“This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.” – Daniel 2:36-45

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the kingdoms enters us into the beginning of the prophetic illustrations of the book. In it, we see a frightening statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, middle and thighs of bronze and legs of iron and feet of partly iron and partly clay. Then the statue was struck by a giant boulder and crushed it all to where the wind then blew the dust into the air.

These kingdoms that represented the statue were worldly kingdoms (Babylon was the head of gold), which would follow one after another, whose focus was self and sin. They will fill God’s world with violence. These kingdoms were then destroyed by the final kingdom, God’s permanent kingdom, confronting the evil of the worldly kingdoms, bringing righteousness and justice that the previous kingdoms ignored.

Simply put, it was a warning to Nebuchadnezzar that his kingdom would receive its retribution and be destroyed. Those who rely on the kingdoms of the world should take this to heart and be afraid. Worldly kingdoms will end. God’s kingdom will rule forever (this is a spiritual kingdom – please do not in any way think I am referring to the U.S. as God’s kingdom). Us Christians, who have chosen to live in the Kingdom of God on earth will reap the benefits of God’s restoration, but the entrance fee must be required: salvation through Jesus that leads to repentance and obedience. We should be comforted by this passage with the knowledge that God will restore everything to the way it was meant to be. Justice will be served!