The Rise and Fall of it All, pt. 1

Daniel 2:31-40

A quote from a certain professor: “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship.

“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.” We are almost at 250. He continued, “These nations have progressed through the following sequence—from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, and from dependency back into bondage.”

By the way, this was written by a Professor Alexander Tytler nearly two hundred fifty years ago while our thirteen original colonies were still a part of Great Britain.

Every nation follows the same cycle. It might shock you to know that democracy is not God’s form of government. God’s form is theocracy where one person rules, and that person is God. The world today then is simply going through the same cycles of dissolution that it has always endured.

As we look at the world today, we see it as a vast stage, with the curtain still down. And we get the feeling that the actors are behind that curtain, preparing for the last scene in the drama of human history. The big production is almost done. There remains but one more scene. And that final scene is the latter days and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we step close to the stage, behind the curtain we can hear the commotion of the stagehands as they set up the machinery and set the stage for that final act.

And now, as we come to Daniel 2, Daniel takes us behind the curtain before it rises. We’re going to see incredible insights, not only in Daniel 2 but to the end of the book. Jesus said there would be a time titled—Luke 21:24—“the times of the Gentiles.” It had already begun; and is now, and it will come to an end at the coming of Christ. In fact, that verse says “Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”

Interestingly enough it began with the Babylonian captivity. It began with Nebuchadnezzar. It ends with the coming of Jesus Christ. We’re living in that time right now. Israel does not possess the fullness of its inheritance, Israel does not dwell in its land in peace, Israel does not possess everything from the Mediterranean to the Tigris and Euphrates as in the original Palestinian covenant.

These are the times of the Gentiles. Gentile nations have dominated that part of the world since Nebuchadnezzar, and they will, to some degree, hold power over it until Jesus comes again. In Ezekiel chapter 21, Ezekiel tells us that the glory had departed from Israel. The glory had departed from Israel. Now God in a sense, when Israel went into captivity, just moved away. And Ichabod, the glory has departed, was written on that land. The second chapter of Daniel then indicates that God transfers the leadership of this Earth from the Jew and Israel to the Gentiles. Israel takes a back seat.

Israel goes into captivity and never returns to its former glory ever, not even today. Not until Jesus comes. Israel should have been the center of the world. Israel should have been the pattern, the leader of the world. Israel should’ve been that very special people God originally intended them to be, through whom we’re given the law and the ordinances and the covenants and the promises. Israel should have been the messenger for the world. But Israel tragically failed.

In our text, the glory days are over. Jerusalem is rubble, devastated, decimated, and the times of the Gentiles have begun. And it will not again be Israel in its fullness until the Messiah returns. Now, the sweep of history from Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian captivity all the way to the time of Jesus Christ is covered in this one chapter. And I want you to see this. This is a very powerful section of Scripture. Everything from Nebuchadnezzar all the way to the coming of Jesus Christ is touched on in this chapter in a broad and general way.

Why does such a prophecy come at the very beginning of the times of the Gentiles? If it’s going to last for thousands of years—it’s already lasted over 2,600 years—if it’s going to last for all this period of time, why give this prophecy at the very beginning? Well, I think there’s a good reason.

God wanted them to know that this captivity was not a permanent thing. Why? Because if they felt that it was all over for Israel permanently, they would have begun to question the credibility of God. Because God at many times said He would never forsake His people, He would ever keep his covenant, He would always fulfill His promise, He would never forget Jerusalem. And so I believe that no sooner are they in captivity than God immediately reveals the fullness of the plan from beginning to end.

The children of Israel stand of the banks of the rivers of Babylon hanging their harps on the willows because they have no song to sing, and the immediate question is “Has God forever forsaken His people?” And the ringing prophecy of Daniel 2 says no.

v. 28        The latter days. That is not a phrase restricted to Nebuchadnezzar’s lifetime. In fact, the latter days is a repeated prophetic statement. You can find it in Genesis 49, Deuteronomy 4, Deuteronomy 31, Numbers 24, Jeremiah 23, Jeremiah 30, Jeremiah 48, Jeremiah 49, Ezekiel 38, Daniel 10, Hosea 3, Micah 4 and other places.

