“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 and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45This 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.
“The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy.” For some people, history is no more than a monotonous succession of world powers—some lasting a few decades, some for a few centuries, but all finally tumbling and crumbling into defeat—and dust. But Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream demonstrates that there is more to history than this. He pointed out that a power beyond the control of human beings would put an end not only to the Roman Empire but to everything human beings have achieved and would replace it with a lasting order of things. This power is the rock that toppled the statue and became a huge mountain which filled the whole earth.
The days of the Roman Empire were the days in which the Christian church was being established. In those first centuries of the Christian era, the God of heaven set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed.
We see a partial fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy in the conquests that the gospel of Jesus Christ has made. The gospel, God’s power to rescue sinners, has made a victorious march down through the centuries, not through violence and bloodshed but by freeing consciences from the guilt and the power of sin. The four empires described in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream have long since crumbled into dust, but the church of believers gathered by the gospel of Christ will never be destroyed. Christ has promised that the gates of hell will not be able to overcome it (Matthew 16:18). This church, with its powerful message, has filled the entire world, destroying the power of evil and saving people for God’s heavenly family.
The complete and final fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy, however, lies in the more distant future. On the great judgment day, God will once and for all crush whoever and whatever opposes his gracious rule and will take his people into his presence, to rule over them forever. The apostle John saw this in a vision, which he describes for us in the very last book of the Bible. In Revelation 11:15, John tells how he heard loud voices announcing, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
Once again Daniel refused to take any credit for the message he had brought King Nebuchadnezzar. “The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future.” There was no hesitation, no fumbling on Daniel’s part. His closing words assured the king, “The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy.” Why? Because God himself was behind it.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. 47The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”
48Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men. 49Moreover, at Daniel’s request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court.
The king was impressed and recognized instantly that Daniel’s interpretation had been given to him by God. This powerful king also realized that he stood in the presence of a power far greater than his own. By falling prostrate before Daniel, he honored Daniel’s God. His words made clear that by offering incense and gifts to Daniel, he was not worshiping Daniel (something Daniel would not have permitted in the first place). “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings.” These words don’t make Nebuchadnezzar a believer. It is not unusual for a man who believes in the existence of many gods to admit the existence of still another. Here is the climax of the entire narrative: God actually led a powerful heathen king to give public testimony to the greatness of Israel’s God. Despite his noble-sounding words, however, Nebuchadnezzar did not submit in repentance and faith to the true God, and God later had to deal harshly with this proud king.
The king was a man of his word. He had promised gifts and great honor to any of his wise men who would tell him his dream, and now he kept that promise. He gave Daniel not one, but two high positions in government. First, “he made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon,” that province of the empire that included the capital city. In the second place, the king put Daniel in charge of all of Babylon’s wise men. This may well have been the more important of the two positions. In his new position Daniel would meet frequently with the king and his advisers and would be in a strategic position to advise the king and to influence royal decisions. The opening verse of this chapter informs us that this took place in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, apparently before Daniel’s three-year training program was finished. According to 1:18,19, however, Daniel’s appointment to the king’s service followed the completion of his training program. What probably happened is that already at this time the king designated the position Daniel was to occupy. The appointment may actually have taken effect after Daniel and his friends finished their training.
In addition, the king honored Daniel’s request to have Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego appointed administrators over the province of Babylon. We ought not think that Daniel was merely asking a special favor for some personal friends. Daniel knew that these three men had also received knowledge and understanding from God (1:17,19,20), and he wanted them in positions where their special talents could be put to full use. With his three friends to assist him in administering the affairs of the province, Daniel would be able to spend more time at the king’s court. This would guarantee not only that the religion of the true God would get a wider hearing, but also that Daniel would be in a key position to help the Jewish exiles.
It is interesting to recall that a thousand years earlier, at the beginning of Israel’s history as a nation, God had placed a believer in the royal court of Egypt. That man was young Joseph. Now once again, at a critical time in the history of his Old Testament people, God placed a young son of his in the royal court, this time of Babylon, at the nerve center of the most powerful kingdom in the world. Daniel remained there for the entire period of the Jewish exile, serving from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar in the 590s to the reign of Cyrus in the 530s.
The message that Daniel brought King Nebuchadnezzar is a message our world needs to hear. It emphasizes that every government and every power dependent on human strength or cleverness is doomed one day to be overthrown. This is a truth the Old Testament Israelites often lost sight of. When powerful nations invaded the promised land of Israel, destroyed her cities, and either killed or enslaved and deported her people, it might well have seemed that the people of God were doomed, along with their hope of the Messiah promised by God. Through Daniel’s interpretation God spoke, first of all, to reassure his people.
But Daniel’s interpretation of the king’s dream was intended also for heathen ears. (Remember that this chapter was written in Aramaic, the language spoken by the Babylonians.) Since their heathen priests and magicians could not tell them, God let them know that anyone who opposes him is headed for ruin—absolute and final.
God will have the last word in history, just as he had the first word at creation. God’s plans for the future are on record, and nobody has any excuse for not knowing them.