Kings and Kingdoms — Keith Malcomson

Daniel 2 and the Sovereignty of God

I want you to turn with me to the book of Daniel as we come to part two of this Bible study on the book of Daniel. I believe the book of Daniel is a remarkable book for the hour that we are living in.

Last week, as we began in chapter one and part one, we looked at living in Babylon. We saw how in chapter one, we saw the rise of Babylon and how God had Daniel in the right place at the right time. He was right in the exact place where God wanted him as a young man to do the will of God.

But we want to go further here. Our entire series is called The Heaven's Rule taken from Daniel chapter four and verse 26. But here tonight, my message, part two of this series, and I've called it Kings and Kingdoms.

Kings and Kingdoms, reading from Daniel chapter two and verse one. And Daniel continued even onto the first year of King Cyrus. And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams wherewith his spirit was troubled and his sleep break from him.

Then the king commanded to call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans for to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king and the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.

Then speak the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac. Oh, king, live forever. Tell thy servants the dream and we will show the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, the thing is gone from me.

If ye will not make known unto me the dream with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces and your houses shall be made a dunghill. But if ye showed the dream and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honor.

Therefore show me the dream and the interpretation thereof. They answered again and said, let the king tell his servants the dream and we will show the interpretation of it. The king answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time because ye see the thing is gone from me.

But if ye will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me till the time be changed. Therefore tell me the dream and I shall know that ye can show me the interpretation thereof.

The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, there is not a man upon the earth that can show the king's matter. Therefore there is no king, lord, no ruler that asks such a thing of any magician or astrologer or Chaldean.

And it is a rare thing that the king require us. And there is none other that can show it before the king except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh. For this cause, the king was angry and very furious and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

And the decree went forth on the wise men should be slain. And they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Ariok, the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon.

He answered and he said to Ariok, the king's chaplain, what is the decree? So why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Ariok made the thing known to Daniel. Then Daniel went in and desired of the king that he would give him time and that he would show the king the interpretation.

Will you pray with me? Let's join our hearts and pray. We are living at one of the most remarkable hours in world history and in church history. We need the Lord. We need revelation. We need the wisdom of God in this hour.

And we want to lay a hold of him as the body of Christ, as the church, and ask for divine wisdom. I want you to see here tonight in this message that the heavens do rule over kings and kingdoms. Let's pray.

Father, we exalt you. We approach you as the God of heaven. We acknowledge you that it's you that changes the times. It's you that places kings in their position upon thrones. It's you that gives authority unto men with governments of the world.

It's you that has raised up new kingdoms and it's you that has removed men and dashed down entire kingdoms. We don't give that power to men or even to Satan, but it's you that puts men in places. And Lord God, I pray for everyone in this meeting tonight.

Open up their eyes. Let them have faith. Lord God, let them believe the word of God, that you have sovereign power, that you have all authority. And Lord God, do we be a small remnant, a small people scattered across the world.

Yet your eye is upon us. We're the apple of your eye. We are your church. We are your bride. We are the remnant amidst Babylon. And Lord God, as Babylon arises, we must have confidence in the God of heaven even here tonight in Jesus' mighty name.

Amen. Our message part two of Daniel is kings and kingdoms here from Daniel chapter two. We don't have time to read it all. I've asked you to read it before this meeting here tonight, but I want you to hear the word of the Lord.

The Heavens Rule Over Kings and Kingdoms

Here in this second chapter of Daniel, we see how God is sovereign over the nations, that the heavens do rule. We have already seen that this term, the God of heaven, is used five times in Daniel chapter two, five times the number of grace.

This is written here that we won't just see kings or kingdoms or empires or great men of history. No, there's something far greater to see here. When we see secular rulers raised up with great power, empires spreading their influence across the world, when we read our history books or the Bible, do you know where we're meant to go back to?

The throne of God and to see the God of heaven, that he is involved in the affairs of man in world history. In Daniel chapter four and 26, we read this term, the heavens do rule. And I want you to see it tonight.

It's not Nebuchadnezzar. It is the God of heaven rules over the affairs of men. What does it mean that God rules? It means that the government of heaven rules over every authority upon the earth. Kings come and kings go, empires come and empires go, but God's government is unchanging.

