►|Thursday/January 16, 2014|Part Three of END TIME SERIES► DANIEL 2&3...Message Two: THE DREAM & ITS INTERPRETATION (Daniel 2:24-48).
When God revealed the dream & its meaning to Daniel & his friends, Daniel didn't quickly run to the king; he FIRST gave thanks to God. Never rush to do things just to score political points or to gain fame; Wait on God, give thanks & ALL THE GLORY TO HIM for an answered prayer first. Now, Daniel told Arioch (whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men) to stop their execution &take him to the king for him to interpret it. This is the dream & its interpretation.
(i) The Dream (Verses 29 to 35):
The king saw a large statue—enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. Its head was made of gold; its chest & arms were of silver; its belly & thighs were of bronze & its legs were of iron. BUT A ROCK was cut out, not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the ROCK that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.
(ii) The Interpretation (Verses 36 to 44):
King Nebuchadnezzar (Babylonian Kingdom) was that head of gold. Another kingdom (made of silver) will arise, inferior to that of King Nebuchadnezzar's. Of course, silver is inferior to gold. A third kingdom (made of bronze) would arise & finally a fourth kingdom, strong as iron (for iron breaks and smashes everything) would rule the world & as iron breaks things to pieces, so it would crush&break all the others. Daniel continued that, as the feet & toes were partly of baked clay & partly of iron, so this would be a divided kingdom; yet it would have some of the strength of iron in it, even as iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron & partly clay, so this kingdom would be partly strong & partly brittle. And just as the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people would be a mixture BUT won't remain united, just as iron cannot mix well with clay. In the time of those kings, God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It'll crush all those kingdoms & bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.
Thus, God showed the king what would take place in the future. The dream was true and its interpretation, trustworthy.
The King immediately knew that the interpretation was true because the Dream Daniel narrated was exactly what he (the king) saw when asleep. So king honored his promise; he gave Daniel gifts & promoted him. Daniel wasn't selfish; so he requested that, as he had been made ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men, his three friends should be made administrators over the province of Babylon. The king granted the request. Daniel himself remained at the royal court. NOTE, ONLY THE FIRST KINGDOM & THE ONE THAT GOD WOULD ESTABLISH WERE MADE KNOWN WHEN DANIEL WAS INTERPRETING THE DREAM.
Tomorrow, if God permits, we'll look at the SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH & FIFTH KINGDOMS ARE & THEN LOOK AT THE ONE GOD WOULD ESTABLISH.
--Samuel Kwasi Forkuo
ALL THE GLORY TO GOD
http://goo.gl/ELx22J
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