Courageous Living: Faith Lessons from Daniel
07/06/2003 - Saddam Hussein's Big Dream
Where is Saddam Hussein? That's the million-dollar question. In fact, according to the US government that's the $25 million dollar question. That's the amount of the reward that's been offered this week for any information leading to the capture of Saddam Hussein or the proof of his death. Where is Saddam Hussein? Is he still alive? Is he hiding out in Syria or somewhere in Iraq? And if he is, what kind of condition is he in? Was he wounded in the war? Can he still lead? Can he still function? Or was incinerated in the "Shock and Awe" campaign never to be found again? Our government will not be able to rest until it discovers what happened to Saddam Hussein. It's still a mystery.
There's a lot about Saddam Hussein that's a mystery. But there are some things that are crystal clear. Saddam Hussein and those who follow him have a well-documented political agenda that contains three ambitious goals.
The first is the acquisition of more and more land for Iraq particularly free access to the Persian Gulf. That's what prompted the invasion of Kuwait and the first Gulf War back in 1991. The second is the gaining of more economic power, which comes by controlling a greater and greater supply of the world's most precious commodity - oil, that makes the world spin. And the third is the elimination of the nation of Israel, which has always been at odds with Saddam's Arab people.
It's not surprising that his three goals are the same three goals of an ancient King named Nebuchadnezzar who also wanted worldwide domination, economic power, and the destruction of Jerusalem. Hussein has always seen Iraq as the continuation of Nebuchadnezzar's glorious Babylon and someday he would love to see a unified Arab world equivalent in power to Nebuchadnezzar's ancient Babylonian Empire.
In fact, Saddam Hussein sees himself as the next Nebuchadnezzar as portrayed on this gold Iraqi coin. In an interview with him not long ago he was asked if he ever dreamed of filling the role of Nebuchadnezzar to which he responded, "By God, I do indeed dream and wish for this. It is an honor for any human being to dream for such a role." Saddam's big dream is to be the next Nebuchadnezzar. Some say that he actually believes that he is King Nebuchadnezzar reincarnated.
In an interview shortly after he came to power in 1979 Hussein said, "What is most important to me about Nebuchadnezzar is the link between the Arabs' abilities and the liberation of Palestine. Nebuchadnezzar was, after all, an Arab from Iraq. Nebuchadnezzar was the one who brought the bound Jewish slaves from Palestine. That is why, whenever I remember Nebuchadnezzar, I like to remind the Arabs-Iraqis in particular-of their historical responsibilities."
To symbolize his link with Nebuchadnezzar, Hussein has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild the ancient city of Babylon. Over sixty million bricks have been used in the project, each engraved with this inscription, "To King Nebuchadnezzar in the reign of Saddam Hussein, protector of Iraq, who rebuilt civilization and rebuilt Babylon."
Saddam's big dream is or was to be the next Nebuchadnezzar and to restore Iraq to worldwide domination. Nebuchadnezzar is his hero. And in the passage we're going to look at today, we're going to see Nebuchadnezzar's big dream that was also about worldwide domination.
Today we continue our series in the book of Daniel called Courageous Living: Faith Lessons from Daniel . If you have a Bible meet me at Daniel 2, a chapter that contains one of the most amazing prophecies ever recorded.
Remember, in the story we looked at last week, King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and he wanted his dream interpreted. But no one could interpret it, except a teenaged boy named Daniel. And the only reason he could figure it out was because God revealed it to him. And for his interpretation he was handsomely rewarded.
Daniel 2:48, Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men.
So what was Nebuchadnezzar's big dream and what's the interpretation that got Daniel all these perks? The dream and its interpretation are found in verses 26-45. But before we read it, let me tell you a few things about Bible prophecy, Prophecy 101.
One of the reasons I believe so strongly that the Bible is the inspired Word of God is because of the amazing prophecies that it contains. The Bible is a prophetic book. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible has a lot to say about the future. One out of every four verses in the Bible, when it was written, was written about some event that was going to happen in the future.
Large sections of the Bible are named after prophets, books like Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. These Hebrew prophets were men and women who spoke for God. They were both forthtellers of God's truth and foretellers of future events. In fact, when Jesus referred to the Old Testament he called it the Law and the Prophets.
