"God Reigns while Kingdoms Crumble"
Book of Daniel Series
CCCAG 1-26-25
Scripture: Daniel 2:31-45
1. Introduction
I'm going to start off this morning with a quick question-
What is the kind of person that rubs you the wrong way.
All of us have a personality type that really rubs us the wrong way, and for me, it’s a person that is very prideful, arrogant, and is a bit of a bully toward others.
Before coming here, I was working as a paramedic, I had a female partner for a while and she had a boyfriend that had that macho, arrogant, in your face personality that rubbed everyone the wrong way.
We were driving back from a long transfer and she was looking through her phone and trying to shop for a birthday present for him. She asked me what my opinion was of what to get him for his birthday and before I could think otherwise and give a more political answer. I replied, a mirror so he can look at the best thing he has ever seen.
That got me an eye roll.
People who are prideful and arrogant can often be very difficult to deal with and even more difficult to show them that they are wrong about something they believe or think.
In mental health we have a term called “lack of insight”. This means that a person has a complete inability to recognize or understand how their own symptoms and behaviors are limiting and even destroying their life. A major symptoms of this the person in question will have very little empathy of how their choices affect others in a negative way.
The poster child for this- King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
The last time that we were in our series on Daniel, we saw that Nebuchadnezzar was being disturbed by a dream that he kept having. And it wasn't just the fact that he had this dream, it was that he couldn't remember the specifics of this dream.
Nebuchadnezzar gathers his royal advisors and tells them that they needed to tell him the exact specifics of his dream and the meaning behind the imagery he was seeing.
These advisors were a mix of people- some were learned and wise men who were probably good advisors to the king. However, there was also a group who were deeply Into the occult and dark arts. They used magic, witchcraft and sorcery to provide answers for the king.
Unfortunately, many of these occultic advisors were also mostly con men and their probing and obvious attempts at getting clues from Nebuchadnezzar made him very angry and he decided to put all of them to death.
Unfortunately, that also included his four newest advisors, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo even though they had just been placed in that position and were not included in the meeting.
Facing imminent execution., Daniel asked his friends to pray that God reveals Nebuchadnezzar's dream to them.
God answers that prayer and shows Daniel exactly what Nebuchadnezzar was dreaming and what it meant for the future.
Daniel goes to the king and tells him that the God of Israel has told him the dream, and its interpretation.
That’s what we will read about this morning, and in doing so, we will be looking both at ancient history, and into our future.
Let's read this morning what Daniel as Daniel responds to the king.
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Daniel 2:31-45
Dan 2:31-45 “Your Majesty, as you were watching, suddenly a colossal statue appeared. That statue, tall and dazzling, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was terrifying. (32) The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its stomach and thighs were bronze, (33) its legs were iron, and its feet were partly iron and partly fired clay. (34) As you were watching, a stone broke off without a hand touching it, struck the statue on its feet of iron and fired clay, and crushed them. (35) Then the iron, the fired clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were shattered and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. (36) “This was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation. (37) Your Majesty, you are king of kings. The God of the heavens has given you sovereignty, power, strength, and glory. (38) Wherever people live?—?or wild animals, or birds of the sky?—?he has handed them over to you and made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold. (39) “After you, there will arise another kingdom, inferior to yours, and then another, a third kingdom, of bronze, which will rule the whole earth. (40) A fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron; for iron crushes and shatters everything, and like iron that smashes, it will crush and smash all the others. (41) You saw the feet and toes, partly of a potter’s fired clay and partly of iron?—?it will be a divided kingdom, though some of the strength of iron will be in it. You saw the iron mixed with clay, (42) and that the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly fired clay?—?part of the kingdom will be strong, and part will be brittle. (43) You saw the iron mixed with clay?—?the peoples will mix with one another but will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with fired clay. (44) “In the days of those kings, the God of the heavens will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever. (45) You saw a stone break off from the mountain without a hand touching it, and it crushed the iron, bronze, fired clay, silver, and gold. The great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is certain, and its interpretation reliable.”
Prayer
One quick note- this sermon is going to be a bit like drinking from a fire hose. A lot of information, but the audio of it will be available this evening if you want to listen to it again. Notes available on request.
In this section of scripture, we see that God gives Nebuchadnezzar a dream.
The first question I asked when I was studying- Why did God do this? Why is he giving this kind of important information to a pagan king?
Remember the kind of person that Nebuchadnezzar is-
Proud
Arrogant
Despot
He thinks he is the king of all kings and the lord of all lords, and Nebuchadnezzar at this point of his life is personally considering following the example of the Egyptian pharaohs in declaring himself as living god.
Why would God use this man?
