Daniel 2:31 - Meaning and Application

Daniel now gives Nebuchadnezzar full satisfaction about both the dream and its meaning. The great king had been kind to this poor prophet, supporting his education and keeping him at court at the king’s expense. Because of that, Daniel’s service now pays him back richly, and the king receives what only a prophet could give. Though Nebuchadnezzar welcomed him without honoring him as a prophet, he now gets a prophet’s reward.

Here is the dream itself, in Daniel 2:31 and Daniel 2:45. Nebuchadnezzar may have loved statues and filled his palace and gardens with them. But he also worshiped images, and now a great image appears before him in a dream. This may have shown him that the images he spent so much on were only dreams and empty shapes. The mind can make its own pictures well enough, without carving stone or metal.

The image was shaped like a man standing upright. It stood before the king like a living person, bright and splendid, because the kingdoms it represented were impressive to their friends. It was also terrible, because they were feared by their enemies. The most striking thing about it was the different metals used in its parts. Its head was gold, its chest and arms silver, its belly and thighs brass, its legs iron, and its feet part iron and part clay.

This shows what worldly power is like. The farther we go into it, the less valuable it becomes. In human life, youth is like a head of gold, but it soon loses its worth in our eyes. Old age is half clay, almost ready to fall apart. The same is true of the world itself, because later ages tend to decline. The first age of the Christian church and the Reformation was like gold, but our own age is more like iron and clay.

Some have applied this to hypocrites, whose conduct does not match their knowledge. Such a person has a head of gold, because he knows what is right, but feet of iron and clay, because he does not do it. Others note that in Daniel’s later visions the same kingdoms are shown as beasts (chapter 7), because there he views them as earthly, sensual, and tyrannical. In that picture, they have more of the beast than the man. But to Nebuchadnezzar, a heathen king who admired worldly glory, they are shown as a fine, majestic image of a man.

What happened to this image? The next part of the dream shows it being broken and destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar saw a stone cut from a mountain, but not by human hands. That stone struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them to pieces. Then the whole image fell, and the gold, silver, brass, and iron were all crushed together. They became like chaff on a summer threshing floor, with no trace left. But the stone that struck the image grew into a great mountain and filled the earth.

This shows how God can bring great results through weak and unlikely means. When he chooses, a small thing can become a thousand. The destruction of the image may also point to the future end of idolatry in the world. The idols of the nations are silver and gold, like this image, and they will perish from the earth and from under heaven (Jeremiah 10:11; Isaiah 2:18). Whatever power destroys idolatry is on the way to being honored and enlarged, just as the stone became a great mountain after breaking the image.

Now comes the interpretation of the dream. Since the dream came from God, God alone can explain it rightly. Daniel seems to have his companions with him, and he speaks for them when he says, “We will tell the interpretation” (Daniel 2:36). The image represents the kingdoms of the earth that would rule one after another and affect the affairs of the Jewish church.

These four kingdoms are shown as one image, not four separate ones, because they share the same spirit and are all, in one way or another, against the church. It is the same power, only placed in four different nations. The first two lie east of Judea, and the last two lie west of it. The head of gold stands for the Chaldean empire, which was then in power (Daniel 2:37, 2:38). Nebuchadnezzar is called a king of kings, meaning a ruler over many kings and kingdoms, or the highest king then living on earth.

But he must not think this greatness came from his own skill or strength. It was the God of heaven who gave him the kingdom, power, strength, and glory. God made him a ruler with wide authority, strong power, and great splendor. The highest princes have no power except what is given them from above. His rule stretched over the lands where people lived throughout that part of the world, over them and all they owned, even their cattle and wild animals. He ruled the woods, forests, and hunting grounds, and no one could hunt there without his permission.

So he was the head of gold, he and his son and his grandson for seventy years. Compare this with Jeremiah 25:9, Jeremiah 25:11, especially Jeremiah 27:5-7. Other strong kingdoms were also in the world at that time, such as the Scythians, but Babylon was the kingdom that ruled over the Jews. It began the chain of governments described here, which continued down to the time of Christ. It is called a head because of its wisdom, greatness, and absolute power, and a head of gold because of its wealth (Isaiah 14:4). Babylon was a city of gold.

Some place the start of this monarchy in Nimrod and include all the Assyrian kings, about fifty rulers in all. On that view, it lasted more than 1,600 years. But it was not for so long a rule of such size and power as this vision describes, nor anything close to it.

So others limit the head of gold to Nebuchadnezzar, Evil-merodach, and Belshazzar. These Babylonian kings had a splendid royal seat, and they may have ruled with greater force than any earlier kings. Nebuchadnezzar reigned 45 years, Evil-merodach 23 years, and Belshazzar 3 years. Babylon was their capital, and Daniel lived among them during the 70 years.

The breast and arms of silver stand for the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, of which the king is told only this, “Another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours” (Daniel 2:39). It was not as rich, powerful, or victorious. This kingdom was founded by Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian, who were allied with each other, and that is why it is shown with two arms meeting in the breast. Cyrus was Persian through his father and Mede through his mother. Some count this second kingdom as lasting 130 years, others 204 years. The shorter count fits Scripture chronology best.

The belly and thighs of bronze stand for the kingdom of the Greeks, founded by Alexander the Great, who conquered Darius Codomannus, the last Persian emperor. This is the third kingdom, made of bronze. It was less wealthy and covered less territory than the Persian kingdom, but in Alexander himself it would rule over the world by the power of the sword. Alexander boasted that he had conquered the world, and then, so the story goes, he wept because there was no other world left for him to conquer.

