Daniel

01

Daniel

Chapter 2 (Continued)
30~~"But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me
for any wisdom that I have more than any other person,
{Daniel refuses God's glory - he is VERY spiritually mature}
but in order that the interpretation may be known to the king,
and that you might know the thoughts of your own 'right lobe'/heart."

{Note: Here Daniel shows his humility and has a Relaxed Mental Attitude (RMA) in this face to face meeting with the great and powerful king. His life is in the hands of God and he is just not going to worry about anything in this world.}

{Note: Here Daniel shows his humility and has a Relaxed Mental Attitude (RMA) in this face to face meeting with the great and powerful king. His life is in the hands of God and he is just not going to worry about anything in this world.}

{Verses 31-36: Daniel tells the King the Content of the Dream}
31a~~"You, O king, saw, and beheld a great image.

31b~~This great image . . . whose brightness was excellent
{brightness refers to color and excellent is the 'glamour' of the
empire represented by various metals of the image}
stood before you.

{Note: RBT says that people in nations on the rise have 'glamour' about them. Take a look at the dress of the Napoleonic Age. But after 1850 the nation declined and even the standard of dress declined. Great people dress like great people. People on the rise 'show it is some way'. Same with people on the decline.}

31c~~And the form thereof was 'so strong as to generate fear'/
awe-inspiring {d@chal (Chaldean)}.
{refers to great strength and power - terror inspiring}

{Note: This starts to explain the book of Daniel and Revelation also. Jesus Christ controls history. All history is somehow related to Jesus Christ, Israel, and the resolution of the angelic conflict.}

32a~~This image's head was of fine gold.
{Represents the Chaldean empire at its peak - see verse 38.}

32b~~His breast and his arms of silver.
{Refers to the empires of the Medes and Persians (and later just
the Persians) (see verse 39). They were brute strength empires
(strong arms) who ruled a few hundred years until their 'muscles
became weak'.}

32c~~His belly and His thighs of brass.

{Note: The belly was the Greco-Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great (see verse 39) - brass is a melding of a number of other metals - same with Alexander's great empire - and the two thighs of brass represent the split of his empire into the period of the Hellenistic monarchies that occurred after Alexander's death - his 17 generals split up his empire at his death and some grew to empires almost as large as Alexander himself had. After 50 years on fighting 2 survived in the east and 2 in the west. - one thigh is Syria (overtaken by the Romans and Latin became its language) and one is Macedonia (language - Konia Greek) (for 100 years the Konia Greek and Latin had exact equivalents - that was a gift from God to help interpret the New Testament)}.

33a~~His legs of iron.

{Note: Later, while the Greeks were busing their children to school on the other side of the town, the Roman Empire was training its children for warfare - they were 'iron' (see more at verse 40) iron is hard and can take a lot - there is no glamour in iron - the people of Rome originally ate turnips and drank water and goats milk - there were a people of tremendous self-discipline - by 146BC they had virtually conquered the known world; then power lust caused civil wars from 146 - 49 BC; 78 BC Pompeii, Caesar and Crassus jointly ruled the Roman Empire - and in 49 BC Julius Caesar took over.}

33b~~His feet part of iron.
{RBT says 'iron' ties the Revived Roman Empire of the Tribulation
back to the Roman Empire - see verse 41}

33c~~And . . . {his feet were} part of clay.

{Note: This refers to the future (or current) nations at the end of the Church Age - very degenerate nations - see verse 41 - these will be weaker nations dominated by the stronger nation headquartered in Rome - so if the USA is around still at the time of the Tribulation, it will be one of the clay nations.}

{Note: The top of the image is gold. It becomes progressively inferior as you move to the feet. This means that empires start great and retrogress. And, mankind itself thinks it progresses, but in actuality, mankind retrogresses. There have been no modern minds as great as Moses, Julius Caesar, Paul, Napoleon (excluding Jesus Christ Who was vastly superior in all ways to all other men). Mankind is getting 'methodically worse' and will be more degenerate in the Tribulation than in any time in human history. So the king's dream was of mankind and its empires from his until the last one in the Tribulation (before the perfect reign of Jesus Christ).}

{Prophecy of the 2nd Advent of Christ - The Rock}
34~~You saw that a 'Gigantic Rock' {Jesus Christ}
{'eben (Chaldean) - a stone so large it has never reduced in size}
was 'cut out without hands'/"part of the Father's Plan",
{idiom referring to God's plan - no human hands involved}
which smote the image
{2nd Advent of Christ - Jesus Christ will destroy the entire image
and bring an end to Satan's rule of the human race}
upon his feet that were of iron and clay
{if you break the feet - the image falls},
and brake them to pieces
{campaign referred to as 'Armageddon'}.

