THE DREAM - DANIEL CHAPTER 2
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;
31. 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.
Clearly something happens to the fourth kingdom of IRON.
The legs of IRON transition to the feet of IRON & CLAY.
What does this change in the fourth kingdom mean, the clay added to the iron?
THE INTERPRETATION
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.
44. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
45. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
EXPLAINING THE KINGDOMS OF THE DANIEL 2 IMAGE
In the interpretation, four kingdoms were to arise depicted by the different metals.
The GOLD represented Babylon - v 38
Another kingdom of SILVER was to arise after Babylon - v 39
This second kingdom was Medo-Persia which conquered Babylon - Daniel chapter 5
And a third Kingdom of BRASS was to follow - v 39
The third kingdom was Grecia which conquered Medo-Persia - Daniel chapter 8
But there was to be a fourth Kingdom, the kingdom of IRON - v 40
This fourth kingdom was ROME - Daniel chapter 8
God gave the dream to King Nebuchadnezzar and to Daniel was given the interpretation of the dream hence, it would be logical that in interpreting the King's dream, Daniel would identify the four kingdoms of the metal image in the Book of Daniel itself. The first three are straight forward. The first is identified in Daniel chapter 2 as Babylon. ("King" and "Kingdom" are used interchangeably in prophecy).
The first three kingdoms arise as one kingdom conquers the previous one. Babylon fell to the Medes & Persians which in turn fell to the Grecians. The Grecians under Alexander the Great were never conquered by the fourth kingdom of the Daniel 2 image. The prophecy concerning this fourth kingdom is outlined in Daniel chapters 7, 8 & 11. While the fourth kingdom is not identified by name, the characteristics outlined in Daniel 7, 8 and 11 point unmistakably to Rome.
DANIEL 7 - FOUR BEASTS REPRESENT FOUR KINGDOMS.
2. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
3. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
17. These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.
23. Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
Daniel 7 is the commencement of Daniel's prophetic ministry.
Daniel 7 is the first complete symbolic prophecy: Lion, Bear, Leopard & 4th beast.
The Scripture says the four beasts are four kings - v 17
But it then says, the fourth beast is the fourth KINGDOM - v 23
Hence "King" and Kingdom" are used interchangeably to mean the same, a nation.
First mention principle dictates the word KINGDOM refers to its first mention in Dan 2
Hence the 4th beast is the fourth kingdom of the Daniel 2 metal image.
The third beast, the four headed Leopard, is the third Kingdom - Grecia.
The second beast, the bear with three ribs in its mouth, the Medes & Persians.
The first beast, the Lion, is therefore, the kingdom of Babylon.
DANIEL 8 - THE FOURTH KINGDOM IS ROME (PAGAN & PAPAL)
3. Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.
4. I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great.
5. And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.
6. And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power.
7. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.
8. Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.
9. And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.
10. And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.
11. Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.
12. And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.
13. Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certainsaint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?
THE LITTLE HORN KINGDOM FOLLOWS GRECIA
THE LITTLE HORN REPRESENTS BOTH PAGAN & PAPAL ROME IN DANIEL 8
- Rome became "exceeding great"- v 9, greater than the Ram (v 4) and the He-Goat (v 8).
- Rome conquered the pleasant land - Rome conquered Palestine - v 9
- Rome persecuted the host of heaven, i.e. God's people - v 10
- Rome crucified the Prince of the Host, i.e. Jesus Christ - v 11"
- Rome is the "King of fierce countenance" of verse 23.
- Rome understood dark sentences. It spoke a different language to the Jews - v 23*.
- Moses spoke of this power in Deuteronomy 28:49,50 **
- The city of Rome or place of his sanctuary was cast down or given up.
- The capital was moved from Rome to Constantinople by the Emperor Constantine.
