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Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
This is a big weekend in our world, isn’t it? The American government leadership will transition on Monday, and may I urge you to pause this weekend and pray for a successful and peaceful transition? Of course, the eyes of the world will be on the President inauguration on Monday, but as we all know literally THOUSANDS of leadership roles are transitioning and much of that needs to happen this weekend so when the Presidential inauguration is complete all aspects of government transition seamlessly.
Now pause for a few seconds my friends and consider how important it is, not only for 325 million Americans, but for the populations of all those nations who depend on the generosity of America for foreign aid, or economic trade with America, or military protection or help, or so many more things which America does to help our world, INCLUDING sending the GOSPEL of Jesus Christ to our world! Aren’t you grateful to God that He has blessed you and me with the privilege of being alive at this moment in history?
In view of the historic leadership transition happening in America, let’s join Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon 2600 years ago, as they discuss a dream the King has had in which God was giving both Daniel & Nebuchadnezzar a glimpse into and understanding of the future as God sees it, including our time in history! These brief words describe the dream which had stunned King Nebuchadnezzar: “Your Majesty looked and there before you stood a large statue – an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.” (Daniel 2:31-33)
In the past few days, we’ve sought to understand Daniel’s description of it all, except the feet, as seen from the vantage point of 2025 and the 2600 years of history since the day of this dream. If you missed any of it, I urge you to go back into our “WWJ” ‘archives. So now what era of history is described by the “feet partly of iron and partly of clay”?
What if I told you that the year 2025 is in the era Daniel described as the “feet partly of iron and partly of clay”!? That’s right my friends! You see, what we know as the Roman Empire is symbolized in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream by the legs of iron. The Romans achieved global dominance with the conquering of Egypt in 30bc and continued expanding until finally in 285ad the Roman empire had become so large it divided into an Eastern & Western Roman empire! The Eastern Roman empire’s capital was Constantinople and Rome was the capital of the Western Roman empire. Christianity spread rapidly throughout the entire Roman empire especially during the reign of Constantine who died in 337ad.
Daniel said to King Nebuchadnezzar: Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.” (Daniel 2:41-43)
If you know your world history, you are aware that the united majesty and power of the Roman empire slowly dissipated and dissolved over the next centuries as individual nations emerged, gaining independence from Roman rule all across the empire, from west to east. That process, in my view, is represented in part by what Daniel described as the feet of the great statue with these words: ‘its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.” (Daniel 2:33) Throughout those centuries, and even today, we can see strong lasting evidence of the Roman empire’s power, structure, organization, politics, economy and at the same time the autonomy and independence of individual people groups and countries both large and small. Over the centuries the borders and names and affiliations of those nations have changed many times in that part of the world.
In fact, I would be amazed if you or I could name with accuracy the majority of the current nations which occupy that region of the world which was the vast and powerful Roman Empire in about 350ad! However, many of those countries in our time are still interconnected, by geography and a wide range of relationships as seen in the EU, NATO and several other alliances political, economic and even military in nature. And that brings us to the final piece of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream!
Daniel said to King Nebuchadnezzar: “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)
What or WHO is this rock? What unseen hands cut it out and propelled it against the statue? What does the rock symbolize and with what power did the rock destroy the statue? When did that happen in human history? How did the rock grow to be a globally dominant mountain and what does that symbolize in our day?
Let’s remember the Bible is the story of our universe and the human race as told from God’s perspective, by Almighty God Himself. Biblical authors wrote the Bible as guided by the Holy Spirit of God. (2 Peter 1:20,21; 2 Timothy 3:14-17)
Nebuchadnezzar was given this dream by God for two primary purposes:
* First, so Nebuchadnezzar and all who heard Daniel’s interpretation would know the future of our world as God knows it.
* Second, so all humanity would understand that GOD and HIS purposes are the center and most important aspect of all history, all truth, for all time in all places!
Therefore, while for Nebuchadnezzar and most all humanity we look at world history through the lenses of powerful people, powerful nations, powerful events, God always demands center stage for Himself! And THAT my friends, explains WHO and WHAT the rock in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is, and tomorrow we’ll dig into that more deeply! For today, would you please pray for the events this weekend, and would you consider and worship with this wonderful song:
Today’s Scripture: Daniel 2:33, 41-43.
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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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