The description of Nebuchadnezzar's dream represented "a stone cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces" (verse 34). The interpretation of this event is given as follows: "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever" (verse 44).
The kingdom of God appears as the fifth universal kingdom, destined to survive and surpass all others. It is of divine origin, cut out "without hands." The other kingdoms are similar in their nature and closely connected, in the single image of a man; but the kingdom of God is altogether different and antagonistic. The prophecy refers to the establishment of the kingdom of God in the early days of Christianity; for, be it observed, this stone struck the image when all its four divisions were yet standing. Not, only was the iron and the clay broken by the impact, but "the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold" were "broken to pieces TOGETHER, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors" (verse 35).
Here is a most important fact wholly unnoticed by those millennialists who look to the future of our day for the establishment of the kingdom of Christ. If the stone has not yet struck the image, then the chief part of the prophetic description never can be fulfilled; for there is no sense in which the advent of the divine kingdom in this late age of the world can break in pieces the entire image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, there being no way in which it can truthfully be said that its four divisions are yet standing. All these facts were true in the days of Rome, however, when Christ appeared. The Roman Kingdom possessed all the distinguishing marks and characteristics of the preceding empires. This is true not only of their territorial possession but of their distinctive characteristics. The opulence of the Babylonians, the splendor of the Persians, the strength and discipline of the Greeks, were all merged into the Roman Empire. And more than this, these kingdoms were all idolatrous, and the religion of the Babylonians was merely absorbed in the Persian Kingdom (not destroyed); that of the Persian was perpetuated under the Greek reign; and all these found recognition in the divers forms of paganism existing under Rome. In this sense the image, as opposed to the divine kingdom of Christ, was all standing at the time of the first advent of the Messiah, and the overthrow of paganism by early Christianity corresponds with the stroke given by the little stone of Daniel 2.
Notice how this fulfilment is parallel with the prophecies of the Revelation. In chapter 12 the Roman Empire under its pagan form is represented by the dragon. Christianity waged warfare with this huge system of false religion and overthrew it. "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ" (chap. 12:10).
The kingdom represented in Nebuchadnezzar's dream came in the day of incarnation and soon smote the kingdoms of heathen darkness as existing in the embrace of Rome, and broke them in pieces. It was then in the stage represented by a stone. At a later time we shall observe the kingdom in its mountain epoch, when it becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth.
Vision of four beasts
The four constituent parts of Nebuchadnezzar's visionary image were interpreted to signify four successive monarchies, the Babylonian being the first. In the seventh chapter Daniel records his own vision of four great beasts that arose out of the violently agitated sea, and these represent the same four kingdoms described in Nebuchadnezzar's dream. "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth" (verse 17). To the worldly, carnal mind of Nebuchadnezzar, empires possessed a show of grandeur and glory, and they were therefore represented accordingly in his vision; but to the spiritual-minded Daniel they would appear odious and terrible, and they were therefore represented to him under the symbol of devouring beasts.
The kingdoms symbolized by the first three beasts of this vision have no particular bearing on our subject, aside from assisting us in fixing the chronology of certain events. The first beast signifies the Babylonian Empire, corresponding to the head of the image in Nebuchadnezzar's vision; the second, the Medo-Persian, corresponding to the breast and arms of silver; the third, the Grecian, corresponding to the belly and thighs of brass. The description of these beasts shows that in one sense they are successive and in another sense simultaneous.
I have already shown that the entire image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream was standing in the days of Roman ascendency, when the kingdom of God came. The same fact is brought out in the chapter now under consideration. After mentioning particularly the fourth beast, Daniel says, "As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time" (verse 12). When these kingdoms lost their independent sovereignty, they still continued as provinces, ruled by another similar power.
The fourth beast