In the New Testament, Jesus, Peter, Paul, and John all had a lot to say about the future as well. Much of which is yet to be fulfilled. For instance, over 300 times the New Testament speaks about the future return of Jesus Christ. He'll be back! We can't study the Bible seriously and not study Bible prophecy. It's everywhere because the Bible is a prophetic book.
But how do we know that these prophecies are true? That's a great question! Let me answer it in two ways. First, God's standard for prophets was perfection. They couldn't mess up and keep their job. In fact, they couldn't mess and keep their life. If the events they predicted didn't come true they were executed. That's a great motivator! There was zero tolerance for mistakes in this area. Failure was not an option.
But there's a second reason why I believe Bible prophecy is true and that's because of the perfect track record of prophecy already fulfilled. Much of the Bible's prophecy has already come true and we can check it with history like the prophecy we're going to look at today, along with the many prophecies concerning the first coming of Jesus Christ.
Scholars estimate that over 300 Old Testament prophecies point to the first coming of Christ. They include prophecies concerning his lineage from the tribe of Judah and the family of David, his virgin birth, his place of birth, his escape to Egypt, his growing up in Nazareth, his ministry, his betrayal, his denial, his crucifixion, his resurrection and on and on. The mathematical probability that even 20 of those 300 would be fulfilled in one man is one in one quadrillion, one hundred and twenty-five trillion. Any math teachers here? That sounds like a big number to me!
Any thinking person has to grapple with the evidence that the Bible is completely accurate when it speaks about things to come. Nothing compares to Bible prophecy for sheer airtight accuracy, not the sayings of Nostradamus, not the predictions of Jeanne Dixon, not your daily horoscope or the fortunetellers on the boardwalk, or mystics on TV. Nothing.
I love the response of the man who was approached by a fortuneteller who said, "If you give me $10 I can tell everything that's going to happen to you tomorrow." The man turned around and said, "I'll give you $20 if you can tell me everything that happened to me yesterday."
So with that as a bit of background let's look at King Nebuchadnezzar's dream and it's prophetic implications. Look at verse 26, The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), "Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?" 27 Daniel replied, "No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you lay on your bed are these: 29 "As you were laying there, O king, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. 30 As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other living men, but so that you, O king, may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind. 31 You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue-an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time 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. 36 This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king.
Daniel begins by revealing the dream to the king. And the dream is of huge, dazzling statute made up of four different metals. The head is gold. The chest and arms are made of silver. The belly and thighs are bronze. And the legs are of iron with feet that are part iron and part clay. The metals get less precious as they go down the statue, but at the same time they get stronger.
Then at the end of the dream a rock, flying through the air like a meteor, smashes the statue to dust after which the rock does something completely supernatural. It grows into a huge mountain that fills the whole earth. That's the dream and now here's the interpretation.
Look at verse 37, You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
The statue represents four Gentile kingdoms that will rise to rule the world. For the first time, since God formed the nation of Israel, he was handing world domination over to these four Gentile powers. But he makes it very clear that he is still in control. The sovereign control of God is a major theme in the book of Daniel.
The first metal, the head of gold, was Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar ruled over Babylon during its golden years from 605 until 562 B.C. And during that time he took Babylon to its zenith of power. He created an unprecedented era of prosperity and undertook great construction projects building impressive walls and gates, temples and shrines, palaces and pyramids, and the legendary hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Babylon was called the golden city and the empire lasted until 539 B.C., although it looked like it would go on forever.
But then it was followed by another world power. Look at verse 39, After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. The next power to march across the screen of history was the Medo-Persian Empire, represented by the chest and arms of silver.
In October 539 B.C., King Cyrus of Persia, with God on his side, did the unthinkable. He conquered mighty Babylon without a fight. In a brilliant military maneuver he dammed up the waters of the Euphrates River that ran right through the heart of the city until they "were only the height of the middle of man's thigh." And then his Persian army, under the cover of darkness, waded silently into the city through the river under the bridges, undetected. And in a very brief battle killed Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, who was king at the time. And Babylon fell to the Medo-Persians in one night. It was a miracle!
