A Great Image
The clearest explanation of the coming Kingdom of God comes from the
Book of Daniel, especially in chapters two and seven. In chapter two,
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has a dream of a great and frightening
image with a head of gold, a chest and arms of silver, a core and thighs of
bronze, legs of iron, and feet made of a mixture of iron and clay (vv. 31–33).
All of the components of the statue are broken into pieces when a stone, not
cut by a human hand, struck the feet of iron and clay. The pieces of the statue
were blown away and the stone became a great mountain that filled the entire
earth (vv. 34–35). Daniel prophetically interpreted the dream, telling
Nebuchadnezzar that he, and by extension Babylon, was represented by the head
of gold (v. 38). After Babylon, a lesser silver-kingdom was to arise (v. 39),
Medo-Persia. This would be followed by the bronze kingdom (v. 39) of the Greek
empire, and the iron kingdom (v. 40) of Rome. The feet of iron and clay is said
to be a divided kingdom, partly strong and partly brittle (vv. 41–42). The feet
are made from something like Rome, or her remains, plus other peoples. The feet
are not said to be a distinct kingdom, and so we could consider them to
represent Rome 2.0. This reconstructed kingdom will have ten toes, symbolizing
kings (vv. 42–43; cf. Dan 7:24; Rev 17:12).
This brings us to the key passage of the chapter. Daniel 2:44–45:
And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom
that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people.
It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it
shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no
human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the
silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be
after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
This divulges everything we need to know about when God’s kingdom can
be established. It can only come about during the days when ten kings rule over
the final iteration of man’s dominion (v. 44). This is a yet future scenario.
God’s kingdom will destroy and then supplant the kingdom of man. The idea is
one of immediate replacement, not one of an overlap for thousands of years. The
picture is of a stone striking the final human kingdom, instantly reducing the
image to pieces to be blown away like chaff, leaving no trace of them (v. 45;
cf. Dan 2:35). The mountain that the stone was cut from likely represents God
(cf. Deut 32:18). A stone was used several times to symbolize the Messiah Jesus
(Ps 118:22; Isa 8:14; 28:16; Zech 3:9; Rom 9:33; 1 Pet 2:6–8). The stone here
would, then, seem to represent God’s kingdom and her King Messiah, just as the
head of gold represented Babylon and her king (cf. v. 38). The stone growing
into a mountain and filling the entire earth was used to picture the total
dominance of God’s kingdom (v. 35). This mountain may be connected to the great
mountain of Jerusalem, from where the Messiah will reign (cf. Isa 2:2–4).
Regardless, the kingdom it portrays will never be destroyed (v. 44), just as
was promised in the Davidic Covenant (2 Sam 7:16).
Underscoring the replacement of man’s kingdom with God’s is how Daniel
speaks of Nebuchadnezzar in verses 37–38:
You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given
the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he
has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field,
and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of
gold.
king but held authority over other kings (v. 37). The LORD personally
called Nebuchadnezzar a king of kings (Ezek 26:7). He was given dominion over
all the nations and animals in that part of the world (v. 38; cf. Jer 27:6– 7,
14). In this respect, Nebuchadnezzar serves as a kingdom of man counterpart to
Jesus’ office in God’s kingdom. Jesus will reign as the true King of kings (1
Tim 6:15; Rev 17:14; 19:16), over not just part of the earth, but all of it
(Zech 14:9). God gave Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom, power, and glory (v. 37). In
teaching on how to pray, Jesus included the fact that God has his own kingdom,
power, and glory (Matt 6:13). Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon were visible and
earthly powers, just as the empires that followed. When the great image is
destroyed and replaced with the great mountain, the Messiah and his kingdom
will be all the more visible and earthly. (Matthew Bryce Ervin, One Thousand
Years with Jesus: The Coming Messianic Kingdom [Eugene, Oreg.: Resource
Publications, 2017], 22-24)
