6. The Statue & the Stone

Statue: Gold Head

Yahweh gave King Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom of power, strength, and glory and called him His servant. His Kingdom grew westward to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and eastward to the border with Medo-Persia.
Dan 2:37-38 Jer 27:6 Dan 4:37

Purpose:

• to rule over others and to discipline Judah for their evil idolatry.
  Ezk 5:5-9 Jer 32:27-35
• to keep a remnant of His people safe in Babylon for His purposes.
  Jer 42:11-12 Jer 29:10-14

The Beast: A Lion with Eagle’s wings

Daniel was given a vision of four beasts coming out of the sea (symbolic of Gentile nations). The first, a lion with two wings is a majestic animal and a powerful conqueror with two wings of an eagle.
Dan 7:4

The Eagle’s Wings are plucked

The wings represented the greatness of Babylon, but instead of giving Yahweh the glory, Nebuchadnezzar claimed it for himself. Yahweh then humbled him until he had repented and this was symbolised by the plucking of the lion’s wings.
Dan 4:30-32

Why did Babylon fall?

King Belshazzar, the last Babylonian King, deliberately defiled dedicated holy items, that had been taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. He used them to entertain his guests at a feast and was judged by Yahweh. The judgement was written on a wall at the feast. Belshazzar was slain that night, and Darius, the Mede, reigned in his place.
Dan 5:23-31

Yahweh later chose King Cyrus of Persia to rule Babylon in order to fulfil His plans for Israel. According to historical records, Cyrus dammed the Euphrates River, walked on the river bed under the walls of the city of Babylon and conquered it overnight, with little bloodshed.
Isa 45:1-6

Statue: Silver Upper-body

• Babylon (which included Egypt)
• Turkey
• The territory from the East of Persia (Iran) to India.

Ezr 1:1-2 Dan 8:2-4

Purpose:

• to build His city, Jerusalem
• to release His people from exile
• to extend Medo-Persia with the Babylonian territory

Isa 45:13

Beast: Bear with 3 Ribs in its Mouth

A Bear is a strong animal that overwhelms its prey. The three ribs represent the three territories that Persia conquered – Babylon, Turkey and eastward to India.
Dan 7:4 Dan 4:30-32

Why was Medo-Persia Destroyed?

Daniel was interceding for his people when the archangel Gabriel was sent to tell him what was going to happen to his people, Israel.
Abridged Dan 9 prayer of intercession.

Daniel was told that Medo-Persia was no longer serving Yahweh and was actively obstructing His purposes. After the archangel Gabriel dealt with the prince of Persia, the prince of Greece would come; dominion would be passed to Greece.
Dan 10:11-20

A fourth king arose in Persia, and through his own riches and by his own power, and for his own purposes, he attacked Greece.
Dan 11:2-3

The end result is that a mighty king of Greece (Alexander the Great) attacked and quickly conquered Medo-Persia. Dominion was taken from Medo-Persia and given to Greece as prophesied.
Dan 7:6

Statue: Bronze Belly & Thighs

Greece attacked Medo-Persia and conquered the land from Greece and Egypt to India. One of the characteristics of this kingdom was the speed of the conquest and the enormous territory to India.

The four wings represent the four regions that the kingdom was divided into after Alexander the Great died.

Dominion was given to this kingdom.
Dan 7:6

Purpose:

Greece consolidated a huge territory form Greece to Egypt and eastward to India and Alexander opened trade routes with many different cultures. Long after the kingdom collapsed, remnants of Greek syncretism (mixing of beliefs) still exist and are found in world religions and cultures.

Greek was used to spread the Gospel of the Kingdom of Yahweh.

Why was the Greek Kingdom Destroyed?

There are no explicit reasons given for the demise of the Greek Empire, however, after the early death of Alexander, the kingdom was divide up between 4 generals/families. There were disputes and battles between them and in 167 BC, Antiochus Epiphanies IV attacked Judea and desecrated the temple. Over many years the kingdom fell apart with Rome conquering the western half (including Judea), although they never conquered the eastern half of the Greek Kingdom towards India.

Many Greek concepts still influence modern thinking today, including Christianity e.g. the concept of going to heaven after death to be with the ‘gods’.

The bible teaches that Yahweh descends to dwell with mankind on a perfected earth after His Son has put everything under His feet, including death.
1Co 15:23-26 Rev 21:2-3

Mixing of different beliefs is called syncretism and is part of deception which Jesus warned His disciple about.
Mat 24:10-12

Statue: Legs of Iron and Feet mixed with Clay

The forth beast is dreadful and terrible! It is explicitly described as being different from the other beasts and different from all other kingdoms.

• It is not based on any known animal
• The kingdom is not named in the bible.
• It devours, tramples and breaks the whole earth. Dan 7:23
• This beast includes aspects of the previous three beasts Rev 13:1-2

Rome never conquered the full Greek kingdom or the whole earth

Purpose:

xxx

Why was the Beast’s Kingdom Destroyed?

xxx