Daniel Discloses the King's Dream

For our time of studying God's word this morning, I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Daniel chapter 2. Daniel chapter 2. We're doing a verse by verse study through the book of Daniel and as we continue in our study of this book, we come this morning to Daniel chapter 2, verse 24. And my goal this morning is to cover verses 24 through 49.

I don't know if you guys got a hard copy of the notes, but if you look on the back, that's what we're gonna cover today. That's a lot, but we're gonna get it done, Lord willing, and, and with his help, and the title of the message is Daniel Discloses the king's Dream. last week or two weeks ago, we saw how Daniel discerned, with God's help, the king's dream, and today, Daniel is going to disclose the dream and its interpretation to King Nebuchadnezzar. HG Wells, is a familiar name to, maybe some of you.

He was an English writer. who wrote many novels, and, and other writings. He died in 1946 after a prolific career. For most of his professional life, he was an idealist who dreamed of a better world that man would be able to achieve.

And his writings reflected this idealism. In his classic work entitled A Short History of the World. HG Wells wrote these optimistic words about mankind, and I want you to listen to these words carefully. He says, and I quote, can we doubt that presently our race will more than realize our boldest imaginations.

That it will achieve unity and peace and that our children will live in a world made more splendid and lovely than any palace or garden that we know. Going on from strength to strength in an ever widening circle of achievement. What man has done. The little triumphs of his present state form but the prelude to the things that man has yet to do.

Unquote. HG Wells wrote these idealistic words in 1937. And then World War II happened. And the carnage.

And atrocities that he witnessed shattered his optimistic view of the trajectory of human history. Shortly after the conclusion of World War 2, and in the final months of his life, HG Wells wrote these words, and I quote, The cold blooded massacres of the defenseless, the return of deliberate and organized torture, mental torment and fear to a world from which such things had seemed well-nigh banished has come nearer to breaking my spirit altogether. Homo sapiens. As man has been pleased to call himself is played out.

Unquote HG Wells was an atheist who did not obviously believe the Bible. But if he had read. And believed our passage today. He would have found himself better able to process the evil.

That he was seeing from the kingdoms of this world. He would have realized that man is fallen. And that human civilization is not getting better and better on its own. Yet HG Wells would have also known that there is a utopia coming far beyond his wildest imaginations, a utopia ushered in.

By God, not by men. Two Sundays ago, we studied the first half of Daniel chapter 2 and we saw how King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream that left him deeply troubled. In response, he summoned his wise men and demanded that they both tell him his dream and also its interpretation. They could not give him what he wanted, so he became furious with them and ordered that all of the wise men of Babylon be killed.

When Arioch, the executioner arrived at Daniel's house to round him up for the execution, Daniel asked him if he could maybe have an audience with the king, and Arioch we saw granted Daniel's request. And we saw how Daniel spoke to the king and convinced him to give him some time to receive insight into the king's dream. Daniel then returned to his house in verse 17 of chapter 2 and told his three friends to join him in asking The God of heaven to show compassion upon them by revealing to Him the king's dream so that their lives might be spared and wonderfully in answer to their prayers, God gives to Daniel a vision in the night.

In which he reveals to Daniel both the king's dream and the interpretation of his dream, causing Daniel in verse 20 to break out into a hymn of praise to God.

Praising God for His wisdom and his power and for his goodness and making known to Daniel the king's dream. And it's here where we will pick up in the narrative this morning and we'll observe 6 developments in the story of Daniel disclosing The king's dream to him. 6 developments in the story of Daniel disclosing the king's dream to him. And the first of these developments we're just gonna look at briefly and let's put it this way, Daniel obtains an audience with the king to tell him his dream.

Daniel obtains an audience with the king to tell him his dream. Observe what happens in verse 24. Therefore, Daniel went into Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and spoke to him as follows.

Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Take me into the king's presence, and I will declare the interpretation to the king. This is incredible confidence on Daniel's part and wonderfully he intercedes as an advocate on behalf of all of the wise men of Babylon, which would have included his three Hebrew friends. Receiving this request and promise from Daniel, Arioch swings into action.

Observe what he does in verse 25. Then Arioch hurriedly brought Daniel into the king's presence. And spoke to him as follows, I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king. Arioch is a little too eager to give himself a whole lot of credit here, right?

He basically puts Daniel before the king. And says to the king, look what I did. I did that. I found him.

