The book of Daniel is a very rich book that recorded Daniel’s faith and some parts of his life, including his conversations with king Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar was king of the Babylonian empire from 605-562 B.C. History records that he was the son of Nabopolassar.
In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, he had a dream which troubled him and he called for the magicians, astrologers and sorcerers to say what the dream was and to interpret it (Daniel 2:1-5). Nebuchadnezzar told them that if they were not able to do so, they would be put to death and their house would be made a dunghill. However, if they were able to put forth the dream and the interpretation of it, they would be greatly rewarded and bestowed great honour (Daniel 2:6). The Chaldeans were not able to do so and told Nebuchadnezzar that there was none on earth who could do that except the gods. This made Nebuchadnezzar furious and he commanded that all the wise men be put to death. When Daniel knew that he would be put to death, he inquired of God and the secret was revealed to him in a night vision (Daniel 2:19). Daniel praised and thanked God for that and he went before king Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel revealed that Nebuchadnezzar saw a great image which was frightening. The image had a head of fine gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron and feet made of iron and clay (Daniel 2:31-33). A stone, which was cut out without human hands, smote the image’s feet and broke them into pieces. Subsequently, the iron, clay, brass, silver and gold broke into pieces and were like chaff carried away by the wind. The stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth (Daniel 2:35).
After Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar the dream he dreamt, he proceeded to give an interpretation of the dream. He said that Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold whereby God gave him a kingdom, power, strength and glory (Daniel 2:37-38). Daniel subsequently proceeded to prophesy about three other kingdoms that will come based on Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Following his kingdom will be another kingdom of silver and after that, another of brass which would rule over all the earth (Daniel 2:39). The kingdom of silver would be of less strength and value than the first kingdom (Babylon). The kingdom after that of brass would be as strong as iron. It would be divided as indicated by the feet of potters’ clay and iron. Daniel said that this kingdom would be partly strong and partly broken (Daniel 2:41-42). Daniel also said that as iron is mixed with miry clay, this fourth kingdom would “mingle themselves with the seed of men” but “shall not cleave to one another” (Daniel 2:43).
In continuing with the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Daniel talked about a kingdom that God would set up which would never be destroyed and would stand forever (Daniel 2:44). He also said that this kingdom would consume all the other kingdoms. He talked about the stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands that was able to break the iron, brass, clay, silver and gold into pieces (Daniel 2:45). Thus, Daniel explained that the dream is certain and the interpretation is accurate and hence whatever that he said would definitely happen.
Fulfillment of Prophecy
We are able to see from scriptures, archeological findings and history what the five kingdoms mentioned above are and the fulfilment of the prophecy as explained by Daniel. First, Daniel stated clearly in the scriptures that the head of gold was the Babylonian empire. Most people agree that the image’s breast and arms of silver refer to the Medo-Persian empire, the belly and thighs of brass refer to the Greek empire and the legs of iron refer to the Roman empire. The fifth kingdom that would consume all these four kingdoms would be the church.
History records the approximate timings of the following empires: Babylonian empire (606-536 BC), Persian empire (536-332 BC), Greek empire (331-146 BC) and Roman empire (146 BC–400 AD). Thus, it is certain that the four empires existed and followed one after another as indicated in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
Besides the dream which Nebuchadnezzar had, Daniel also had a vision which added weight and provided evidence for the prophecy that was to be fulfilled. He saw a ram which had two horns pushing westward, northward and southward and it became very great (Daniel 8:3-4). He was subsequently told of the interpretation of it: the ram with two horns were the kings of Media and Persia (Daniel 8:20). In his vision, Daniel also saw a he-goat which had a notable horn between the eyes. The he-goat smote the ram and broke its two horns and it waxed very great (Daniel 8:5-8). Likewise, Daniel was also given an interpretation of this and that the he-goat was the king of Grecia and the notable horn was the first king (Daniel 8:21). The handwriting on the wall as recorded in Daniel 5:28-31 also indicated that the Medo-Persian empire would succeed the Babylonians.
In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, Daniel also had a vision (Daniel 10:1) and he was told that the prince of Persia would be fought and subsequently, the prince of Grecia would come (Daniel 10:20). History records that Cyrus the Great became leader of the Persians sometime in 559 BC and subsequently lord of the Medo-Persians in 550-549 BC. Cyrus then continued taking over the Median territory and overthrew the Babylonian kingdom in 539 BC.
The visions and interpretations in Daniel 8 and 10 added weight to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the great image of the kingdoms to come. In addition, history also proved that what was prophesied in the book of Daniel happened as accurately recorded.
The famed Cyrus cylinder, discovered in 1879, was a baked clay cylinder roughly around nine inches long. It is currently located at the British museum. This cylinder recorded the capture of Babylon by Cyrus in 539 BC. We also have a prophecy of Cyrus recorded in Isaiah 44:28. The book of Isaiah was written around 750 BC and Cyrus was born in 599 BC. The Bible gave an accurate prediction of Cyrus and named him about one hundred and fifty years before he was born. We also have Cyrus being mentioned in the book of Daniel and thus this adds weight to the prophecies in Daniel.
With regards to the stone that Daniel mentioned, it represented the church which is the kingdom of God. There are several scriptures prophesying about the coming of the kingdom of Christ and indeed these were all fulfilled. Some examples include Isaiah 2:2-5 and Micah 4:1-4.
Next week, we will be looking at the lessons which can be learnt from Nebuchadnezzar’s vision of the image and its prophecy.