Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45; The Kingdom Crushing Stone

06/27_Daniel 02:34-35, 44-45; The Kingdom Crushing Rock; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20210627_dan02_44-45.mp3

Gentile Dominion

God, the revealer of mysteries, revealed to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream things that will be in the latter days. The God who removes kings and establishes kings transferred his mandate to exercise dominion over his creation from the Jews to the Gentiles, to king Nebuchadnezzar. The times of Gentile dominion had begun. The Lord gave the king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon The God of heaven had given the kingdom, the power, the might and the glory over to Nebuchadnezzar. He had given him authority over all the children of mankind, over the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens. God’s creation mandate to exercise dominion passed from God’s people to the nations.

But the kingdoms of this world don’t last forever. And they aren’t improving, getting better. The dream outlines four kingdoms of descending value but increasing strength, except the final form of the final kingdom is not only less valuable, but also divided, a marriage of strength and fragility. The image is top-heavy and precarious, with feet of clay.

Daniel 2:31 “You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. 32 The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

…37 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, 38 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. 39 Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. 40 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. 41 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. 42 And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 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.

Catastrophic End

And it all comes crashing down. It comes to an abrupt and catastrophic end. The kingdoms of this world are comprehensively destroyed, removed, cleared away and replaced by something completely different.

Daniel 2:34 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

…Daniel 2:44 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, 45 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.”

Jesus the Cornerstone and Crushing Stone

Today our focus will be where it ought to be; on the kingdom crushing stone. Almost everyone recognizes that this stone is a picture of Jesus. Jesus himself connects this stone to himself in Matthew 21.

Matthew 21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

Jesus is the cornerstone. That idea comes from Psalm 118:22-23. Jesus is the rejected stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious to God, a sure foundation (Is.28:16). Jesus applies the cornerstone from Psalm 118 to himself, and the kingdom crushing stone from Daniel 2 that grinds the nations to powder also to himself.

Matthew 21:44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

Jesus is the stone that comes against empires and kings raised up in proud rebellion against him and grinds them like chaff that is blown away by the wind and not a trace will be found.

Isaiah 2:11 The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. 12 For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low;

The Lord alone will be glorified on that day.

By No Human Hand

This stone, we are told, is cut out ‘by no human hand’. Throughout the Old Testament, a contrast is drawn between idols, which are the work of human hands, and the one true God, the self-existent uncreated creator of all that exists.

Isaiah 2:8 Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.

When Israel made an altar, they were to make it of uncut stones, because their works would defile it (Ex.20:25).

In Isaiah 44, after displaying the foolishness people who form idols out of inanimate objects with their own hands and then worship them; he says:

Isaiah 44:24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,

Things not made with hands are things made by the powerful word of God, who breathed all things into existence.

Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

This rock not made with hands is of divine origin. Jesus is not of human origin.

Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Kingdom; Slow or Sudden?

Almost everyone connects the stone with Jesus and the establishment of his kingdom. But many want to see this in connection with his first coming, as a baby in Bethlehem, and teaching disciples who will make disciples who will make disciples and eventually his kingdom will grow in our hearts and fill the whole earth.

But this dream does not describe a slow gradual increase. It describes a rock hurtling through space, impacting the image with great force and utterly obliterating it. This is a catastrophic cataclysmic crushing, a complete demolition; there is nothing at all left of all the kingdoms of the world. They are blown away like chaff; not a trace of them could be found.

The empires of the world that are opposed to God seem to be quite alive and well today, not utterly obliterated. Jesus didn’t annihilate Rome; he died at the hands of Rome. The Roman empire continued long after Jesus ascended to the right hand of his Father. Gentile nations still hold power on this earth today.

If someone wants to connect the rock being cut out without hands to Jesus’ first coming and his divine origin and the virgin birth, that makes sense, but the rock impacting the image on its feet of iron mixed with clay and utterly obliterating all the kingdoms of the world sounds a lot more like what the Bible says about his second coming.

Last time we looked at Psalm 2, where the nations, peoples, kings and rulers set themselves against the Lord and his Anointed, but God answers in wrath and establishes his Son as King on Mount Zion. He says he will give him the nations as an inheritance.

Psalm 2:9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

I would like to read all of Zechariah 14, which describes in detail the defeat of the nations that God gathers against Jerusalem for battle, but a few verses will have to suffice:

Zechariah 14:3 Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.

5 …Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. …9 And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one.

Here’s what Jesus said in Matthew 24:

Matthew 24:27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. 29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Here’s how Revelation describes it:

Revelation 1:7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

Jesus came the first time humble and lowly, to be rejected and die for our sins. But he will come again as the crushing stone, with power and great glory! Revelation 19 describes it like this:

Revelation 19:11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

This sounds like the cataclysmic catastrophic kingdom crushing stone obliterating all the kingdoms of the world who are united against the Lord and his anointed in a moment.

In The Days of Those Kings

Daniel says

Daniel 2:44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, …

The question is, who are ‘those kings’? It could refer to Nebuchadnezzar and the following three kings and their kingdoms, but the dream lists those as successive, not contemporaneous; and clearly Nebuchadnezzar is long gone before the kingdom crushing stone destroys the image.

The nearest antecedent to the ‘those’ of verse 44 would be in verses 41-43.

Daniel 2:41 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. 42 And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 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.

The days of those kings would most naturally refer to the ‘they’ who will mix in marriage but who will not hold together, which seems to be referring to the divided kingdom of the feet and toes of iron mixed with clay. This seems most naturally to refer to a future final form of the final kingdom that will be in existence at the return of Jesus to rule and reign.

The Mountain That Will Stand Forever

Daniel 2:35 …But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Daniel 2:44 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,

Jesus will one day completely crush and blow away every trace of the kingdoms of this world, and establish his own kingdom that will never pass away. His kingdom ‘shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people.’ This would be great comfort to the Jews in Babylon, who had witnessed the disobedience of God’s chosen people result in the transfer of world dominion from the Jews to the Gentile Nations. This won’t happen to Christ’s kingdom. It will not be transferred again because of sin and disobedience. Although everything in this world is temporary and uncertain, our hope is in a kingdom that will not be shaken (Heb.12:26-29), will not be forfeit, will not be conquered, will not pass away.

Nebuchadnezzar was asking questions about the future, about the endurance and perseverance and longevity of his kingdom. God gave him a vision that was meant to turn his eyes away from him and the works of his hands and to the coming Christ who will bring all opposing kingdoms to an end and whose kingdom shall stand forever.

The kingdom of Jesus Christ is an unshakeable rock that will become a great mountain that will fill the whole earth. (Lk.1:32-33; Rev.11:15)

Fall On Jesus Today!

The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces. Fall on Jesus. You will be broken, undone, but you will be remade, reborn. You will become part of his new creation (2Cor.5:17).

Do not be found on that day standing in opposition to Jesus, in independence, in self-centered rebellion. Jesus will fall on you and crush you to powder. He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1Pet.5:5-7). Run to the Son. Fall on him. Find refuge in him.

Matthew 21:44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org