It holds absolute sway and it's here before kings arise and it's here after they are long gone. And do you know what? In every single generation, the throne of God or heaven itself is joined to a small remnant upon the earth and God's plan, God's heavenly plan is being worked out through a Daniel or a Joseph or a David.

This is how the heavens rule. God always has a chosen vessel through whom the heavens are gonna rule in that generation. It doesn't matter if Nebuchadnezzar is on the throne. God's kingdom is going to rule through a man called Daniel.

When you begin to see this and understand this, then as you see kings and kingdoms and all that's happening in our generation, you see beyond that and you see the God of heaven, that the heavens do truly rule.

You won't bow before men. You won't be scared of rules and regulations of men, but your confidence is in the God of the Bible. Let's go to this message tonight. Daniel chapter two, as we look at kings and kingdoms, it says here in Daniel chapter two and verse one, and in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams wherewith his spirit was troubled and his sleep break from him.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Troubling Dreams

We see here this great king that God was raising up and had placed in a position of authority. He's only been king for two years. And this is at the same time that Daniel and his three friends have finished their three years of training in Babylon's schools and universities.

Here we have King Nebuchadnezzar on his bed at night. He dreamed dreams. In other words, he didn't just have one dream, but he had plural dreams, several dreams during the night. And we're told that he was troubled in spirit because of these dreams.

And these dreams actually took his sleep away from him. He couldn't sleep. They were so troubling to his spirit. It says a bit later, my spirit was troubled to know the dream. Have you ever had a dream in the night and you woke up and it troubled you deeply?

You couldn't go back to sleep. You had to get up and pray. You had to go and seek the Lord. I have had those sorts of dreams where I know that dream so disturbed me that I couldn't get back to sleep again.

Here is the greatest king of that generation. Never has there been a bigger empire than the Babylonian empire at that time. And here you have the king. He's a young man and he's only on the throne two years and he has a dream.

But this is not from what he ate. It's not a natural dream. Neither is it a demonic dream. He is not converted. He is not a follower of the God of the Bible. And yet God himself gives him a dream. And in fact, many dreams.

These are not natural dreams. They are divine. And in fact, God uses these dreams to speak to this man. God is speaking through dreams, revealing the future. Only God can do that. And in fact, God is revealing a message concerning kings and kingdoms.

Only God can reveal the future and what is happening, what will happen all the way down to the end of the age. Here's this king and I get so disturbed with this dream. He's a pagan, he's a Gentile, he's unsaved, but he is in government by the power and choice of God.

We read in the Bible, various secular kings who had dreams, not where from God. In Genesis chapter 20, we read about Abimelech, the king of Gerar. He actually received a dream from God in the days of Abraham, warning him not to touch Sarah.

Or what about in Genesis chapter 40, 41? We read about how Pharaoh received dreams from God and Joseph was able to interpret those dreams. And yet Joseph refused the credit, just like Daniel will in this chapter before us.

Or what about over in the New Testament in Matthew 27, where we read about Pilate's wife and Pilate was part of the Roman empire. He was a political leader in that hour. And we're actually told that Pilate's wife suffered in a dream because of that man, Jesus.

And she told her political husband, don't have anything to do with that man. This night I suffered many things in a dream. So we see that God can use dreams to speak to world government leaders. He has done it in the past and I'm sure he will do it in the future.

It is a very real thing. Back in the early 1890s, there was a young man called Winnie who lived in England and young Winnie was sitting with his friend and they had just finished their education. And as they were there, they're talking together and Evans asked Winnie, what are you gonna do in the days ahead?

Are you gonna go into politics or the military? Or what are you gonna do? Young Winnie said, I really don't know. And his friend said, but you must know, you must have some idea. Your father is in politics.

Maybe you'll become a politician. And Winnie says, I don't know. I don't know anything of what I'm gonna do, but I do know certain things. His friend Evans said, what is it? And he says, I know. And he said, I have had dreams of the night and I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that a day is coming when I am gonna be the defender of London.

There is gonna come a great invasion. There is gonna come a great attack against London and I am gonna be put in a position of power and I will be used to defend and to defeat the enemies that come against London.

