The Four Kingdoms of Daniel 2

All right, good morning. Mr.. Ward. You mind open us up with a word of prayer. All right. Daniel. Chapter 2 I'm gonna start and read in verse 36 and read to the end of the chapter and then my plan is we'll walk through the text real quick so that I can try to get through the chapter today and then.

Daniel 2 and the Four Kingdoms

We'll.

Talk about some historical things and how God used it to develop things. I read into history. This was the dream. Now We will tell its interpretation before the king. You o king are the king of kings to whom the God of heaven has given the Kingdom the power and the strength and the glory and wherever the sons of men dwell or the beast of the field or the birds.

Of the sky.

He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them, and you are the head of gold. After you will rise another kingdom inferior to you and another third kingdom of bronze. Which will rule over all the earth.

And then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron and then so much as iron Crushes and shatters all things so like iron that breaks into pieces. It will crush and break all these into pieces. And then That you saw the feet and toes.

Well, they were partly of potter's clay and partly of iron. It will be a divided kingdom. But it will have in it the toughness of iron and so much as you saw the iron Mixed with common clay and as the toes and the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery.

So some of the kingdom will be strong and other parts of it will be brittle and That you saw the iron mixed with common clay. They will combine with one another and In the seat with the seat of men. But they will not adhere to one another even as iron does not combine with pottery.

And in the days of those kings the God of Heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and that kingdom will not be left for another people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms.

But in as itself shall endure forever and in so much as you have saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands that it will crush the iron and a bronze and the clay and the silver and the gold and The great God this great God has made known to you King what will take place in the future.

So the dream is true and it's interpretation Trustworthy then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and he paid homage to Daniel and he gave orders to present him an offering in the fragrant and of incense and the king answered Daniel and said surely Your God is now the God of gods and the Lord of kings and the revealer of mysteries since you have been able to reveal the mystery.

Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts and he made him ruler over the providence of Babylon and the chief priest and all the wise men of Babylon and Daniel made a request to the king.

And he that he would appoint Shadrach Meshach and Abednego over the administrations of the providence of Babylon. While Daniel was in the king's court, so last week we begin to see that Daniel was going to enter he he won basically won the approach of or the The heart of King Nebuchadnezzar by telling him the dream and he looked over to Ariok and wouldn't remember what he said.

They're yuck. He said look area. We're not gonna have to whack this guy. I thought I was gonna have to kill this guy any minute because he was not going to be able to tell me the dream. Now he has told me the dream.

So then he knew at that point he had won over the heart per se of Nebuchadnezzar that Nebuchadnezzar was now going to listen to him as he gave the interpretation now. The first one was the head of gold and he looked at Nebuchadnezzar and said you're the man.

And I can imagine Nebuchadnezzar going. Look at me. I am the man and Then he goes on and he talks about the Medo-Persian Empire that will rise. He doesn't say Medo-Persian. But he says the only one that will come up after you it'll be inferior to you.

And I think that is what he heard. Hey, there's gonna be someone that's going to come after you but he won't be as good as you and Then he he talks about a third kingdom. Hey does ask last week. Did anybody have any headings in their Bible that as a description of the of the kingdoms?

I just want you to know that even in the New American Standard where it has the descriptions. They don't even tell you the third kingdom. That's how. Sometimes confusing Bible interpreters still are at odds with one another of who these kingdoms are.

It's like after all of these years and all the commentaries at least some of them would be settled. This one goes from the Medo-Persian to Rome so you have a third kingdom that will that will be bronze and it will rule over the whole earth and then it says in verse 40 there will be a Fourth kingdom it will be strong as iron and so much as it crushes and shatters all things.

So he says hey, there's going to be a fourth kingdom. That's going to come and it's going to be strong. It's going to be stronger than the others and remember as we're going through this. We got some fancy.

Can y 'all see that. Well, there's a second one.

Medo-Persian.

Come over here. So Babylon was gold, right. Right. Yeah. What was this? What was this one? Just having y 'all say it to make sure y 'all paying attention not falling back asleep. So he says Nebuchadnezzar is the man.

He is the head. Why did he say he was the the head of all things? You remember why was he going to be supreme in his in his kingdom? Anybody remember? Unchecked unfettered monarchy hey under the Babylonian Empire.

