THE METALLIC IMAGE OF DANIEL 2 31 43

THE METALLIC IMAGE OF DANIEL 2: -31 -43 THE RETURN OF BABYLON

31. 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. 32. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, (KJV: Daniel 2: 31 - 32)

Daniel 2: 39 – 43 39. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. 40. 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. 41. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. 42. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. 43. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. (KJV: Daniel 2: 39 - 43)

First, let’s carefully examine the Daniel 2 account of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. During the night the Babylonian king saw a large image of a man, which consisted of various grades of metal, beginning with gold at the head and concluding with a mix of iron and clay feet with ten toes (Dan. 2: 31– 35). The image had: • A head of gold • A chest and two arms of silver • Thighs made of brass • Two legs of iron • Two feet that were a mixture of iron and clay • Ten toes that were a mixture of iron and clay.

THE METALLIC IMAGE IN DANIEL 2 Nebuchadnezzar’s vision is a mix of both world history and spiritual history and moves from gold to iron and clay. This image with its metals represented the major empires of prophecy that would begin in Daniel’s day with Babylon and conclude with a ten-king coalition that would be ruling the world at the return of the Messiah.

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In contemporary times the iron and the clay also became visible through Communism and democracy. In fact, Communism was known as “the Iron Curtain. ” With the decline of… Russia, in so many nations today we can now see the iron of Islam clashing with the clay of democracy. And as the toes of the feet or partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. —DANIEL 2: 42– 43

Their common vision was to defeat Israel and remove the Jews from Palestinian lands. This new iron was the fanatical branch of the Islamic religion, which preached a call to jihad (a holy war for the Islamic cause). These radicals wanted to unite Islam and strategically defeat Israel and her Western allies.

However, the iron and the clay are not mingling well. Islamic militants and strict followers of Islamic law will not permit liberal democratic ideas to mingle with the strict observance of Islamic law and tradition. Women in democratic nations often expose their bodies in an immodest fashion, something again forbidden in a strict Islamic culture.

Or the ten kings may actually be a combination of Islamic nations (some listed above) that will form a ten-nation coalition and give their Islamic nations over to the Antichrist to form one unit of ten kings. The ten toes are ten future kings. It appears that five will emerge from the West and five from the East, since the two legs and two feet identify the East and West. Scholars have long debated the… identity of the 10 Kings the 10 toes represent. They are certainly a coalition of endtime-Nations prior to the return of Christ.

Read Daniel 2: 44 -46 44. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 45. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. (KJV: Daniel 2: 44 - 45)