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The Book of Daniel contains some of the most memorable messages of the Old Testament record. For this study, we are going to focus on chapter two, a section in which the basic thrust is that the king of the Babylonian Empire, Nebuchadnezzar, had a dream, and the prophet Daniel explained it. Daniel informed the powerful monarch that “there is a God in heaven” (2:28). In this chapter we see God’s power, His prediction, and His providence.

God’s Power – Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, but he could not recall what it was. He wanted to know (1) what he had dreamed and (2) the dream’s meaning. Through Daniel, Jehovah revealed the dream’s significance. From Daniel’s inspired message, we are able to see God’s great power.

God has the power of knowledge, knowing what is in the darkness as well as deep and secret things (2:22). God has the power of light, as “light dwells with Him” (2:22). God has the power of revelation, as “He reveals deep and secret things” (2:22). He also has power in the kingdoms of men: “He removes kings and raises up kings . . . the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever he will . . .” (2:21; 4:17). Nebuchadnezzar ruled because the Lord willed it to be so, giving him “a kingdom, power, strength, and glory” (2:37). Brothers and sisters, our Lord is Almighty! Let us take courage and comfort from the truth that He lives, and the whole world is in His hands.

God’s Prediction – God alone knows with 100% accuracy what will transpire in the future. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that Jehovah made known “what will be in the latter days”(2:28), foretelling via the prophet “what will be” (2:29). What were the specifics of God’s prediction for Nebuchadnezzar and others?

First, Daniel told the emperor what he had seen in his dream (2:31-35):

You, O king, were watching; and behold a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you, and its form was awesome. This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Next, the prophet revealed God’s prediction – the true meaning of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Yes, the king’s dream and Daniel’s inspired explanation involved symbols, but there is sufficient information provided to understand them clearly. Through Daniel’s message to Nebuchadnezzar, God spoke of five kingdoms. Which five? The fifth is identified in God’s word, and the first four are clearly revealed in world history as well as in the Scriptures.

(1) Babylonian Empire (head of God) – Daniel plainly told Nebuchadnezzar, “You are this head of gold” (2:38).

(2) Medo-Persian Empire (chest and arms of silver) – a kingdom that was inferior to Babylon (2:39). The Book of Daniel identifies “the Medes and Persians” as successors to the Babylonians (5:28-31; 8:20).

(3) Greek Empire (belly and thighs of bronze), which is specifically named in Daniel 8:21 – World history shows that the Greeks, under Alexander the Great, did, indeed, conquer the Medo-Persian Empire and rule in its stead.

(4) Roman Empire (legs of iron with feet partly of iron and partly of clay) – Called “the fourth kingdom” (2:40), the Romans overthrew the Greeks and were a mighty force in world affairs during the life of Jesus and the early church.

(5) God’s kingdom – “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever” (2:44). This kingdom would be God’s, it would be set up in the days of the Roman kings, it would conquer all others, and it would never be destroyed. How exciting is that?!

Look at the New Testament record. Jesus was born during the days of Roman rule (Luke 2:1). It also was during the days of the Roman Empire that John the Baptizer and Jesus foretold the nearness of God’s kingdom (Luke 3:1; Matthew 3:2; 4:17), Jesus died at the hands of the Romans (John 19:12-18), and the Lord’s church began under Roman rule (Acts 2).

What was the fifth kingdom, the one that God Himself established? The church – the Lord’s church, which He purchased with His blood (Acts 20:28) and over which He now rules as King (Colossians 1:13,14). Do not look to the future for the start of Jesus’ kingdom; look to the past, look to the first century, when it began in Jerusalem (Acts 2).