And all the time when you see the latter days, it encompasses the messiah returning or the messiah’s time. So it’s a very broad term.

The New Testament uses this term the very same way. It’s used in Acts 2, the latter days. It’s used in 2 Peter, chapter 3, and every time it’s used in conjunction with the kingdom of messiah.

v. 31-33           The Aramaic word here is statue. It’s not an idol that you worship, it’s just a statue.

And then the action takes place in verses 34-35. Now that’s a very strange dream. And those people in those days believed that dreams had significance. And this one did because it was from God.

Not only is it decreasing or a deteriorating value, but there’s a corresponding lower specific gravity. Gold is heavier than silver and silver is heavier than brass and brass is heaving than iron and iron is heavier than iron and clay mixed. In fact, I did a little research on that. The approximate specific gravity of gold is 19, silver 11, brass 8.5, iron 7.8. In other words, gold at the top is more than twice as heavy as the bottom. The whole thing is top heavy.

It’s getting more and more brittle as it goes down. In fact, gold is so flexible and malleable that it can’t even be shattered. But iron and clay can. The whole history of humanity, the whole history of the Gentile world until the coming of Christ is going to be a very precariously balanced thing that is constantly and incessantly deteriorating until its final dissolution when it has smashed at its own feet and it is blown away like dust in the wind. Pretty vivid. From its head of gold to the fragile feet, the image is prone to fall over.

And that is exactly what happens. The action begins, a stone was cut out without hands. That means it had no human source. No men made that stone. It smote the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them to pieces. In fact, so much so that they became like chaff of the summer threshing floor and the wind carried them away. No place was found for them and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole Earth. The stone takes over the whole world, and all the rest of that stuff blows away.

The top-heavy image is toppled by a crushing blow at its feet. In rapid succession, the entire disintegration of the image follows and all of its dust is blown away. Now, this is a pretty amazing missile. It smashes all of the history of the Gentiles. What a dream. Now how do you interpret a dream like that?

The dream has been recalled.  Now it will be revealed in vv. 36-43

The king never says anything.  I think he couldn’t say anything. I think his mouth was hanging open because Daniel was right. As the end of the story in chapter 2 will tell us, Daniel was right, when he makes him prime minister of the whole area.

This is phenomenal. The image represents four world empires in succeeding stages, from Nebuchadnezzar to Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 14:4 refers to Nebuchadnezzar’s preoccupation with gold. But it lasted only 70 years, just long enough to fulfill God’s chastening purpose. So Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold. It was a one-man rule. He called all the shots.

The second one in verse 39 has to refer to the Medo-Persian Empire because the Medo-Persian Empire succeeded Babylonia. There’s no other way you could interpret it. Acc’d to v. 32 it’s the breast and arms, which implies a two-fold division. And the Medo-Persian Empire was just that. Made up of the Medes and the Persians. No longer is there solidarity.

Notice the word inferior in verse 39. The word means lower. He’s simply talking about lower down the statue. You start with gold and lower you come to silver. It’s not really a commentary on quality or size or anything.

By the way, the last three empires were larger by far. In fact, they get larger as they go. Medo-Persia was larger than Babylon, Greece was larger than Medo-Persia and Rome was larger than Greece. They get continuously larger. Not only that, each of them was stronger than the one before.

Now silver in Aramaic is the same as money. Same word. The characteristic of this Medo-Persian Empire would be money or silver. And history bears this out. The Medo-Persian Empire developed a vast system of taxation. They required that their taxes be paid in silver and they literally filled their coffers with tons and tons of silver. The kings of the Medo-Persian Empire—and there were many of them—just gobbled up silver money.

The prophecy here then is that there would come another kingdom and that kingdom would be characterized by silver. Xerxes, who was one of the kings of the Medo-Persian Empire, inherited the incredible silver fortune of his father Darius. He also inherited more silver from other Persian kings and he used it to finance his massive war against the Greeks. So they had a tremendous amount of silver. The Babylonian Empire made it till 538 B.C. And then came Cyrus the Great, and with Cyrus the Great came the Medo-Persian Empire.