Because even as arrogant and sometimes even as evil as Nebuchadnezzar can be-
God loves Nebuchadnezzar as much as any human, so HE gives him this dream to show him-
Hey Nebbie- You ain’t all that. God is saying, “You might think you are the king of the known world, but in reality I look at you and see a child tying a towel around their neck and saying they are superman.”
God is using this dream to try to humble him and help him see that he is a small part of the overall sovereign plan of God for human history.
There is another point being shown to use through this biblical narrative-
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God’s judgment is based on revelation. (repeat)
What does that mean?
God judges an individual or people group based on the amount of revelation they have about HIM.
This is a huge truth about God- God is just. It means HE is fair.
God give humanity several ways of knowing HIM. Before we even learn the word bible as children we stood in awe at creation. How many times to we see a child’s eyes light up at the zoo seeing the vast variety of animals God has created.
At least here in America, as we get older, we are exposed to the bible and read further into God and HIS nature. All of this broadens our knowledge and experience with God, and it’s through that revelation that God judges us.
The more revelation you have, the stricter that judgement becomes.
James 3:1
Not many of you should become (implication- spiritual) teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
The bible is telling us don’t assume a position God is not calling you to or empowering you to fulfill.
The teacher because of their constant study, prayer life, and most important their calling will know God at a deeper level, and therefore they are without excuse if they fall into sin.
Let me show you another example- Why didn’t God send a savior for the angels that sinned?
Because they had perfect revelation of who and what God is. They saw HIM face to face, and they chose to rebel anyway.
Humanity had limited revelation of God in the beginning, and even now to an extent- that’s why God sent Jesus to pay that penalty for us and give us that second chance, because HE is just.
That is why God is giving this dream to Nebuchadnezzar- so that he is without excuse when God eventually does send judgment.
Let’s look at the specifics of this dreams-
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2. The Vision of the Statue (Verses 31-33) Overview first before we get into the specifics-
• Description of the statue: Refer to PPT slide (my dates may differ a little from the slide)
o Head of gold.
o Chest and arms of silver.
o Belly and thighs of bronze.
o Legs of iron.
o Feet partly of iron and clay.
• What do they symbolize?:
o Represents successive earthly kingdoms that will come after Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon
We also see an important point that through what God is showing Nebuchadnezzar is that-
Earthly, human kingdoms, no matter how grand, are temporary and fragile.
History shows us that all nations go through a similar progression from their beginning to their end.
After the foundation of the nation or empire- they will go through the following stages, and I will use the USA as our example-
1. The age of pioneers: The empire expands its territory. In the USA that was 1776- about 1850.
2. The age of conquests: The empire continues to expand, sometimes violently (westward expansion, civil war)
3. The age of commerce: The empire creates wealth through trade and innovation (Post civil war-WWII)
4. The age of affluence: The empire enjoys a period of wealth and comfort (Post WWII)
5. The age of intellect: The empire's people become more intellectual and less concerned with wealth (Late 50’s into 60’s)
6. The age of decadence: The empire's people indulge in excessive consumption and become less happy (1970’s-2001)
7. The age of decline and collapse: 2001-present. The countries citizens lose the core of what made them unique leading to decreasing national morale which then leads to moral collapse.
Here is a hard truth- in history No nation or empire has ever recovered their primacy in the world after that step.
However, this does not take into account the power of a religious revival.
That can and will take us back a few steps (bible example- Nineveh, repented through Jonah, but eventually fell in Nahum)
There is a biblical model of this progression that you can see in Romans 1:18-32 if you want to read it one your own. America is also in the last stage of that progression.
I used to have a huge problem with some end times teaching because it all assumed that America was no longer in the picture as a world power.
After living through the last 20 years, and especially applying Romans 1:18-32 to our recent history…
I no longer question that.
Let’s look at what the nations the different parts of the statue represent.
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One quick note- the date I give here are not the nations at the peaks of their power, but at their beginning. They grew into world powers through several generations. (Dates might vary from slide)
2. The Interpretation of the Statue (Verses 36-43)
The statue and it’s various materials represent four kingdoms
• Four Kingdoms:
o Head of Gold: Babylonian Empire (Nebuchadnezzar the king at its peak). If you looked at a map of the world today, the it’s capital city of Babylon would be in Mosel Iraq. Babylon began to form in 1890 BC and lasted until 539 BC (over 1300 years). Daniel is interpreting this dream in about 599 BC. Peak was in 612 BC when it defeated Assyria. This is where and when much of the beginning of the book of Daniel is taking place.
• The next thing we see is-
o Chest and Arms of Silver: Medo-Persian Empire. Babylon is conquered by Persia (Iran) Centralized in modern Iran. Founded in 550 BC and lasted until 330 BC (220 years). Kings Cyrus, Xerxes, Artaxerxes, and Darius were it’s most prominent rulers, and is featured in the Books of Esther, Nehemiah and Ezra as well as some of the prophets.