As the commentator Leon Woods says, human nature is always prone to seek all the credit possible, whether deserved or not, and this is what Arioch is doing here, but we're gonna observe in the coming verses how Daniel does the exact opposite. Even though Daniel had a whole lot more to brag about than Arioch did. Observe the king's response in verse 26. The king said to Daniel, whose name was Beltashazzar, Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?

And Daniel has a ready answer. For the king, which brings us to the second development in the story of Daniel disclosing the king's dream to him. Number 2, Daniel honors God as the true source of insight into the king's dream. Daniel takes time to honor God as the true source of insight into the king's dream.

Look at verses 27 and 28. Responding to the king's question, Daniel answered before the king and said, As for the mystery about which the king has inquired, neither wise men, conjurors, magicians, nor diviners are able to declare it to the king. However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. Notice, guys, how Daniel does not paint a contrast between the wise men of Babylon.

And himself Saying they can't do this, but I can. No. And he also doesn't say, I have found the secret of your dream. He doesn't talk the way Arioch talks.

The contrast he paints here is between the wise men and God. And Daniel is teaching the king some good theology here in these verses, he says to the king, there is a God. And he tells him that this God is in heaven. And he teaches the king that this God in heaven reveals mysteries that are beyond man's natural ability to grasp, and Daniel wants the king to know that this mystery revealing God has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days.

The latter days that Daniel refers to here are not simply days that are at some point in the future. In this context, the latter days speaks of future days that represent the consummation of human history. Daniel continues in the middle of verse 28 through verse 29. Saying to Nebuchadnezzar, this was your dream, and the visions in your mind while on your bed.

As for you, O king, while on your bed, your thoughts turn to what would take place in the future, and he who reveals mysteries has made known to you what will take place. We should all notice here that Daniel is not just going to be revealing the king's dream to him. He's actually telling the king what the king was even thinking about when he went to bed that night. Saying while on your bed, your thoughts turn to what would take place in the future.

God knows what you were thinking about on your bed, Daniel is saying. You were thinking about the future and what would happen and how the future would unfold, and Daniel wants the king to know that God has met. Nebuchadnezzar in his need, and he has provided the king with a dream to reveal what is going to take place in the future. As if to keep the king and us in suspense for another minute longer, Daniel makes yet another effort to ensure that God gets all the glory for the wisdom that he is about to share with him.

In verse 30, he says to the king, but as for me, This mystery has not been revealed to me for any wisdom residing in me more than in any other living man, but for the purpose of making the interpretation known to the king and that you may understand the thoughts of your mind. This is so wonderful the way Daniel speaks here. Daniel is essentially saying to the king here, don't think me some special thing that God would reveal this mystery to me. Think of yourself, Nebuchadnezzar, as a special object of God's kindness that he would give to me this revelation to serve you and to give you the answer to the questions that you were asking when you fell asleep on the night of your dream.

With all of these caveats out of the way, all of which turned the focus off of Daniel and onto God and on to the king, Daniel is ready to tell the king his dream. Development number 3. Daniel tells the king about the statue and the stone in his dream. Daniel tells the king about the statue and the stone in his dream.

Observe what Daniel says in verse 31. You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue. That statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you and its appearance was awesome. The statue must have been really something in Nebuchadnezzar's dream.

Daniel describes it as great. He describes it as large, speaking of its size. He also describes the statue as something that was of extraordinary splendor, which speaks of its luminosity. As it reflected the light of the sun in a brilliant display.

And Daniel describes the statue as having an appearance that was awesome. Which speaks of it as something that induces fear. Nebuchadnezzar, no doubt has never felt so small as he did in this dream while looking at this impressive and intimidating statue that loomed before him. As for the different parts of this statue.

In verses 32 and 33, Daniel says the head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. In terms of value. you can already observe that there seems to be a lessening of value as the statue goes from its head to its feet, right? Going from gold to silver.

to bronze, then to iron, and then to iron mixed with clay, all of which comprise the various parts of this single awesome statue that Nebuchadnezzar is gazing at in his dream. It's at this point of the dream where the action happens. In verse 34, Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. In verse 25, we learned that the stone was carved out of a mountain.

That's verse 25, we'll learn that a little bit later. And Daniel says here in verse 34 that it was cut out without hands. In other words, it was cut out without human hands because it was cut out by the hand of God. We'll see more about that in the verses to come.

