Episode Transcript
Daniel chapter 2, God willing we'll be expounding verses 31 through 34 this morning.
Now we expounded verses 31 and 32 last week, but we're going back over it again some.
We're not entirely leaving it, we're going back over it again and bringing it into the next verses.
This is a rich, rich book and we don't want to miss anything.
So we're continuing our study on this amazing prophetic book which currently has our attention focused on the dream that God gave King Nebuchadnezzar, who was the king of Babylon at that time, who had taken Judah captive.
In the past few weeks, we have learned that the dream is God's revelation to us, as well as them, of future events in this world, most particularly those involving world powers.
We learned that these future events are revealed to us symbolically through Nebuchadnezzar's dream that he had of a great image that he saw last week.
In Daniel chapter 2 verses 31 and 32 last week, Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar, "Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image.
This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass."
We learned last week that the Great Image was a symbol of a great world power. and underscore if you would the word "great".
"Great image", underscore the word "great".
We then learn that as Daniel worked his way down the major body parts of this great image, he was working his way down the timeline of future world powers, future world events.
And as the body parts change, from head to the chest and arms to the belly and the thighs, etc.
As the body parts change, the form of world government is changing.
But there's yet how many images?
Only one image.
So the form of world government changes, but there is only one great image behind them all.
You get the picture now?
And I told you last week that the one great image represents the one ungodly power that is behind all ungodly powers that form in our world.
The great image represents the devil, who is behind every rebellion against God, in every form of government that exalts itself against God.
So the great image is the devil, and the body parts of the image are the various forms of government that rise and fall over the course of time.
Now listen to what God told the prophet Ezekiel concerning Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
In Ezekiel 29, verse 3, God said, "Speak and say, 'Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon."
Now you see that word "great"?
That's why I had you underscore the word "great image."
And now he's calling Pharaoh the "great dragon" that lies in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, "My river is mine, and I have made it for myself."
Now, when God called Pharaoh the "great dragon", he was speaking primarily to the power behind the throne, not the power on the throne.
You see?
He's speaking to the power behind the throne, not the man on the throne.
As an unbeliever, Pharaoh was acting in the power of his father, the devil, who was the ruler of this fallen world.
Satan is the power behind all ungodliness.
As Satan, the great dragon, worked through Pharaoh to contend with God's people, so Satan worked through Judas Iscariot to contend with God's Son.
Luke chapter 22, Luke chapter 22 verses 2 and 3 says, "And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him," speaking of Jesus, "for they feared the people.
Then entered Satan into Judas, surname Diskaric being of the number of the twelve."
So, what do we have here?
We have the power behind the power.
Judas Iscariot is betraying Christ, contending with God's Son, but it's Satan, the great dragon, that enters into Judas to betray Jesus.
The great image in Daniel represents the great dragon in Ezekiel.
It's all the same.
Who's the devil?
Revelation chapter 12, while you're taking notes, write down your margin.
Revelation chapter 12, verse 79 says, "And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon."
Not a dragon, the dragon.
And the dragon fought against his angels.
I'm sorry, fought in his angels and prevailed not.
Neither was their place found anymore in heaven.
And the great dragon, you see that?
You've got a great image in Daniel.
You've got a great dragon in Ezekiel.
You've got a great dragon in Revelation.
And listen to what it says in verse 9. and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called... say it with me... the devil and Satan, he's also called Satan, which deceiveth the whole world."
He deceives the whole world.
He's the power behind the power that exalts itself against God.
Says, "He was cast out into the earth, his angels were cast out with him."
Now notice that the great dragon deceives the whole world.
Satan again is the power behind the throne of all godless nations, which is why we have many parts, ungodly kingdoms, but only one image, their ungodly king, the devil.
Make sense?
Listen now to what God says to the prophet Isaiah.
In Isaiah 26, how timely we just got through studying the prophets in Genesis to Jesus today.
In Isaiah chapter 26 verses 21 through 27, verse 1, God said, "For behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity."
So what do we see so far?
