"daniel Interprets Nebuchadnezzar's Dream"

Title: “Daniel Interprets the Dream” Scripture: Dan. 2:31-49

Type: Series Where: GNBC 10-19-25

Intro: Zig Ziglar once said, "A study of three hundred world-class leaders, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sir Winston Churchill, Helen Keller, Mother Teresa, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, and Martin Luther King, Jr., revealed that 25 percent of them had serious physical disabilities and an additional 50 percent had been abused as children or were raised in abject poverty." (From a sermon by Ricky Nelms, Daniel, 7/29/2010). Well, true of Daniel. We have seen how He and his friends were forcibly taken from their homes and homeland hundreds of miles, suffered sexual abuse, culturally re/de programmed so as to become servants of a ruthless, pagan king in a country unlike anything ever seen. And yet, under God’s mighty arm they prospered and succeeded. We pick up today where we left off last week as Daniel makes known the king’s awful dream.

Prop: Dan.2:31ff will reveal 3 Important Elements of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

BG: 1. Last week saw the exciting drama of Neb’s dream and

2. “Daniel” – God is judge or God is my judge. Daniel lived up to his name. It’s important to know from an early age that we are responsible to God. 3. One of most powerful chapters of prophecy in the Bible.

Prop: Follow w/me in Dan. 2:31-49 as we see 3 important elements of the king’s dream.

I. The Interpretation of the King’s Vision: 4 Coming Kingdoms Vv. 31-43

A. Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream: The Multiple Metallic Monster.

1. Technically this is not a “monster”, but rather a hideous and awe-inspiring statue of a body that had made this terrible tyrant’s heart faint with fear. V.31 tells us that the statue of the king’s dream was stupendous, extraordinary, it was awe-inspiring, it was terrifying. I think that as Daniel began to relate the king’s dream, Nebuchadnezzar began to move from cynicism and skepticism to unconcealed amazement and astonishment. As Daniel gave each detail the king became more drawn in, remembering more and more of the nightmare that had haunted him.

2. Vv.32-33 – Daniel describes the image of Neb’s dreams: 1. Head of fine gold, 2, breast and arms of silver. 3. Belly and things of bronze 4. Legs of iron. Feet of iron and potter’s clay. Possibly in the king’s mind he began to search to think of which pagan deity this could be. You see, Babylon was the womb of pagan idolatry. Was it Marduk, Enlil, Sin, Anu, Hadad, Shamash, Nabu, Ninurta, Ashur, Enki, Innana, Nergal, Tiamat, Ea…or a host of others?! No! It was the One True God, the God of Heaven, revealing divine revelation to this pagan king.

B. The Prophesied 4 Gentile Kingdoms vv.36-43

1. The Head of Gold is Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom of Babylon. Vv. 36-38.

a. Notice the way Daniel refers to this, the first “world empire”. “You are the king of kings to whom God has given…” In Genesis we read that Adam was given dominion but lost it. The entire Old Testament repeated relates the abject and utter failure of the Jews to keep God’s Covenant and live as His Covenant people and now Daniel’s interpretation is ushering the “Age of the Gentiles” with 4 prominent world empires (3 which were still in the future.)

b. Daniel Informs Nebuchadnezzar his kingdom, authority, rule and reign are from God! Illust: An individual’s ethics might be troubled by this statement. “How can God use less than perfect people in His plan?” We have seen such questions raised in the last few elections by certain sectors of the Church. We wonder about the evil tyrants of times past. God is in control! The prophet Jeremiah, concurs with Daniel: “I (God) have given all these lands in the hand of Neb king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the wild animals of the field to serve him. And all the nations shall serve him until the time of his own land comes…” (Jer. 27:6-7)

2. As the “Head of Gold” Babylon was the greatest of these Gentile Kingdoms.

a. Jer. 27:7 – “until the time of his own land comes” Every nation, every culture, every individual, no matter how great or small, has a “clock” they must answer to.

b. In this astounding prophesy we see the key to understanding the rise and fall of empires and emperors is not military or financial, but rather moral and spiritual! The rise and fall of these great kingdoms is not an accident of history but rather it is the outworking of the eternal plan of the God of history! Judgment falls on kings and kingdoms when they turn from His laws and forsake His Word.

C. The Inferiority and Deterioration of the Kingdoms of Man

1. We notice with Each Kingdom that is Mentioned, We See a Deterioration of the Preciousness of the Metal. Babylon, the head is of gold. Next comes the chest and arms of silver. Silver is inferior to gold, yet precious. We see the division of this kingdom into two, “Medes and Persians or Medo-Persian Empire. It would be Cyrus, who would unite these two empires to replace and conquer Babylon. Cyrus would be born in less than two years from the point of this prophesy! It is Isaiah, who 150 years before Cyrus’ birth, names this ruler by name in 44:28 & 45:1, Referring to him as the Lord’s “servant” and specifying his mission in rebuilding Jerusalem and laying the temple’s foundation. The Medes & Persians would be the chest and arms of silver. Even less is made mention of the 3rd Gentile kingdom, symbolized by a further inferior metal, bronze. This was Alexander’s Greek Empire which would end with his sudden death at 32 yrs. of age and then be divided 4 ways between his successors, further deteriorating it’s influence. The belly and thighs or bronze was Greece.