Friday, January 17
It is instructive to note that the image of Daniel 2 is made of gold and silver, which are metals related to economic power. The image is also made of bronze and iron, which were used for tools and weapons, and of pottery, which was used in the ancient world for literary and domestic purposes. Thus, the image provides a vivid portrayal of humanity and its accomplishments. Most appropriately, the distinct anatomical parts of the image convey the succession of world kingdoms and the final disunity that will prevail in the last days of human history. The stone, however, is distinctly depicted as something not made with “human hands” (Daniel 2:45), a powerful reminder of the supernatural end that will come to this temporary world and all its human accomplishments.
Although “to the unaided human eye, human history may appear to be a chaotic interplay of forces and counterforces … Daniel assures us that behind all of this stands God, looking down upon it and moving within it to achieve what He sees best”. — William H. Shea, Daniel: A Reader‘s Guide (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2005], p. 98.
Discussion Questions:
1. How good to know that amid all the chaos and suffering of this world, God is ultimately in control and will bring everything to a glorious end. Until then, what is our role in seeking to do all the good that we can to help alleviate the suffering that exists in this fallen world?
2. How do we explain Daniel and the captives working so closely with and apparently loyally to a pagan leaader who has done so much damage to Daniel’s own people?
3. As we saw, some have argued that the stone cut out without hands refers to the spreading of the gospel to the world. That can’t be right for a number of reasons, including what Daniel 2:35 says, which is that the stone will crush the previous nations and that “the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found”. That did not happen after the Cross. Furthermore, some attempts to identify the stone kingdom with the church fail to note that the stone kingdom replaces all other forms of human dominion. It is a kingdom that encompasses the whole world. Therefore, only Jesus’ second coming can set in motion the process portrayed as the climax of this prophetic dream. Why, then, is the second coming of Jesus the only sensible interpretation of what the stone does in the end of days?