- "From Rome" the DAILY was taken up, lifted up, exalted - see study on "THE DAILY"
- An host (armies) helped set up Papal Rome - see on the King of the North & Dan 11:31
- Papal Rome cast the truth to the ground - v 12
- Papal Rome practised & prospered. It is a wealthy if not the wealthiest organisation - v 12
- Papal Rome is the desolating power spoken of in verse 13, the DAILY is the other.
- Rome, both pagan & papal, destroyed the mighty and holy people of God - v 24
- Rome shall be broken without hand, i.e. supernaturally destroyed by Christ - v 25
** "Deut 28:49 The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
50. A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:"
* Daniel 8:23. A King of fierce countenance was to stand up at the latter time of the four divisions of the Grecian empire. Moses spoke of a NATION of fierce countenance that was to come up against the Jews. Here we see that "KING" and "NATION" are used interchangeably.
**Deut 28:49 This power understood dark sentences. Moses foretold this would happen, that a nation whose language the Jews did not understand would come up against them. The Jews did not understand Latin, the language (dark sentences) of Rome.
The little horn of Daniel 8 is Rome
The fourth beast of Daniel 7 is Rome.
The Little Horn of Daniel 7 which is on the fourth beast is Papal Rome.
There is a transition in the 4th kingdom of Daniel 7 from pagan Rome to papal Rome.
The fourth beast is said to be the fourth kingdom - Dan 7:23
Therefore the fourth kingdom of the Daniel 2 image is Rome.
WHAT KINGDOM DOES THE IRON & CLAY REPRESENT?
THE CLAY
Isaiah 64:8 "But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand."
Jer 18:4 " And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it."
Jer 18:6 "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel."
The clay represents a people in relationship with their God - religion.
The clay is the clay of the Bible, hence has to do with the Christian religion.
In other words, the Clay represents the professed Christian church.
The clay is connected to the IRON of the legs which continued into the feet.
The IRON legs as we saw is pagan Rome.
The feet is still ROME but a different type of Rome, one connected with Christianity.
The IRON & CLAY represents the church of Rome, a union of church & state.
The IRON & CLAY of Daniel 2 represents the Church of Rome.
The Church of Rome is also the Harlot Woman of Revelation 17 - see that study.
This woman has a name on her forehead.
She is known as Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots & abominations
The Woman is called BABYLON THE GREAT.
She is the mother of Harlots.
Her daughters thus bear the same sir-name - BABYLON
The Mother professes Christianity - the Roman Catholic type.
The Daughters profess Christianity - the Protestant type.
Both are inspired by the Dragon - see Rev 13:2 & 11
The Daniel 2 image commenced with the literal kingdom of Babylon at the head.
The Daniel 2 image concludes with spiritual Babylon at the feet of IRON & CLAY.
The professed Christian church is the BABYLON of the Apocalypse.
The professed Christian Church both catholic and protestant is BABYLON THE GREAT of the Apocalypse.
What a masterclass by Satan, that the very name Christian which is associated with the salvation of mankind, should be used deceptively to lead to the destruction of all who follow her.
The feet of Iron & Clay is Papal Rome
The little horn of Daniel 7 is Papal Rome
The Little Horn of Daniel 8 is Papal Rome
The King of the North of Daniel 11 is Papal Rome - see study on that chapter.
Papal Rome is destroyed at the end of all the above chapters.
The Book of Revelation tells us that all who follow her will suffer the same fate.
The call of the second angel's message of Revelation 14:8 is: "And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."
The angel of Revelation 18:1 joins in the chorus of the second angel of Revelation 14 and will lighten the earth with its glory with the message:
Rev 18:1"And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
Rev 18:2 "And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."
Rev 18:3 "For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies."
Rev 18:4 "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."
Time to heed the call and come out of a system set up by the Dragon - Rev 12:9, Rev 13.
Get back to the Word of God and become a TRUE Christian - John 8:31.
Keeping all the commandments of God including the Seventh Day Sabbath of the 4th.
Follow the Word with all your heart and soul & you will find Jesus, the centre of the prophecy
May God bless you in your search for Him.
"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." Jer 29:13