“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
    to whom belong wisdom and might.
He changes times and seasons;
    he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise
    and knowledge to those who have
    understanding;
he reveals deep and hidden things;
    he knows what is in the darkness,
    and the light dwells with him
(Daniel 2:20-22, ESV).

In Daniel 1 the king of Babylon invaded Judah and besieged Jerusalem. Many people from the nobility and royal family of Judah were exiled to Babylon. Daniel and three of his friends were among the exiles. As youths they were to be educated in the Chaldean language and culture. The faithfulness of Daniel and his friends is tested and with God’s favor upon them they are proven to have greater understanding and knowledge than all the Chaldean wise men in Nebuchadnezzar’s court.

In Daniel 2 King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and wanted the wise men of his court to interpret it. The thing is, he didn’t want them just to interpret the dream; he wanted them to reveal what the dream was and then interpret it.

King Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t exactly an enlightened ruler and when his wise men couldn’t tell him the dream, he was furious and decreed for them all to be executed. Apparently, Daniel and his friends were at the top of the kill list. When the captain of the king’s guard came to take them to be executed, Daniel requested a meeting with the king to tell him he could interpret the dream.

Daniel told his friends about King Nebuchadnezzar’s decree and they all prayed and asked for God’s help in knowing and interpreting the dream to Nebuchadnezzar. And, God revealed the dream and its interpretation in a night vision to Daniel! In response to revealing Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to him, Daniel proclaimed the song of praise celebrating God’s power, wisdom, and control over history in vs. 20-22.

And this would be the message he would deliver to Nebuchadnezzar: That the God of heaven and earth has absolute power and sovereignty over the affairs of this world.

When Daniel was taken to King Nebuchadnezzar, he asked Daniel if he could make the dream and its interpretation known. Daniel responded that only God in heaven knows what the future will be and has chosen to reveal it to Nebuchadnezzar: “There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days” (vs. 28).

Daniel explained the dream and its interpretation to Nebuchadnezzar. The dream was of a great image or statue, likely a human form, with a head made of gold, chest and arms made of silver, an abdomen and thighs made of bronze, and legs of iron with feet partly of iron and clay. In the dream a stone is cut supernaturally and strikes the image on its feet of iron and clay and breaks them to pieces. Consequently, the whole statue falls to pieces and turns to dust and is carried away by the wind. But the supernatural stone that struck the image becomes a mountain and fills all the earth.

Daniel then revealed the meaning of the dream to Nebuchadnezzar. The head of gold represented King Nebuchadnezzar and the kingdom of Babylon. Daniel calls Nebuchadnezzar “king of kings” and declares that his great power and glory has been derived from the God of heaven. Daniel’s pronouncement of Nebuchadnezzar’s rulership over “the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens” recalls God’s decree to Adam and Eve and His intent for humanity in Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

The silver chest and arms represent a second and inferior kingdom that follows the Babylonian/Chaldean kingdom and rules over the earth; then a third kingdom of bronze and finally a fourth and divided kingdom that is partly strong like iron and partly brittle like iron mixed with clay. The stone that breaks the statue to pieces and becomes a great mountain is the kingdom of God that is never destroyed and stands forever.

The common historical interpretation of these kingdoms is the head of gold represents the Babylonian empire; the chest and arms of silver are the Medo-Persian empire, the abdomen and thighs of bronze the Greek empire of Alexander the Great, the legs of iron the Roman empire, and the feet of iron and clay the later Roman empire and some include the end-times governments.

But, what God showed Nebuchadnezzar in this dream is that while Nebuchadnezzar may be a powerful king, he exercises this power only because the God of heaven has destined it. Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom and the ones coming afterward will all decline and fade away into history.

Remember Acton’s Proposition: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human rule over other humans though founded on conquest or good intentions becomes corrupt and results in the downfall of empires. Only God’s rule is just, absolute, and eternal.

"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
British historian Lord Acton in an 1887 letter to Bishop Creighton

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream showed him that earthly empires rise and fall, but God’s kingdom is timeless and He reigns forever. Possibly, the dream was designed to break down Nebuchadnezzar’s pride and put the fear of God into Nebuchadnezzar concerning his rulership over God’s chosen people and recalls Moses confronting Pharaoh over his captivity of God’s people in Exodus 6-12.

And, it seemed to have worked: “The king answered and said to Daniel, ‘Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery'” (vs. 47).

God’s son, Jesus Christ, who is the stone cut out without human hands in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, established God’s Kingdom when He came to earth as a human being, died for the sins of human corruption, and ascended to heaven as King of kings. God’s kingdom ultimately shatters the rule of corrupt human kingdoms and ultimately subsumes all human kingdoms.

God’s Kingdom is a present and future Kingdom and He is inviting us today to swear allegiance to His glorious Kingdom so we can live and rule with Him forever.

What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory. (Romans 9:22-23, ESV)