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Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Do you wonder what it is like in Washington DC this weekend, as an outgoing administration prepares to vacate the White House and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other American leaders are vacating their offices? Probably we’ve all had the experience of changing jobs or moving from one place to another, so we understand the emotions of packing up all our belongings and the flood of memories as we reflect on the season of time coming to an end.
Similarly, we’ve all had the experience of walking into a new job or moving into what for us is a new home. So, what are all incoming leaders doing this weekend as a new President and leadership team will assume their responsibilities on Monday?
Let’s rejoin the incredible, monumental experience happening in Babylon about 2600 years ago as a young, Jewish captive Daniel is explaining to the most powerful man in the world, King Nebuchadnezzar, the significance of the King’s dream.
This experience is recorded for us in Daniel 2. Already Daniel has explained that it had been by God’s plan that King Nebuchadnezzar was leading the most powerful kingdom in the world at that time, the Babylonian empire. For King Nebuchadnezzar I’m sure that was a staggering concept!
So, Daniel continued: “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze will rule over the whole earth.“ (Daniel 2:39) As we saw yesterday, the empire of the Medes & Persians defeated the Babylonian empire and ruled for about 200 years. While King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian empire were symbolized in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream by the head of solid GOLD, the Medo-Persian empire was symbolized by the chest and arms of SILVER. (Daniel 2:32)
As we know silver is very valuable, but less valuable than gold, and the Medo-Persian empire was large and powerful but not as globally significant or dominating as Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian empire. The Babylonian empire collapsed in 539bc as King Cyrus the Persian and his army conquered the city of Babylon.
After about 200 years of Medo-Persian empire global dominance there arose another famous man with world dominating ambitions by the name of Alexander the Great, remember him from your school days? He too, even though a young man, was determined to conquer and rule the world, which he did in 331bc. Only 8 years later, however, ambitious Alexander the Great died at the young age of 33, and his sole leadership of the Grecian empire was split among four generals who together ruled a united empire of four kingdoms for about 300 years.
So, the Babylonian Empire was symbolized in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream by the head of pure GOLD. The dual but united Medo-Persian empire was symbolized by the chest and arms of SILVER.
The Grecian empire was symbolized in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream by “its belly and thighs of bronze.” (Daniel 2:32) And as we know bronze or brass, while valuable, is less valuable than silver and much less valuable than gold.
From a global perspective while each of these empires were significant, their dominance of the world declined with each succeeding empire in part because the Babylonians had one supreme ruler over their entire empire, but the Mede & Persians had two great rulers sharing global power and the Greeks after Alexander the Great had four military generals sharing power.
Let’s be sure we remember that over all this human history, God reigned supreme and because God is eternal and all knowing, amazingly God was able to give Daniel an accurate understanding of this dream which traced the history of our world from 605bc, when Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian empire conquered the Assyrian empire, all the way to the end of the Grecian empire in 30bc when finally the ROMAN Empire rose to power.
Yes, my friends, Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar: “Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron – for iron breaks and smashes everything – and as iron breaks things to pieces, so this kingdom will crush and break all the others.” (Daniel 2:39,40) Oh my what a description of the powerful Roman empire which ruled the world with destructive dominance! As we know, it was in the early time of the Roman empire that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, lived His life in the Galilee and Judea region and was crucified on a Roman cross in Jerusalem.
As we saw a few weeks ago in considering the timing of Christmas, by God’s perfect plan the Gospel accounts of Jesus Christ (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were written in the Greek language, which had become the primary global language during the Grecian empire.
And with the magnificent road system built by the Romans, those Gospel scrolls, along with the letters of the Apostle Paul, several of which were written from a Roman prison, were taken from one end of the Roman empire to the other fairly quickly in the first century Roman empire.
Pause a few seconds and consider all this my friends. NOTHING that happens in our world, at any time, in any place, is either unknown or a surprise to Almighty, Holy, Sovereign God!
As Daniel was explaining all this to King Nebuchadnezzar no one in that Babylonian throne room about 602bc, in the great city of Babylon, could possibly imagine what God was describing! Through Daniel, God was describing the future of planet earth and the human race!! God was looking forward over the forthcoming centuries, not only to the coming of several global human kingdoms, but God was also looking to the time the Son of God, Jesus, would come to our world!
Oh, but there is much more isn’t there my friends, for that first Christmas was 2000 years ago and so Nebuchadnezzara’s dream did not end with the arrival of Jesus, oh no! Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream pointed much further forward, even to our generation, our time, and even our year of 2025 as our world prepares for a major change in global power in the inauguration of a new leadership team in Washington DC next week! And tomorrow we’ll keep going in our discovery journey as we probe even deeper into this great dream of King Nebuchadnezzar.
For today, may I urge you to again thank God for His sovereignty over all and His complete understanding of your entire life story and that of your ancestors, and also your future and the future of our world?
Here’s another great worship song to help us praise God who holds time in His hands! When we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the majesty and grand plan of God in sending Jesus into our world at just the right time, I find this song draws me to my knees in worship!
Today’s Scripture: Daniel 2:39, 40.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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