God’s Providence – It is true that God granted Daniel the miraculous ability to interpret dreams, but it was by His providence that Daniel was “in the right place at the right time.” By God’s providence, Daniel later was made “ruler over the whole province of Babylon” (2:48) and a high official in the Medo-Persian regime (6:1-3). How did Joseph get into such a high position in Egypt? What about Esther in the Medo-Persian ranks? The same answer: Daniel, Joseph, and Esther were elevated to such high places through God’s providence. The Lord God rules in the kingdoms of men! Believe it. And, that majestic, ruling Lord causes His kingdom to overcome and endure forever. His providence is wonderful! Believe it. Roger D. Campbell

“GOD LOVES YOU AND I LOVE YOU AND THAT’S THE WAY IT’S GONNA BE!” – MIKE

YEARS AGO, IN the pioneer days of aviation, a pilot was making a flight around the world.

After he had been gone for some two hours from his last landing field, he heard a noise in his plane, which he recognized as the gnawing of a rat.

He realized that while his plane had been on the ground a rat had gotten in.

For all he knew the rate could be gnawing through a vital cable or control of the plane.

It was a very serious situation.

He was both concerned and anxiouis.

At first he did not know what to do.

It was two hours back to the landing field from which he had taken off and more than two hours to the next field ahead.

Then he remembered that the rat is a rodent.

It is not make for the heights.

It is made to live on and under the ground.

Therefore the pilot began to climb.

He went up a thousand feet, then another thousand and another until he was more than twenty thousand feet up.

The gnawing ceased.

The rat was dead.

He could not survive in the atmosphere of those heights.

More than two hours later the pilot brought the plane safely to the next landing field and found the dead rat.

WORRY IS A RAT.

It cannot live in the secret place of the Most High.

It cannot breathe in the atmosphere made vital by prayer and familiarity with Scripture.

Worry dies when we ascend to the Lord through prayer and His Word. Author unknown

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Philippians 4:6 ESV

ZECHARIAH IS OFTEN labeled a “minor prophet,” but his prophecies are of major importance, for he is alluded to or quoted over eighty times in the New Testament.

[In] his most famous prophecy (Zechariah 9:9) he exhorts God’s people, whom he calls the “daughter of Zion,” to celebrate their future – to rejoice in the promise of the coming King and in the establishment of his kingdom: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he…”

[In] contrast to the many wicked kings who have preceded him, we would only expect that God’s divinely appointed king would conform to the morality of God’s Law and bring with him redemption for God’s people… Yet, when the prophet goes on to depict this great king as being “humble and mounted on a donkey,” we are tempted to think something is wrong. Humble? Donkey? Is this a mistake? Is this a misprint? It should be “glorious.” It should be “warhorse.” But this is no mistake. This is no misprint. The prophet intentionally wrote of this king being humble.

In the context of the book of Zechariah, as well as the rest of the prophets, this word “humble” does not mean so much “gentle” as it means “lowly” or “bowed down” or even “full of suffering.” The word “humble” denotes, as C. F. Keil claims, “the whole of the lowly, miserable, suffering condition, as it is elaborately depicted in Isaiah 53.” So, in contrast with the arrogance and violence usually associated with earthly kings, this king, we are told, will be poor and afflicted; he will be a sovereign Lord and yet a suffering servant.

[To] prophesy that a king would come in this specific manner must have sounded bizarre to Zechariah’s original audience (perhaps as bizarre as it sounds to us), for since the time of King Solomon, when the breeding of horses was introduced, we are given no example in the Old Testament of any royal figure riding upon such a beast. in fact in all of antiquity we would be hard-pressed to find an example of any sort of ruler mounting a colt…

It’s laughable to think about a Roman emperor straddled over such a slow, dirty, undignified, and unpretentious beast. It would be like the President coming into Chicago and traveling down the Magnificent Mile on a tricycle. When a king comes to town, the expectation is that he will ride proudly upon a battle steed at the head of a parade of decorated troops, as Alexander the Great did when he rode into Jerusalem in 332 BC.

And yet the prophet Zechariah envisions a king (Jesus! – mb) who will ride into Jerusalem “mounted on…the foal of a donkey.” Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Matthew – All Authority in Heaven and on Earth, “The Son of God on a Child of a Donkey,” 501

“GOD LOVES YOU AND I LOVE YOU AND THAT’S THE WAY IT’S GONNA BE!” – MIKE