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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends, on this historic day for our world.
Today, as I’m sure you know, a new American President will be inaugurated in Washington DC. If you’ve been watching world news, the flurry of political activity in Washington and the capital cities of many nations around the world, has been a near frenzy in recent weeks. So many parts of our world are in great turmoil, uncertainty or even war, and so much of our world depends on America for economic or military support, in some cases even survival.
It is times like these which call our world to look UP, look to Almighty God who is Sovereign over all. Sadly very, very few global leaders are looking to God for guidance. In recent days we’ve been looking at what God was saying 2600 years ago to our world through His prophet Daniel. It’s amazingly relevant to our day, so let’s return there to hear Daniel’s conclusion regarding King Nebuchadnezzar’s prophetic dream found in Daniel 2.
Rather than spend any time in review, I’m going to jump right in continuing where we left off yesterday. If you’ve missed any of the past several days, I urge you to go back in the archives tab and review what we’ve seen in Daniel 2.
Today, let’s focus on Daniel’s explanation of the ROCK in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Daniel said to King Nebuchadnezar: “While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:34,35)
The fact that the rock struck the statue in the FEET is very significant. Remember that each distinctive part of the statue represented a different ERA of time in human history, and also a different GLOBAL dominating Empire. The feet with ten toes, comprised of a mixture of iron and clay, represent many diverse but connected nations which grew out of the former Roman Empire. Geographically, you’ll remember the Roman Empire covered much of what is today, Europe, Central Asia and North Africa!
On the historical timeline, the toes represent the past several centuries, to the present, including OUR time today, and yes, forward into our future! Yes, 2025 and the Presidential inauguration happening today is represented by those feet and 10 toes! Does that send a shiver up your spine, my friends? In 602bc when Daniel was explaining this vision to King Nebuchadnezzar, God was looking forward to the year 2025 and BEYOND!
Now what about the ROCK? Well, my friends please remember, as I pointed out yesterday, the Bible is God’s message to the human race viewed from God’s perspective on history past, present and future. God and HIS purposes and plans are always center stage in the Bible! Therefore, I believe strongly that the ROCK in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream represents none other than Jesus Christ, God incarnate!
The rock in the dream was cut out by an unseen hand and thrust to earth to strike the statue. That unseen hand is Almighty, Eternal, Sovereign God the Father. Now watch this carefully my friends: God the Father FIRST sent God the Son, Jesus, to earth in His incarnation and we celebrate that at Christmas, don’t we? Jesus came that FIRST time to proclaim God’s truth to humanity and become the Savior who came from heaven to earth and can redeem any person in the world from their sin bondage and sin condemnation.
Regardless of the power of any president, monarch, dictator or king, the power of Satan and the kingdom of darkness and sin is the much greater, suffocating, destructive power enslaving humanity and condemning humanity to eternity in hell! Jesus Christ, God the Son, is the ONLY supreme power able to defeat the kingdom of darkness and rescue humanity! (Colossians 1:13-20) Jesus is Savior of the world because of His sinless life, His atonement death and His victorious resurrection, as you well know! (John 14:6)
As the rock in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream grew to cover the whole earth, so the Gospel of Jesus Christ… the powerful truth of humanity’s deliverance by the grace of Almighty God, through faith in Jesus Christ alone, has now spread from Jerusalem to the entire world and is delivering from suffocating, damning sin bondage/condemnation, almost 100,000 people EVERYDAY! Do I hear a victorious shout from you, my friends?
But there’s more! This Rock, Jesus Christ, who after His resurrection returned to His glory in heaven and is right now at the right hand of the Father (Acts 1:9-11; Hebrews 1:3,4; 7:25) will one day in the future return to this earth again as triumphant victor, destroying all enemies of God and establishing His globally dominant kingdom for 1000 years. He will reign over His millennial kingdom from Jerusalem in perfection, full and supreme authority! He will crush any and all human political kingdoms and military might and that is symbolized by the rock crushing the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
Several Scriptures describe this great second advent of King Jesus and His reign over His kingdom here on earth. (Zechariah 9:9,10; 12:3; 134:3,4,9; Rev. 19:11-16; 20:1-6) Oh my, isn’t that glorious and wonderful truth celebrating the power and supremacy of Jesus Christ, God the Son?
Daniel described this to King Nebuchadnezzar with these words: “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 [represented by Nebuchadnezzar’s statue] and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands – a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.” (Daniel 2:44,45)
Now my friends, as awesome as this is, there is yet more I want to share with you about this ROCK and its significance for our world today and I’ll do so when we gather back together tomorrow. For today, thank God for the supremacy of Jesus Christ and that both today and the future are all in His hands under the Sovereignty of God! Is there anything you are worried about in your future? Here’s another great worship song to help us celebrate all this, and I’ll meet you right back here again tomorrow…
Today’s Scripture: Daniel 2:44,45.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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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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