• The next thing we see is-
o Belly and Thighs of Bronze: Greek Empire conquers Medo-Persia under Alexander the Great). 800 BC to 146 BC (654 years). (united Greece versus city states) Peaked during the time of Alexander the Great ~320 BC. After the death of Alexander the kingdom was broken up into four sections lead by his 4 main generals.
- Ptolemy- Took over the area of Egypt. Interesting historical fact- Cleopatra was a the great great great granddaughter of this man.
- Antigonus- Greece and Macedonia, and then lost Macedonia to Cassander another general.
- Seleucus-(Sell-Luke’-us) Holy Land. King Herod came from this family. The Apocryphal book of Maccabees details the fight between the Jews and this ruler in the years between the Old and New Testament.
• After Greece, the next thing we see is-
o Legs of Iron- Rome- Rome was founded in 753 BC. It went through multiple phases and forms of government
- Kingdom of Rome (ruled by monarch Romulus and his family) lasted from 753-509 BC when the Royal family fell from power.
- Roman Republic- (Ruled by the Senate) 509-27 BC
- Civil war between Pompey and Gaius Julius (AKA Caesar)
- Roman Empire- (Ruled by the Emperor [First being Julius Caesar]- 27 BC- 476AD)
- The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD, however the eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire (Monarcy) existed until 1453 AD until conquered by the Ottoman’s (modern day Turks)
For Daniel- he is telling Nebuchadnezzar the future that is coming again to show him that he is just a very small notation in the history of the world. God is trying to humble Nebuchadnezzar by showing him this dream.
There is one more part of this statue.
o Feet of Iron and Clay: This is a future nation or alliance of nations that come together during the end times. Many have thought that the EU could be a precursor to this, but I’m not going to say that definitively.
• The main teaching of the statue-God is the only true Sovereign All Powerful King in this universe:
o It is God that establishes and removes kings and nations (Daniel 2:21).
How that applies for us today, January 26th, 2025 in Wisconsin USA is this-
o I love our country. Like many of you, I signed my name on a piece of paper when I was 18 saying that I will give my life to defend it. I still think that our constitution provides the best form of government on earth today and it’s right and proper for us to want to defend our constitutional republic.
o However, what the bible and God are teaching us through this part of the bible is that ALL Human kingdoms, empires, and nations will inevitably fall due to their own human weaknesses.
With that in mind, Let’s look at the final scene in this dream-
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4. The Stone Cut Without Hands (Verses 34-35, 44-45)
Dan 2:34-35 As you were watching, a stone broke off without a hand touching it, struck the statue on its feet of iron and fired clay, and crushed them. (35) Then the iron, the fired clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were shattered and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
(skipping down) Dan 2:44 “In the days of those kings, the God of the heavens will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever.
• The Stone’s Origin: (Things to see)
o Supernatural, "cut out without human hands." This is showing that in the end times, God moves directly instead of using another nation to take out the previous one like HE did in the previous four Kingdoms.
o The stone represents the eternal kingdom of God, inaugurated by and for Jesus Christ.
o Jesus is the chief cornerstone, and the rock of ages. He is the stone that demolishes world systems that are not rooted in HIM
• Mat 21:44 Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will shatter him.”
And that is what we see this stone do-
• The Stone’s Action:
o Strikes and destroys the statue, reducing it to dust. No human nation, no matter how glorious and mighty it might be, will be left.
o The stone then grows into a great mountain that fills the whole earth.
• And becomes God’s Eternal Kingdom:
o It will never be destroyed or succeeded by another.
o Fulfilled in Jesus Christ and His reign (Luke 1:33).
Tying in a verse from Revelation 11:15-
Rev 11:15 The seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.
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5. Implications for us?
1. What this shows us is-
• God’s Sovereignty Over History:
• The past and the future are already known to HIM.
o What that means to us is that we can trust Him amid political and societal upheavals.
o No matter how dark our nation, culture, and society get, God is still on the throne.
o Just like HE has control over the nations, HE has control over those who love HIM and live to please HIM. Trust HIM with your future.
It also shows us to
• Put our Hope only in God’s Eternal Kingdom:
o As much as I love America, this is not our permanent home.
o For believers, the best is yet to come. That needs to be our focus in this life.
To test if that is true for us, we should ask ourselves these questions.
• Call to Faith and Action:
o That raises the question- Are you living for the temporary or the eternal? (Repeat)
o Do you trust God even if everything around you collapses?
o Are there areas in your life that hinder your relationship with God?
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6. Conclusion
o Earthly kingdoms will pass, but God’s kingdom will endure forever.
o Are you ready?
• “Well done, good and faithful servant” so HE will allow the hard times to smooth out those parts of our nature
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Altar Call/Prayer
