“were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; an it’s form was awesome” (Dan. 2:31, NKJV)
With the previous Manna we concluded with King Nebuchadnezzar and his dream of the great kingdoms that would follow each other in history. The Scripture that spells it out, is Dan. 2:31-33, which is given by the prophet as follows: “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; an it’s form was awesome.” As for the image, his head was of good gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his loins of brass, his legs of iron, his feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
From this we explained that there are five distinctly observable world kingdoms that would follow each other through the ages:
| Components of the image
|
Kingdom that it represents
|
Start | |
| 1. | Head of gold | the Babylonian kingdom | +626-539 b.C. |
| 2. | breast and arms of silver | the kingdom of the (Medes and the) Persians | +539-330 b.C. |
| 3. | belly and loins of brass | the kingdom of the Greeks | 330-63 b.C. |
| 4. | his legs of iron | the Roman kingdom | +63 b.C. – 476 a.D |
| 5. | Feet (with ten toes) partly of iron and partly of clay | a divided kingdom of ten groups, known as Europe | 476 a.D. – |
Let’s take a closer look at these five kingdoms. It is important that we understand that God established the first kingdom, the Babylonian kingdom, under the kingdom of the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar. Dan. 2:21 – “He removes kings and raises up kings”. In verse 38 Daniel prophesies over the king: “He has made you as ruler over all of them … – You are this head of gold”. The king is thus manifested in and through the kingdom.
The royal precious metal, gold, is absolutely appropriate as a symbol of this prosperous kingdom.” Babylon with its trade skills was indeed the golden kingdom of a golden age. Historically, it is evident that the city was erected at the place where the earth’s first tyrant, Nimrod, built the tower of Babel (Gen 10:10-12; Micah 5:6). Historians believe the city of Babylon was perhaps an even greater achievement than the famous hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that was in it.
However, this Babylonian kingdom was destined to be taken over by a second, lesser kingdom (Dan.2:39), and it is already suggested by the second, lower precious metal, silver. The breast and arms of the image were of silver, and it showed towards the kingdom of the Medes and Persians (hence the two symbolic arms). . This kingdom strictly adhered to laws, rules and edict, of which is evidensed in Dan. 6:8, 12:14-15, and Est. 1:19; 8:8. On the basis of a prophetic word, God chose a pagan king for this kingdom. “Thus says YAHWEH to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held – To subdue nations before him and loose the armour of kings, to open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut….”(Isaiah 45:1). [Interesting fact – Thomas L. Constable, in his book Notes on Daniel, pp. 64-65, says King Darius (Dan. 6 28) is just a royal title (like Pharaoh) for Cyrus.]
It is important that here the Bible calls Cyrus “anointed”, translated into Greek as “Christ” (ABP)! [We explain this typological association a little later.] In a strategically brillant military way Cyres dams up the Euphrates, which flows through Babylon, and marches his army in by the “two-leaved doors” (Darby), which Isaiah prophesied about nearly150 years previously. After Nebuchadnezzar’s successor, Belshazzar his son, defiles the temple objects, God writes against a wall ‘mené, tekél ufarsín. This is the interpretation of the word Mené-God counted your kingdom and put an end to it; Tekél-you have been weighed and found to be light; Perés-Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. (Dan 5:25-28). The word ufarsín means: “numbered, numbered, weighed, divided”. Before that night was over, the blood flowed into the streets.
Although not great in statue like Babylon, Medo-Persia was an absolutely impressive kingdom, the first in the world with, for example, a formal postal system with camels. The fact that this kingdom is presented, among other things, as the loins, means that the Greeks played an enormous role as “the loins of the mind”, to use 1 Pet. 1:13 here, slightly tweeked, and has played an important role in the establishment of ideas and philosophies throughout the centuries.
As powerful as the kingdom of the Medes and Persians was, so unforeseenly their dominion was easily overthrown. In Dan. 2:39 Daniel prophesies of “another, third kingdom, of copper, who will rule over the whole earth …” Alexander the Great took over control of the Greek army at the very early age of 20 and by age 33 he had the known world under his control in lightening speed. He was, like the other kings of the previous dynasties, called “a man of destiny” from an early age. Fausset’s Bible Dictionary explains by means of Dan. 8:5 – “and the goat had A NOTABLE HORN (Alexander) between his eyes, and he came to the ram that had two horns (Media and Persia, the second great world kingdom, the successor of Babylon; under both Daniel prophesied long before the rise of the Macedon-Greek kingdom)”.
