Surviving Babylon: Unafraid
We hope you will join us as we walk through the book of Daniel together and please feel free to share this content with anyone you think might be blessed by it!
KEY VERSE
44 In the days of those kings 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 itself endure forever. - Daniel 2:44
SURVIVING BABYLON PART 4
Unafraid
If I asked you to compile a list of the most important Biblical chapters for the Christian to understand, I could probably guess a few that would be on that list. Some would say John 3, others might throw in Romans 8 or Hebrews 12… But, I am sure I could also guess with absolute certainty, which chapter would not be on that list; and that is Daniel chapter 2.
The reasons for that are simple and also multivalent. Here I will share a few reasons. 1) Daniel 2 is probably the most (if not one of the most) difficult passages in the book, which means it will usually be avoided. 2) It is a passage that requires a fair amount of ancient context, which means it will usually get neglected. And finally, 3) It is a passage that tin foil hat wearing, Bible chart touting, end times fanatics share when suggesting that vaccines are the mark of the beast, Tony Fauci could be the Antichirst, and the end of days is surely upon us. If the first two reasons did not scare you away, the final one usually does the trick.
Now, I find this so sad because this passage is one of the purest distillations of hope found anywhere in the Bible! And, it is my view, if Christians will take the time to understand it rightly, they will have a framework for hope that will cause them to live their lives completely unafraid, no matter what they walk through!
But, to get there, we have to be willing to put in the work. Are you willing? If so, let’s go!
THE SETTING
Daniel and his companions were firmly settled into Babylonian life by the time we arrive in chapter 2. The long painful march to the city had been replaced with good jobs as magicians, excellent incomes, and a stable life in the city. Things were certainly looking up for these men.
But, before we continue along in the life of Daniel, or the events of chapter 2, we must understand what it meant that Daniel and his friends were magicians.
THE MAGI VOCATION
To be a magician then was quite different than what we think about today. Today, we imagine everything from a big stage performance to kid’s back yard birthday parties, rabbits in top hats, and corny card tricks. This is not the role Daniel performed.
In those days, a magician was a multidisciplinary scholar and someone who prided themselves on having a tremendous amount of worldly and spiritual wisdom. They were well-educated and well-read experts on numerous topics such as religion, politics, astronomy, and other fields of study. They were entrusted with keeping and maintaining the royal archives for the king. But, by far, the favorite task among this group was being called into the king’s presence to perform the role of advisor in difficult religious or social matters.
It was just such an occasion that was happening in Daniel chapter 2.
THE DILEMMA IN DANIEL 2
Daniel 2 opens with Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, having a very perplexing dream that troubled his spirit. Since dreams were thought to exist as spiritual messages from the spiritual realm, a king always needed a few spiritually minded magicians around to help interpret them. This was a fairly common role for the magician to play.
But, what was totally unprecedented, is what Nebuchadnezzar asked these particular magicians to do. Instead of simply retelling the dream to them and then asking them to interpret it for him, he said:
“The command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb and your houses will be made a rubbish heap.” - Daniel 2:5
While this response was certainly morbid, it was also utterly brilliant. If the king told the magicians his dream, he would be entirely at the mercy of their interpretation. They could simply dance around like haunted elves, say a few garbled incantations, shake with furious convulsions, and then spew out whatever nonsense that came to their minds. The king does not give them this option. Instead, he makes them prove their legitimacy.
Since the dream and its interpretation was believed to come from the same spiritual source, Nebuchadnezzar assumed that any legitimate spiritually minded magi could determine them both. Put simply, if the magi were given the interpretation by the gods they should also be able to ascertain the dream given by those same gods too. Nebuchadnezzar had found a fool proof test to validate the authenticity of his magi. And from the looks of it, his royal court was about to have some new job openings.
THE KING’S RESPONSE TO THE MAGI
The very best magi in Babylon were left trembling and stalling at Nebuchadnezzar’s request. This immediately demonstrated that they had no real ability and led to their perilous outcome. Perhaps the king already had some misgivings about these wisemen and used a situation like this to confirm his suspicious. But, either way, their abject failure provoked a kingdom wide edict of death (Dn. 2:12), that all magi and wisemen should be immediately killed… This included Daniel and his friends, since this was the role they were called to perform in his kingdom (Dn. 2:13)
DANIEL’S SOLUTION
When Daniel heard the news, he immediately requested a meeting with the king, knowing that God alone could grant such a request (Dn. 2:16). After scheduling the meeting, he solicited prayer from his friends (Dn. 2:17-18) and went to sleep with humble expectation, resting in the sovereignty of God. During the night, God revealed both the dream and its interpretation to Daniel, which caused him to break out in passionate worship (Dn. 2:19-23). When morning came, he headed to the palace for his appointment with the king (Dn. 2:24-26) where he shared both the dream and the interpretation to Nebuchadnezzar (Dn. 2:27-45), who fell on his face in worship (Dn 2:46). The king understood the point, that Daniel’s God had given him the dream, had appointed Daniel to interpret the dream, and that Daniel’s God was supreme over all the other gods (Dn. 2:47).
