The Kingdom Remaining Series

Last week we learned from the beginning of Daniel Chapter 2 that Daniel, a strong Believer of God, almost got killed because of the unbelief in God of others. From Daniel 2:1-28, we noted that Daniel did the following in response to his predicament:

1. he prayed (Daniel was a man of prayer)

2. lived with complete trust in God (walked the talk)

3. spoke with wisdom and tact (truth in love)

4. depended on godly friends

5. gave glory to God (not to himself)

We must note that even faithful Christians can be detrimentally impacted by sins of people around them. We would be wise to follow Daniel’s example for Daniel’s belief in God graciously impacted the unbelievers in his sphere of influence.

This morning we will look into the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar. Open your Bibles to Daniel 2. Before reading, let us pray our commitment to God’s Word…

Read along with me Daniel 2, starting with verse 29-36…

Let us summarize the dream (1st statue picture) before reading the interpretation. The dream was an enormous, dazzling, awesome statue: Head – Pure Gold, Chest and Arms – Silver, Belly and Thighs – Bronze, Legs – Iron, Feet – part Iron and Baked Clay. A Rock was cut out but not by human hands hits the feet and smashes them. THEN all at the same time, everything broke into pieces, became dust and was blown away! BUT the Rock that struck became a mountain filling the whole earth!

Let us now read the interpretation, starting with v37…….

Before we talk about the interpretation, let us answer this question: Why would God give Nebuchadnezzar that vision? What do you think??

Take a look again at v37-38 with me…..

And look again at v47…….

God was revealing who He is to Nebuchadnezzar so that he would believe.

And of course God called Daniel to write so that Israel would know what was happening and what will happen. God used King Nebuchadnezzar to build the faith of Israel. This was the main reason for God’s Word for God’s people of that time.

But there’s one more reason why God gave Nebuchadnezzar such a dream; what is it??

The Word of God was written and is eternal, so that those who read it will learn from it! The dream was also given so that people today will have faith in God and not be surprised of the future! We’ll talk more about this later.

Let’s look at the interpretation. God Himself specifically interpreted the dream so that there would be no confusion. Of course, since much history has gone before us after that dream, we can give even clearer meaning.

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We know from v38 that the statue begins with Nebuchadnezzar as the head of gold. And so, everything after the head of gold is after the Babylonian Empire. Chest & arms, belly & thighs, legs, & feet represent other kingdoms to follow one right after the other, but all inferior to Nebuchadnezzar. And let us not forget that all of this was ordained by God!

Daniel was written over 2200 years ago and we can look at the history books to see if what God wrote came true. This is one of the reasons why we can believe that the Bible is the Word of God. If someone asks you to prove the Bible, ask them to disprove its historical accuracy!

But more than this, the Bible provides more information when heeded!

Turn briefly to Daniel 5:1-2…. Belshazzar took the throne.

Daniel 5:30…. Darius the Mede took the throne.

And we will find out in the next chapters of Daniel that the kingdoms to follow Babylon are The Medo-Persians, then The Greek Empire, then The Roman Empire, then there will be unsettled times which leads to a Kingdom which will never end! Check the history books! These exact kingdoms came one right after the other. And we know that there has not been a kingdom as great as the Roman Empire after it fell (picture of the Roman Empire).

What happened close to the Fall of the Roman Empire??

What does the dream tell us in Daniel 2:44-45…… Jesus Christ is the Rock!

Yes, God sent Jesus Christ to earth to initiate a Kingdom superior to all kingdoms and a Kingdom which will never end!

Before we close with applications to our lives today, let us take note of v49……

Daniel was a godly man who treasured his faith partners!

Now besides the knowledge of Scriptures, what Biblical principles can we apply to our lives today?

God revealed Himself to Nebuchadnezzar, to Daniel, to the people of Israel, and to anyone who reads the Bible!

God reveals Himself to everyone! Why does God do this? Let me ask this question: Does God desire bad things to happen to people??