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Daniel’s First Vision (Daniel 2)

More than 2500 years ago, the personal, infinite, triune God of the Christian Bible inspired the Jewish prophet Daniel to foretell the future in a series of extraordinary visions. Although each vision foretold the same, basic pattern of future events, each one added new, additional insight as each new revelation unfolded. Moreover, this correlation of events among these biblical visions is important because it eliminates any reasonable doubt concerning the accuracy of our scriptural interpretation based upon the mathematical laws of probability. A chart portraying this harmony among the visions is located at the end of this chapter.

Daniel’s first vision — a vision actually seen by Nebuchadnezzar, but interpreted by Daniel — involves a huge, horrific-looking image shaped into an immense man-like form:

Daniel 2:31-48
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,

33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

36 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

38 And whosesoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thin hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.

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 subdued 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.

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 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 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 stipulates that the “head of gold” represents Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonian Empire. (Daniel 2:36-38). Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon represent each other in this vision because, during ancient times, a king and his kingdom were viewed as synonymous with each other. Likewise, history will readily confirm that the “arms of silver” represent the dual-nature of the Medo-Persian Empire, and that the belly of brass symbolizes the Grecian Empire of Alexander the Great. Then finally, the “legs of iron” represent the dual nature of the ancient Roman Empire that was divided into Eastern and Western halves during much of its history.

“The fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron.” This scriptural phrase simply indicates that the old Roman Empire was to be a very powerful and mighty world empire; it has nothing to do with the form of government employed by the Romans. For instance, there is no basis for the theory that iron in this biblical prophecy must represent centralized government. Instead, it means precisely what it actually says. Just as iron represents strength, so likewise did the Roman Empire possess incredible strength and durability as a very powerful governing force of longevity?

What do the ten toes of the symbolic image represent? The following passage provides the answer: “Whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter’s clay (the weak parts; Dan. 2:42), and part of iron (strong parts; Dan. 2:42), the kingdom (Roman Empire) shall be divided.” (Dan. 2:41).

Does not this passage reflect the actual outcome of events after the Roman Empire collapsed? Even a cursory glance at world history will show that the Roman Empire never fell before another world empire as did the other empires before it. Instead, it split into a number of kingdoms and political entities, which now form the modern-day countries of Europe and Asia Minor and northern Africa. Thus, Daniel’s prophetic prediction that the Roman kingdom would “be divided” into numerous parts (i.e., toes) was fulfilled precisely as foretold.

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