So what does the future of this world look like? There are many theories, even among Christians. For instance, some may take an optimistic view of history, believing that things will continue to get better until Christ comes. On the other hand, others will see history with more of a pessimistic view, seeing it on a more dystopian, trajectory, believing that there will be a rapid decay of both morality and global conditions before the return of Christ. Of course, we want to look and see what the Bible has to say this evening, and we are going to get a glimpse of just what Scripture has to say about these matters. Now, as we're doing this, we are going over the closing pieces of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. And this is what we began to look at last time, his dream. And in his dream, you'll remember that he saw a grand statue, something that was terrifying. and that God was revealing to him, verse 28, there's a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. God was revealing to him what the history of the world would be. And so as he is looking at this imposing and frankly frightening figure in front of him, Nebuchadnezzar is dreaming and seeing this head of gold and we saw last time that that is a reference of course to the king himself and to his kingdom. And then we also saw, and this is in verses 32 and 33, the breast and the arms of the statue would be silver, and we saw that that would actually be representative of the Medo-Persian empire. After that, its belly and its thighs of bronze, would follow and that would be representative of the Grecian Empire. And then finally we moved on to the Lakes of Iron which we're studying tonight and its feet that are partly iron and partly clay. Now these are four kingdoms we said and that would be Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. Of course, there are some who disagree with that, but that is the take that we have on the passage. We also see that there is actually a fifth kingdom that is mentioned here. As a stone that is not cut out with hands comes and strikes the statue, that is the fifth kingdom. That is, in fact, Christ's kingdom. And so that is also something that we are going to be talking about this evening, the stone that is hurled at the statue. Now again, we only considered the first three kingdoms last time. This evening, we consider the remaining portion of this dream. As we do so, we will note three aspects to this remaining portion of the passage. First, we will note the concluding kingdom, or we could say kingdoms, of man. The concluding kingdom, or kingdoms, of man. And that will be in verses 40 through 43. Second, we will note the coming divine kingdom that I just mentioned, the stone. We will consider that in verses 44 and 45. And then finally, third and finally, we will consider the current recognition of man, the current recognition of man as modeled there in verses 46 through 49. And so as we consider these, we are going to see just what we should expect of the future. Let's note the first of these, and that is the concluding kingdom or kingdoms of man, again, verses 40 through 43. Then, so this is after the third kingdom of bronze, then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things. So, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. In that you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom, but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. And in that, you saw the iron mixed with common clay. They will combine with one another in the seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery. All right. This text seems to speed through the first three kingdoms and then slow down. and focus on this fourth kingdom. In fact, this is more material devoted to the fourth kingdom than to the first three kingdoms combined. Of course, as we've noted before, critical scholars today do disagree with us that this is Rome. They actually believe that it is Greece. We disagree with them. But what are they thinking? Well, they're thinking that, well, this talks about a kingdom that's powerful, but then it's fractured. And so you have Alexander the Great going out, and he's conquering the known world. But then after his death, immediately after his death, The dogs of war are unleashed, and the kingdom is divided amongst four generals, and there is fighting after that. And certainly that is the case, but this is not what the text is indicating. No one in history interpreted it this way, for instance. The early interpretation from Josephus, who was not a believer, to the apocryphal book of 2nd Esdras, to the early church fathers, everyone interpreted this fourth kingdom to be Rome. Everyone through history interpreted this fourth kingdom to be Rome, to be the Roman Empire, and it is only within the last couple hundred years where we've had some people who thought they were smarter than everyone else come forward and say, actually, it's Greece. Why do they say that because they don't believe that Daniel was supernaturally revealing human history in the sixth century They don't believe in the God of heaven who reveals mysteries and that really is what it comes down to That's why they have this this question in their minds But this is actually Rome Which would have been at the time of Nebuchadnezzar young and weak If you think about it, it would have been a small, insignificant village town at that time. But Rome would, of course, become more powerful over the centuries. begin building a military force. It would also begin winning military victories one after the other. Now, of course, it would have some setbacks like any military would, but it would continue overall to push forward. And it would have victories like that decisive Battle of Carthage in 146 BC. As it continued to grow in strength, The MacArthur Study Bible notes here that Rome even employed armies in iron armor known as