The Kings were absolutely unchecked by anyone or anybody. Whatever. He said absolute truth. Remember I said you didn't get fired in the Babylonian Empire you got killed if you were a Soothsayer a diviner and you didn't do what he wanted you to do.

What did he say he would do to you? He would chop you up in pieces and make your house as a pile of dung. You did not get fired. You got killed. Under the Medo-Persian Empire you would come along and that King would be great.

But he would be bound by the laws of the Medes and the Persians. So he would he could say something. But he could not be able to overturn it once he said it because there was and this is an easier way to understand.

It was somewhat of a constitutional law that bound the king. Well, then you come along to the Greeks. I Think this is kind of where we left out the other day. You come along to the Greeks and as strong as they were and as vast as the Empire was it was unstable as water and we'll talk about that in a minute and.

Then when you get to Rome hard as a rock. What was that? Why did we say not only because of here but anybody understand? Why would they say that was the iron heel of Rome? Cuz Rome what good? Well, no, they use.

Which certainly but when hey you had an insurrection that came up? What did Rome go in there and do they stomped it out with their foot? They didn't go in there try to make peace. The only ones that I can remember in history that they tried to make peace with were the Jews everybody else.

They went out there and they crushed him. Look Rome would march across lands. Crush it burn it to the ground and then go look at the piece of Rome. That's not peace. That's absolute destruction and that's what they did now.

We'll talk about how they had great time of peace and all that when we get there in a minute. So these are the these are the kingdoms. But when you get to the one with Rome you have one that comes after that which is a stone that's cut without hands.

And it's gonna come it's gonna come from a mountain. It's gonna be a little itty bitty stone and what it does is it comes and it hits this huge Colossus made of these four things like a bowling ball and just shatters it.

So as he gives Nebuchadnezzar this interpretation Nebuchadnezzar still he still ain't got it. He still hasn't got it that everything that is coming from you and everything Afterwards is going to be shattered with a stone that that's not cut without.

I'm it's cut without hands and comes from somewhere. Look every one of these was built by what? Human beings. Yeah now don't get me wrong. It's God that raised those people up and he dropped but from Nebuchadnezzar's perspective.

Look, these these kingdoms are raised up by men and we'll even see that in chapter 4. What does Nebuchadnezzar do walking on the top of this palace? He doesn't say look what God's given me. What does he say?

He said look at me. Once again, he's the man so It gets to where it says that in verse. Verse 45 in some message you saw that stone just cut without hands. Coming from that mountain to crush the iron the clay the silver the gold and the great God made known that to the king.

What will take future he is laying he say look I just let you God just revealed to you. What was going to take place in the future in the future? Everything everything that would take place up into the coming of Messiah Messiah's kingdom.

He made known in this one dream to Nebuchadnezzar. I didn't make it known explicitly now some 60 years later in chapter 7 Daniel's gonna have a vision or a dream and that dream is going to basically give him an exposition of each one of these that's why There are commentators and preachers to say you should not use chapter 7 to interpret chapter 2 and I'm saying you're absolutely wrong because they are Connected now one was given to a pagan king.

One was given to a godly man with better information. But understand at this point God is dealing directly with Nebuchadnezzar. And as he's dealing directly with Nebuchadnezzar, this is not caused Nebuchadnezzar to understand his Inferiority to to God.

So it says right here. And he he said that the great God had made known to the king what will take place in the future. So the dream was true and it's interpretation trustworthy and verse 46 the Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and Daniel reached over and he dimmed the lights.

He had the musicians start playing softly and Nebuchadnezzar came forward. He signed the card. He prayed the prayer.

No.

Nebuchadnezzar the most powerful man in the planet at that time. Fell on his face before a hate exiled Jew. Does that not seem odd to y 'all? He bowed down and worshiped Daniel. He should have bowed down and worshiped God.

He what did he tell him it's God that raises up kings and kingdoms not Daniel. He says look there's nothing in me. God just gave me this information. All I'm doing is relaying it to you. And I there's no doubt in my mind at this point that Daniel was going man.

This is weird. This is weird. He says he present him with offerings and a fragrant of incense now doesn't say here that Daniel accepted those things as an offering or a sacrifice to those pagan. It doesn't say we don't know.