His friend Evans was struck by it, shocked by it and said, but how can you know? Well, he said, I know it's going to happen. Do you know 50 years later, that young man, his name was Winston Churchill, walked into the position of being the Prime Minister of Great Britain.

How could a secular man, a normal man, have a dream at 16 years old, a young boy who didn't even know what he was gonna do in his life, but he said, I know I'm gonna defend London from its enemies. Do you know, friends, that that dream to Winston Churchill at 16 years old, I believe it was of God.

I believe God was speaking to him. He wasn't a saved man, he wasn't a Christian, but do you know what? He was raised by a nanny who was a born-again Bible-believing Christian. Do you know she taught Winston the Bible, taught him to memorize it, to recite it, taught him how to pray at nights.

They would kneel down together and said, let's pray to the God of heaven. She taught him the Bible, taught him world history, and that never left that man. But when the hour come, God had a political leader in the right place at the right time.

This man, Nebuchadnezzar, was on his bed at night. On this significant night, he was on his bed. In two years, he'd become the greatest leader the world had ever seen. Governmental power had been put into his hands.

He was there on his bed thinking about his dramatic rise to power. And then he began to think about the future. What is the future gonna hold? Can this be sustained? Well, do you know, that's when God actually gave him a dream on his bed that night.

You see, God wanted to get his attention and draws attention. You know why? God was involved in world history. And if you don't understand this in Daniel 2, you'll never understand it in our day because Daniel chapter 2, it starts in Daniel's day when he's a young man, 19 years old, and it's gonna continue straight down to our generation.

Daniel 2 finishes with this dream and this vision and interpretation revealing our generation and what's just about to happen in the days ahead. If we can't learn from Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar's day, we'll never understand our own day and generation.

Daniel’s Prayer for Revelation

Well, we're told that he got up and he called for all of his wise men in the kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar sent for his magicians, his astrologers, his sorcerers, and his Chaldeans. These were what were called the wise men of the Babylonian kingdom.

And do you know what he said? I want you wise men to tell me what my dream was and what was the interpretation. Now, who are these wise men? These wise men, we know that magicians, that they were writers of books all about magic spells.

They wrote entire volumes. They were scholars. They were intelligent men. The astrologers who he called together, they actually studied the planets, how the planets moved, when comets arrived, or phases of the moon.

They were very intelligent men. In fact, the astrologers that were standing before him, who he was saying, show me my dream. They were men who calculated the length of the year. Listen this carefully.

It shows you the quality of these men in Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom. In his day and generation, they had calculated that the period of a year was 365 days, six hours, 15 minutes, and 41 seconds. That's what the astrologers of that day had worked out 2 ,600 years ago.

Do you know what? They were wrong, but they were only 26 minutes, 55 seconds out. And do you realize that over 150 years ago, astrologers of the 19th century still were not as great at astrology as those in the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar.

This is a remarkable thing. They could predict solar eclipses, lunar eclipses. And in fact, they tried through studying the planets, they tried to make prophecies and predict the future. We see 600 years later that wise men from the East, from this empire, from this kingdom, went to look for a newborn king in Bethlehem.

It was the same people, the same system of Babylon where we see great men. Do you realize all these wise men were before Nebuchadnezzar? And he says, I want you to tell me my dream and give me the interpretation.

Do you know what they said? They said, king, oh, great king, no king has ever asked such a thing. Tell us the dream and we will tell you what it means. The ancient Babylonian wise men, in fact, 500 years before this, or more accurately, 3 ,000 years before this, they used to write books on dream interpretation.

In other words, these wise men were experts on interpreting dreams. So they said, give us your dream and we'll tell you what it means. Well, this Nebuchadnezzar is no fool. He said, the thing has gone from me.

I can't remember the dream. You tell me the dream and then I know your interpretation will be correct. What a wise king. You see, you're dealing with a head made of gold. Who was this Nebuchadnezzar? He was a real king.

He was a king that represented the government of heaven. And he was gonna prove it here. He didn't like liars. He didn't like compromisers. He didn't play game. All authority was in his hands. So he said to his wise men, you not only have to interpret my dream, you have to tell me the dream and I'm not gonna tell you what it was.

These wise men were awestruck. No king had ever asked such a thing. And he said, if you cannot do this, giving me the dream and interpretation, I will make your houses as dunghill and I will cut you off, all of you wise men.