Ambassadors and high priests from all over the world flocked to Alexander the Great to gain his favor, and to conclude alliances and agreements with him. This, of course, increased his power and dominion greatly. But like the previous two rulers of the previous two kingdoms, pride and arrogance eventually led to his fall. His uncontrolled spirit led to a recklessness and frightening show of power show and immorality. He often killed friends during his revelry, and with his encouragement subjects and soldiers drank themselves incapable, many people died of alcohol poisoning. He himself died of a tremendous fever at the age of 33, and with that God made an end to this epoch of domination.
Over the fourth kingdom, Dan prophesies 2:40 – “And the fourth kingdom shall be as stong as iron, inasmush as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all others.”’ The Roman kingdom made themselves very powerful, and therefore they are equated to iron. As iron can crush everything, the kingdom of Rome placed all things under their control with unprecedented violence. This kingdom enforced Latin as universal language, also established a universal highway – still partially in existence today – the Via Appia. In addition, the Roman army was absolutely feared due to the fact that they did not hesitate to act brutally to establish their power. The warning in Acts 22:26 is a good example of the fear associated with this kingdom of the Romans: “Take care what you do, for this man is a Roman” This meant that the Romans took possession of the outskirts of the world, because they were an invincible army that moved from victory to vistory.
The exact transition from the third to the fourth kingdom does not have great clarity: “It is troublesome to identify the collapse of the Greek Empire and the beginning of the Roman Empire. I have seen conservative commentators on the book of Daniel date the start of the Roman Empire in 168 B.C., 63 B.C., and 31 B.C. Why the disparity? The problem is that the genesis of the Roman Empire began long before the complete collapse of the Greek Empire. Furthermore, since Italy is to the west of Greece, Rome conquered the western portion of the Greek Empire long before it conquered the eastern portion.” (http://www.wordexplain.com/Nebuchadnezzar’s_Statue_Dream.html#626-539_BC).
This was of course the kingdom in rule when Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, in the days of King Herod (Matt. 2:1). In 312 AD a radical change took place in Rome, to the extent that the political unrest caused Diocletics to abdicate as emperor. The two best successors were General Constantine in the West and General Maxentius, who was stationed in Rome. Constantine convened his faithful followers and moved to the capital to battle for the throne and rule over the Roman kingdom. However, Constantine’s army was completely overshadowed by Maxentius.. That night, the unsaved Constantine dreams of a sign that is formed from the first two Greek letters of the word Christ, and among them the Latin words: Hoc signo victoreris, which means: Through this sign, conquer. By dawn he had every soldier paint it on his shield, and they were encouraged to such an extent that they believed the victory had already been preordained by God.
With all the expectation and military logistics in the army of Constantine in a big battle, they tasted victory. Out of gratitude he declared the Christian faith as the state religion and moved his headquarters to Constantinople. Thereby he divided the kingdom into two, east and west, which can be explained by the two legs of the symbolic image.
The fall of the Roman Empire comes, as one can expect, in two phases. The western empire ended when the Germanic warlord Odoacer defeated Romulus Augustus in 476 AD. This includes the fall of ancient Rome, and the beginning of the Middle Ages in Western Europe. The Eastern Empire ended a lot later, in 1453, with the death of Constantine the Ninth, and with the Ottoman empire’s conquest of Constantinople, led by Mehmed II. However, a ruling of the iron hand would not continue unqualified. The fifth kingdom, an ununited “’united nations”, would, according to the Prophet’s interpretation, still partly retain the essence of Rome’s iron-hard relentlessness, but would be mixed with a completely different substance: brittle clay soil. The symbol of the image of the feet are therefore represented as iron mixed with clay, and Dan. 2:41 spells it out “the kingdom shall be divided”. Verse 42 states “so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile”. Ten distinct kingdoms represented by the ten toes of the image emerged from the Roman Empire.
The ten original nations that were seized and handed over to Europe, were the Alemanni (GERMAN), the Burgundians (SWITZERS), the Franks (FRENCH), the Lombards (ITALIANS), the Anglo-Saxon (ENGLISH), the Suevi (PORTUGUESE) The Visigoths (SPAIN), the Heruli (EXTINCT), the Ostrogoths (EXTINCT) and the Vandals (EXTINCT). We are investigating the accomplishment of God’s prophetic outlook on this kingdom in the following Manna.
- Selah: Consider God’s outlook for us to understand History (His story).
- Read: 22-28; Mark. 1-2
- Memorize: 28:19
- For a deeper understanding: Look at Tom Gouws’s DVD: God’s Timelines and the Kingdom of God
