The Prophecies of Daniel - Part 7
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the great statue ended with the statue being struck by a stone and completely crushed. Then the stone that struck the statue became a mountain that filled the whole earth.
“As you were looking, a stone was cut out without [human] hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together and became like the chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them could be found. And the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”—Daniel 2:34-35 (AMP)
Daniel interpreted it this way:
“In the days of those [final ten] kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will its sovereignty be left for another people; but it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever. Just as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has revealed to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”—Daniel 2:44-45 (AMP)
Cut Without Hands
Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar that the stone was cut without human hands. In other words, it came from God. God created it. It was not man-made.
When God came down on Mount Sinai to give His Ten Commandments to the children of Israel, he also gave them instructions about building altars to Him.
“And if you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your chisel on it, you will profane it.”—Exodus 20:25 (NASB)
God’s Kingdom is wholly His. It comes from Him. Nothing about God’s Kingdom is man-made. If we try to add to it or take away from it with our own ideas or traditions that do not come from God, then we have polluted it.
This was emphasized again to prepare Israel for their crossing over the Jordan River into the Promised Land.
“So it shall be when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I am commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime. Moreover, you shall build there an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones; you shall not wield an iron tool on them. You shall build the altar of the Lord your God of uncut stones, and you shall offer on it burnt offerings to the Lord your God; and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and eat there, and rejoice before the Lord your God. You shall write on the stones all the words of this Law very clearly.”—Deuteronomy 27:4–8 (NASB)
In the Days of the Ten Kings
The stone in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream strikes the image in its feet. Daniel recognizes that this indicates the timing of when this will take place. The feet represent the end-time empire of the Antichrist and the false church.
The toes represent ten kings. Daniel sees these ten kings again in his night vision of the four beasts in chapter 7. In Daniel’s night vision, these ten kings are represented by ten horns. In Revelation 13, the final ten kings are again represented by ten horns, but now these ten horns are seen on the Antichrist beast that rises up out of the sea.
“Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.”—Revelation 13:1 (AMP)
An angel explained to John what these ten horns represent:
“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”—Revelation 17:12-14 (NKJV)
So, since the stone strikes the *feet *of the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Daniel understands that this indicates the timing of this event. It means that the stone will strike the image in the last days of the final empire of man.
“In the days of those [final ten] kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will its sovereignty be left for another people; but it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever.”—Daniel 2:44 (AMP)
We can look ahead and see the fulfillment of this dream in Revelation 19:11-21 as the heavens open and Jesus Christ returns to earth as the conquering king. At that time, the rebellious empires of man are completely crushed by the fierce wrath of Almighty God.
Like the Chaff from the Summer Threshing Floors
Daniel gives us another key to the timing of this event as he describes this dream to Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel compares the crushed remains of the empires of man to “chaff from the summer threshing floors.”
“As you were looking, a stone was cut out without [human] hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together and became like the chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them could be found. And the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”—Daniel 2:34-35 (AMP)
The threshing floor is symbolic of the Great Tribulation period.
John the Baptist referred to this in his end-time prophecy about the Messiah:
“His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear out His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat (believers) into His barn (kingdom), but He will burn up the chaff (the unrepentant) with unquenchable fire.”—Matthew 3:12 (AMP)
This symbolism of the threshing floor and the chaff gives us another indication that this event of the stone crushing the empires of man will take place at the end of this age.
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