Now we must ask
ourselves how history has played out and if Daniel’s interpretation of the
dream was correct. He told king
Nebuchadnezzar that he was the head of gold, but Daniel did not name the other
kingdoms by name. Looking back we know
what the kingdoms were.
PART
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METAL
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KINGDOM
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Head
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Gold
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Breast
and Arms
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Silver
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Belly
and Thighs
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Bronze
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Legs
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Iron
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Feet
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Iron and Clay
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Weak
and Strong Nations
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And the stone that pulverized the statue represents Jesus
setting up his kingdom and ruling for eternity.
The Babylonian Empire was the largest reigning
force in the world at the time Nebuchadnezzar had his dream. It was well represented by gold, as it
was a rich and lush empire. In fact, the
Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
But in the year 539
BCE, 66 years after Daniel had been taken captive from his homeland of Judah,
the Medo-Persian army conquered Babylon and the Persian Empire entered the
world stage. Eventually the Medes would
fade and the Persians would strengthen, causing the Medo-Persian Empire to
become simply the Persian Empire.
The Greeks were a
pain in the neck for the Persians.
First, the Greek cities of Ionia rebelled against Persia but they were
defeated. Then, as retribution for the
rebellion, Xerxes decides to overtake Greece itself.
You have probably
seen movies or heard about the 300 Spartans and other Greek warriors fighting
against the Persian king Xerxes at the pass of Thermopolae. This battle took place in 480 BCE while the
Persian Empire was extremely strong. The
Greeks lost the battle at Thermopolae but they eventually stopped the Persians
at the navel battle of Salamis and forced Xerxes to withdraw from Greece. This was not the end of the Greek/Persian
story as Greece was to be the ruin of the Persian Empire.
Phillip of
Macedonia would be the first to unite the City States of Greece under one
ruler. After he Philip died, his son Alexander would solidify the
allegiances of the lesser kings in Greece and in 334 BCE he took his armies
into Asia Minor to fight against Darius and his Persian Empire. In just three years Alexander the Great had
defeated the Persians and Greece was now the world’s largest empire. In 323 BCE at the age of 33, Alexander died
and his empire was divided among his Generals.
Now we move on to
the legs of iron portion of the prophecy:
Rome. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar
that the fourth kingdom would be as strong as iron and would crush and shatter
all that came before it. This is a good
description of the Roman Empire.
There are debates
as to the exact beginning of the Roman Empire.
This is due to the fact that the rise of Rome seems to be almost
accidental. Rome did not start out with
a conscience plan to conquer other nations and begin its own empire; it
actually started to expand through reactionary events. When it perceived a threat of any kind by an
outside force, Rome would rally the troops and march into battle. In the middle of the second century BCE Rome
squashed a threat from Macedonia and it became the first of the Greek provinces
divided after Alexander’s death to come under the rule of the Roman Empire.