Daniel 2:36-39

III. DICTATORSHIP'S DESTINYDaniel 2:36-49

a. FIRST THREE KINGDOMS

TEXT: Daniel 2:36-39

36

This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

37

Thou, O king, art king of kings, unto whom the God of heaven hath given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory;

38

and wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens hath he given into thy hand, and hath made thee to rule over them all: thou art the head of gold.

39

And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee; and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.

QUERIES

a.

How could God give the kingdom to Nebuchadnezzar?

b.

Who are the other two kingdoms?

c.

Did they rule the entire earth?

PARAPHRASE

That was the dream you dreamed; now we shall tell you exactly what it means. You, O king Nebuchadnezzar, are a king over many lesser kings, for the God of heaven has given you rule over all the known civilized world and all the power, strength and glory you enjoy has been given you by Him. You are absolute monarch over all the inhabitants of the earth because God has given them into your hand. You and your glorious kingdom are represented on this great image you dreamed about by the head of gold. And after your kingdom has come to an end, another world ruler (Medo-Persian) will arise to take your place. This empire will be inferior in many ways to your empire. And after that kingdom has fallen, yet a third great empire (Greek) represented by the bronze belly of the statue, will rise to rule the world.

COMMENT

Daniel 2:36-38. THOU, O KING,. ART THE HEAD OF GOLD. Having told Nebuchadnezzar exactly all the details of what he had dreamed, Daniel now prepares to give the king the divine interpretation of the dream. As may be seen from the succeeding verses, the main thrust of the whole dream is to predict the eventual, historical victory of God over principalities and powers and the establishment of God's kingdom here on earth, at a particular time in the history of the earth. Daniel was to tell the king that someday pagan domination of the civilized world would be overcome by a supernatural kingdom.

Daniel designates Nebuchadnezzar as the first representative of absolute world domination. Other prophets speak of the king of Babylon in the same manner (cf. Jeremiah 27:5-7; Ezekiel 26:7). The king of Assyria, Sennacherib, made claim to universal domination, but Assyria was never the absolute ruler of the world in the same sense that Babylon and her successors were.

There can be no argument whatsoever with the designation of the first kingdom! Daniel explicitly states the head of gold represents Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon. Gold was a fitting symbol for it too! Herodotus, who was at Babylon some ninety years after the era of Nebuchadnezzar, was amazed at the amount of gold which he found within the precincts of the sanctuary of Bel. In the smallest temple, which stood on the top of the tower of Babylon, was a table of gold. In the second temple below was an image of the god all of gold, seated on a golden throne with a golden base and in front of a large golden table. Outside the temple there was also an altar of solid gold. All the gold used to form these sacred objects amountedit is estimatedto eight hundred talents (a talent of gold would be worth approximately $100,000 in our inflationary society). From archaeological inscriptions left by Nebuchadnezzar we get the impression that his consuming interest was to build, beautify and glorify his beloved city Babylon. Nothing was too precious to be bestowed on his city. Herodotus records these instructions from Nebuchadnezzar's inscriptions: ... the walls of the cell of Merodach must be made to glisten like suns, the hall of his temple must be overlaid with shining gold,. and alabaster; and the chapel of his lordship which a former king had fabricated in silver, Nebuchadnezzar declares that he overlaid with bright gold (Herod. iii. 1-7). The roofing of Ekua, the cell of Merodach, is also overlaid with bright gold; and the cell of Nebo at Borsippa is treated in the same manner.
The reference, while made to the Babylonian kingdom, is made in personal form for it is in the person of the emperor himself that the empire is embodied. It is perfectly true that Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom did not hold sway over the entire earth, but in the sense that it did hold dominion over the known, influential and powerful-enough-to-be-reckoned-with portions of the world it could be properly designated in the hyperbolical way Daniel did.

Daniel 2:39. AFTER. ANOTHER KINGDOM INFERIOR TO THEE. AND ANOTHER THIRD KINGDOM. WHICH SHALL BEAR RULE OVER ALL THE EARTH. Now Daniel does not specify the second great world empire by name but there is enough symbolism and other details mentioned in Daniel chapter 7 and in history subsequent to these predictions of Daniel to make the task of discovering it rather simple.

