Daniel 2

Daniel 2:1-3

(1) Now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had (2) dreams; and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. (3) Then the king gave orders to call in the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. (4) The king said to them, “I had a dream and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream.”

Around 600-620 BC.
Multiple dreams, of which this was the most significant.
The magicians and diviners, those typical of the court, using either human ideas or demonic power to attempt to understand meaning.
The King wants the dream interpreted.

Daniel 2:4-7

(1) Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic: “O king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servants, and we will declare the interpretation.” (2) The king replied to the Chaldeans, “The command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, (3) you will be torn limb from limb and your houses will be made a rubbish heap. (4) But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me gifts and a reward and great honor; (5) therefore declare to me the dream and its interpretation.” (6) They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation.”

The typical response for interpretation.
The king, perhaps sensing the gravity of the situation, and certainly inspired by God, responds with an “impossible” request.
The punishment is completely destruction.
The reward is gifts and honor.
The demand is repeated–the dream and the interpretation. God demonstrates He is the only one capable in this endeavor.
The false interpreters know they are at a loss, and ask for altered terms.

Daniel 2:8-11

(1) The king replied, “I know for certain that you are bargaining for time, inasmuch as you have seen that the command from me is firm, that if you do not make the dream known to me, there is only one decree for you. (2) For you have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the situation is changed; (3) therefore tell me the dream, that I may know that you can declare to me its interpretation.” The Chaldeans answered the king and said, “(4) There is not a man on earth who could declare the matter for the king, (5) inasmuch as no great king or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any magician, conjurer or Chaldean. Moreover, (6) the thing which the king demands is difficult, and there is no one else who could declare it to the king except gods, whose dwelling place (7) is not with mortal flesh.”

The King, persisting, knows they cannot.
He realizes they are conspired to lie to him, as indeed they have in the past.
The demand is repeated again.
No one on earth can do such a thing.
It has never been asked before.
It is difficult.
Only God (the gods), the true God, can. They acknowledge their devices are separate from the true God.

Daniel 2:12-13

Because of this the king became indignant and very furious and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they looked for Daniel and his friends to kill them.

Daniel and his friends are included in the decree to kill all the wise men.

Daniel 2:14-16

Then (1) Daniel replied with (2) discretion and discernment to Arioch, the captain of the king’s bodyguard, who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon; he said to Arioch, the king’s commander, (3) “For what reason is the decree from the king so urgent?” Then Arioch informed Daniel about the matter. (4) So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him time, in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king.

Daniel is the spokesman of the four Hebrew boys who have remained clean.
Discretion and discernment are the mark of his words, most of the time.
He asks the reason for the harsh decree, which had not been disclosed.
In hearing, Daniel went in to the king to request time.

Daniel 2:17-18

(1) Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, (2) Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, about the matter, (3) so that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this (4) mystery, (5) so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed (6) with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Daniel went with the information and did something about it.
These are their real names, not their captivity names.
They petition God for compassion.
The issue is considered a “mystery”.
And that they might not be destroyed.
So doing, actually preserves their life and the life of the others.

Daniel 2:19-23

(1) Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. (2) Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven; Daniel said, “(3) Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, (4) For wisdom and power belong to Him. (5) It is He who changes the times and the epochs; (6) He removes kings and establishes kings; (7) He gives wisdom to wise men And knowledge to men of understanding. (8) It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; (9) He knows what is in the darkness, (10) And the light dwells with Him. (11) To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, (12) For You have given me wisdom and power; (13) Even now You have made known to me what we requested of You, For You have made known to us the king’s matter.”

God granted the request.
And, in response, Daniel offered a thank offering (Psalm 50:23).
He begins by blessing God’s name. Our God is a specific God. Amidst the false gods of the others who could do nothing, this was the true God, that did speak to mortals, to flesh.
Wisdom and power itself belong to God, as opposed to every other force.
He is the one that is in charge.
By retrospect, in view of the dream and interpretation, God has done this, and exalted Nebuchadnezzar.
He gave wisdom and knowledge to Nebuchadnezzar through Daniel.
Only God can reveal mysteries. The only true form of dream interpretation is through the spirit of revelation, ultimately.
Jeremiah 33:3
Psalm 139:12
Psalm 36:9
Daniel acknowledges God as the source of all the revelation.
Even the revealing of the mystery of the king. He does not elevate himself in the matter, but God alone. God is the one with the wisdom, and he has given it to Daniel. Hence, Daniel is not inflated by the matter, but honors God who has granted compassion.