In one fell sweep, I'll remove all of yous. You know what I believe? I believe in two years, he'd saw through these wise men. There's no supernatural element here. He sees them playing games with their position.

They've got wealthy on the power of Babylon. What the Bible says in verse 12, for this cause, the king was angry and very furious and he commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. You know what you're seeing?

You're seeing a king who can't be pressured, can't be manipulated, he can't be tricked. And you know what? He's searching for reality. He wants the answer. He's been disturbed. Do you know who done this?

It was the God of heaven. The God of heaven gave him a dream, disturbed him, made him forget it. And he actually brought the entire kingdom of Babylon as it began to rise to an extreme crisis. Well, we are told that even Daniel and his three Hebrew friends were caught up in this as well.

They had been trained to be wise men in the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar. And they were gonna die just like these other foolish wise men. It says in verse 14,. Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Ariok, the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the men of Babylon.

And he answered and said unto him, why is the decree so hasty from the king? And this servant actually begins to explain him. Look at verse 16. Then Daniel went in and desired of the king that he would give him time and that he would show the king the interpretation.

Now notice this for a moment. This is a 19 year old young man who walks with God. For three years, he's been educated, but he's still got his faith in God. Babylon cannot steal his conviction or his faith or his prayer life or his holiness.

Since in this church, we're surrounded by Babylon, but there is a faith in God that is greater than all of these things. Daniel goes right into the king's palace here. And in those days, you didn't walk in lightly before the king.

And he desired of the king, give me time. All the wise men had asked for time. And you know what the king said? You're trying to buy time. You're playing games. You're liars. You're trying to play the system.

But when Daniel asked for time, the king said, okay, you've got the time. What did Daniel do with that time? You see, Daniel didn't have the gift of dream interpretation. He didn't have a book that he could go and look in.

Do you know what? He had no ability to tell the future. He had no clue what the dream was, but he said, oh, king, I'll come back and I'll tell you what that dream is. Do you know what Daniel had? He had the God of heaven.

He knew the heaven's rule over the greatest empires and the greatest kings. And that when you walk with God, heaven is joined to you. Heaven can reveal the secrets of time unto you. Oh, don't you want to be such a church in this hour?

Right in 2020, as we approach 21, don't you want to be a church? The people of God joined to the God of heaven? I fear no man if I'm joined to the God of heaven. Where did Daniel go? It says in verse seven, Daniel went to his house and he made the things known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions.

Do you know what he done? He called a prayer meeting. Four of them went to prayer that night. They're not going to sleep that night. You know what? This could be their very last night. If he doesn't get an answer from heaven, this is their last night on the face of the planet.

What a crisis. Oh, saints, that we would return to this again, where we're desperate in prayer before God, where it's a matter of life and death and we can touch heaven. Listen to what he says, that they would desire the mercies of God of heaven concerning this secret.

Verse 19, then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. They went to prayer that night. They didn't sleep. They didn't sleep that night. They were in prayer, seeking for the mercy of God.

You see, Daniel didn't know the secret. He didn't have a gift in his back pocket. He was praying to heaven. Oh God, be merciful and show us the secrets of the king. You know what happened? God revealed it to him.

What did they do next? Go back to the king? No, they went back to the king of heaven. They returned and they began to thank the king of heaven. Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever for wisdom and might are his.

And he changes the times and the seasons. He remove us kings and he set us up kings. He give us wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that no understanding. He reveal us the deep secrets. And so he begins to pray and to thank God and to worship.

You know what Daniel knew? Daniel knew the heaven's rule. He knew that God has power. He raised up Nebuchadnezzar and he can remove him when he wants. God raised up the Babylonian kingdom and he can remove it whenever he wants.

I believe in this hour where we are at, and believe me, we are in this chapter. We are in Daniel two. We stand on the eve of the fulfillment of the end of Daniel chapter two. And I believe we've got to learn what Daniel learned.

We've got to learn the place of prayer. We've got to learn that God is the God of heaven. We've got to learn that God worketh in the hearts of kings and kingdoms and that we are here for such an hour.

I believe that God granted this gift to Daniel of dreams and visions of being able to interpret. And yet he didn't take the glory for himself. We're told that he went back to the king and said, I've got an interpretation.

