Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, February 20, 2022

David and the Empire of Dreams.

Today, Pastor Michael is continuing his series on Daniel.   Last week, we delved into Chapter One, where the Babylonians took over and took the Jewish people to Babylonia as slaves.   This week, we’re in Chapter Two, finding Daniel with this three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.  For Daniel remaining true to his values back in Chapter One, God has rewarded him with an ability to interpret dreams and visions.  And in Chapter Two, King Nebuchadnezzar had a troubling dream.  So he summoned his wise men who asked him about the dream.  The king did not tell them, offering them that they had to tell him the dream and the interpretation or be killed.  

Pretty much you can guess where that went…no more wise men!  Daniel, however, went to the Captain of the Guards and convinced him that he could read the King’s dream and interpret it.  The King agreed to let Daniel do this, so Daniel and his three friends prayed about it.  The Lord gave Daniel the dream vision and the interpretation.  So Daniel goes back to the King with the news.  The first part of Daniels dialogue with the King is to let him know that no man can predict the future.  

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes). The manner of Daniel’s speech shows his confidence, and Arioch’s quick response reveals his trust in Daniel. In the presence of the king, Daniel gives God the glory, as, together with the sages, he admits that “no wise man, medium, magician, or diviner is able to make known to the king the mystery he has asked about” (2:27). Only Daniel’s God can and does reveal mysteries (2:28–29). Daniel humbly admits that he is a mere instrument in God’s hands and that his abilities should not be viewed as native but have been given to him by God (2:30). Then he proceeds to explain the dream.

Daniel says that the King has seen a giant statue, made of precious metals.  (CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) Through the dream of the colossal statue consisting of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and feet of iron mingled with clay, the Lord reveals how one empire will succeed another empire: Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome (2:36–40). The resulting instability of the image is represented by the mixing of iron and clay (2:42–43).

Then the stone it was on, grew into a huge mountain.  The King at this point is impressed as this was EXACTLY what he had dreamed!

The interpretation of this dream is a revealing of the future of Empires: the empires that shall come.  The King is the head of gold, Babylon.  There will be another empire, the silver empire (Persia), which will be lesser than Babylon but will take over.  Then a third kingdom, represented by the Bronze shall take over, which will be Greece.  The last last empire will be Rome, taking over vast expanses of kingdoms. Finally, the feet, iron an clay mixed, will, at a time, be God in Heaven  obliterating all kingdoms and His kingdom will surpass all kingdoms on earth.

The King is literally floored, falling on his face, before Daniel.  He promoted Daniel and gave him many gifts and made him also Head Administrator of the wise men.  He is a very high official now in the Government of Babylon.  

The prophecies of Daniel are so precise the evidence is overwhelming!

The empires of the prophesies.  Babylon, the head of gold.  The height of this empire was under Nebuchadnezzar and only a generation or two after him, Babylon fell.  Babylon was overtaken by the Meads and the Persians, the chest and arms of silver.  The Persian empire was crushed by a tiny army from Greece, the belly and thighs of brass.  Greece was dominant from 331 BC until about 63 AD.  Then they were overcome by an even more powerful empire: Rome.  The legs of iron, crushing everyone that opposed them.  Their empire went from England to India and south to Africa.  They had two divisions, eastern and western, lasting for 1,500 years.

The king’s dream accurately depicted this succession of empires.  This shows clearly how accurate the Bible is, these prophesies have all come true!

What did these empires do for our faith?  Babylon took the Jews out of the promised land and took them to Babylon where they got serious with God.  The Persians allowed the Jews to go back to their land and funded the rebuilding of the temple.  The Greeks spread their language and for the first time there was a trade language amongst a lot of people.  Lastly, the Romans were good at conquering even more than all the previous empires and built roads all over their kingdom, connecting people.  People can now travel and missionaries can travel, too!

Later prophesy from Daniel and Revelation show Rome coming back and Jesus will be the great stone that obliterates the empires to be replaced by His kingdom!

The rise and fall of empires, was created by God and He used it to bring good to everyone.  It was so the good news could come down through the ages.

Verses can be found today in Daniel, Chapter Two (2).