I can certainly say this. Daniel probably was pretty uncomfortable at this point. I mean here it is some 18 year old young man and his most powerful man on all the planets bowing down on his face before him.

He says the king answered Daniel said surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and he is a real Revealer of mysteries. Is that true? Is that true? Yes, but that doesn't mean you'd never could have was converted at this moment.

He's just saying hey, you're God's the God of gods. Your God was able to do what Marduk and Nebo and all these other Babylonian pagan gods could not do and what was that reveal mysteries? It says then the king promoted Daniel.

He gave him many great gifts and he made him Ruler over the whole providence of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. So here it is. At this point Daniel, like I said being probably 18 years of old probably become second maybe third in command in Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon for some 43 years. This is how close Daniel was To back to Nebuchadnezzar the years of his life and this will play into who took over. I know it's somewhat conjecture when we get to chapter 4 when he loses his mind.

But who runs the kingdom you wonder? When he for seven times and times and times and times and times and times loses his mind and he's eating grass and He's growing crazy toenails and all it most likely Daniel and it's because I believe that at this point.

Like I said, I think it was last week that Daniel begin to have a love for Nebuchadnezzar. Why? Because one he knew that God had revealed Stuff to Dan to Nebuchadnezzar that now he was going to be held accountable.

Look the more information, you know about God the more accountable you are. That's why I said last week. This is strike one for Nebuchadnezzar. Next chapter will be strike two chapter four lights out.

Lights out. So he made him chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon said also makes Daniel the the president of the Enchanters the wise men all that whole people that he was going to have killed that makes him basically the president of that group and Then Daniel makes a request to the king.

Hey, would you do me a favor? Would you take Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and make them over? Administrators over the province of Babylon. He did not forget the very ones that helped him pray to God.

That he would have compassion on his people. He said hey it wasn't me these guys to pray and the God that reveals these mysteries have now given it to me and Daniel did not forget his friends and understand what hey here remember this and we'll back up and we get there next week.

Because of the image they're administrators Over the land. They're basically doing the King's bidding doing his orchestrating his policies In in the land and that plays huge into what's going to happen next week when he they bow down to.

The golden image of which I believe is Nebuchadnezzar. Okay, so.

The Babylonian Empire as the Head of Gold

Now.

We're going to see.

These are instrumental in Redemptive history not just because God said so okay here, but you know what? You had Nebuchadnezzar first king. Actually, his dad was but it says at this point. He is saying he's the head of this Empire after then you had.

Some Bibles say you may remember who this guy was in Babylon anything. So just checking.

Was.

Who was he that got taken off and into captivity by who?

597 it's this guy here that lets him go. You know who this guy's of the Seneida.

He's in Jesus's genealogy. He's he's a he's a.

Judean or a Judah King and it's this man that after I think it was 39 years, I think you'd have to go back and look it's in I think it's in Jeremiah, he lets him go. He sits at the he sits at the King's table.

He's getting choice meats and basically an allowance until He's till he's dead. No, that's Zedekiah, okay. He does that too, but he does that in 586. Okay, so evil Marduk or a male Marduk is the one that releases him, but then you have If I remember correctly you have Negreus then you have Nevonidas, these are cool.

Y 'all can actually see better. This guy Belshazzar. Who was Belshazzar? I knew everybody knew. Handwriting on the wall. Handwriting on the wall. So.

The Medo-Persian Empire and the Laws of the Medes and Persians

Look at these these are.

Taken. What was his. What did God use Nebuchadnezzar for? Punish them for breaking the covenant. It's exactly what Jeremiah says in chapter 25 and 27 my servant Nebuchadnezzar is going to do to you what I told him to do because you broke my covenant.

He chastened the people of God.

Then after God using him he dies. Another man comes up shows compassion to the to the Davidic line which saved him from dying in captivity and Then as this man his goes off and his line Continues on another guy comes up tries to do a coup to Bonitas then raises him.

So he was raised up after he dies, which is.

Belshazzar's dad.

If you go back and you read How long they're going to be in captivity It says never he will be there for as long as Nebuchadnezzar his son and his grandson. That's Nebuchadnezzar's son. That's his grandson.

That's how long the captivity would last. And how do we know that? This is how long the Babylonian Empire lasted. Because right here Cyrus the Great comes along.

While he's.