Now, let us briefly describe the dream so that we can get to why this is such good and fear killing news for the Christian.
THE VISION & INTERPRETATION
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was about a peculiar statue consisting of 5 different metallic parts, which represented 5 sequential kingdom’s. Some things to note. From the top to the bottom, the metals decrease in value, showing that each subsequent kingdom will be less glorious than the former. The metals also increase in strength, revealing how each kingdom will be increasingly menacing in regards to its military might.
The uppermost portion of the statue was a head of gold (the most precious metal), representing king Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian empire that would last another 65 years (Dn. 2:36-38). After Babylon, the world would be dominated by the Media-Persian empire, which was depicted as a silver chest and shoulders (Dn. 2:39a). Greece, who eventually overthrows the Persian empire, comes next on the statue and is represented by bronze (Dn. 2:39b). And then finally, a fourth kingdom, which is as strong as iron and crushes everything in its path (Dn 2:40). This is the Roman empire.
Now, all scholars agree up to this point, that these are the four kingdoms represented in the statue. Each come in perfect historical order just as Daniel predicted. And each successive kingdom was more powerful than the former. Disagreements arise, however, on the final part of the statue. The feet.
Here is what Daniel says:
40 Then there will be a fourth kingdom (Rome) 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 these in pieces. 41 In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. 42 As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. 43 And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.
From this we learn that the final empire, Rome, who defeated Greece in 146 BC, would be a divided kingdom. Some of the kingdom will be as powerful as iron, but yet another part will be as brittle as clay, and this gets at the very heart of why this passage is so important.
HOW WAS ROME DIVIDED?
Rome began as a republic and is perhaps the first ancient example of a representative government in history. But, by 27 BC all of that changed when the senate gave dictatorial powers to Julius Caesar’s adopted son Octavian, who became known as Caesar Augustus. As the empire solidified its power under its first autocrat, a divided approach to government was adopted. Some places would be directly ruled by the Romans, whereas other places (Like Judah) would become client states with their own puppet king who must be loyal to Caesar. This is very important.
First, because Rome truly was a divided empire just like Daniel predicted. In fact, some evidence exists that there were ten client states during the rule of Caesar Augustus (31 BC - 14AD), which works well with a 10 toed metaphor in Daniel. But, as interesting as that might be, the number of the toes was not its most important feature. It was the fact that there was an unholy amalgamation of iron and clay in the feet, which is what we must understand now.
WHO IS THE CLAY?
The Bible uses many metaphors for Israel. She is a bride, a vine, the first born, a flock, and also God’s clay. In fact, during the time when Daniel was writing his book, one of the favorite metaphors on the lips of the prophets was that God was the Potter and Judah was His clay (Is. 29:16; 45:9; 64:8; Jer. 18:4-6). But, instead of being molded by her divine Potter, Judah, at the time of the New Testament, had attached herself to the iron of Rome.
Much evidence could be presented to show this, but for brevity I will share one powerful example. The divine Potter visited His own people in the flesh. He loved them, ministered to them, preached the Gospel of repentance to them, but in the end they rejected Him. While standing in front of Pilate, they condemned their Potter by professing allegiance to Rome saying: “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15). The clay had permanently and irrevocably attached herself to the iron of Rome, which would lead to her sure and sudden downfall. This is what Daniel was saying.
This is where we get to the glorious point!
WHO IS THE STONE?
At the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, he saw a stone cut out of a mountain without the aid of physical hands. This means Nebuchadnezzar saw the work of the invisible God cutting out the Rock that He would use to destroy all those former Kingdoms. This is what Daniel says:
“44 In the days of those kings 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 itself endure forever. 45 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.”
Today, we flat out know what Nebuchadnezzar’s dream means! We know that his kingdom eventually fell. Persia fell. Greece would fall. And during the exact time when Israel was in bed with Rome (The iron mixed with clay), Jesus Christ, came as the stone the builders rejected (Mt. 21:42) that would crush His enemies into pieces (Mt 21:44). He is the rock that God will build His Kingdom upon (Mt. 16:18) and the rock that would cause all else to stumble (Rom. 9:33).
He is the rock Daniel witnessed. The rock that crushed the Jewish nation for killing God’s Son. He is the rock that toppled the Roman empire and the cornerstone we cling to today (1 Cor. 10:4).
THIS IS WHY WE HAVE HOPE
2600 years ago, Daniel interpreted a dream that has monumental significance for our lives today. He saw a Kingdom, established by God Himself, inaugurated by Jesus Christ, that would reign and go on forever. Babylon is no more. Persia has faded into the sands from where it rose. Greece and Rome exist today in history books. And the Old Testament Kingdom of Judah is no more. But the Kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ still stands! And that should give us great hope!
We live in a world that is attempting to suffocate our joy, render us hopeless, and cause us to be afraid. Resist that urge with all your might because you live in the eternal Kingdom of God! Do not allow this present world of dirt and dust to rob you of delight. If you are in Christ, you belong to the rock of ages! And knowing that will cause us to live COMPLETELY unafraid!