Daniel 2:24-25

Therefore, Daniel went in to Arioch, 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 to the king.” Then Arioch hurriedly brought Daniel into the king’s presence and spoke to him as follows: “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king!”

Daniel instructs the captain not to execute them, for the answer has been found.

Daniel 2:26-28

(1) The king said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?” (2) Daniel answered before the king and said, “As for the mystery about which the king has inquired, (3) neither wise men, conjurers, magicians nor diviners are able to declare it to the king. (4) However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and (5) He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days.

Nebuchadnezzar asks Daniel if he is able. It seems as if, perhaps, there is a bit of astonishment from the king.
Daniel answers the King about the mystery.
He says that it is impossible with men.
This is the difference. Daniel knows the true God, the God of heaven. Daniels’ God, our God, is the only God that can answer. He is the only God with wisdom and power. All others are false, impotent, and fallen.
And, this is why. The true God can truly tell what will happen in the future without fail. Not one word will return void. Of all the prophecies in the Bible, we can guarantee every last word will be fulfilled in perfect detail. Only God has all wisdom. While the devil may make predictions, he has no sovereign power to bring it to pass. He may make a few statements that may seem to connect, but in the end, his powers will be broken, and his words will always fail. Isaiah 44:25.

Daniel 2:29-30

(1) This was your dream and the visions in your mind while on your bed. (2) As for you, O king, while on your bed (3) your thoughts (4) turned to what would take place in the future; and (5) He who reveals mysteries has made known to you what will take place. (6)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, (7) but for the purpose of making the interpretation known to the king, and that you may understand the thoughts of your mind.”

Daniel relates the dream, the mystery.
The King was in bed. This is part of what was revealed to Daniel. While Nebuchadnezzar had the dream or vision, Daniel sees more than the king, because he sees the conditions of the King’s physical position as well as the state of his mind. Perhaps he was drawn into a similar state, and knew that it correlated to the king’s case. Or, perhaps, he was shown the same thing as an observer. Regardless, the whole condition is revealed to Daniel, both the vision and the situation in which it was revealed.
Daniel notes that the king’s thoughts were involved before the vision. Obviously, God was drawing His thoughts before he had the vision, and in that state, he saw it. This also provides us clues to interpretation of our own revelations. Context, as it were, is everything, when it comes to interpreting revelation. If you don’t know the question, the answer may be more of a mystery than you started with.
The king’s mind turns to the future, that is, events yet to come.
Daniel tells the king that it is his God that has revealed this to him. The question arises as to why God would reveal this to the king, but the reason is clear. As for the king’s sake, he is the beginning of a one-world empire, that will stretch for one thousand years. In addition, he has been promoted to even rule the wild beasts, primarily due to Israel’s sin, according to Jeremiah 28, at the false prophet Hananiah’s sin (the ‘iron yoke’). Thus, the revelation is both for the king, but clearly for us as well, as it has become scripture. God is revealing what He is allowing in the Earth, and requiring the interpretation to come through the book that Daniel would write, for our behalf down through the ages.
Yet, it is also clear that Daniel knows humility. While this revelation is recorded in his book, the interpretation came through Daniel not because of his wisdom.
The revelation was given so that Nebuchadnezzar would know and understand, yet God, in His wisdom, works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Daniel 2:31

(1) You, O king, (2) were looking and behold, (3) there was a single great statue; (4) that statue, (5) which was large and (6) of extraordinary splendor, (7) was standing in front of you, and (8) its appearance was awesome.

Nebuchadnezzar was the one beholding it. This is his vision, not Daniel’s. Daniel only has the revelation of its meaning.
This is a vision, or a dream. It is a thing perceived by the eyes. Only recorded is what the king saw. No other form of communication came to the king, other than sight.
The statue in question.
This statue, of unidentified identity.
It was very large. Indeed, it will be a one-world empire, ruling over the entire known world.
It had splendor, meaning it had great earthly glory, as that of a man.
It was before him. Indeed, the kingdom was before him.
It was awesome, or terrible. It is a demonic empire.

