Daniel 2:31-45
"You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue--an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.
36 "This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. 37 You, O king, are the King of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
39 "After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron--for iron breaks and smashes everything--and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
44 "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands--a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.
"The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy." (NIV)
- What is the start date for this prophecy?
- HINT: Daniel 2:37-38
- Who is the rock that comes and destroys the statue mentioned
in Daniel 2:34,35 and Daniel 2:44-45?
- HINT: Revelation 19:11-16
- What is this kingdom that is established at the Lord's coming
mentioned in Daniel 2:44?
- HINT: Acts 1:6
- HINT: Revelation 11:15
- HINT: Revelation 20:4 "reigned with Christ a thousand years." (again in verse 6.)
- When, in this prophecy, does the Lord come?
- HINT: Daniel 2:44 10 kings
- This "coming of the Lord", is it his first coming or
his second?
- HINT: Verse 44 "IT will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to and end,"
- NOTICE: That overtime the fourth kingdom changes from very hard iron to a loose confederacy of 10 nations having some of the strength of iron, but flawed with clay making the confederacy very brittle.
- Identify the first kingdom.
- HINT: Daniel 2:37-38
- Identify the second kingdom.
- HINT: Daniel 8:20
- Identify the third kingdom.
- HINT: Daniel 8:21
- Identify the fourth kingdom.
- HINT: Daniel 9:26
- NOTE: Scripture never identifies the fourth kingdom by name, treating it as a thing so vile so as to defy description. Historically we know it to be the Roman Empire, for they were the successors to the Greek Empire, and were the people who came and destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD in fulfillment of Scripture.
- When is the fourth kingdom, or rather its remnant, the 10 kings
kingdom destroyed relative to the destruction of the Beast and false prophet
as recorded in Revelation 19:20?
- NOTE: At the coming of the rock -- coming of the Lord.
- NOTE: It's destruction is not instantaneous, but rather takes 3 1/2 years, as we have seen that the Lord comes immediately after the abomination sign and the Beast is not destroyed for 42 months, (Revelation 13:1-5).
- NOTE: As we saw in the study titled "The Hidden Age", the church is invisible in this prophecy also. From the time of the crucifixion/resurrection until the start of the 70th week, that is, the time between Daniel's 69th week and his 70th week is invisible. That is why there is no mention of the Islamic occupation, the Ottoman Empire, the French, or the British Empires.
- RELATED SCRIPTURES:
Romans 11:1-10, 25
Luke 21:24
Daniel 7:1-28; 8:1-27; 11:1-45; 12:1-13
Revelation 13:1-18; 17:15-18; 19:1-20