35a~~"Then {at the 2nd Advent}
was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold,
broken to pieces together,
and became like the chaff of the 'late summer' threshing floors.
{qayit (Chaldean) -means after the harvest' (there is a different
Chaldean word for early summer)}

{Note: The 'chaff' refers to the analogy of the 'Baptism of Fire' at the 2nd Advent. The chaff represents the unbelievers and at the end of the Tribulation all unbelievers are removed from the earth and only the wheat (believers) start the new civilization (and dispensation) called the Millennium when Jesus Christ will personally rule on the earth for one thousand years.}

35b~~And the wind carried them away,
{Divine Judgment at the 2nd Advent}
that no place was found for them.

{Note: Initially there will be no place for unbelievers in the Millennium. But, because of free will, the believers will have children who will NOT believe and there will be unbelievers born IN the Millennium. Principle: even in perfect environment under a Perfect Ruler, there will still be unbelief.}

35c~~And the 'Gigantic Rock'
{'eben (Chaldean) - referring again to Jesus Christ}
that smote the image
became a Great Mountain,
{the empire of Jesus Christ - over the whole earth}
and filled the whole earth {'ara` (Chaldean) - earth, world}.

36~~This is the dream.
And we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king."

{Note: The we here is Daniel speaking for himself and 'Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego' - as God instructed him to. Daniel is not into personal glory at all.}

{Verses 37-45: Daniel tells the King the Interpretation of the Dream}
37a~~"You, O king, are a king of kings.
{meaning Nebuchadnezzar was greater than the other kings}

37b~~For the 'Elahh/God of heaven has given you
{God is the source of the authority of Nebuchadnezzar}
a kingdom,
{all the organization of a kingdom and its administration}
power,
{great power in the vigor of the people - military and police power -
great military power marks a nation on the rise - you don't have to
like it, but no nation has EVER been great absent great military
power - that gives it the ability to defend its boarders, its laws,
its freedoms, its privacy}
and strength,
{Nebuchadnezzar personal ability to rule}
and glory.
{RBT says this means no empire ever exceeds without 'esprit de
corps' called 'glory' - next, most empires going up are 'winners' and
they look like winners and dress like winners - take a look at the
fashions of a nation- you can get a hint if it is going up or down}

38~~And where so ever the children of men dwell,
the animals/beasts of the field
and the fowls of the heaven
He has given into your hand . . .
and has made you ruler over them all.

You are this head of gold.

{Note: So the first part of the interpretation is the head of the image of verse 32. Now we know that it refers to the Chaldean Empire at its zenith under Nebuchadnezzar.}

39~~And after {you}
shall arise another kingdom inferior in comparison {to you}
{Persia under various kings such as:
Cyrus is mentioned in II Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:2-3; and
Isaiah 45 (in Isaiah we see Cyrus was a born again believer)
Darius I (522-486 BC) and his son Xerxes (Zurk-ceeze) (called
'Achashverowsh throughout Esther - which is a title 'king' not a
name) - his son is Artaxerxes mentioned in Nehemiah 2:1 He will
send Nehemiah to Jerusalem in this chapter and Ezra 7:1-8 -
these kings and others are represented by 'silver'}
and another third kingdom of brass
{Graeco-Macedonian empire under Alexander the Great}
which shall bear rule over all the earth."

{Note: When Alexander the Great died at 32 years old, his empire was divided under 4 spheres of influence under his 4 generals - Seleucus, Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus.}

40a~~And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron . . .
{the rise of the Roman Republic}
forasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things.
{this was the iron age and iron swords broke all other weapons -
this is the annihilation of the enemy}

40b~~And as iron that breaks all these,
it shall break in pieces and bruise.