Daniel 2:32-35

(1) The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. (2) You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and (3) it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and (4) crushed them. (5) Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and (6) became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and (7) the wind carried them away (8) so that not a trace of them was found. (9) But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

The four part statue: gold, silver, bronze, and iron/iron+clay. They all constitute one statue
This is Christ, the rock, and His Kingdom, as we will see, at His first coming. It was cut out without hands, possibly indicating the “temple made without hands”.
It strikes the statue at the feet, which is in the days of those kings.
It crushed the feet first.
All four materials were crushed “at the same time”.
They didn’t turn to nothing, but as the YLT says, were “broken small together”. Becoming chaff isn’t nothingness, but they could no longer hold together. The ‘debris’ ends up somewhere.
The wind, or, most likely, the Spirit, carries them away.
The YLT reads here, “no place hath been found for them”, rather than the NASB rendering. This seems more apt than ‘no trace found’, rather, no place is found for them, so they cannot find root and be established, but they are still around, so to speak.
The stone, the Kingdom, became or grew into a great mountain and filled the Earth.

Daniel 2:36

This was the dream; now we will tell its interpretation before the king.

Daniel explains that the dream is complete, and now will come the interpretation. The king obviously agrees with the dream corresponds to his.

Daniel 2:37-38

(1) You, O king, are (2) the king of kings, (3) to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; (4) and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. (5) You are the head of gold.

This dream pertains to Nebuchadnezzar personally. He is the head of this statue, and no one else. To fulfill this vision, the head of this statue must be this man. We will see that this limits the fulfillment to the time of Rome, because the glory, the outward splendor of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon ceased to exist. Thus, a revived Rome will not work, since all the pieces must be broken together.
Compared to Christ, but in the earthly, and counterfeit kingdom.
God has given him the kingdom, power, and all that he is.
As stated, in Jeremiah 28, God gave him dominion even over beasts.
Also compared Christ as the “head of gold” from Song of Songs.

Daniel 2:39

(1) After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, (2) which will rule over all the earth.

The second and third kingdom, each successively inferior, will follow.
The distinctive of these kingdoms is their ruling over the entire Earth. The other chapters will give the distinctive identification of these, but they are Media-Persia, and Greece, both of which ruled the entire known world.

Daniel 2:40-41

(1) Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; (2) inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. (3) 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.

Rome was signified by iron.
Rome crushed those nations that opposed it. It trampled the entire world with its systematic roadways, taxation, and military.
It does not hold together, however, since it mixed with the other nations. It was a mixed people.

Daniel 2:42-43

(1) 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. (2) 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.

The kingdom is said to be strong, but brittle. Indeed, this is evident of Roman history.
The Kingdom itself mixed with the seed of men. This indicates the demonic nature of the rulership. Because of the mixture, they seemed to have strength, but they were brittle.

Daniel 2:44-45

(1) In the days of those kings (2) the God of heaven (3) will set up (4) a kingdom (5) which will never be destroyed, and (6) that kingdom will not be left for another people; (7) it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, (8) but it will itself endure forever. (9) Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and (10) that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, (11) the great God has made known to the king (12) what will take place in the future; (13) so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.

