The following presentation applies a 'High Context' Lens to Nebuchadnezzar's Dream. This "lens" assumes that Nebuchadnezzar’s dream applied specifically to ancient Israel during the Babylonian Captivity. Nebuchadnezzar's dream thus telescoped a time when his regime would be destroyed and replaced by one that would permit the Israelites to return to their homeland to re-build the temple in preparation for the Messiah. The dream’s interpretation would have had an immediate impact on the morale of Daniel's captive people, since whatever affected the Babylonian administration also impacted them. Therefore Daniel's captive people became the beneficiaries of the "statue’s" destruction! The dream, therefore, had no prophetic relevance beyond Daniel's day. Please visit my website, The Secret Synagogue, for a detailed analysis.

1. Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream—Divine Judgment On His Monarchy
Daniel 2:1-45

2. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream telescoped the violent end of his empire.
From head to toe the image is Babylonian. Each element symbolized a
kingship within the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The message was multilayered: It reminded
Nebuchadnezzar that ‘the heavens are ruling,’ buttressed the morale of
the demoralized Israelites, and gave prophetic assurance that the captive Israelites would
return to their homeland to rebuild the Temple in preparation for
the Messiah. Each kingdom is confirmed
by historian Flavius Josephus.

3. “Your Majesty-You are that head of Gold!”
Nebuchadnezzar personally, not his “empire.”

4. “After you, another kingdom will arise,
inferior to yours.”
Amel-Marduk (562-559 BCE)

5. “Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.”
Nergal-sharezer (559-555 BCE)

6. “Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything
and as iron breaks t hings to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.”
Nabonidus (553 BCE)

7. “Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom;
yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay.”
Nabonidus and Belshazzar (553-539 BCE). The kingship of Nabonidus and Belshazzar was “divided
and weakened” due to Nabonidus’s attempt to promote the worship of an Assyrian moon god in
Babylon. This act split the country in two. Babylon was also weakened due to Nabonidus’s prodigious
spending on building projects.

8. “
“the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands.”
Cyrus the Great, God’s “anointed” conquerer (Isaiah 45:1-7)

9. “a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.”
Daniel Chapter 5 records the very night of conquest by Cyrus of Persia.

12. 44“In the time of those kings, 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 those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it itself will
endure forever.” The Neo-Babylonian Empire was demolished.
Its demise allowed the Jews to return to their homeland and
rebuild the Temple in preparation for the Messiah.

13. Holy Bible, New International Version®,
NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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