So the impression you get is that this stone was quite small compared to this awesome statue. But despite its comparative smallness, it seems to have rolled down from the heights of this mountain until it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them, crushed the feet. Of this statue And as you might imagine, when the feet of the statue. are crushed when the feet upon which the statue stands are crushed, then the statue has nothing left to stand on, which means that the entirety of the statue falls.

Look at verse 35 where Daniel says, then the iron. The clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. So the entirety of the statue. Becomes pulverized from this fall, shattered into such fine powder that its entirety becomes like chaff.

From the summer threshing floors, carried away by the wind until absolutely nothing is left of this statue. Despite its former greatness. Despite its former fear inducing splendor, not a trace of it is left, which means now that in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, the only thing that now remains in his dream is what? The stone And what happens to the stone?

At the end of verse 35, Daniel says, but the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. What a dream. This is the dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had. This is the dream that caused him to wake up troubled and unable to fall back to sleep.

This is the dream he wanted to know the meaning of. This is the dream that his wise men were not able to declare to him, but Daniel has now told him. Exactly what he dreamed. And now Daniel will tell him the meaning of the dream, which brings us to development number 4.

Daniel interprets the statue as signifying the kingdoms of men. Daniel interprets the statue as signifying the kingdoms. Of men. Notice what Daniel says in verse 36.

This was the dream. Now, we will tell its interpretation. Before the king. Notice Daniel's use of the word we.

Who is we here? Well, I think it's Daniel and God. The God who revealed the mystery of the king's dream to him so that he can now communicate it to the king. And Daniel knows that as he communicates.

The truth from God about the king's dream to the king in the coming moments that God will be testifying to the king's heart. The truth The truthfulness of what Daniel is declaring. And by the way, you and I can have the same assurance. Whenever we speak the truth of Christ to one another or to the lost.

Whenever we are speaking the truth that God has given to us to speak, it is always we. Talking It is always us and God who are speaking to those that we are declaring the truth to. But here's the interpretation that Daniel declares, starting with the top of the great statue. In verses 37 and 38, Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory.

And wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field or the birds of the sky, he has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold. So Daniel here describes Nebuchadnezzar as the king of kings, meaning the ultimate earthly king. Perhaps the greatest king in all of human history.

A man who has a kingdom and power, strength and glory. And has rulership over all men and beasts and birds in his great realm at this time. And I want you to notice though, who Daniel says has given to the king all of this power. In verse 37, he says to Nebuchadnezzar that the God of heaven has given him the kingdom, power, strength, and glory.

And then in verse 38, Daniel says that it is God who has essentially given. The sons of men, the birds and the beasts into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. So by God's design and by God's doing, Nebuchadnezzar is the head of gold atop this awesome statue that he beheld in his dream. When you stop just at this point and think about it, you realize that This is actually a courageous statement for Daniel to make to the king.

yes, it's flattering to know that you're the head of gold, but Daniel is declaring to the king the truth that the king rules at God's pleasure. And a statement here serves as yet another reminder to us that earthly kings and earthly presidents and prime ministers and governors and mayors have been given their power by whom? By God, who is sovereign over it all. Back in verse 21 of this very chapter, we were told that God is the one who removes and who establishes kings.

Back in Daniel chapter 1 verse 2, we learned that God is the one who gave Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. And here we learned that all the glory and the splendor of Nebuchadnezzar's rule has been given to him as a stewardship from God. Well, having explained the meaning of the head of gold, Daniel identifies what the silver breast and arms and what the bronze belly and the thighs represent. In verse 39, he says to Nebuchadnezzar, after you, there will arise another kingdom.

Inferior. To you, and you might want to underline that word inferior that will comment on. Then another 3 kingdom of bronze which will rule over all the earth. We know from history that the Babylonian kingdom, and we'll even learn this later in Daniel.

not this, but what I'm about to say in just a moment. But from history, we know that the Babylonian kingdom lasted a little less than 70 years. That's it. Then was taken over by the Medo-Persian Empire, which is what we'll learn later in the book of Daniel.

And the Medo-Persian Empire lasted 208 years. And then following the Mido-Persian Empire was the Grecian Empire under Alexander the Great. And the rulers that followed him, which is represented by the bronze abdomen and thighs of this great statue in the Grecian Empire lasted about 185 years, 185. But after this 3rd kingdom of the Grecian Empire will come yet a 4th, which Daniel describes in verse 40, saying then there will be a 4th kingdom as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things.