God's in His place.
He's in His sanctuary in heaven.
His tabernacle, His temple in heaven.
In one day, He's going to come out of that place.
Right now, you can't see God.
One day, He's going to come out.
Now, when He comes out, He's coming out in the person of Jesus.
That's how He's going to come out.
He's going to come out, and to do what?
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.
The earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
"In that day, the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan, the piercing serpent."
You see what's happening?
Jesus is coming out, God is coming out of his place.
He punishes the earth But by in punishing the inhabitants of the earth for their sins He has to get the power behind those sins.
He has to get the one that's been Agon the people on and in motivating the people this whole time since Adam and Eve And so he not only gets the people but he gets this piercing serpent this biting serpent a man a serpent, Leviathan, that's called the crooked serpent.
You see that?
"And he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea."
So Leviathan is this crooked serpent, and the crooked serpent, this nasty winding crooked snake, is a dragon.
The dragon.
The same dragon that was in the river in Egypt is the same dragon that is in the book of the Revelation, is the same dragon here that is in the book of Isaiah, and it says here the dragon is in the sea.
Why is he in the sea?
Because the book of Revelation says that great dragon deceives the whole world.
And in Bible prophecy, the sea is a picture of the world.
And the reason is, is because that sea, not being dry ground, it's always going back and forth, just tossed to and fro.
Whatever the direction the wind blows, that's the way the sea goes.
It's just chaotic, stormy, and dark.
And so it represents the world.
So again in Bible prophecy, it represents this wicked world, this unstable world, because it's without God.
Isaiah 57 verse 20.
Isaiah 57 verse 20a says, "But the wicked are like the troubled sea."
Now the great dragon and the great image both characterize the devil.
Satan is not only the great dragon that was behind the rebellious king of Egypt, He's the great dragon behind all ungodly world powers, and thus he is once again the great image in the book of Daniel.
Now we observed last week that the body parts which represented various world powers were depreciating over time.
Remember that?
It started off with gold, and then we go to a chest and arms of silver, and than to a belly and thigh of brass.
So it's depreciating over time.
Now continuing down the timeline of this great image this morning, Daniel said in verse 33, speaking of the image, "his legs of iron."
Now we're getting even more in degrading in the preciousness of metal.
His legs of iron.
Now we had thighs of brass, now we have legs of iron.
And The difference between the thigh and the leg here is the thigh here represents the part of the body from the hip down to the knee.
The leg represents the part of the body from the knee down to the ankle.
Okay, so we've got thighs of brass and then we have leg of iron down to the ankle.
Okay, on that image.
Then Daniel continues to the end of the great image.
Now the end of the great image is the end of time.
Not time as a whole, but the end of time for the ungodly world powers, you see.
It's the end of ungodly reign.
And thank God that image has an end.
Amen.
And it's the feet here, okay.
And so, he goes on to the end of this rebellious world saying, "His feet, part of iron and part of clay."
So we go from gold, to silver, to brass, to iron, and when you get down to the end, it's iron and clay mixed together.
You see how continuing to depreciate over time.
And this shows us the great depreciation of this world.
As evil men and seducers, the Bible says, "shall wax worse and worse on the earth in the last days."
And the feet which were part of iron and part of clay shows the fragility of this failing world at the end of time.
It shows us how Satan, the great image, is slowly coming to his end.
He's not getting better and better, smarter and smarter, stronger and stronger.
He's getting worse and worse.
Daniel went on to tell King Nebuchadnezzar, look now in verse 34.
He's looking at the image.
We're going from the image, his head, Working all the way down, watching it depreciate all the way down to its feet.
And he's looking at this image and then suddenly in the king's dream, Daniel says, "Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands."
Underscore the word stone, underscore the words without hands.
So the king, first of all, he sees a stone.
And it's important for us to note that the stone was cut out.
And when it says it's cut out, it means like a stone that's cut out of a quarry.
Okay?
The stone is cut out, like one cut out from a quarry, but it's cut out from that quarry, how?
Without hands.