With the coming of the Medo-Persian empire (the only true universal empire to follow the Babylonian) all the concentration of building simply for magnificence sake changed. The Semitic keseph, kaspu (silver) also means money since silver was the criterion of value and the medium of exchange then. When Daniel speaks of the gold giving place to the silver, he must mean that with the coming of the second kingdom, magnificence and outward show were exchanged for treasure, diligently collected by taxation and carefully hoarded up to form the muscles of war when needed. In Daniel, chapter 6, we read that an attempt was made by Darius, in the first year of the downfall of Babylon, to organize the finances of the empire. Herodotus shows that under Cambyses there was a system of taxation throughout the empire. However, it was under the second Darius, (Darius Hystaspes) that this system was brought to perfection. Herodotus furnishes us with a long and exact account of the 20 satrapies established by Darius and the yearly amount at which each was assessed. The tribute was paid in silver talents, except that of the Indians. The Indian satrapy was the richest of all, and yielded 360 talents of gold-dust, which the historian reckons as equivalent to 4,680 talents of silver, thus showing that silver was the standard of value. The Medo-Persian empire kept its eye steadily fixed on this main object and this is substantiated by the Old Testament (cf. Ezra 4:13; Nehemiah 9:37). In consequence of this policy of the silver kingdom these kings became rich, and it is foretold in Daniel 11:2 that the fourth king, Xerxes, Shall be far richer than they all; and that when he is waxed strong through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece. The vast army which Xerxes collected for the invasion of Greece, and with which he crossed over into Europe, would have been an impossibility but for the system of finance perfected by his father Darius. So keen was Darius in amassing wealth that, according to Herodotus, he appeared to his subjects as a huckster, one who looked to making a gain in everything. The silver kingdom was stronger than the golden kingdom, and consequently it lasted very much longer. Babylon was master of the ancient world for only 70 years; Medo-Persia for over 200 years.

Silver was stronger than gold; but, as the Persian kings were soon to learn, brass was stronger than silver. The third kingdom of brass was that of the Greek empire which ruled over the world to a greater extent than either of the previous two. This was the empire built and ruled over such a short time by Alexander the Great. The power of the Medo-Persian empire built upon wealth was overcome by the force of arms wielded by a brave, idealistic and free peoplethe Greeks. Josephus saw in the mention of a brazen kingdom an unmistakeable prediction of the victorious arms of Alexander and his brazen-clad Greeks. Herodotus describes the striking difference between the brazenclad Greek warriors and the Persians clad in soft hats, tunics with sleeves, and trousers. The fame of Greek battle armor was making itself known earlier than Nebuchadnezzar's time! Ezekiel speaks of the wares brought to the famous port of Tyre as including vessels of brass from Javan, Tubal and Heshech (Javan is simply another form of Ionian). The assumption that Alexander the Great's empire is the third is confirmed by the symbolism of Daniel chapter 7we shall deal with this symbolism in our comments there.
In one sense there is progressive inferiority in the symbolism from one world power to the next. But in another sense there is progressive symbolism of superiority. The former is progression downward in outward magnificence while the latter is progression upward in power and extension. Keil thinks the progression toward inferiority is symbolic of the downward trend of inner unity and cohesion of the successive empires. Calvin thought the devolution was in the moral sphere. The bronze part of the great statue was that of the abdomen and the thighs which symbolically may point to that which began as a unit (the Greek empire) and divided itself into two separate parts (Syria and Egypt) which were not reunited when the last empire (Rome) appeared on the scene.

QUIZ

1.

What is the main thrust of the whole dream of Nebuchadnezzar?

2.

Where are we to begin in designating which part of the great statue symbolizes which world empire?

3.

Why does the Babylonian empire so fittingly lend itself to being symbolized by gold?

4.

Why the Medo-Persian empire symbolized by silver?

5.

Why the Greek by bronze?

6.

Is there any significance to the progression of inferior metals?