Atlantic Lyman conf.1972-02 Studies in Daniel 02 — Joseph Balsan

It's nice to see you all out tonight, and we hope that you'll remember these meetings in prayer, that God will bless His Word. Let us turn to Daniel Chapter 2, shall we? Daniel Chapter 2. This is a very long chapter, and so we're not going to read it in its entirety, but we'll start at the 31st verse of Daniel Chapter 2.

Daniel’s Vision of the Great Image

Daniel Chapter 2 and verse 31. Thou, O King, saw'st, and, behold, a great image, this great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

Thou saw'st till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet, that were of iron and clay, and break them to pieces. 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. This is the dream, and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the King.

Thou, O King, art a King of kings, for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given unto thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all.

Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall there rule over all the earth. 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.

And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes part of potter's 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.

And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly, as the margin has, brittle. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the feet of men, but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

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 forever.

Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it break 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. Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.

The king answered unto Daniel and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldst reveal this secret. Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.

Then Daniel requested of the king, and he said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel sat in the gate of the king. May the Lord bless to us the reading of his word.

Shall we look to the Lord in prayer? Our Father, we desire to thank thee tonight for the privilege we have of coming into thy presence. We thank thee for the precious truth of these hymns that we have been singing, and we thank thee for thy word.

And our desire is tonight to have our understandings enlarged in the knowledge of thy word. We thank thee that thou hast not left us in the dark, but thou hast made known these things to us by thy word and by thy spirit.

And so we pray that thou will give help in speaking it forth tonight, that it might be a blessing and a help to each and every one of us who are here. We commend ourselves to thee and pray for those who could not be with us.

Daniel’s Moral Preparation and the Times of the Gentiles

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Now as we have noticed last night, why this is the outline of the book of Daniel the prophet. That was the title that our Lord Jesus Christ gave to this man Daniel.

That he spoke of him as Daniel the prophet. And last night we saw that in chapter 1, we saw the moral conditions suited to the enlightenment in the ways and counsels of God. We saw how that these four young men who were in the land of Babylon, taken their captives by Nebuchadnezzar from the people of Israel.

We saw how they were taken into a strange land and among strange people, with you might say even many of their fellow Israelites, following the dictates of the king and going contrary to the word of God.

We saw how these four young men, why they stood for God. We saw how Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's meat which was offered to idols. We saw how he requested that he might be able to not eat of this meat and the result was that when they prospered, why they were spared.

And we saw that after all the training and testing, they were ten times wiser than all the Chaldeans and the astrologers in the land of Babylon. We also saw how that this chart you might say is divided, that the prophecy of Daniel is concerning the times of the Gentiles.

And we saw that the times of the Gentiles began with the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people of Israel and the setting up of Gentile rulers over the world. And as we are going to notice tonight, that there are four distinct kingdoms that are brought before us that are going to be exercised by Gentile powers and the final kingdom of course, the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Church Age as a Parenthesis in Prophecy

Now we saw also how that in this chart you notice we have a period here called the present age which is a parenthesis in this chart. This was something that Daniel of course did not see. When Daniel saw the image, he saw a complete image.

When Daniel, when Nebuchadnezzar saw the image and when Daniel had his vision of the four beasts and the Roman little horn, why there was no parenthesis. This is something that is made known to us in the New Testament and after the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ, why the time clock of God's prophecy stopped and God began a new work, something that has been going on for the last 1 ,900 years in which we have the preaching of the gospel of the grace of God by which God is calling out from amongst Jews and Gentiles a people for his name.

And that of course is the church and when this church age is complete, you might say this top line coincides you might say with the cross of Christ and this bottom line coincides with the rapture when the Lord Jesus Christ is going to take out of this world his church and if we could raise this chart so that we could bring this line up to this, why we would have only what Daniel saw.

Daniel did not see this special age that you and I live in. That is made known to us in Ephesians chapter 3 verses 3 to 11 where Paul tells us that this age in which you and I live is a secret which was hidden God and was not made and unknown in other ages as it is now made known to us.