Having his feast with the Implements that were taken from the temple. He gets handwriting on the wall. Meany tiki.

Farsal neck.

Whatever it is says something's crazy. And he says what is that? He comes in he's nobody else can say it. But he knows he's always got there's somebody out there that can't answer that. Who was that person?

It was Daniel. Daniel comes in he goes. Oh, yeah, your kingdom's over. He said keep your gifts because your kingdom's not worth anything and it's when Cyrus the Great comes in who I believe. Is Darius the Mede?

Same person both of them are spoken of in in Daniel and we get there. He comes along. And the captivity is over. What does Cyrus the Great do? No, this is how you know, this is the redemptive history unfolding through these two and by these four.

He sure does and that happens 539 or 538. There is some debate on how that took place.

But.

So now we're going to see how this unfolds through the Persian Empire. You have Cyrus the Great and you have another man that comes along. Name can be seized.

Yeah.

Can be seized. He comes along he continues somewhat of the work of Cyrus, okay. Then you have Darius. The first. Then you have.

Part of Xerxes.

No Xerxes. Xerxes. Now he makes a proclamation to go back. You remember what happens once they get back? What do they not do? What do they not do when they go back? They don't do what God told them to do.

You're supposed to go back. You're supposed to build the lay the foundations of the the temple. Remember he tells Cyrus is prophesied.

Some.

150 years before this that by Isaiah then I'm gonna raise up my Anointed one Cyrus. He's going to send you back into the land. He's going to send you back to Jerusalem. And when you go back you're supposed to build the lay the foundation of the temple.

You're supposed to build the place of God the dwelling place of God and you're supposed to build the city and the wall around it. He sends them back to lay the foundations of the house of God. They don't do what they're supposed to do.

So you have the prophets Haggai and Zechariah that come along and rebuke them for not doing so. And then they start continuing them. But in the meantime, you have some guys that come along that try to hinder that.

Namely probably somebody people we would know these Sam ballot and Tobias and all they goes try to hinder that.

Well.

That comes to where. They talk to these two guys here and he says wait a minute I'm going to have this guy here made a decree for them to build it. You're going to continue doing what this guy said do and why.

Because nobody can trump the law of what? The Medes and the Persians. Am I making sense? Okay, it's too much information too much history. It's important because this it's right here. It's in God's Word.

This is how things unfolded in history and Daniel is claimed to have been written some 200 years after these events had taken place and Daniel's prophesying it almost 500 years before it took place. Some of them we get to the end down here.

They run into some hiccups here, too. Okay, our desert sees gives them another decree 445. 444. Am I correct somewhere in there? Actually, that should be this way. We're going down to go back and do it.

Okay, so go back they get in the land. They're doing their thing. Through the through Nehemiah and Ezra and all of that that's when this takes place right around here. Okay, Ezra Nehemiah. Yes. Yep, this would be 480.

Yep, 480. This is yeah Thermopylae when he goes to try to invade Greece. Remember 300 the movie. Yeah, that's what it is the Spartans. Okay, that's when this take place. He failed.

This is what?

Scholars in my opinion my studies. I believe that was the party that.

Esther was having he was having.

Okay, when he was fixing to invade Greece That's what the party he was having and it failed miserably. Okay. That's when this kingdom starts to go downward his campaigns to go and all that his wars to increase his empire.

He had taxed the people to death. To his campaign. So then you have another part his son comes along. He's having a struggle with this at this time.

Because of the failed thing at the.

Really was failed at Thermopylae and that he tries to invade Greece with a Macedon. That's. That is Alexander the Great's daddy. Okay. He failed miserably. He at some point tries to do it again. He sets up a a Through some Shady stuff I should say cross the river and in a meeting he had Philip of Macedon.

Assassinated.

Now you see where we're coming to.

Are you talking about the son of Xerxes or Xerxes himself?

No, we're down here.

We're down here.

Okay.

Question so like where would because in Esther the end of Esther we're talking about the end of Esther describes Whoever Xerxes that was basically having rule over every the whole world in a sense.

And he did and he did but his kingdom was beginning to fall because of the taxations on the people there. Unwillingness to continue going out dude. When you're running out of money to pay your fighters, what do they do?

They quit fighting. They quit fighting.

Would you say?