In the days of the kings of Rome. The statue was continuous, from Nebuchadnezzar, that is, it was not missing its “shins” or ankles. A one-world government existed from Babylon through Rome, with hostile take-over between the materials, but the whole existed until the time of the end (of the statue) when it was all broken at the same time. Both the division of the toes and the idea of five kingdoms instead of four is completely speculation. Clearly, to anyone reading this text in Rome’s day, the only way one could interpret this text is Rome, and not a future revived Rome. The idea of a proposed gap in this is absurd. Further, the head of gold, and the two other metals, all three original kingdoms, today as of this writing, are completely destroyed. Since all four metals had to be destroyed together, the “days of those kings” is clearly, only, and conclusively, Rome. A revived Roman empire would only be one, not four metals, and even a revived all four would not have the Nebuchadnezzar Daniel spoke to as the head.
God will do this. Not a work of man.
Compare to Daniel 4, where the king will “set up” an image in the plain. The parallel is on purpose. In Colossians 1:15, Jesus is the “image of the invisible God”. In Daniel 4, the image of gold is “set up”. Of both, worship is demanded, and of both, the consequence for failure to worship is into fire (a furnace or a lake of fire). The “setting up” must be Christ’s first coming. Even if the Kingdom has a culmination to come, and is in some how only in “seed form”, the time of “setting up” a tree is when you plant it, not three years later when it finally casts shade on the ground. Further, Mark 1:15, in light of this passage, make no other possible explanation viable. Jesus, God Himself, perfectly interprets every passage of scripture. He said, “The time is fulfilled,the Kingdom is here” (my paraphrase). The “setting up” of the Kingdom is what is in question, and there can only be one definitive application of this. Either Jesus was purposely deceiving, or the Kingdom promised in Daniel 2:44 came in Mark 1:15. There is absolutely no other way to take His statements. “Set up” is further not “created” or “made”, but “set up” on the Earth. God has always had a Kingdom. It has intersected humanity at different times, but now, God has “set up” the Kingdom upon the Earth, for the saints. It is not that the Kingdom is new, but that now it is made accessible through Jesus Christ.
“A Kingdom”, from the perspective of Nebuchadnezzar, who had no vision of such a thing. There would be another Kingdom. From God’s perspective, however, this is “the Kingdom”. God only has one Kingdom, and so this is definatively the “Kingdom of God” or the “Kingdom of Heaven” (used interchangeably). God further would not be “setting up” another kingdom in the future. The Kingdom Christ brought, as demonstrated in His miraculous works (Matthew 12:28), was the promised, awaited Kingdom, by virtue of what Christ declared, because He was the perfect interpreter of Old Testament promises.
This Kingdom is everlasting (Psalm 145:13). It always has been, so far as man has been concerned, for God has always been on the throne for the duration of man. But, further, this Kingdom will remain upon the Earth, even as Jesus said, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, that is, the true church.
It will not be left to another people, because those who are in Christ never taste of death. While the physical may perish, the true Kingdom is spiritual (John 3:3-5, and elsewhere).
The Kingdom of God, through the church, crushed all these other kingdoms. It was the coming of the church that spiritual broke the power of Rome (Daniel 7’s beast), and all the other kingdoms. Again, the non-existence of any of the other three Kingdoms, including Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, marks the positive conclusive evidence that the statue is destroyed. The only thing that crushed this one-world power was the church, which grew and filled the whole earth. It was not through military conquest, but through spiritual overthrow, in the realm of the powers, principalities, thrones, dominions, and spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. This was the domain and realm of the overthrow. As the transition between metal to metal was marked with outward war, the crushing of the statue came through the conversion, the passing from death to life, of its people. Not all the people, but sufficient to overthrow the powers. In the same way that Jesus said he saw satan fall from heaven like lightning at the preaching of repentance of the seventy, so too, the preaching of the church literally broke the power of the dragon, overthrew Rome spiritually, and the pieces of the statue were “broken together small” and in “no place was found for them” we read of the decline of Rome, instead of it’s abrupt fall, since the spiritual power holding them together no longer functioned.
The Kingdom of God, of the Heavens, will endure forever. It will never end, though the Earth pass away. Again, indicating a spiritual Kingdom of the Heavens. God is Spirit, and those who worship must worship in Spirit and in truth. The same is true for His Kingdom. It is not of the Earth, nor will it ever be. 1 Corinthians 15:50.
The stone cut out of the mountain without hands could very well be Christ at His resurrection, as He said that he would rebuilt the temple with one made without hands. Hence, the coming of the Kingdom was at Pentecost, in accordance to Matthew 13:33, the parable of the leaven, which speaks of the inward work of the Holy Spirit to transform the believer, and company of saints.
The church crushed all these other Kingdoms. History demonstrates that they do not exist any more. The only force in existence that changed them was the Assembly of God. Regardless of other interpretations, literally speaking, whatever broke Babylon, from head to foot, since it no longer exists in any form in the world to day, is categorically the “Kingdom of God”. There is no other way around this. Since nothing remains of the ancient Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, or Rome, the statue is broken.
God has revealed this to Nebuchadnezzar.
This is a future event for Daniel at that time, but is history for us. God fulfilled His prophetic word.
The word is promised to be trustworthy, as history demonstrates it was.

Daniel 2:46-47

(1) Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and (2) did homage to Daniel, and (3) gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant incense. (4) The king answered Daniel and said, “Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.”

The king now bows to Daniel, in awe of the revelation.
And, as pagan culture would adopt, pays him homage. John tried this in the Revelation, but was told to stop.
Daniel is rewarded.
Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that God is sovereign. This does not seem to stop him, however, from being a pagan king, as the idolotry, rage, and narcissism that is to follow shows. Even in the face of such direct encounter with God almighty, the king continues in his old ways.

Daniel 2:48-49

(1) Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. (2) And Daniel made request of the king, and he appointed (3) Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon, while Daniel was at the king’s court.

Daniel is promoted.
Daniel promotes his friends who prayed and sought the Lord with Him. He did not forget who stood by him.
These are their names of the captivity. As they are being promoted, they are referred to their Babylonian names now, as that is what they are publically known for. Despite the recognition by the world, however, it is clear that they do not forget their true identity, as the firey furnace in chapter 4 demonstrates. They remain true to their true name, their Hebrew names, and refuse to worship the demon gods of Babylon or the king.