So in this special period of time, God is as it were working a special work, a concealed work, a hidden work and when this is completed, why then of course we will come or the world will come into the time of the end.

We also saw that this chart is divided two other ways. In the first six chapters, we have the historical part of the chart. In other words, things that actually happened in the life of this man Daniel and then in the last six chapters from 7 to chapter 12, we have the prophecies that Daniel saw and these prophecies were especially in relation to the Gentile world powers in relation to the people of Israel.

Daniel’s Aramaic and Hebrew Sections

Now we come tonight to Daniel chapter 2 and if you will notice in Daniel chapter 2 and verse 4, it says, Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac, O king, live forever, tell my servants the dream and we will show the interpretation.

Now you notice it says, Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac. Now Bible scholars tell us that from this second chapter and the fourth verse all the way through the third, fourth, fifth and sixth and seventh chapters of this book of Daniel, it is written in the Syriac or Aramaic language.

In other words, this book of Daniel is written in two different languages. In chapter 1 and chapters 8 to the end of the book, it is written in Hebrew and from chapter 2 and verse 4 through chapter 7, it is written in Syriac or Aramaic and that is very significant because it proves to us that this book was written in the time of Daniel and that it was not written at a later time as some so-called Bible scholars would have us believe.

Now the reason for that is because the Aramaic was that language which was spoken by the Gentile powers, by the Gentile nations. Eventually it became the language of the people of Israel too, but at the time that these incidents took place, why they were speaking Hebrew.

They were not speaking Aramaic and so it is to us a proof that this book is inspired and that it is written by Daniel and that the things which were written so that these Gentile nations could understand them were written in a language that they could understand and the things which were especially related to the people of Israel, they were written in the language that they themselves could read and understand.

Daniel 2 as the ABC of Prophecy

Now someone has called this Daniel chapter 2 the ABC of prophecy. In other words, perhaps it is the simplest outline on prophecy that we have in the entire Bible because it brings before us, you might say an outline of Gentile authority and Gentile rule and government from the very beginning until the very coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We of course, we know that we are living in the times of the Gentiles. That is when Gentile nations are in power and in authority. That has been true since the days of Nebuchadnezzar. Prior to that, why the people of Israel were the primary power.

They were the dominating power in the world of that day. But today and since the day of Nebuchadnezzar, why it has been the Gentile powers and this will continue until as we shall see our Lord Jesus Christ shall come.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream and the Limits of Human Wisdom

Now this account that we have in Daniel chapter 2 begins with Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. And why does he have a dream? Well if you were to look a little farther down, you would notice that this man Daniel tells us here, I think it is in the 29th verse.

He says, As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed. What shall come to pass hereafter? Now you might say that here we have a little account. Nebuchadnezzar of course had conquered many nations.

Nebuchadnezzar was, you might say, the ruling power. He was the dominating power of his day. He had conquered Jerusalem, he had conquered Egypt, he had conquered Syria, he had spread out and he had conquered practically all the known world of his day.

And as he was lying on his bed, as king and monarch of all this, he was thinking to himself well I wonder what the future holds. After all, I'm like every other man, eventually I'm going to pass away and when I die I wonder what's going to be hereafter.

I wonder what's going to happen after I'm gone. You know that's really something that each and every one of us should think about, shouldn't we? Every one of us should think about the future. Every one of us should think to ourselves, well I wonder what the future holds.

I wonder what the future holds for me. Of course Nebuchadnezzar wasn't thinking about what would happen to him after he died. He was thinking about what would happen to his kingdom after he died. But you know, you and I, we can ask ourselves the question today, well suppose I was to die, I wonder what would happen to me.

I wonder if my soul was to leave this world tonight. I wonder where I would be, where am I going to be. I remember one day preaching on the street corner as a young Christian in the city of Chicago and an older brother got up and he spoke the gospel and he raised a question that has stuck with me for a number of years.