Without hands.
Now here's the quarry.
We read in the...
Brother Doug, I get so excited about this.
We read in the prophecies earlier this morning where God comes out of his place to punish the earth, right?
Now this place is the quarry.
The stone comes out of his place, but the stone is the sun.
The whole quarry doesn't come down, but the sun does.
The sun, the stone, is cut out though without hands.
He comes out of the quarry without hands.
Doesn't mean he doesn't have hands, it means the stone came out without the work of man's hands.
Because if we go get a stone today, you want a granite countertop, somebody's hands have to cut that thing out of the quarry.
He may use a machine, but it's going to be hands working that machine.
But this stone that Nebuchadnezzar sees, it comes out of a quarry and it's cut out from that quarry without the use of man's hands.
Anytime you see something accomplished in the Bible without hands, it is referring to something that is God's work and not man's.
You got it?
Anytime something in the Bible is done without hands, it's referring to something that is God's work and not man's.
For example, in the Old Testament, the men circumcised their baby boys on the eighth day.
That was God's commandment for man to do.
But in the New Testament, God circumcises His children with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That's something only God can do, you see?
And since it's something only God can do, then it is the circumcision that's made without hands.
Colossians chapter 2 verse 11 says, "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.
In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, His death, burial and resurrection.
So the stone being cut out without hands means this stone did not come from man.
This stone did not come as the result of man or the work of man.
This stone came as the work of God.
This stone is God.
He comes from God.
The stone that Nebuchadnezzar saw is Jesus Christ.
Now listen to what God said about Jesus in Isaiah chapter 8 verse 14.
You see how all these prophets, they harmonize like singers.
I love listening to Brother Shepherd and Brother Luke and Allison and oh my goodness, Sarah.
My wife says, she tells me all the time, "In some ways you're a genius, in some ways you're the absent-minded professor."
And she's right, she's absolutely right.
But I love listening to them harmonize.
And the prophets harmonize.
Listen to what God said about Jesus in Isaiah chapter 8 verse 14.
Watch this.
"And he shall be for a sanctuary."
Now, pause right there in your mind.
In the book of Exodus, God told his people, "Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them."
That sanctuary was the tabernacle which ended up Solomon building and turning from a tabernacle to a temple.
So both the tabernacle and the temple were the sanctuary where God dwelt among his people.
Make sense?
Now watch, he says this about Jesus "And he," that is Jesus, "shall be for a sanctuary," that way God dwells among his people in the person of Jesus Christ, "but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a djinn, and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem."
Now the reason Isaiah is saying that is because at that time, Judah and Jerusalem and Israel, they were rebelling against God.
And so, he says, "Jesus, the promised Savior, He's going to be for a sanctuary.
But for these people here, He's going to be for a stone."
See, you can have Jesus one of two ways.
He can be your sanctuary or He can be your stone.
One of two ways, but he's going to be both depending on what you do with him.
Okay?
So Jesus is both a sanctuary to take shelter in, and he is a stone to stumble on.
You see what Isaiah is saying?
For those who trust in Jesus' death and resurrection for them, he is a sanctuary to take shelter in.
For those who reject Jesus, He is a stone to stumble over and fall to your destruction.
In the Old Testament, the sanctuary, again, which also was called the tabernacle and the temple, was a picture of Jesus.
But those sanctuaries, the temple and the tabernacle, were made by man.
So, the New Testament, the sanctuary is Jesus.
And thus, Jesus is the sanctuary that's made without hands.
2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 1 says, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, We have a building of God and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
So, Nebuchadnezzar isn't seeing a sanctuary.
He didn't watch this image and follow this image from the head down to the feet, till he saw a sanctuary come.
He watched from the head to the toes until he saw a stone come.
And that means Nebuchadnezzar is not seeing Jesus coming as the shelter for believers to hide in.
He's seeing Jesus as the stone that unbelievers are going to stumble over with their feet and fall to their destruction.
Daniel said, "It was a stone made without hands," look back in your text, "which smote the image upon his feet, that were of iron and clay, and break them to pieces."
