The metal-and-mud man statue of Daniel 2

"The Prophecies of Daniel are all of them related to one another, as if they were but several parts of one general Prophecy, given at several times. The first is the easiest to be understood, and every following Prophecy adds something new to the former" Isaac Newton, Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John, chapter III.

"Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." (2:31-35)

"Now in this vision of the Image composed of four Metals, the foundation of all Daniel's Prophecies is laid. It represents a body of four great nations, which should reign over the earth successively, viz. the people of Babylonia, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. And by a stone cut out without hands, which fell upon the feet of the Image, and brake all the four Metals to pieces, and became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth; it further represents that a new kingdom should arise, after the four, and conquer all those nations, and grow very great, and last to the end of all ages." 

Isaac Newton, Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John, chapter III.

Isaac Newton is right as to the identification of the various parts of various metals of the metal-and-mud man statue of Daniel 2:

• Head of Gold - Neo-Babylonian Empire
• Breast and arms of silver - Medo-Persian Empire
• Belly and thighs of brass or bronze - Greco-Macedoninan Empire
• Legs of iron - Roman Empire

THE THREE KINGDOMS

 

The empires follow a sequence.  We have first Nebuchanezzar II, the king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.  He is the head of gold. 

 

 "Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold." (2:37-38)

 

 

 There must be a reason why the King Nebuchadnezzar II is pointed as being "this head of gold" whereas the silver, the brass and the iron are described as kingdom.We read in George Rawlinson, The Seven Great Monarchies, Vol. II, p. 242 : "It is scarcely too much to say that, but for Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians would have had no place in history." 

 

 

 He is followed by the breast and arms of silver.  The second empire is described in those terms: "and after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee" (2:39 KJV).  That second, inferior kingdom is not identified in Daniel's interpretation.  So far, the king only needs to know that his kingdom will not last forever and there is another one, a second and inferior kingdom will replace it on the world's stage.  And then there will be a third kingdom.  And then there will be a fourth kingdom.  There is no earthly kingdom that will last forever.

The prophet passed very briefly on the second and third empire.  He said: "And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth."  The point to ponder on the second kingdom is that it is inferior to the Neo-Babylonia of Nebuchadnezzar II.  It must have been strange for the king of Babylon to hear that his mighty kingdom will be defeated by an inferior kingdom.  This could mean that the current strength of his kingdom will diminish and faded away in the coming years, under the reign of other Babylonian kings.  It could also mean over trusting one's strength to the point that an inferior kingdom will be able to break itself in through some weak unsuspected spots.  Should I be in the place of Nebuchadnezzar II, I would want to know the identity of that kingdom but there was an element of pride.  He was overwhelmed by the dream and its interpretation but he was still unconverted, unwilling to submit to the authority of God.  The one description about the third kingdom is that it "shall bear rule over all the earth".   Yet there is a fourth kingdom, which "shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise" (2:40).  This so-destructive kingdom, made of iron and being strong as iron comes out of the third kingdom through the latter had dominion over the whole world. The grasp to earthly power is temporary.  The mighty Neo-Babylonia, the queen of nations could not prevent a lesser kingdom to come to the world stage.  The third kingdom which bear rule over all the earth could not prevent a fourth, destructive power to rise.

 

The first kingdom is that ruled by Nebuchadnezzar.  He did not asked the prophet about the second kingdom.  In Daniel 1, we have Nebuchadnezzar come and destroy Solomon's temple and Jerusalem in verses 1-3.  He brought captives to his city.  He also brought the sacred vessels from the house of God to "the treasure house of his god" (1:2). At the end of the first chapter, we read that Daniel served in Nebuchadnezzar's palace "even unto the first year of king Cyrus" (1:21)  This mean that the book of Daniel was written during the reign of Cyrus, the Persian king. This also mean that the next empire following Babylonia was the Persian empire or more specifically Medo-Persia.  

  

This is further noted in Daniel 5 where the last king of Babylon, Belshazzar decided on the last night of Babylon to use the sacred vessels that Nebuchadnezzar has brought from Jerusalem in a great feast.  Remember the book of Daniel started with those sacred vessels.  The text reiterates this: "they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them" (5:2).  Then "they drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone" (5:4).  In verses 1, thte king "drank wine" before the thousand, in verse 2 "he tasted the wine," commanded the sacred vessels in that they "might drink therein", in vese 3, they "drank in them," that is the sacred vessels, in verse 4, "they drank wine" before praising the gods made up of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, stone.  The emphasis is on drinking, drinking wine, drinking in the sacred vessels as being as being key element behind a religious act which was religion in form only, mostly an abuse of religion, in reality it was an abomination. The sequence of materials into which the gods were made is not coincidence. 

