Daniel: Humble Servant, Faithful God - Kingdom of God

This Sunday we return to the book of Daniel, examining the dream of Nebuchadnezzar interpreted by Daniel. The dream is of a statue representing four successive kingdoms. They are successive because they are connected in one statue. They are also comprehensive to the known world of the author and people. This vision does not account for the various tribes of men around the globe. God is not unaware of the Incan people or others, but he is focused on the nations that currently compete with and intersect his kingdom established with his people through Abraham. 

These four kingdoms represent man’s competition with God, but notice, God assumes responsibility for establishing and overseeing these pagan kingdoms. He says to Nebuchadnezzar, “The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory” (Daniel 2:37). The King cannot assume that his station as king is something he accomplished apart from the sovereignty of God. The kingdoms of men are managed by God, as Paul says, “he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,” Acts 17:26.

These four kingdoms are subdued, visually destroyed, by a stone cut from an unnamed place by unnamed hands, indicating God’s authority and action. This stone strikes at the vulnerability of the last kingdom, destroying the entire statue and establishing a permanent kingdom, saying, “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another,” Daniel 2:44. The kingdom God established will permeate the kingdoms of men and ultimately claim victory over them.

Join us Sunday as we consider the message to the exiles and as we learn to live in what God has established through Jesus Christ.