurry?
Then he got filled in on verses one to thirteen. So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him time in order that he might declare the interpretation of the king. Obviously Nebuchadnezzar recognized that Daniel was not stalling like the magicians and the sorcerers. For look at what he did. He gave him time. He gave him time. Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah about the matter.
You know those people better as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Now, let me ask you something. If your life was on the line, if Nebuchadnezzar had given you a deadline, what would you do? I guess most of us would scurry back. You know, he'd had three years of training in dream interpretation. I guess we'd go back and we'd check the bookcase to get the right textbooks that we'd been taught on interpretation of dream and spend the night working through and not Daniel.
You know what Daniel does? Daniel recognizes the importance of corporate prayer. You see, most of us, when we get in a pinch and pressed, the first thing that goes is prayer, doesn't it? Most of us say, look, I'm just too busy. I don't have time to pray. Daniel says, our life is on the line. We've got a deadline. Let's call a prayer meeting. Do you see why? Daniel was a man of power and why we are so impotent. In order that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning the mystery so that Daniel and his friends might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
You know, God honored his servants because the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. You know what most of us would do then? We jump up. Shout, we've got it. Get us to Nebuchadnezzar right away, right? Daniel says, look, we asked a favor of God. We've got plenty of time. Let's get down on our knees and thank him. Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Let the name of God be blessed forever. for wisdom and power belong to him.
And it is he who changes the times and the ethics, who removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to the wise men and knowledge to men and understanding. It is he who reveals the profound and the hidden things. He who knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him. To thee, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for thou hast given me wisdom and power. Even now thou hast made known to me what we requested of thee, for thou hast made known to us the king's matter.
Only after praising God does Daniel get up and say, I'm ready to go see Nebuchadnezzar. Well, Daniel went to Ariok whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and spoke to him as follows. Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Take me into the king's presence, and I will declare the interpretation of the king. See the compassion in Daniel's heart. He's concerned for these pagan, rascal, magicians, and sorcerers. Well, what does Ariok do?
Oh, he's an interesting fellow. He rushes in and he brings in Daniel into the king's presence and spoke to the king as following. I have found a man from the exile from Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king. Compare Ariok with Daniel. Ariok says, King, Here I am, and I want you to know I found this man. Did he found Ariok? Well, I know. He says, listen, there may be some reward that comes down for giving the king the dream and the interpretation.
And I want the king to know that it was Ariok, A-R-I-O-C-H, who found this man. And in the passing out of the wards, please don't forget me. Well, look at what happened. Daniel goes in and spoke to him as follows. Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Take me into the, or excuse me, verse twenty six. The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belshazzar, are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen in its interpretation? Dear friends, what would you have said? Probably most of us have said, King, I've got it.
Here it is. You know why God blessed Daniel? Look at what he said. Daniel is not going to let this king forget. He says to him, As for the mysteries about which the king has inquired, Daniel is going to give him the whole litany. Neither the wise men, the conjurers, the magicians nor the diviners are able to declare it to the king. However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made note to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. This was your dream and the visions in your mind while on your bed. As for you, O King, While on your bed your thoughts turn to what would take place in the future, and he who reveals mysteries has made known to you what will take place.
But as for me, this mystery has not been revealed to me, for any wisdom residing in me more than in any other living man, but for the purpose of making the interpretation known to the king, and that you may understand the thoughts of your mind. Here is a man of true piety and humility, isn't he? God can trust him with the deep things of his word. God does not bless those who touch his glory. And Daniel had learned that lesson well. It is not I, King, who bring you this interpretation.
Your wise men and sorcerers have no idea, but it is the God of heaven who has given me this dream and its interpretation." The dream, verses thirty-one through thirty-five. You, O King, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue, that statue was large and of extraordinary splendor, and it was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. So what Daniel says the king saw was a large, enormous statue, brilliant, great inside, inspiring awe in the mind of the king.
And the head of the statue was of gold, so that we have a head made of fine gold. Its breasts and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, and its legs of iron and its feet, partly of iron and partly of clay. So there were four metals. that made up this statue and that gave it its enormous size and its tremendous brilliance, a head of fine gold, arms and breasts of silver, belly and thighs of bronze and legs of iron and toes of iron mixed part with clay.
And verse thirty-four, as Nebuchadnezzar looked at this enormous statue, Look at what happened. He saw a stone that was cut out without hands, and it came and it struck the statue onto its feet of iron and clay and crushed them, so that there was a stone. As Nebuchadnezzar watched, there was this stone that was made without hands, and it came and it struck the image in its feet, and the entire image collapsed. The gold and the silver and the bronze and the iron was crushed.