"In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.  Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another." (5:5-6)  Within an hour, the fearless king became helpless and fear took hold of his soul and he lost control over his body.  The writings were on the wall but no one could read it.  If on one could read it, no one would understand it and interpret it.  In spite of all this, everybody knew it spell doom.  It was a living sword on the head of the Babylonian's king and host. 

Daniel was brought in and he made this declaration: 

"O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour:

^"And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down.

^""But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:

^"And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.

^"And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;

^" But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified" (5:18-23).

In Daniel, everything is connected, including the prophecies and the historical parts.  Here Daniel makes one thing clear, the pagan kings were accountable to God.  God is not the God of the Hebrews only.  He is not the God of the Christians only.  He is God of everybody, of every nations.  Belshazzar knowing wthat happened to Nebuchadnezzar should have submitted himself to God but he did not.  On the contrary, he made a proud stand against him.  He lifted up himself against the Lord of heaven and he along with his wives and concubines, they drunk wine in the sacred vessels and they praised "the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone" (5:23).

There is a subtle change in the list of materials into which the gods were made. In verse 4, it was "the gods of gold, and of silver [...]" in verse 23 it is "the gods of silver, and gold"  Silver has taken the first place, gold is now second to silver.  

Next the writings on the walls.  

 "And this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.

^"This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.

^"Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.

^" Peres; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." (5:25-28)

 

 " In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.

"And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old." (5:30-31)

The kingdom following Neo-Babaylonia is none other that Medo-Persia on account of Daniel 5:28 in direct fulillment of the vision of Daniel 2.  In Daniel 6, we find that Darius the Median was
under "the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not" (verse 8, see also 6:15). 

The book of Daniel do identify for us the third kingdom which is to follow Medo-Persia. In Daniel 7, the same sequence of empires are found under the symbols of hybrid beasts namely a winged lion, a lopsided bear, a leopard with 4 wings and a non-descript beast with its ten horn and little horn coming out of the ten horns. This is a parallel vision covering the same flow of nations with Babylon and Medo-Persia being portrayed by a lion and a lopsided bear.  The third kingdom of bronze is thereby portrayed under the symbol of a leopard with four heads and four wings.  Like in Daniel 2, the kingdoms are only described not identified.  

"shall bear rule over all the earth" (2:39)

"like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it." (7:6)

Now we turn to Daniel 8 where the prophet saw a ram and an he-goat representing the second and third kingdom respectively.  

Concerning the ram, we read: 

" I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great." (8:4) "The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia." (8:20) The ram is Medo-Persia, the second empire. 

Now let's read concerning the he-goat: 

"And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.  And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power.  And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.  Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven." (8:5-8)  This is definitely the third power.  "And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king." (8:21).  So the third power is Geo-Macedonian Empire under the rule of Alexander the Great, its first king.  

The third empire or the Greece-Macedonian empire shall bear rule over all the earth in Daniel 2, have dominion given to it in Daniel 7 and in Daniel 8 he came from the west on the face of the whole earth. In Daniel 7, it had 4 wings which is further explained in Daniel 8 where the he-goat "touched not the ground," referring to speed of conquest.  The four heads of Daniel 7 is explained as "four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven."

THE FOURTH EMPIRE

The fourth empire came much after the time of the prophet Daniel.  Hence it is not identified in the book of Daniel.  However clearly it is a powerful kingdom that will come after the Greco-Macedonian Empire. It is none other than Rome.    

"And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise." (2:40)

 

 THE MIXED CONTINUUM

 

Following thte 4th empire, we have the feet and toes, "part of iron and part of clay" (:33) which we can called here a mixed continuum.  It is basically a forced mixture in the midst of division.  The feet, the toes, the iron part of which it is made up, continues in a most natural manner the fourth or Roman Empire. It is also mud or potter's clay which is NOT a metal, hence not related to the sequence of Empires.  This part is related to the coming stone which is NOT part of the statue.  The mixed continuum bridge a expanding period from the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD to the "blessed hope," the second advent of Jesus Christ.    It is naturally Roman.  It is also connected to the coming stone.  

 

There is only one power which bridge the span between the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD to now and to the coming of the stone, which is definitely Roman and which is also  potter's clay.  This is Papal Rome, the Papacy or Roman Catholic Church.  It reigned alongside the history of the divided Western Roman Empire or Rome properly speaking, the toes.

Nebuchadnezzar II was unwilling to abide by the sure word of prophecy and in Daniel 3, he made a statue.  In his dream, the head only was made of gold, meaning that his kingdom is only temporal and will be replaced by another one, the silver kingdom.  However he made a statue, gold from head to toes and order the people invited to its dedication to worship it.  So many time throughout history we see people going against the sure word of prophecy, thinking they know better and it only caused needless suffering, persecution and miseries on earth.  Wars and various schemes went unabated throughout the history delineated by the height of the statue to prove its' message wrong but in spite of everything done till this very day met with utter failure.