What a confidence to say, the king hasn't given you the dream, but you've been alone with God. You've been in prayer before God. And you go back to the king and say, I know what you dreamed and I know the interpretation of it.

The Four Empires in Daniel’s Statue

Here, this night saints, let me try briefly to give you the dream and its interpretation. The four main points of it with a fifth added at the end, which is yet to be fulfilled in our day and generation.

First of all, let's look at this dream. The dream that Daniel came and said, you Nebuchadnezzar I've had is of a great statue. In other words, an image of a man, I mean a great image made of four different types of metal.

And this is what we're going to look at. The four different kinds of metal represented four kings and four kingdoms upon the earth. And I want to show you this. We're going to deal with it more in the weeks ahead.

And it's written about later in Daniel, but I want you to learn these four kingdoms. Please study this, learn these four kingdoms, because as you put these prophetic jigsaw puzzles in the place, you will begin to understand all of the teaching of prophecy in the Bible.

Let's go to the first of the four empires mentioned here. First of all, we have the head of gold. Who was the head of gold? It was Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian empire. Let me prove it to you. He is the head of the statue.

He is the first empire or the first kingdom. This image's head was made of fine gold. Look at verse 32. Daniel's speaking to Nebuchadnezzar, revealing the dream and then telling him the interpretation.

You see, when he gave the dream, the king knew this young man is in touch with heaven. He knows God. He knows my dreams. So he knew the interpretation was gonna be accurate because the dream was accurate.

Daniel speaks to Nebuchadnezzar in verse 32 and again in verse 38. And he says, O king, thou art this head of gold. So there's no confusion here. We know what the head of gold is. It is Nebuchadnezzar, this king of Babylon.

This golden head not only represented Nebuchadnezzar, but also the kingdom of Babylon over which he ruled. Let me prove that for a minute. Over in Daniel chapter seven, we have four beasts. In Daniel two, you have four parts of the statue.

In Daniel seven, you have four wild beasts. These four represent four kingdoms in both chapters. Here it's four different kinds of metal. In chapter seven, it's four wild beasts. Now listen carefully from chapter seven.

We read in verse 17 that they are four kings, four empires, and he said they are four kings. Then in verse 23, he calls them four kingdoms. So the wild beasts in chapter seven, they are not only four kings, but they are also four different kingdoms.

So here in chapter two as well, we not only have four kingdoms, but we have four kings, and those primary kings represent the entire kingdom. The entire kingdom is represented in that one great leader.

The king is the symbol of his empire. In fact, the entire empire is embodied or represented by its king. So Daniel tells him from the Lord that you are the golden head. He's not only speaking of Nebuchadnezzar, but the entire kingdom of Babylon down until it falls.

In other words, the entire history of it. Now notice with me for a moment that this statue with its different kinds of metal represent forms of government. The gold of Nebuchadnezzar represents or symbolizes the type of government he forced upon Babylon and all of the nations that they conquered.

So that gold is symbolic. You know, gold always represents what is divine or what comes from heaven. God put Nebuchadnezzar in there, and Nebuchadnezzar very closely represented the cert of government that comes from heaven.

In other words, it's an absolute government with absolute authority, and all authority resides within one man, not in his counselors. He gets rid of all of his wise men in one day without a thought, and nobody can argue.

No law can stop him. You see, that's why he is represented as gold. And if you understand that these four types of metal represent forms of different government, then we are gonna have our eyes opened here.

Also, Daniel tells him that the Lord has given you, Nebuchadnezzar, a kingdom, and he's made you a ruler. And in fact, he says, God has made you. My God, who revealed the stream, has made you a king of kings.

You're not a normal king. You're a king that's gonna rule over many other kings and many other kingdoms. Do you realize seven years before this, Jeremiah gave a similar prophecy, prophesying that the God of heaven had given all nations into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.

You see, Nebuchadnezzar was not a godly man, not a believer. He didn't believe the Bible. Neither did he serve the true God. He wasn't a righteous man. He was a tyrant. He was a very evil and wicked man.