That empire lasted 200 years about, until 330 B.C., when you come to the third one in verse 39. - bronze - It’s the belly and thighs. This is Greece. How do we know that? Because following the Medo-Persian Kingdom came the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great.

So moving down Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece. Bronze is not as valuable as silver but bronze is stronger than silver.

It’s characterized by bronze, I think, for other reasons. The Persians wore a soft turban. He would have been clothed with a tunic with sleeves and trousers full and long. That would have been a Medo-Persian soldier. But when you saw a Greek soldier, he would have had on his head a helmet of brass, on his body a breastplate of brass. Before him he would be carrying a shield of brass and, believe it or not, a sword made out of brass. That is why the classic writers of ancient days refer to the brazen-coated Greeks. Brass became a sign and symbol of Greek conquests and the Greek empire. Gold, why? Because Nebuchadnezzar was preoccupied with gold. Silver, why? Because the Meads and the Persians were preoccupied with silver. Brass, why? Because it symbolized the power of the forces of Alexander the Great.

Notice that the end of verse 39 says that this third kingdom would bear rule over all the Earth. Hang onto that. They’ll rule over all the Earth? Very interesting statement because Alexander the Great commanded people to call him by this title, Alexander King of all the Earth. He ruled Europe, Egypt and all the way to India, and died in his 30s.

Finally, you come to the fourth kingdom and that is Rome. And the stress again is on strength. The Greek Empire lasted only a little under 200 years. The Medo-Persian Empire lasted about the same amount of time. Somewhere in there at 100 B.C. give or take 50 years -- Rome became a power. And by the way, Rome was never even heard of before that. They emerged out of nowhere to rule the world. And the Roman Empire, believe it or not, even went further than Alexander’s conquests. Incredible.

Rome was two legs. You know that Rome existed in a divided state, didn’t it? It was the Eastern Roman Empire and the Western Roman Empire. Now, Daniel says that the fourth kingdom, verse 40, shall be strong as iron. By the way, in Daniel’s day, iron was believed to be the strongest metal. And Rome, no question, was the strongest empire the world has ever known. Babylon lasted 70 years, Medo-Persia lasted around 200. The Greek empire around 200. The Roman Empire lasted 500 years in the West and all the way to 1453 until Constantinople was knocked off in the East. That’s a long time. No empire even comes close. They were strong.

He goes on to say, for example, it “breaketh in pieces,” it “subdueth.” He says, “It breaketh all these, it breaks in pieces and it bruises.” All of those terms refer to a smashing, crushing, shattering power of Rome. In fact, the verb breaketh in the Aramaic means to crush with a hammer. And Leupold the Bible scholar said, “The Roman legions were noted for their ability to crush all resistance with an iron heel.”

The Roman Empire came to crush and demolish. By the way, the legs are the longest part of the image and the Roman Empire lasted the longest. You know why the Romans lasted so long? Because they rule with an iron rod. They were strong. The iron legions of Rome were the final world power in the image. Now as you can see, folks, Rome is the last world empire.

You say, “Wait a minute. There’s got to be more to this. Rome passed away a long time ago.” Well, there’s more to the prophecy. We haven’t gotten to the toes yet. And the toes are not iron, but iron mixed with what? Clay. What does that tell us?

We’re going to see a return of the ancient Roman Empire. I believe they’ll even be ten toes to that revived empire. Here’s what I mean. Have you been watching Europe lately? Europe which once occupied the territory of the Roman Empire has revived itself in the confederacy right now known as the European Union.  There have always been at least ten member states, though it fluctuates.

The history of the world is reaching its climax. There’s no question about that. Can America survive? We’re succumbing already to the deadly, inevitable deterioration of man. Our people are selfish and their selfishness will self-destruct. No wonder you can’t find America in the prophecies of the end. Now, if you want to find out how it’s going to end, come back next week.