Hey, and I would even say part of that was Alexander the Great. Maybe that might have been part of the downfall when they get to the Indus River and they're wanting to go into India. I think part of that was his guys were so war-torn.

We'll get there just a second. Just let me yeah. So yes, he did have a vast Empire. Yes huge. And he was going out and he was trying to conquer but the Battle of Thermopylae was a groin shot to him. I Mean it really wasn't.

And they go he's not as bad as he thinks he is gotta remember Greeks on the rise at that point. Greece is on the rise. So Darius has Philip Masson Off the wall, so I shot right over here.

You mentioned India no.

No, they did not cross the Indus River. Yeah, at least not that I know of. Am I correct on that? I don't think so. Not yet now. I think that Rome Reaches that direction like they go to there. They go actually in order to Britain and Germania and all of that, but that doesn't happen till After Messiah's kingdom comes, okay, so that leads us to here and I want to tell you that we are not gonna finish.

Alexander the Great and the Division of His Empire

Philip the Macedon was killed in 336 his son Alexander is in his place. He becomes king. I think I said last week. He has an issue. Some people don't want him to be king. He's very young.

He.

Goes back to Thebes where he's having a problem. He kills six thousand. He basically kills the city. Leaves one one house up. That was his favorite poet. He left it up. He leaves he goes back. He takes the throne and that becomes a superpower world superpower because it's at this point and if I could Darius the third's pretty much wiped out.

Done Medo-Persians over.

Now.

This doesn't last long. Remember, he can he he conquers the known world from the Indus River To the Grimace. I had a world map to Macedonia. Okay. Almost to where you go into Europe per se. Okay for the line of Europe He conquers that whole land in 12 years.

12 years you understand it too. Hey 219 years for this kingdom to do that Alexander the Great Does it in? 12 years now he gets to the Indus River. He the claim is there just no more land for him to conquer that I don't think is the very Accurate statement in the sense that there was plenty of lands to conquer his men were so worn torn He just couldn't go any further.

I mean these guys for 12 years Went through there and butcher and lay waste to anybody that come in their way. Hey when they took over you talk about fury hatred and Love to kill people. This is it. This is it.

Hey because of what happened at Thermopylae it was inbred into the Greeks at that point. We are going to remove them from history Because of what they did now under the providence of God. Okay. This is how things have come about Alexander the Great comes along.

He's not here long. Okay, but When he dies it splinters into for his four generals Ptolemy.

Seleucus.

Cassander and Lysimachus. His four generals. He dies. There's no heir to his throne. He did have a Son that probably could have taken the throne. He was murdered by one of his generals. So he couldn't take it.

There was a power struggle for who was going to take up. Ptolemy takes Egypt. Seleucus takes basically Babylon area. Cassander takes Greece. Lysimachus gets Asia Minor. Which would be modern-day Turkey and see this phrase which would be modern-day Bulgaria.

Okay. Question. Are you just breathing hard on me? No lots of information. Sorry.

Okay.

Yeah, I was gonna break. Yes, yep, yes go ahead. It is in modern-day Iraq. Like their center, yes, they're Persians. Yes, ma 'am. Yeah.

So I.

Would say I could be wrong, but my understanding is he actually in the beginning got Syria. I didn't want to get into all the deep because I don't have time to get into 300 years of I wish I did. So these two end up fighting all the time.

Okay, these two become basically the strong Ptolemy and Seleucus Huge. This is very very very very very important and how we're gonna understand when we get to Daniel 10 11 and 12. Because this becomes the king of the south.

This.

Is the king of the north?

When it starts going and the king of the south comes down to the king of the north and he sent someone and married her and she marries him and then she kills him and all that is. What's going to take place?

So They're fighting. He did have Syria. They're fighting. Seleucus takes that land. So not only does he take Babylon, he takes Syria and Mesopotamia.

So now this guy's.

Rising Seleucus, okay, these guys actually become kind of insignificant In redemptive history, but these two become very important. Ptolemy You may know Ptolemy the second did how do you think we got the Septuagint?

Ptolemy the second Commissioned in the 3rd century to have the Bible the Old Testament translated into Greek language. Well, why would he had it done in a Greek language because his predecessor Wherever he went he got tired of not being able to talk to people and what did he do?