But yet I assure you, God put him in his place. Jeremiah actually prophesied in chapter 27 that God had put all nations into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and in fact, even the wild animals of the field were given into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

In other words, his rule was divinely irresistible. People may laugh and say, when I say that I believe God raised up a Trump and put him in position over the past four years, they may laugh at that. They may say, but he wasn't a godly man.

He wasn't a moral man. They may say many things about him. But I wanna tell you, I believe with all my heart and I believe I could prove it that God put President Trump in position for four years to push the pause button on all that was happening on the global scene.

God done that, man didn't do that. And do you know what? I believe God has power over kingdoms and nations. Back in 1994, on a Sunday night in Scotland, I was leading a meeting in our church and our guest preacher was driving two hours to be with us.

That night as he stood and preached, he said, I had a strange experience this week when I was at work. He worked for BP Oil and he flew a lot by plane. And during that very week, he was on a plane in first class and sitting beside him was John Smith, the leader of the Labour Party of Great Britain.

And in fact, he was so popular that they said he would be the next Prime Minister of Great Britain. Everybody was saying it. He rose to power in the Labour Party. Now he was set to become the next Prime Minister of the nation.

As my friend sat there beside him and knowing what everyone was saying about him, he began to pray and said, Lord, do you have a message for this man? What would you have me to say? It can't be coincidence to be sitting here.

I believe you must have something to say. Do you know what God said to my friend? Listen, and my friend told me in preaching that night on that Sunday night, this man will not rule. This man will not rule.

He was shocked by the answer. And then he began to speak to him and try to share the gospel and preach to him and make him think about eternity. But he never told him that statement. Do you realize only a matter of weeks, if not months later, John Smith died of a heart attack and another politician stepped in called Tony Blair, who was elected Prime Minister in 1997 and went on to control power for 10 years.

What am I telling you? God raises up leaders. Who was this Nebuchadnezzar? Nebuchadnezzar was the first king to conquer Jerusalem and to take the people of Jerusalem captive. You remember in 605 BC, he carried away Daniel and his friends into Babylon, then was raised up to be king.

This was the beginning of the Babylonian kingdom, not until they took Jerusalem captive. In other words, these four kingdoms, every time they take Jerusalem, it marks their rise to sovereign power under the hand of God.

Daniel was taken captive. And in fact, Nebuchadnezzar ruled for the next 43 years, according to the will of God. Once he died, his son then entered the throne, then to usurpers. And finally, his daughter's son, Belshazzar, who brought the Babylonian kingdom down to its final end.

Do you know Daniel lived through this entire history of the Babylonian kingdom through the 43 years of Nebuchadnezzar's reign? And then he lived down to his daughters, his grandson, Belshazzar. And he seen the fall of Babylon at Belshazzar's feast.

Do you see how God is in control of all of this? And he's revealing in Daniel two, the rise of kingdoms and the fall of kingdoms. God put Nebuchadnezzar in place. And when he was finished with Babylon, he removed Belshazzar, his grandson.

But Daniel was still there. Daniel outlived the Babylonian kingdom. He continued through to the first year of the reign of the next king. That is the head of gold. It was the entire Babylonian kingdom, an absolute tyrannic rule and form of government.

Second of all, we have the breast and the arms of silver. Let me tell you what it represents and then let me prove it. What were the breast and the arms made of silver? What kingdom was this? What did it represent?

It represented Cyrus the Great and the Medo-Persian empire that would replace Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian kingdom. Look with me in chapter two here in verse 39. And it says, and this is Daniel speaking to Nebuchadnezzar in the second year of his reign.

And after they shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee. This inferior kingdom is depicted in the statue as the breast and arms of silver, according to verse 32. On Babylon's last night before King Belshazzar, Daniel was called in to interpret the message on the wall.

And we'll look at this on another night. And Daniel gives the interpretation. Listen to what it is. Belshazzar, thy kingdom is divided and is given to the Medes and the Persians. Who was it who replaced the Babylonian kingdom?

It was the Medo-Persian empire. God actually revealed it. First of all, in this statue, this dream, this revelation. And again, later to Belshazzar, the last King of Babylon, Daniel is there all through it knowing what's happening.

I mean, he knew exactly what was happening. He knew what was coming next. God had revealed it onto him. And that's in chapter five. Again, this kingdom was led by Cyrus the Great who replaced the Babylonian kingdom.