12/28

Daniel 2:44-45

⁴⁴"In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. ⁴⁵This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands窶殿 rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. "The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy."

Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon when Daniel went into captivity. Daniel had been through their re-education program to serve the king as a man of wisdom and counsel. This group of people also practiced magical arts, but Daniel and his friends continued to seek the one true God alone.

When Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that troubled him, he called for this group of counselors to interpret the dream. Apparently he was wise to their trickery and really wanted to know the truth about this dream. He asked them first to tell him what he had dreamed. Then he would know that they had special wisdom from the gods. When they could not help him, he ordered their execution.

Daniel asked his friends to pray for a revelation from God. Daniel was given the interpretation. Nebuchadnezzar dreamt of a great statue. Its head was of gold, arms and chest of silver, belly and thighs of brass, and the legs, feet and toes were part iron and part clay. A rock was cut out of a mountain and flew into the image breaking it in pieces. These metals and parts of the image were symbolic of coming kingdoms. Each metal was the main metal used by one of the coming kingdoms. The rock is the Kingdom of God. When man's governments comes down to the final ten nations, the toes, Christ will return and set up the Kingdom of God. Man's governments will end.

Consider: The eternal Kingdom of Christ is coming. Considering that this is the destiny of this world, how should we live today?