Once upon a time, there was a mighty king who ruled over much of the known world. His dominion extended to the most distant parts of the earth. The king was happy and contented, for he possessed great power, majesty, glory and authority. However, one night the king’s tranquility was disturbed by a perplexing dream. The king knew that dreams often conveyed important insights, so he yearned to understand the meaning of the visions which had passed through his mind.
Calling all of his royal magicians together, the king ordered them to tell him the meaning of his dream. Unfortunately, the king’s relationship with his magicians was tense; he had long suspected that the magicians were charlatans, inventing vaguely plausible answers to his queries. So, the king resolved to pose a severe test. This time he would require not only that the magicians interpret his dream, but that they first recite the contents of his dream. Only then could the king be confident that his magicians were genuine, and that their interpretations were trustworthy.
Stunned by the king’s demand, the magicians replied, “There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing… What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men.” When he heard this response, the king flew into a towering rage. He was now fully convinced that his magicians were worthless deceivers; he commanded that they be put to death.
The magicians might well have met a bloody and ignominious end were it not for a strange turn of events. One of the king’s officials discovered a man who claimed that he could indeed do what the king asked: not only interpret the king’s dream, but actually peer into the king’s mind and describe the dream itself. The man’s name (of course) was Daniel.
Daniel was an exile who had been taken captive by the Babylonian armies when they destroyed the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. The little country of Israel was a backwater on the fringes of the mighty Babylonian empire, ruled by the renowned King Nebuchadnezzar. But the tribes of Israel were unique among the peoples of the ancient world. Unlike all the nations around them, they claimed that their God was the one true God who had created the heavens and the earth. And it was their God who truly had sovereignty over the world.
Daniel was led into the presence of Nebuchadnezzar. He freely confessed that no mortal man could solve the mystery of the king’s dream. Yet Daniel declared that God had graciously chosen to reveal the secret of the dream, so that the king might know what would transpire in days to come. With confidence, Daniel recounted the king’s dream: it was a vision of a magnificent statue comprised of gold, silver, bronze, iron and clay. But suddenly, a rock struck the statue with such force that the figure was shattered into a thousand tiny pieces and swept away by the wind. “But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.”
The king must have been astonished as Daniel told him exactly what he had dreamt. The young exile then proceeded to interpret the dream: the statue represented a series of kingdoms which would arise one after another. But at some future time, God would bring an end to all the kingdoms of men and replace them with his own eternal kingdom. Daniel declared, “The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.” The rock which smashed the statue thus symbolized the coming kingdom of God. And when God finally established his reign, the world would at last become a place of justice, joy, peace and life.
Most Christians who know anything about the book of Daniel can tell you the story of the lion’s den. Far fewer recall the story of Nebuchadnezzar’s bizarre dream. Yet this story forms the backbone of the Jewish-Christian worldview and should dramatically shape the way we look at our world today. How so?
The ancient Israelites believed that there was one God who created all things. From the dust of the earth, God fashioned mankind in his image and had given human beings the exalted role of exercising his authority over the world, so that the creation might flourish. Yet humans had turned away from the worship and wisdom of the living God. They sought instead to govern the world according to their own desires – with disastrous results. Human rebellion plunged the world into a sea of misery, alienation, futility and death.
Yet God was determined to set all things right again. Daniel and the people of Israel rightly believed that they had been chosen to bring salvation to all the world. They had been called into a special covenant relationship, whereby they would offer to God the true worship and obedience necessary in order for the creation to thrive. By fulfilling their key role, Israel would show all the nations what it meant to be truly human. People of every tribe and tongue could glimpse how they too might share in God’s rich blessing.
This is the context within which the king’s dream must be understood. The ancient Jews clung to the belief that the world was not just spinning around in meaningless cycles. Rather, history was moving relentlessly forward. The cruel and unjust kingdoms of men would come and go. And God’s people would often suffer as they waited patiently for redemption. But God would eventually send forth his Messiah – a righteous king of Israel – who would establish his rule and reign. The Messiah would vindicate those loyal to God and sweep away all the dark forces which opposed his authority.
What then should we learn from this strange story in the book of Daniel?
First, we must always keep firmly in mind God’s ultimate purposes for his creation. Far too many Christians believe that upon the death of their physical body, God will evacuate their immaterial soul to an otherworldly place called “heaven” where they will escape from all the horrid realities which plague our bodily existence. Others believe in the new heavens and the new earth, by which they mean that God will destroy the present creation and start all over again. This second scenario is much better than the first option, but still fails to grasp the full Biblical reality. The story of the Bible is not at all about the negation or abolition of the creation order, but about its redemption.
Remember, “the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.” This telling phrase clearly indicates that the coming kingdom is not about escape from the present world, but about the reclamation of the world on behalf of the One who made it. God fully intends to re-establish his authority over creation forever.
Second, the story gives the appropriate framework by which we can comprehend the mission of Jesus. The essential announcement of Jesus was this: “Repent! For the kingdom of God is near!” The ministry of Jesus was entirely focused upon one theme: the imminent arrival of God’s kingdom. His parables described the nature of the kingdom, and his miracles were signs of the kingdom. But Jesus was not simply a herald announcing the kingdom; he astonished his hearers by claiming that he was, in fact, God’s anointed king. True, the fundamental nature of his kingship was very different from the expectations of his fellow Israelites. Rather than violent conquest, Jesus believed that his kingdom would come about through his death and resurrection. Indeed, when he became king, his crown was a nettle of thorns and his throne a blood-stained cross.
The driving power of God’s kingdom is that of suffering love and forgiveness. Yet this should not delude us into believing that God’s kingdom is merely a spiritual endeavor – allowing us to ultimately escape or ignore the world in which we live. No: the rock will become a mountain and will fill the whole earth. The kingdom which Jesus has already established will inexorably grow, until the authority of God and his Messiah will be firmly established over all the earth. The book of Revelation puts it like this: “Now the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Messiah, and he shall reign forever and ever!”
His conquest will not look like that of Caesar Augustus or Alexander the Great, nor that of Napoleon Bonaparte or Adolf Hitler. But make no mistake, Jesus intends to conquer the world.