He raised the question, well where will you be 100 years from now? Now I hadn't exactly thought of it that way, I'd thought of eternity, but I didn't think of such figures as that, well where would I be 100 years from now?

Well every one of us are going to be some place 100 years from now. I wonder if every one of us who are in this meeting, if we have ever thought, well what about my future? Where am I going to be? Where am I going to be after this?

Nebuchadnezzar was thinking about the future and it's a good thing to think about the future. And as he was thinking about the future, he fell asleep. And as he fell asleep, he dreamed a dream. And this dream had such an impact upon him that we awaken startled, but the amazing thing about it was he had the impression that he had dreamed something amazing and something beyond his comprehension, but the fact of the matter was he couldn't recall it.

He couldn't think about what he had dreamt about. And so of course he called his wise men, his astrologers, his magicians into his presence. These were people who were occupied with magical arts. They were occupied with astrology.

They were occupied with studying the stars and interpreting dreams. I think it's very significant that today we're living in a day when astrology is increasing. You know it's amazing how even some Christians, they will read these astrological books and some of them are very intent on directing and guiding their lives according to astrology.

We know that they said Hitler during the last war was in constant communion with mediums and seeking guidance from the Spiritists to tell him what to do. Well if he was guided by them, we know what happened to them, to him because he certainly met a catastrophic end and a terrible end, just as will those who follow the teachings and the leadings of astrologers.

But he called these magicians, he called these astrologers, he called these people into his presence and he says, I have dreamed a dream and my spirit is troubled to know it. And of course the magician said, well long live the king.

You tell us whatever your dream is and we'll interpret it for you, just tell us what that dream was. And he says, that's just it. He says, I can't remember my dream. Now he says, if you're magicians and astrologers and wise men, you ought to be able to tell me not only the interpretation, but what the dream itself was.

Now you know here we can see the wisdom of God. God was bound and determined to bring this king and his wise men to the end of themselves to show them that all of their wisdom and their learning couldn't unfold or couldn't decipher what the future held.

So he withheld the very dream itself from the memory of this king. You know these men might have said, well this is the interpretation of it and of course who would know whether or not it was true because they'd have to wait for the time.

You know it's amazing in science, in so-called science they say, well this happened 2 million years ago or this happened 4 million years ago or 10 million years ago. But you know there's no one to go back and to be able to see whether it's so because it's so far back that none of them of course are able to go back to find out whether it's true or not.

And some people wonder about some of these prophets and prophetesses like Jenny Dixon and the rest of them. Well do you think they're inspired of God? Do you believe they're led of God? Well remember this, when you want to compare these prophets and I've compared these prophets and prophetesses and I've found that their calculations and what they say is rarely more than 50 or 60 true.

Now, or fulfilled. What they say is rarely completely fulfilled. But that's one thing about scriptural prophecy. Scriptural prophecy is not 85 fulfilled. It's not 95 fulfilled. Scripture prophecy will be fulfilled 100 to the very letter.

And that is the means by which you and I can discern or determine whether a person is really a prophet of God or not. Because if the thing which they say does not come to pass exactly as written or spoken, why you and I can be sure that it's not a prophet of God.

Because God's prophecies always are fulfilled completely and 100%. While here we have this man has this dream, the wise men and the astrologers, the magicians, they're not able to interpret the dream.

And so they said to the king, why no man on earth can interpret this to you? Why this is only with the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh. And of course Nebuchadnezzar becomes so angry that he sends forth the decree that all the wise men and astrologers and magicians be put to death.

And of course this man, Ariok, who was evidently the executioner of the king, why he begins to carry out his duties and he comes to Daniel. Now we don't know where Daniel was or why he wasn't called into the presence of the king.

But when he hears what's taking place, he says, just give me a little time. And he says, I'll find out what the dream is. And I'll have the interpretation. And so he goes into the presence of the king and he asks for just a little time.