So like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in. Pieces What was the 4th kingdom? The Roman Empire. The Roman Empire that was hard as iron and ruthlessly crushed anything and anyone that stood in its way.

Rome's dominance over the world began in 146 BC with its victory at the Battle of Carthage, and it ends up lasting longer than the prior three kingdoms. But again, you will notice in verse 39, how Daniel describes these kingdoms as inferior to Babylon. And this inferiority is reflected in the type of metal that represents them. And this is seen in two ways.

First, the value of the metals becomes less and less as you move from the head. Down to the legs. From gold to silver to bronze and then to iron, but secondly, the metals become harder. As you work your way down the statue, gold is the softest metal on this statue.

Silver is harder than gold, and bronze is harder than silver, and iron is harder, though less valuable than bronze. So thus far, thus far, the metals are becoming more hardened. While their value is becoming diminished. Representing the fact that as one kingdom gives way to another, over the course of the coming centuries, each successive kingdom will be more hardened and less precious.

Or worthwhile. Less worthy Just like HG Wells thought before World War II, people nowadays. I think that the arc of human history is leading to greater and greater improvement of the human species. But this revelation from God to Nebuchadnezzar shows that actually the opposite is true.

As John Calvin says, by and large, with exceptions of God's wonderful and gracious intervention in human history, by and large, the kingdoms of this world are not getting better and better, but worse and worse. As Calvin says, men's vices and corruption increase more and more. So much so that the 4th of these kingdoms. At least in its latest stages, actually breaks the pattern and becomes more brittle.

And prone to break. As we saw in verse 40, the Fourth kingdom of iron sounds really scary in terms of its ability and willingness to crush and shatter others, but it does have an inherent vulnerability. In verse 41, Daniel says to the king, in that you saw the feet and toes. Partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom.

But it will have in it the toughness of iron inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. So perhaps as represented by the 2 ft, this kingdom will be something of a divided kingdom, perhaps between east and west, some suggest, and we will see more definitively that the 10 toes represent an even further division. But the real division that Daniel focuses on is the division between the iron and the clay. In verses 42 and 43, Daniel says, as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong, and part of it will be brittle.

And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another even as iron does not combine with pottery. So the goal of the powers that be in this. Coming empire will be to combine disparate peoples through marriage or through political or regional alliances to try to get them unified, but Daniel says they will not adhere to One another They won't truly unify. In the ancient Roman Empire, this was certainly the case.

We learned from history. With the aristocratic ruling class. Being selfish and arrogant and addicted to luxury, which put them in perpetual conflict with the common people who resented them. History also tells us that there were so many slaves in the Roman Empire that 50% of the population of Rome, 50%, 50% of the population of Rome were slaves.

It also happened that the nations that Rome invaded often kept their own customs and languages and, and did not blend very well into the Roman culture which some writers suggest helped to hasten the decline of the Roman Empire. It doesn't take too much effort for us to understand some of this. We have similar divisions today. In our society between rich and poor.

Between ethnicities. And religions. And viewpoints in Western nations. The leaders of our Western nations have tried very hard to get people to unite within a country.

Or even across the world, but this unity can never quite be achieved, can it? In our own country, after almost 250 years of our democratic republic, we are more divided than we've ever been. Our own culture has tried to get peoples of various ethnicities and religions to unite for the common good and thankfully, to some degree, this, this happens and yet in recent years, we've seen our society polarizing and becoming more fractured than Than ever before. Wonderfully and thankfully in the church, we can experience a genuine and deep-seated unity in Christ.

Amen. But our world can only ever achieve a shallow unity that cannot and will not hold. This was true of ancient Rome, and it is true today and it will be even more true of the revived version of the Roman Empire that will arise in the last days represented by the feet and the toes of this statue. But this is not the way that history is going to end, which brings us to the 5th development in the story of Daniel disclosing the king's dream to him.

Number 5, Daniel interprets the stone. As signifying the coming kingdom of God. Daniel interprets the stone as signifying the coming kingdom of God. Observe what Daniel says in verse 44.

In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure. Forever. Amen.

Now, when you read verse 44, right at the outset, one of the first questions you may have is, who are those kings? That Daniel is speaking of. Daniel hasn't said anything about kings up to this point, although he has been talking about a succession of kingdoms, which implies kings. So who are those kings that he's referring to here?