Now church, this is another example of how important it is that we don't miss Sunday school.
Brother Shepard probably already knows where I'm going with this.
Recently, Brother Shepard was teaching on how King Josiah destroyed the false religious systems in Israel.
For those of you who have been going to his Sunday school class, what did he do with the idols and those things like that?
What did he do with them?
Do you all remember?
Grounding the powder.
Who said that?
I heard a lot of people.
Grounding the powder.
2 Kings chapter 22 verse 15.
2 Kings chapter 23, excuse me, 2 Kings chapter 23 verse 15.
"Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place, he break down and burned the high place and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove."
And Brother Shepherd was teaching that the reason they stamped it to powder is because there'd be no semblance of it left.
It's gone.
It's not like, you know, man, I remember one time my mama had something, I can't remember what it was, at the house, it was some kind of vase or something, and I broke it when I was a little boy.
And I was all by myself.
In some of those vases, you can take those pieces and put them back together, and they didn't look like they're broke until you touch them.
And man, I stuck that thing back together and you couldn't even tell.
And I can't remember what happened, but I don't know when it finally got discovered, but I made it for a while.
But now, if you grind that vase to powder, the vase is gone.
You can't put it back together.
And so this stone comes down and it hits this image on the feet and it breaks this image into pieces.
And Brother Shepard was explaining that when they broke and ground those idols and those altars and things to powder, they were making them so they could never come back again.
Alright?
Now when we look here, go back here to this, where it says here this, it says, "It smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and break them," that is the feet, "break them to pieces."
And this, in 2 Kings 23 15, where we just read, where it says that he stamped it, smalled a powder, The word translated "stamped" there in 2 Kings that Brother Shepard's been teaching on is the Hebrew version of the Chaldean words translated "break" here.
You see?
This is Chaldean that we're reading in Daniel.
Brother Shepard's teaching in 2 Kings, that's Hebrew.
But this is the same word as "stamped" here.
He stamped them into pieces.
Every time a godly ruler in the Old Testament stamped a false god to powder, it is a picture of Jesus Christ, the stone cut out without hands, stamping the rebellious kingdom of this world in all its false gods and the power behind it, that old devil, to powder when he comes again.
Speaking of himself, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 21, verse 44, Jesus speaking of himself, Matthew 21, 44 said, "And whosoever shall fall on this stone," You hearing that?
Jesus called himself a stone.
"Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will..."
Say it with me, "grind him to..." what?
"...powder."
He's saying, whoever this stone falls on is going to grind him to powder.
You know what Jesus was telling us in Matthew 21 44?
Jesus just told us that he was the stone in Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
That is absolutely marvelous!
He is the one that we're waiting on to come as a stone out of the quarry without hands.
God's complete work to come back at the end of time, the feet, and to stamp that image into powder.
He's the one who will come and strike the godless world system, and the devil who empowers it, at the end of time he will grind his enemies and thus he will grind our enemies to powder and once for all make dust out of the devil for that will go ahead and close I tell you what man folks there's no way you can study the Bible and come away not understanding it's God's Word It is the Word of God.
Father, we thank you so much.
First of all, we thank you so much that you gave us a sanctuary.
We're so grateful for the tabernacle of God.
We're grateful, Father, for the sacrifice that was made, for the blood that was shed, for the mercy that was given, and for the priesthood of Jesus Christ.
We're so thankful for the gospel, which is our sanctuary.
At the same time, we're also grateful, Lord, that we as Christians won't forever live in a fallen and rebellious world.
One day, God, because of the gospel, the same gospel that provided us the sanctuary will send us a stone.
And Father, when the stone comes, Lord, Lord, he's going to break and grind and powder every sin that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
And Father, on that day, dear Lord God, we'll be so thankful and we'll truly live in paradise.
We thank you for that time.
We pray, Lord, that you'll bring us back safely next Lord's Day as we get back into your precious Word and continue studying this dream.
In Jesus' name, amen.