And the king grants him his request. And then we find something beautiful. Daniel goes to his three companions. And you know they do something. What do they do? They pray about it. They begin to pray about it.

Daniel’s Prayer and God’s Revelation

You notice the little father down there says in the 17th verse that Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret, that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

You know it's wonderful to have those to whom you can come with your needs and your burdens and who can pray with you about these things. There were only three young men that Daniel had as companions that he could come to with his problems.

I wonder what you and I do with our problems. Do we know what it is to have someone that you and I can go to and we can say, I'd like to have you pray with me about this thing. This is something that's burdening me.

This is something that's troubling me. This is a decision that I have to make. Do you have those that you can come to and that you can say pray with me about it? Well Daniel had that wonderful privilege.

You know it's a wonderful privilege to have those that you can come to and it's a wonderful privilege to be one of those. And you know that question comes to us, would I be a person of such character?

Would I be recognized as such a Christian that a person could come to me and say, well I'd like to have you pray with me about this. Would I be such a person? If I didn't have such people that I could come to pray to, am I such a person that people can come to and they can ask me, well pray with me about this thing.

Help me about this thing. Well here were three young men. Now all of these were young men. They weren't, you might say, old and gray headed. Evidently these four young men were evidently in their teens, were evidently in their early twenties at this time.

And so we find that those four young men, they bowed their knees before God and it says in the 19th verse, then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. And you know when the secret was revealed unto Daniel in a night vision, the God who had communicated that dream to this man Nebuchadnezzar, you know sometimes we wonder about the power of Satan.

Does the power, does the devil know everything? No, the devil doesn't know anything, everything. The devil doesn't know my thoughts unless I express them. The devil doesn't know my dreams. Oh he can even perhaps give dreams to people, but the devil couldn't decipher or the devil couldn't penetrate into the mind of Nebuchadnezzar to get that dream to give it to his wise men.

It was only God that could communicate that dream and it communicated it to Daniel in a night vision so that Daniel had it reproduced and the first thing that Daniel does is what? Does he say, well folks I've got it, I've got the answer, I've got the solution.

Does Daniel cut himself up and say I've had a tremendous spiritual experience and God has revealed this to me? No, you know what he does? You notice what it says? It says, then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.

Daniel gave thanks first of all to the God of heaven and he said blessed be the name of God forever and ever for wisdom and might are his and he goes on speaking to God about the wonderful things that he has done.

You know it's one thing to pray, it's another thing to have an answer to prayer, but then the third thing is when I do get the answer to prayer, do I give God thanks? Do I thank God? Is that the first thing that I do?

That's what Daniel did. The first thing that he did when he got the answer was he blessed God. I read something in a digest just this morning, you know, it was speaking about this very thing. This young fellow, this preacher was mentioned that we should give thanks when God answers prayer.

Let's not forget to give thanks. And then he told the story of the young fellow who was out in the woods. I know he got lost in the woods. And when he got lost in the woods he was giving an account of how he had been found.

He says I became so disturbed and so distressed that he says I got down on my knees and I prayed. And he says did God answer your prayer? Did God answer your prayer? He says well you know a guide came along and helped me before God could answer my prayer.

God answered his prayer by sending a guide along but he didn't see God in it. And he didn't thank God. Do I thank God for what he does for me? God answers prayer. Do we thank God? Well that's what Daniel did.

And then Daniel went into the presence of Ariadne. He says I've got the answer. God has given me the answer. And so when Ariadne comes in he says well Nebuchadnezzar king Nebuchadnezzar, here's the man who's got the answer.

When Daniel comes into the presence of the king, well you know Daniel doesn't say well I've got the answer. You know what he says? Notice what he says. In the 27th verse, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men be astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers show unto the king, but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.