The image collapsed. Then the iron, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. but the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. So that the wind blew away, the crushed statue, and this stone which had struck it in defeat grew up and filled the whole earth. You know, when we read sometimes in the prophetic word and we come across a dream or a vision of this sort, aren't you tempted to say, my goodness, that's the problem with prophecy.
It's just too hard. Who in the world could possibly know what that means? Anybody's guesses as good as anybody else's. Let me suggest something to you, and I'll point it out more than once, is a good practice to keep reading. Because more often than not, the interpretation is supplied by the Spirit of God. You know that? Verse thirty-six. This was the dream. Now we shall tell its interpretation before the kings.
You, O king, are the king of kings to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory, and whatever the sons of men and wherever the sons of men are the beasts of the field or the birds of the heaven dwell. He has given them into your hands and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold. You see, these various metals stand for different world empires. These, let me say that again, these differing metals, gold, silver, bronze, iron, these metals stand for kingdoms.
And we see here that there are going to be four world empires that constitute the course of Gentile rule from the time of Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century BC until the return of Jesus Christ. Now that is an important prophetic fact to know. Let me say it again. four metals stand for four kingdoms, just as the four beasts of Daniel chapter seven stand for four kingdoms.
And God gives this dream to Nebuchadnezzar, and he says to Nebuchadnezzar, there are going to be four world empires between Nebuchadnezzar and the establishment of the reign and the rule and the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ upon this earth." Now watch what he says. He says, you're the head of gold. Why gold? Because Nebuchadnezzar has absolute power. Nebuchadnezzar has authority not only over individuals, but over the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky.
God has caused you to rule over them. Verse thirty-nine, we read that there will arise another kingdom inferior to you. Then a third kingdom of bronze will rule over all of the earth. There will then be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, So like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all things in pieces. While the identity of the other three kingdoms are not mentioned here from history, we know them to be Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
So just for a moment, let me reiterate. The head of gold, Babylon. The inflexible, absolute power of Nebuchadnezzar, followed by arms and breasts of silver, the Medo-Persian Empire, followed by the belly and thighs of bronze, Greece, followed by the legs of iron. There are going to be four and only four world empires between the time of Nebuchadnezzar and the return of Jesus Christ.
But in verse forty-one, friends, we learn something about this fourth kingdom. And it looks like because the way time's going, tomorrow we'll just begin by amplifying what we say tonight about this fourth kingdom. But let me say this. This fourth kingdom is exceedingly important. In verse forty-one, we see that this fourth kingdom has a historical phase, one that is past, and it has a prophetic phase that is yet future. That this fourth kingdom is going to be revived and in existence at the time of the return of Jesus Christ.
For you see, there are not only the legs of iron, but verse forty-one, there are feet and toes, part of potter's clay and partly of iron. This Roman Empire was united. Then it was a divided kingdom. But notice, verse forty-two. It also has a phase where there are going to be ten toes that are partly of iron and partly of clay. Verse forty-four. And in the days of those kings, these ten kings, this revived eschatological phase of this fourth kingdom, what's going to happen?
The God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. And that kingdom will not be left for another people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will endure forever. Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future. So the dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy. What's going to happen? How is Gentile rule going to come to a close?
How is the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ going to come upon this earth, going to come by the return of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven, and he is going to destroy the kingdoms of this world that oppose him, and he's going to establish his kingdom forever on this earth. Dear friends, there's an interesting group right now in evangelical Christendom called the Reconstructionists. And they're teaching dominion theology, which is nothing other than a new face to old post-millennialism.
The idea that somehow the structures of society are going to be Christianized and gradually the kingdom of God is going to be realized on this earth. They're encouraging Christians to go into politics, parents to homeschool their children, to hoard gold and silver, hard asset. You may have seen a story about them on public television, right over the Christian period on Bill Moyer's program, The Church and Politics. That's not the way the Bible teaches it, friends.
These kingdoms are going to oppose God to the very end, and it's only when His Son Jesus Christ comes that they are going to be demolished and in its place is going to be set up the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. I have just a couple minutes. Let me close by pointing out to you some things that you should remember from this passage. First of all, I think it's important to see that there are going to be four and only four world empires between the time of Nebuchadnezzar and the return of Jesus Christ.