And although its kingdom would grow larger than Babylon's geographically, the quality of its government would be weaker and so in the dream they are called inferior, as silver is less glorious than gold.
The Medes and the Persians ruled the world for over 200 years until they were conquered by a brilliant, young ruler named Alexander the Great. Look at the rest of verse 39, Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.
The third kingdom represented by the belly and thighs of bronze was Greece. Alexander the Great, who ordered people to call him "king of all the world," defeated the much more powerful Persian army in a brilliant series of battles between 334 and 330 B.C. And in just eleven years he extended the Greek Empire from Europe to Egypt and then all the way to India. His empire thrived for more than 270 years, although he died of a broken heart in Babylon at the tender age of 32 because he had no more worlds to conquer.
Finally, verse 40 says, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron-for iron breaks and smashes everything-and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.
The fourth kingdom, represented by the legs of iron, was Rome which conquered and crushed the entire known world starting with the Greeks in 63 B.C. and lasting until it's own collapse in A.D. 476. Rome under the rule of its Caesars was the fourth and final Gentile power in Daniel's vision. And although the Roman Empire was still five hundred years away, Daniel describes it perfectly.
Look at verse 41, 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. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
This is an amazing prophecy! The Roman Empire that started out as strong as iron eventually would deteriorate and become as brittle as clay. It conquered real estate, but it never could unite its people. And history tells us that in A.D. 364 the empire actually divided into east and west, symbolized by the two legs. The eastern half under the rule of the Greek Orthodox Church centered in what is now Istanbul and the west under the rule of the Roman Church centered in Rome.
This prophecy is so incredible that critics of the Bible say Daniel couldn't have made it almost 600 years before Christ, because it reads like a history book. It must have been written after these empires came and went. But it is a prophecy written before the fact, revealed by a God who sees the future as clearly as he sees the past, because there is no future with God or past for that matter. God is not bound by time and space. He lives in the eternal now. He sees the whole parade of history from the top of the skyscraper as happening right now.
But then something remarkable happens. Look at verse 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 all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 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. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy."
Out of nowhere someone throws a rock at the statue and it is completely destroyed, pulverized. And the person who throws the rock is the God of heaven who will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed.
And what is the rock that's cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands? The rock is Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God. Throughout Scripture Jesus is referred to as a rock.
Listen to 1 Peter 2:6-8, For in Scripture it says, "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." (Isaiah 28:16) 7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," (Psalm 118:22) 8 and, "A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall" (Isaiah 8:14).
Jesus is the rock that will destroy all those kingdoms and in the end set up his own kingdom that will endure forever.
And when will that kingdom come? Well, it didn't come during Jesus' first coming. Jesus was born during the Roman Empire. But it was not at that time that he came to judge the earth. It was not at that time that he came to destroy the world. Instead, he came to save the world through his death on the cross.
But when he comes again, at his second coming, he will smash all form of human government and set up his earthly kingdom and there will finally be world domination under the perfect ruler, Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
As Revelation 19:15 says, Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, "He will rule them with an iron scepter."
Which has caused many scholars to believe that there will be a revival of the Roman Empire in the form of ten nations, represented by the ten toes of the statue, at the time Jesus comes back. Over the years some have suggested that the toes represent the Common Market or the United States of Europe. We don't know for sure. But what we do for sure is that in the end Jesus Christ will reign supreme. That is where history is headed. Count on it. Are you a part of that kingdom? You can be if you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior?
Saddam Hussein's big dream is world domination. King Nebuchadnezzar big dream was world domination. But world domination belongs to only one person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now on this 4th of July weekend, when we think patriotic thoughts about America and freedom and a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, let me draw three quick conclusions from this amazing prophecy.
First, God is sovereign over his world. The lesson for Nebuchadnezzar and for all of us today is that God is in control. He sets up kings and takes down kings using whatever means he chooses: war, assassination, political overthrow, democratic election, you name it. But God is in control.
Second, God has a plan for his world. He knows where all this confusion is heading, straight for the kingdom of God on this earth.
Third, God is ordering history according to his plan. And while at times it may all seem so out of control, everything is moving according to God's plan. And what's true for the world is also true for our lives as well.