He said you're gonna we're gonna make a unified language where wherever I go. I asked somebody a question. They don't answer me in my language and if they don't Alexander the Great Had the Koine Greek language and it went all over his empire.

You know, how huge that is. That's huge, what do you think they spoke at the time of Christ. What do you think of whatever translated the New Testament language Testament in it was written in Koine Greek?

That's huge. That's how God used these men in history. Alexander pagan king you better believe it. Did God use him? Yes vast Empire Created the Koine Greek language so that this man here one day would say I'm gonna have that Old Testament Hebrew scriptures Translated into the Greek language so that everybody in the Empire can be able to read it and then This guy in the Seleucus Empire.

Oh, man, they become a thorn in their flesh for years.

For years.

This guy here would have Seleucus would have children he would have Antiochus the first the second the third and the person that we will wind up seeing the most of as and Antiochus the fourth. And He is an absolute tyrant I Will prove to you from Scripture.

This is prototypical above the Antichrist. Prototypical. We don't use that board Antichrist in the Old Testament. What they use is the little horn and if you follow redemptive history, it picks up and not only in.

The little horn raises up. In the Greek Empire the little horn trajectory will pick up and we don't have time to get to Rome today. Will pick itself up in Rome. And then as you get into the Roman Empire you see that little that that that Horn that raises itself up and speaks pompous words against the people of God just like Antiochus would point to a later day when there would be a One horn that would raise himself up at the end of the age.

Who would be the beast you understand this is how all of this plays out in redemptive history and God revealed these nations rising and falling. To who? To Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar He gave him a dream who interpreted the dream to Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel did. Now we can might go to Rome for two minutes. It says that Rome.

Was.

Was hard as iron, right? We know that but it said he had some feet and toe problems, right? Okay, that's toe jam. They didn't they didn't come together. Good, but.

The.

Emperor the Roman Empire itself and I know there might be some people who disagree with me did not begin with Julius. It did not. He was part of the triumvirate. The triumvirate was three group three men that ruled although they were they did rule in a dictator type way.

He'd never rose to the to the name Emperor. The Emperorship didn't come in till 27 BC with Octavian. Actually, and we probably better known him as Augustus. What did Caesar Augustus do. He sure did. He made a decree which got Jesus's bomb.

Where. Yeah back in Bethlehem, so here it is. We got another pagan king that comes along and he ends up being in In power to make a decree to get Jesus's family back in Bethlehem. Now this is when.

The.

Roman Emperorship would begin. Everyone after him would be an emperor. Okay, everyone after there it would be.

Caesar.

Augustus Tiberius Caligula Claudius. Cool about here. You really have some three nobodies that come along. Nero kills himself in 68 the the Empire goes into absolute turmoil. There's in fighting everywhere.

When I say everywhere I mean, we're talking Romans fighting Romans people power struggle. You have a guy that comes up by the name of Galba.

He's.

He's not long either then you have Vitellius. He comes up but when Nero died they wanted this man to be the station. And I know that's patient is He is the way. Yeah, he is the one that sent Titus his son during the Jewish Wars and said Go first.

Try to make peace with the Jews. Don't don't go in there and desecrate their holy place. Let's try to make peace. Well, they failed to do so and it was Vespasian that said, okay Titus. Titus was his son.

He becomes general. He says all right wipe it out and.

It was.

Under his order by his son.

That.

It was said that once Jerusalem fell that they ran out of crosses to crucify the insurrectionist. They said it was some thirty thousand crucified in one day now. People argue that amount but they said as far as you could go down the road.

They were running out of wood to crucify people so they would hold them until those people died so that they could use the wood. It was under this room now. They said it has some feet and toe problems.

Member feet and toe problems. What happens is With Augustus. He then tries to the Herod's the Hasmonean dynasty. All of that and the Hasmonean dynasty came about with a revolt and we'll get to it in chapter 7 with a revolt.

They tried to mix the two of the Romans and the Jews together. That's how the Herod's come about. Anybody know that the Herod's were not heir to be kings over over the Jews. They were Edomites. They were cut out of the Covenant.

But the Rome puts them in power to rule over the people. So there was this constant struggle of okay we have the this man who claims to be of Jewish or to be a Jewish descent and you have this Emperor who are working together and they To try to mesh two things that don't come together like iron and clay and it's brittle and it never works.