He brings, he's not afraid to testify and honor God. Well the God is the one who revealed this. God is the one who made known the secret. God is the one who communicated it. Let's not be afraid in the presence of men to give honor to God.

Daniel doesn't say well I, because I'm wise and because I'm more spiritual because of that, well that's why I've got the answer. Well Daniel says no there is a God in heaven and he reveals secrets. And he's revealed at this that the wisest men in your kingdom were not able to communicate or understand.

And then he brings before us here, he tells what the vision was. He says, Thou, O king, the 31st verse, saw'st, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible.

He says this image's head was of fine gold. Now this image that he saw was evidently a tremendous imposing image in the mind of Nebuchadnezzar. In fact it was so great and so bright and so startling that it made an impression upon him that he couldn't forget, even though he couldn't remember the details of what he had seen.

But now as Daniel brings it before him, he says to Daniel, Daniel says you saw an image, you saw that the head of that image was gold, you saw that the breast and the arms were of silver, you saw that the thighs and the belly were of brass, and you saw that the legs were of iron, and you saw that the feet were a mixture of iron and clay.

And he says you saw that the ten toes, why they were a mixture of iron and clay. And then he says you saw a great stone cut out without hands, and this stone came down with tremendous force and power, and it struck that image on the feet.

Didn't strike it on the head, didn't strike it on the thighs, didn't strike it on the breast, didn't strike it on the legs, but it struck it on the feet. And he says it broke that image to pieces, and it ground it to dust, and the wind came along and blew it all away.

And then he says that stone drew and drew and drew, until that stone filled the entire earth. And of course Nebuchadnezzar realized, well here is the dream, here is the thing that I have forgotten, here is the thing that I have seen that disturbed me, and yet that I couldn't remember.

And then Daniel not only told him what the dream was, but then Daniel told him also what the interpretation of it was. And he says here in the 36th verse, this is the dream, and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

Thou, O king, art a king of kings, for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power and strength and glory, and wheresoever the children and men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given into thine hand, and made thee ruler over them all.

Thou art this head of gold. Now you notice that Daniel brings before him that the interpretation of it is that Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom, because in Nebuchadnezzar we have symbolized the Babylonian kingdom.

The Babylonian kingdom which had conquered the world of its day, and he says thou art this head of gold. Now I want you to notice, just as we look at the metals, you notice that the metals all deteriorate.

Gold is the first, then silver, then brass, then iron, and finally a mixture of iron and clay. It shows that there was going to be a deterioration in these kingdoms. Now in what sense was there a deterioration?

You know, if when men speak of the governments of the world, they look upon the ancient governments as inferior. Oh, the Babylonian, that was primitive. The Medo-Persian, that was a little bit more advanced, and the Roman of course, but our modern democracies, they are the wisest, they are the best, they are the most advanced, they are the most progressive.

But you know when God describes it, God says democracy is the weakest form of government. Democracy is the most ignoble form of government. Why does he bring that before us? Why does God look at it that way?

If men had given this image, they would have said, well the head was of clay and iron, the breast was perhaps of iron, the thighs were of silver, and the legs of course, and the feet, why they were of, would be of gold.

That's the highest, because man is progressing in his government. Well why does God bring before us a picture of deterioration in the governments of the world? Because gold of course is the highest and the best metal.

The first kingdom was directly given by God himself. This man, Nebuchadnezzar, was absolute king. In the fourth chapter it says, whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive. We see that right now in the second chapter, when he sent out the decree that all the kings should be put, all the wise men should be put to death.

Why, his word was absolute law. But you know when we come to the Medo-Persian, and of course we remember that in the story of Daniel in the lion's den, which was in the reign of the Medes and Persians, we know that when the false, as we're going to see when we come to it, the false accusation that was given against Daniel, and Daniel was put in the lion's den, we remember that Darius tried every means possible to save Daniel.

But once he had signed that letter, that could not be broken. He himself could not break it. He was under the control of a party of men, whose voice was practically equal with his. And in the days of Alexander and the Grecian Empire, his military generals were practically equal with him, and he had to consider what they had to say.