Whoever those kings are, it will be in the days of those kings that the stone is gonna strike the statue. Right? Well, there's different ways of looking at this. Some take those kings as referring generically to all the kings of all these successive kingdoms, and there's something to commend that.

But I would agree with those commentators who suggest that those kings are represented by the 10 toes. It's not a flattering way to depict a king. But if we take this view, then this means that there will be 10 kings or rulers reigning in some alliance during the days when the kingdom of God comes crashing. Against the kingdoms of this world.

If we arrived at this tentative understanding. of those kings referring to 10 kings as depicted by the 10 toes, we would find that that's very consistent with Daniel chapter 7, where in Daniel chapter 7 verse 24, Daniel, he represents in chapter 7, the fourth kingdom of Rome as a beast with 10 horns. And then he says in Daniel 7:24, as for the 10 horns out of this kingdom, 10 kings will arise. Also in Revelation 13:1.

In the last book of our Bible, the apostle John sees a beast coming out of the sea with 10 horns. And in Revelation chapter 17 and verse 12, it is said to him, and I quote, the 10 horns which you saw are 10 kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast. For one hour. So Daniel chapter 7 and Revelation 13 and 17 give us good reason to think that the kings, those kings that Daniel speaks about here in Daniel 2:24, are likely 10 kings who will be in place when the kingdom of God rolls down from above and crushes the kingdoms of men once and for all.

This is one of the reasons why some scholars say that the feet and the toes of Nebuchadnezzar's statue represents a revival of sorts of the Roman Empire. Ruled over by the anti-Christ with his 10 kings and some alliance that features a shallow and a brittle unity that will last for a short time. And it will be ripe for shattering by Jesus at his second coming. Look again at verse 44 where Daniel says, in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people.

It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. The riches of the previous kingdoms always ended up filling the coffers of the kingdoms that followed them, but the treasures and the institutions of the kingdom of God when it comes, will never ever be left for another people that come after. This kingdom of God will be the consummation of human history. It will never be destroyed, and Daniel says it will endure forever.

And Daniel wants us to know that. It's not that just you get this whole vibe from the way things have unfolded from here. even in this dream, God wants us to know that it's not that the kingdoms of this world, they're working really hard, they're getting better and better until the kingdom of God comes and takes things from there. Thank you very much and we're now gonna tweak this and improve all this excellent work that you've done.

No, when you look at the statue, The kingdoms of this world become less and less worthwhile with the passage of time until Jesus comes at his second coming and shatters these kingdoms and leaves no trace of them whatsoever. And Daniel is not even done explaining this incredible kingdom of God represented by the stone in Nebuchadnezzar's dream. In verse 45, Daniel says to the king, inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future.

So the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.

In Daniel's mind, just when you read these words here. Nebuchadnezzar's dream was not so much a dream about a statue. It was a dream about the stone. And what the stone does to the statue.

Teaching Nebuchadnezzar that the kingdoms of man will one day be crushed. And destroyed and replaced by the eternal kingdom of God. This kingdom of God will be set up in fashioned by the hand of God and will come rolling down from heaven to earth. When you consider this interpretation of the king's dream.

That Daniel has just uttered to him, you realize that this is, this is actually a risky interpretation for Daniel to be declaring to the king here. Would you have had the courage to declare it You realize that Daniel's being very brave to speak so emphatically and truthfully to the king. One day Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom. Is going to be taken over and absorbed by another kingdom and then another and then another, but a day is coming when another kingdom, God's kingdom will come and shatter all of the kingdoms of men, pulverizing all of it.

Including the head of gold and leaving no trace of it. Whatsoever Earlier in this chapter, the wise man said to Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live forever. And Daniel is serving notice here, saying to the king, you won't live forever and neither will your kingdom, but God's kingdom will. And it will one day cover the whole earth.

These are heavy things for Daniel to declare to the king, which leaves us wondering at this point of the narrative, how is Nebuchadnezzar going to respond to this jarring revelation of the future. And this brings us to the 6th and final development in the story of Daniel disclosing the king's dream to him. Number 6, the king honors Daniel and his God for the revelation declared to him. The king honors Daniel and his God for the revelation declared to him.

Observe how the king responds in verse 46. Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face. And did homage to Daniel and gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant incense. This is an absolutely stunning.

Response by Nebuchadnezzar so stunning that liberal commentators Read this and say, yeah, there's no way this happened. This is the most powerful man on the planet. Who bows to no one. The king of his realm, yet here he is falling on his face at the feet of Daniel.

And paying homage to him. The Aramaic word translated did homage could actually mean that he's worshiping Daniel and some commentators believe that, or it could just speak of him simply paying homage. To someone that you hold in very high and grateful esteem. And I personally think that this is likely what Nebuchadnezzar is doing.

Where do I get that? Well, from what comes out of the king's mouth. We learned a lot about his motives. And falling on his face by listening to what comes out of his mouth in verse 47.

Look at the verse. The king answered Daniel and said, surely, your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery. He's not proclaiming Daniel to be God. He's speaking of the true God.

Here is the king of Babylon uttering a confession of faith about Daniel's God, saying that he is a God of gods. Meaning the ultimate God, greater than all other gods, and he also confesses Daniel's God to be a Lord of kings. Admitting that God is the real Lord. Even over Himself Nebuchadnezzar.

And all other kings. Now we're gonna see in the next chapter how lasting this belief. of this confession really is. In the coming chapters, we're gonna see that Nebuchadnezzar is a pretty proud man, and he's going to need a more radical intervention from God.

To bring him to a more lasting belief in the true God of heaven. On a more practical note, the king has promised gifts and a reward to anyone who could tell him his dream, and he keeps his promise in verse 48 where the text says, then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he's gonna give him two jobs here. He made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men. Of Babylon.

This is an astonishing promotion for Daniel, given that he's not even 20. At this point, How will Daniel be able to manage all of these duties involved in these two new jobs? Well, observe what happens in verse 49, and I think it's wonderful that Daniel does not forget his three friends who prayed with him the day before. The text says, and Daniel made request of the king.

And he appointed Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego over the administration of the province of Babylon while Daniel was at the king's court. 3 years ago. 3 years prior to this moment, Daniel and his friends experienced the devastation of being uprooted from their homeland of Judah, and here they are. In a foreign land 3 years later, with the most powerful king in the world falling on his face at Daniel's feet.

And praising Daniel's God. And then elevating Daniel to these two very high government positions and granting Daniel's request to have his 3 friends serving. Together with him this is amazing. By the grace of God, these four men, Daniel and his three friends, are Truly blooming where God has planted them in a pagan land, being honored by God for their faithfulness to him.

All in all, this is quite a response from Nebuchadnezzar to the revelation. Of the triumph of God's kingdom over the kingdoms of men as revealed to him through Daniel. But his response, the king's response, should leave us pondering. Our own response.

To this looming reality of the coming of God's kingdom. We definitely should respond with belief. We should respond with humility. We should respond with worship.

And as believers, We ought to be a little encouraged. Right? As one writer, the commentator Stephen Miller says, and I love this. He says, what a comforting passage this is.

In this present world of injustice, wars, and crime, it is reassuring to know that Christ is coming. And when he comes, all the evils of this age will end. There is indeed coming a day when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, for the Messiah's reign of righteousness will extend to the ends of the earth. I, I hate to disappoint anyone, but Kamala Harris and Tim Walsh will not be ushering in the kingdom of God.

And neither will Donald Trump and JD Vance be ushering in the kingdom of God. But Jesus will. As Charles Coulson used to say, the kingdom of God will not arrive on Air Force One. But it will come on the white horse that Jesus is riding at his second coming from heaven to earth.

Let us remember this truth in these days when we're bombarded by politicians promising us that they will fix our present earthly kingdom in which we live. We definitely ought to listen to these candidates and vote for the ones that will most likely further a righteous agenda. And we should do our part in making this. World a better place through our righteous lives and service to others.

But we should not let ourselves become too obsessed with polishing the statue. That Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. For one day, the kingdom of Jesus Christ is going to shatter. The kingdoms of man.

So it is his kingdom that we should pray for. It's his kingdom that we should long for and look for, and the best gift that you and I can give to the kingdom of which we are a part is to live in a way that shines the light of this coming kingdom. Upon our darkened world today. With the knowledge that Daniel gives us in our passage today, we should be appropriately Pessimistic Regarding what man can achieve.

With the kingdoms of this world. And we should at the same time be most optimistic regarding what God will do. When his son returns to Earth to establish his kingdom on Earth. And in the meantime, we should be modestly hopeful.

About the ways that we can bless our present. Earthly kingdoms by living righteous lives and loving one another. And showing Christ's love to all. In our text today, Daniel speaks about the stone crushing the statue, and we've already implied the answer to this question, but as you do read this chapter, you are left asking, when will this happen?

When will the stone arrive and shatter the statue? We do well, I think, to realize that there's two answers to this question. One is partial, the other is total. For this crushing in a way came into or comes in two installments.

The first installment happened when Christ in his first coming came into this world. And died and crushed the head of the serpent, the god of this world, and he was raised during the days of the ancient Roman Empire, and from him the message of salvation has been going throughout the world. This is why Jesus, when he came in his first coming, often said the kingdom of God is at hand. But the spread of the gospel around the world.

is still not yet complete. Nor have the kingdoms of this world been pulverized to powder. Like Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Predicts Which means that the ultimate striking of the stone against the kingdoms of this world is still yet to come.

And it will happen at Christ's second coming, when Jesus splits the sky and smites the nations and breaks them with a rod of iron. And what a stone Jesus is, right? Jesus was the rock that followed the Israelites. In the wilderness and gave them water to drink.

He is the stone of stumbling and the rock of a fence. The Bible tells us, the stone that the builders rejected, which became the cornerstone of the church. He is the stone that will one day fall from heaven and crush the kingdoms of this world at his second coming. Which means that history is not meaningless, nor is it directionless.

It means that God is in perfect control. Of human history. It means that he is moving history toward its consummation in Christ. It means that the evil and corruption and division that reign today will not last forever.

It means that one day good will triumph over evil in a decisive and final way, and it means that those who side with Jesus now. And believe in him are the ones who will find themselves on the right side of history. If you'll let me close with this, just on a final note, sometimes we read Bible stories and we'd like to imagine where we are in the story, and I know we all would like to think we're Daniel. In the story, and we'd be so brave and give the interpretation to the king.

I would suggest that if you wanna find yourself in this story, you might find it most helpful to think of yourself as one of the wise men who are being rounded up for execution. Before Daniel intervenes. And saves their lives. On many levels, you and I were very much like the useless wise men.

Who needed. To give the king what he required so that we might live. We needed a Daniel to advocate for us and say to the God of heaven. Do not destroy those who have failed to give you what you required.

I will give you what you require in their place and let them live. The Bible teaches that you and I were under a sentence of death because of our sins against a holy God. Our failure to give to this God what He deserved from us. And his wrath against us was perfectly justified.

Yet just as Daniel went into the king's presence and gave the king what he required, Jesus came into this world and he lived the righteous life. That you and I have failed to live. And then he died for our sins and was raised, and he came into the presence of his father and gave to his father. What was required And because of Christ's faithfulness, To do that and because of his advocacy for us in the presence of the God of heaven, we have deliverance from the death that we deserve.

And we have salvation from God because of Jesus. And the truth is Jesus did. Even more than what Daniel does in this passage, Jesus allowed himself to be crushed for our iniquities. So that we might be spared the crushing.

That we deserve for our sins. So if you are here this morning and you have never believed in the Lord Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I urge you to believe in him today so that you can have eternal life even right now, so that you can enjoy the forgiveness of sins even now and so that. In that future day when God's kingdom does come to earth, you will have the joy of knowing that you. We're on the right side of history.

Amen. Let's pray together Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for all that it teaches us, things both humbling and wonderfully exalting. It gives us a framework and a lens through which we can view the unfolding of history.

We're so thankful, Lord, for This equipment that you provide us, that people who don't know you and they don't believe the Bible, they don't. They don't have this to them, the kingdoms of this world. This is, this is it. But we praise you for letting us know what's going on.

And how history is and will unfold and already telling us, Lord, the end of the story. We know how this ends and it is glorious. And so help us to boldly walk with Jesus. To walk in His grace.

To rejoice in the fact that rather than being crushed. You have lavished the sweetness of your grace upon us who have believed in you. And help us to tell others about this wonderful Savior who came to live a righteous life and die and be raised and who's now at the right hand of the Father giving out salvation to people who believe in Him, but He's also a Lord who's coming again. And when he comes, he will come in judgment.

Against those who have rebelled against him. May those in this room who have never yet believed in you, may they trust in You, Lord Jesus. And find refuge. And your love While they have the opportunity.

And that they might even on this day experience the goodness. Of your grace and of your salvation. With hearts filled with love and gratefulness to you. Dear Lord We ask all of these things.

In the mighty name of Jesus and all God's people said,