The legs and feet of iron stand for the Roman kingdom. Some think this part of the image points instead to the later Greek kingdoms of Syria and Egypt, ruled by the Seleucids and the Lagides. Grotius, Junius, and Broughton took that view. But the more common view is that Rome is meant here, because Christ’s kingdom was set up during that empire, and when it was at its height, through the preaching of the everlasting gospel.

Rome was strong as iron (Daniel 2:40). Its power overcame all who opposed it for many years. It broke the Greek empire and later destroyed the Jewish nation. Near the end of the Roman kingdom, it became very weak and split into ten kingdoms, which were like the toes of the feet. Some of these were weak like clay, others strong like iron (Daniel 2:42). People tried to join and strengthen them, but it did not work: “They will not hold together” (Daniel 2:43). For a long time this empire divided rule between senate and people, nobles and common citizens, but they never became truly one. There were civil wars between Marius and Sylla, and between Caesar and Pompey, whose factions were like iron and clay. Some apply this to the later decline of the empire, when royal families intermarried to strengthen Rome against barbarian invasions. But those plans failed when the fall of that empire came.

The stone cut out without hands represents the kingdom of Jesus Christ, which would be set up in the world during the Roman Empire, and on the ruins of Satan’s kingdom in the kingdoms of the world. It is a stone cut from the mountain without hands, because no human power or planning raised or supported it. No visible hand worked to set it up, but the Spirit of the Lord of hosts did it unseen. This is the stone the builders rejected, because it was not cut out by their hands, yet it has become the cornerstone.

The gospel church is a kingdom, and Christ is its only ruler. He governs it by his word and Spirit, gives it protection and law, and receives honor and service from it. It is not of this world, yet it is set up in the world. It is the kingdom of God among people.

The God of heaven was to set up this kingdom, give Christ authority to carry out judgment, set him as King on his holy hill of Zion, and bring a willing people into obedience to him. Because it is set up by the God of heaven, the New Testament often calls it the kingdom of heaven. Its source is above, and its direction is upward.

It was to be set up in the days of these kings, the kings of the fourth monarchy. Special notice is taken of this in Luke 2:1, where Christ is born when, by decree of the Roman emperor, all the world was taxed. That showed clearly that the empire had become as wide as any earthly empire ever was. While these kings are struggling with one another, and each side hopes to gain from the conflict, God will still do his own work and carry out his own plans. All these kings are enemies of Christ’s kingdom, and yet it will be set up in spite of them.

This is a kingdom that never fades, never faces destruction, and never needs a new ruler or a new form of rule. It will never be destroyed by foreign attack, as many other kingdoms are. Fire and sword cannot ruin it. The joined power of earth and hell cannot take its subjects from their King or their King from his subjects. Nor will this kingdom be given to another people, as earthly kingdoms are. Christ is a King who has no successor, for he himself reigns forever, and his kingdom has no change of rule. The kingdom of God was taken from the Jews and given to the Gentiles (Matthew 21:43), but it was still the kingdom of Christ that ruled, the kingdom of the Messiah. The Christian church is still the same. It stands on a rock, is strongly opposed, but the gates of hell will never overcome it.

This kingdom will also conquer every opposition. It will break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms, just as the stone cut without hands broke the image in pieces (Daniel 2:44, Daniel 2:45). Christ’s kingdom will outlast all others. It will keep on after they have fallen under their own weight and vanished so completely that no one remembers their place. All kingdoms that rise against Christ’s kingdom will be broken with a rod of iron, like a potter’s vessel (Psalm 2:9). And in every kingdom that submits to Christ, tyranny, idolatry, and whatever else brings it shame will be broken, as far as the gospel of Christ gains ground.

The day is coming when Jesus Christ will put down every rule, authority, and power, and make all his enemies his footstool. Only then will this prophecy reach its full meaning, and not before (1 Corinthians 15:24, 1 Corinthians 15:25). Our Savior seems to point to this in (Matthew 21:44), where he speaks of himself as the stone rejected by the Jewish builders. He says that whoever falls on this stone will be broken, and if the stone falls on him, it will crush him to powder.

This kingdom will last forever. The kingdoms of this world, after breaking others in pieces, are themselves broken in turn. But Christ’s kingdom will break other kingdoms and will itself stand forever. His throne will last as long as the days of heaven, and his people will be as many as the stars of heaven, not only countless but also unchanging. Of the growth of Christ’s government and peace there will be no end. The Lord will reign forever, not just to the end of time, but beyond time itself, when days are no more and God will be all in all for eternity.

After Daniel finished explaining the dream to Nebuchadnezzar, the king did not interrupt him. The meaning was so full that he had no questions to ask, and so clear that he had no objections to make. Daniel then closes with a solemn statement. First, he speaks of the divine source of the dream. The great God, as Daniel calls him to show his own high view of God and to shape the king’s view as well, has made known to the king what will happen in the future. The gods of the magicians could not do this. In this way, Isaiah’s old challenge to idolaters was confirmed, especially to the idolaters of Babylon, when he asked their gods to tell what will happen in the future, so that we may know they are gods (Isaiah 41:23). This also proved the God of Israel to be the true God, because he declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).

Daniel also speaks of the sure certainty of what the dream foretold. The One who makes these things known is the same One who planned and determined them, and who will bring them about through his providence, his guiding rule over all things. We can be sure his purpose will stand and cannot be changed. So the dream is certain, and the meaning is sure. Whatever God has made known, we may trust.