{Note: Rome and Carthage became powerful in the West. Syria, Egypt and Macedonia were the powers in the East. These make the legs of iron that supplanted the thighs of brass. After many years of fighting, the Mediterranean became a Roman lake! The Romans will be up and down, but in control until 476 AD.}

{Note: Between Daniel 2 verses 40 and 41 we have 'The Great Parenthesis'. This is the Church Age. It was a mystery to the Old Testament Believers - the time of Judah's 5th cycle of discipline. This also occurs in Daniel 7 between verses 23 and 24; Daniel 9:26 in the middle of the verse; Daniel 11 between verses 35 and 36; Psalms 22 between verses 22 and 23; and Isaiah 61 between 1 and 2.}

{Verses 41-43: Prophecy of the Revived Roman Empire Tribulation}
41a~~And whereas you saw the feet and toes . . .
part of potters' clay, and part of iron . . .
the kingdom shall be divided.

{Note: What does it mean to be divided? RBT says it could be the ocean between the USA and Western Europe. If the rapture occurred today, the USA would be one of the clay nations under the control of the 'United Nations' - with ultimate authority in Rome.}

41b~~But there shall be in it of the strength of the iron . . .
forasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay.

{Note: Up to this point . . . for us, the book of Daniel has been historical. But we know from Paul's teaching that the Church Age was not known or taught in the Old Testament - it is part of the Mystery doctrine of the Church Age. So, now we jump to eschatology - future events. The 'feet of iron and clay ' will occur in the Tribulation and will be the 'Revived Roman Empire'.}

42~~And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron,
and partly of clay,
so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken.

43a~~And whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay,
they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men.
{the seed of men is mixing the 'United Nations' strength with the
ecumenical religion of the Revived Roman Empire}

43b~~But they shall not cleave one to another,
even as iron is not mixed with clay.

{Note: The toes indicate a ten-nation confederation will make up the Revived Roman Empire. Some (iron) will dominate the others (clay).}

{Note: The 'seed of men' directs our attention to the religious aspect of the final formation of the Revived Roman Empire.}

44a~~And in the days of these kings
{at the very end of the Tribulation}
the 'Elahh/God of heaven shall set up a kingdom,
which shall never be destroyed.
{referring to the Millennial Reign of Christ}

44b~~And the kingdom shall not be left to other people,
but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms,
and it {the kingdom ruled by Jesus Christ}
shall stand forever.

45~~Forasmuch as you saw that the 'Gigantic Rock'
was cut out of the mountain without hands,
and that it brake in pieces
the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold . . .
the great 'Elahh/God has made known to the king
what shall come to pass hereafter.

And the dream is certain,
and the interpretation thereof is absolute/certain."

{Verses 46-49: Response and Reaction of the King}
46~~Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face,
and worshipped Daniel,
{assumed Daniel was a god or a 'superman'}
and commanded that they should offer an oblation
and sweet odors unto him.
{commanded others worship Daniel also}

{Note: We know from verse 30 that Daniel already gave the credit to the Lord. We can assume he accepted the 'praise' without comment knowing this was the best way to advance the plan of God. As we will see, his only 'special request' of the king was for his companions - true grace orientation.}

47~~The king answered unto Daniel, and said,
"Of a truth . . . your 'Elahh/God
is a 'Elahh/God of 'Elahh/Gods,
{Jesus Christ is a God of gods}
and a King/Lord {mare' (Chaldean)}
of kings/royals {melek},
{Jesus Christ is also the King of Kings}
and a revealer of secrets,
seeing you could reveal this secret."

{Note: See also I Timothy 6:15 and surrounding for the identification of the King of Kings - Jesus Christ.}

48~~Then the king made Daniel a great man,
and gave him many great gifts,
and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon,
and chief of the governors over all the 'wise ones'/
'State department' of Babylon.

{Note: Daniel will request the king give the rulership to his three friends (in the next verse) and he sits on the supreme court.}

49~~Then Daniel requested of the king,
and he appoint Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
over the affairs of the province of Babylon
{high positions of authority}.

But Daniel sat in the 'gate of the king'
{similar to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court today}.