In other words, power spread out. And instead of being embodied in one person, it spread out. And the more there are to divide power amongst, why the more inferior, until finally when we come to democracy, what do we have today?

Well, look at our country. Look at our country. Always say, well, Congress is a means of safety and preserving the safety of this country. But it's also weakness. It's also weakness because we've got to get a hundred senators and five hundred representatives to agree on a certain course of action.

And what is the result? It's weakness. We've got a variety and a diversity of opinions, and the result is the country, instead of being powerful, is gradually getting weaker and weaker. And so we find that God looks upon autocracy, monarchy, as being the most powerful form of government.

It comes from him. And when we come to the last form of government, we have a mixture. We have a mixture of the will of the people and the voice of the people mingled with the voice of authority and the voice of authority not daring to do anything unless he has the voice of the people behind him.

And so the result is, God, from God's viewpoint, from the way God describes it, we have the four kingdoms, the Babylon kingdom pictured in the head of gold, we have the Medo-Persian pictured for us in the chest and the arms of silver, we have the Grecian empire pictured for us in the thighs of brass and Rome in the legs of iron.

The Four Gentile Kingdoms

Now we're not left in any doubt as to what these four kingdoms are. God here brings before Nebuchadnezzar that there are going to be four great world powers. He was first. The Babylonian was first. Notice the 39th verse, it says,.

And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee. Now we don't have to go outside of the Bible to find these four kingdoms. In the 5th chapter of Daniel, if you'll just notice, we'll come to it eventually, but in the 5th chapter of Daniel, and notice it tells us in the 30th verse, it says,.

In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain and Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about three score and two years old. There we have the coming in of the Medo-Persian empire, the second empire.

In the 8th chapter of Daniel, and notice it tells us here in the 8th chapter of Daniel, and the 20th verse, it says,. The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia, and the rough goat is the king of Grisha, and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

Now there we have the third empire, and that is the Grecian. We know that after Belshazzar was slain, the Medo-Persians reigned for about 200 years, from about 536 B .C. to about 336 B .C., when of course, we'll get to that in the 8th chapter, but when this kingdom took over, the Medes were the strongest.

Darius the Mede, he was the leader at that time, but eventually the Persians became stronger, and Cyrus became their great king, and you know that's another thing. Isaiah prophesied 100 years before Cyrus ever came on the scene, that he would be the great king who would help the people of Israel, and he even named him by name 100 years before he was ever born, before he ever came on the scene.

Now many people say, well Isaiah must have been written after the days of Cyrus, because how could he have been named by name 100 years before he was ever born? But there are other instances of that in the Bible.

And then of course, the Medo-Persian was overcome by Greece. Now the amazing thing about it was that when Nebuchadnezzar had this dream, Babylon was in power, but the Medes and Persians, they were warring tribes.

The Grecians, while they were little nations you might say, in Europe, which were fighting amongst themselves, and Rome, which was the fourth great world power, why, it was just a little village on the banks of the Tiber.

It was just rising. If you would have said, well Rome's going to be a world power, that's going to be a world power, and you notice the legs of course are the longest, Rome was going to be in power longer than any of the others.

And so we find that here we have this vision, here he had this vision of these four great world powers. But you notice he tells us something else. He tells us in the 40th verse, The fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, for as much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things, and as iron that breaketh all these shall it break in pieces and bruise.

And that is true, that the Roman power was perhaps the most powerful, ruthless, irresistible military power that the world has ever seen. And just as the scripture said, they broke in pieces, they bruised, there was nothing that could stand against them.

And then it says in the 41st verse, Whereas thou sawest the feet and toes part of potter's clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, for as much as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

But it was amongst the Romans that the people began to express themselves and that the people had a voice. And that was one of the causes of the weakness of the Roman Empire. And then it tells us, as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken.