Fourth Quarter 2004 Adult Sabbath School Lessons:
"Daniel"

Insights to Lesson 2:
Nebuchadnezzar's Image
October 2-8

(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)

The Kingdom of God

The focal point of Daniel two is located at the end of the interpretation of the king’s dream. The point is about the setting up of God’s indestructible everlasting kingdom; not merely information about the rise and fall of nations in the march of time. Daniel was given a revelation of the mystery of the kingdom of God. This kingdom is about salvation. The basic principle of the kingdom of God is “agape” love. The greatest demonstration of this love was and is the crucifixion of Christ for man.

The cross of Christ is foundational to God’s kingdom. In the book of Revelation the centerpiece of the throne is a portrayal of Christ crucified: like “a Lamb as though it had been slain” (Rev. 5:6). Wherever God’s throne is, in that very place, is the cross of Calvary. The throne and the cross are inseparable. In God’s kingdom the cross is the power of God unto salvation (1 Cor. 1:16, 25).

The kingdom of God is associated with the gospel. It is called “the gospel of the kingdom of God.” Jesus proclaimed this gospel and commissioned us to do likewise as a witness to all nations. (Mark 1:14; Matt. 24:14). The “kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). As such “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). Daniel understood the reason for the temple in Jerusalem. It was an illustration of the message that God wants to dwell in His people. Forgotten by a majority of the people in Judah, Daniel lived and proclaimed this message to the Babylonians while serving in its royal courts.

The Revelation of the Mystery of God

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of an image is a revelation of the mystery of God’s will, interpreted through Daniel. Although it was given to the king, it is for us as well. The term “reveal” is used seven times in chapter two (see verses 19, 22, 28, 29, 30, 47 [twice]). The dream was so perplexing to the king that only a revelation from God could make it understandable.

The word “secret” is used nine times, eight of which are the same word. In verse 22 a single use of the word “secret” means “deep, deep mystery” in the Aramaic language. The other eight uses of the term “secret” are found in verses 18, 19, 27, 28, 29, 30, 47 (twice). This is “a Persian loan word, translated in the LXX [Septuagint: a Greek translation of the Old Testament], rather naturally, by the Greek mysterion” (Harris, R. L., Archer, G. L., & Waltke, B. K., 1999, ca 1980, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, p. 1071, Chicago: Moody Press).

The word mysterion (mystery) in the LXX is the same term used in the New Testament concerning the “the mystery of the kingdom of God” (Mark 4:11), “the mystery of the gospel” (Eph. 6:19), “the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16), in short, “the mystery of Christ” (Col. 4:3). The revelation of this mystery extends down to the time of the end when the final “woe” angel sounds and “the mystery of God” will be finished (Rev. 10:7; 11:13, 14). The finishing of this portion of the “mystery of the gospel” will end under the mighty movement of the “latter rain” and “loud cry” depicted in Revelation 18:1-4.

The main theme of Daniel two is the revelation of the mystery of the gospel. We learn that this revelation is for the king’s understanding (vss. 30, 47), resulted in saving not only Daniel and his three Jewish companions from a summary execution (vs.18), but also all the wise men of Babylon (vs. 24).

A Failed Educational System

God revealed to Nebuchadnezzar that his famous educational system was a failure in understanding the mystery of God. It was through Babylonian wisdom (going back to Nimrod) that the world forgot God (compare 1 Cor. 1:21). In Babylon God “destroy[ed] the wisdom of the wise, and [brought] to nothing the understanding of the prudent” (vs. 19) through the revelation of the mystery of His kingdom. Babylonian wisdom was “earthly, sensual, demonic.” Daniel had been educated in the school of the kingdom of God, and the fruit of this education was “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy” (James 3:13-17).

It came as a bitter and dramatic disclosure to Nebuchadnezzar that the wise men of Babylon were not wise at all. More than this, he learned they were charlatans. When he asked those counseling pretenders to tell him about his dream, the king did not ask of them something they did not profess to be able to do. But now they were clueless. They jockeyed for time. They needed more information. They needed a key. They sought to get this from the king. It was easy for these men to give a meaning to a dream told to them. The light of discernment dawned upon Nebuchadnezzar’s mind. He realized he had been duped by deceivers.

What the king did not comprehend was that the gods of the Babylonians were devils and that his wise men were spiritual mediums seeking to control the kingdom. Another mystery, the “mystery of iniquity” was at work. Lucifer wanted to establish his kingdom in Babylon in opposition to God’s kingdom (see Isa. 14:4-15). But he was foiled in his attempt through the revelation of “the mystery of God.”

The wise men of Babylon were placed in a situation they previously had never encountered. They were forced, by circumstances, to confess their complete ignorance to the very thing of which they claimed superiority: “There is not a man on earth who can tell the king’s matter” (Dan. 2:10). No one had asked them this question before. They were caught flat-footed and were unable to react quickly. They could not come up with a delusion to play upon the king’s susceptibilities in order to continue to fool and rule him. So again, they were compelled to admit their utter helplessness and ignorance.

In the revelation of the “mystery of God” we learn that the devil cannot read our minds. If he could have read the thoughts troubling Nebuchadnezzar he would have communicated the same to his mediums, the wise men of Babylon. A question naturally comes to us: “Why does it seem that the devil can read our minds?” He knows the weaknesses of our ancestors and of our personal weaknesses. With this knowledge he guesses how to tempt us, at times accurately. Sometimes we give him a key (by our words and behavior) to unlock thoughts in our minds. Actions sometimes speak louder than words. If we will veil our countenances with Christ’s righteousness and seal our lips from speaking anything or everything on our mind he can never know what we think.

A Failed Theological System

The Babylonian gods could not help those religious leaders, the wise men, concerning the “mystery of God.” “There is no other who can tell it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh” (vs. 11). The Babylonian wise men had a theological problem. Their Christology was totally wrong. Their gods did not and could not dwell in human flesh. But the God of Daniel could and did! “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). And that Word dwelt also in the fallen flesh of Daniel.

Furthermore, by His Spirit and through His Word, Christ continues to dwell in His followers: “The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, … now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:26, 27).

Isaiah spoke of this mystery about one hundred years before the birth of Daniel: “For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones’” (Isa. 57:15).

This was Daniel’s experience. God was in him making “known the riches of the glory of this mystery” among the Babylonians. Because of Daniel the wise men of Babylon were spared from execution. Because of this they were given additional probationary time either to receive or to reject the revealed redemptive “mystery of the gospel” of Christ. This additional time of probation was the continuation of the gift of “justification of life” (Rom. 5:18) to those enemies of the gospel.

The Theology of the Cross in Daniel

In Daniel two the redeeming significance of the cross is revealed not only in the saving of Daniel’s life, but also in the saving of all the wise men’s lives (Dan. 2: 24). Without question Paul, in the New Testament, was the first to establish a theology of the cross. However, to Daniel was revealed its saving significance. Daniel depicted the prophetic event of the crucifixion of Jesus in chapter 9:26, 27. Chapter two reveals the temporal inherent saving quality and consequences of the cross in preserving the lives of Daniel and his three friends. But more than this, it reveals the influence sown then that led to Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion later on (Dan. 2:48).

Nebuchadnezzar, for a time, turned from the gospel as presented to him in his dream (see chapter three). However, in chapter four we read of his conversion. This chapter is a record taken by Daniel from a public document out of the king’s administrative office. As a matter of public record this document was sent at least to the world controlled by the Babylonians. God working upon the heart of the king is an illustration of His work in justification by faith. God laid Nebuchadnezzar’s glory in the dust, and then He did for him that which he could not do for himself. This is not unlike the message of Minneapolis when Ellen White asked and answered the following question in the context of that message: “What is justification by faith? It is the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man that which it is not in his power to do for himself” (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers [TM], p. 456).

The Stone Cries Out in Clear Theological Tones

The cross is the mystery of God that, by the Holy Spirit, raised up Daniel and his companions to be living stones in the spiritual temple of God. As teenagers those disciples of Jesus bore His cross and continued to do so their entire lives. Both in living and in speaking they proclaimed Christ crucified.

The dream ends with the mystery of the cross revealed in the metaphor of a stone “cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” (Dan. 2:34-35).

This is a promise of the work of the mystery of God’s reign of righteousness eventually to be established in the earth so that now “we, according to His promise, [may] look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). The mysterious stone of Daniel two fills the earth with the righteousness of God.

Note that the image was not struck upon its head, but rather upon its amalgamated metal and mineralized feet. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the image is the mystery of God’s will and purpose extending from the time of Babylon until the end of the millennium. Not until the end of the 1,000 years will all the nations be “together” to receive the execution of the judgment as depicted by the crushing weight of the mysterious stone in Daniel two (compare Dan. 2:35 with Rev. 20:7-8).

Jesus linked Daniel’s stone with Isaiah’s (see Matt. 21:42-44). This stone is rejected by most of the world. To unbelievers it is an unwelcome stone of stumbling and a rock of offense (Isa 8:14). Sadly this was the case with the nations depicted in the dream of the image: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. Not only was this stone unwelcome by these great nations of the world, but even some among God’s people considered the Rock of righteousness to be a stumbling stone. This was true of the church in Daniel’s day, in Christ’s day, during the Dark Ages of Christianity, by Protestants who rejected Miller’s message, in 1844 by disappointed Millerites and in 1888 by angry saints. And what about today—are we any better than they?

Let’s contemplate the words of Jesus concerning the mystery of the cross as depicted in Daniel two, and ask for our glory to be laid in the dust, that we too might fall on the Rock and be broken and justified as was Nebuchadnezzar and not be finally granulized into powdered ashes: “Whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder” (Matt. 21:44). To those who believe from a heart set ablaze by God’s love, that stone is a precious cornerstone upon which the broken and bruised of the nations may be mended and healed and strengthened (Isa. 28:16).

It is out of the kingdoms of the world that God calls subjects into His kingdom. These same subjects who make up the nations on earth He transforms into His kingdom through justification by faith. Although serving the nations of the world with the pride and weakness of fallen nature, these same persons, after accepting Christ and His righteousness, serve as subjects in the kingdom of God and are revealed by their obedience to all of His commandments. They obey in, and with, the same inherited weak fallen nature in which they served the world, but are now victorious by God’s royal righteousness and kingly grace through their faith in Jesus Christ. To these transformed ones is given the message of the mystery of mercy—the gospel of the kingdom of God—that will go forth throughout the earth, calling, ever calling, God’s people to come out of Babylon (Rev. 18:1-4).

This is the message of Minneapolis that God commanded to be given to the world (see TM 91). The finishing of “the mystery of God” is accomplished during the time when the weakest part of the image is formed, when the amalgamation of iron and clay in the feet and toes of the image (the union of church and state, “the mystery of iniquity”) is completed. It is the power of the message of the stone—the righteousness of Christ’s cross--that brings down the image.

When people who are subjected to kingdoms of the world ask in helplessness, “Which way, by what teaching and through what power can I be delivered?” we must direct them to Jesus and to His words: “I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). Great is this mystery of the gospel of God as revealed in Daniel chapter two!

—Gerald L. Finneman

Read the study notes for lesson 3