the Iron Legions of Rome. And so it is marching with its Iron Legions. The weak became strong and it eventually conquered the Grecian Empire in the year 63 BC. And so at that moment, it conquered everything that Greece had conquered, which was everything that Persia had conquered, which was obviously a smaller area, which was, of course, everything that Babylon had conquered, which was actually a smaller area. And so you have this increasing reach. And if you look in any history book, whether it be Christian or not, you will see those empires continue to grow over time until you get to the Roman Empire, covering so much of the known world at that time. There is strength to the Roman Empire, and you can see its greatness as you move into the first century. You can also see something else, though, brutality you know one commentary notes here if there are five terms utilized in this verse breaks smashes breaks to pieces crush break to emphasize the tremendous power in this fourth kingdom or the tremendous power that it would exert Rome ruled the nations with an iron hand, and like a huge iron club, shattered all who resisted its will. And that would, of course, include Israel. And as the New Testament opens, it opens on a world that is controlled by the city of Rome. All of this was predicted 600 years ahead of time. And again, though, you may pick up a few commentaries and run into some modern skeptics who say otherwise. The commentators agree that this kingdom of iron is Rome. All of them agree. virtually without any disagreement now where does disagreement come in because there is going to be disagreement well it comes in when you get to the bottom of the statue what about the feet of what the King James calls miry clay what is this part of the statue is this also ancient Rome something that it is that is ancient Rome But we can consider a few things here. We can consider, for instance, the fact, or we can consider the kingdom of Christ in the following verses. In verses 44 and 45. Is that great stone that strikes the feet of the statue, is it just the church? Some interpret it as the church. And as the church is going out and spreading the gospel message, it is conquering or overcoming the nations of the world. And eventually, maybe we just overcome the world with the gospel. Some have thought that. And so they think that, okay, this is ancient Rome, these 10 nations there, because they see the stone as Christ, or as the church. But doesn't the stone's actions seem to indicate something violent, an overthrow, a crushing of the statue, a grinding up of the statue into dust so that it's carried away by the wind and there's nothing left? There is something that seems to be missing here. And it's this determination point of human history. That seems to be what we are reading about in this dream that God is revealing. It seems wrong to read this as saying that Christ's kingdom will exist peaceably next to the kingdoms of man until eventually it just conquers the kingdoms of man through conversion. That doesn't seem to be the message here, but we'll talk more about that in a few minutes. So we consider that. We might also consider the parallel to Daniel 7. Now we don't have a lot of time to really dig into Daniel 7 tonight, but if you take a peek over there and you look at verses like say 19 and 20 of Daniel 7, you'll note that there is growing out of these, well, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. There is a vision there in Daniel 7 of four beasts, which also symbolize Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and then Rome. But out of the fourth beast, we see growing up out of it, these these horns and Out of these horns there are ten horns that grow up and out of out of one of those horns we see another horn that comes up that will utter blasphemies and and and make war with the Saints and Until the Ancient of Days comes, in verses 21 and 22, to take possession of the kingdom, or so that the saints can take possession of that kingdom. Now, there's much more to say about that chapter, but in short, these two visions, chapters two and chapter seven, seem to be talking about the same thing. And so as we consider that, we are reading about in both of these nations that grow out of the fourth kingdom, So we're not talking about ancient Rome. And if you're confused, that's what we're getting at. This is not ancient Rome. This is something that grows out of ancient Rome. This is something that comes later. Something that is still future. Something that hasn't happened yet. You might say, well, wait a minute. How can it grow out of ancient Rome Rome fell. Well did Rome fall? Did Rome fall? Was Rome conquered? See, that is something that sometimes we might think, and there are books that are titled something like The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, and it might be a good history of sorts, but did Rome actually fall? That is a question that we have to ask ourselves and even challenge. And it's true that historians can look at something like the deposition of of the Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus in the year 476 as a kind of terminating point for the Roman Empire. And they might say, okay, that is a convenient day or a date of convention where we can say the Roman Empire fell. It fell in AD 476. But that's not the whole story. The Roman Empire really wasn't truly conquered. It did wane in influence, it's true. It did experience invasions, that's true. And of course, at one point, even having a Germanic tribe overthrowing the Roman Emperor and placing someone else on the throne, that's true. But, It's also true that Rome changed over time. It became something else. Just as verse 41 here describes this as a divided kingdom, the Roman Empire fragmented and transformed. For instance, we can think about the Roman Empire in the east, in the east. It continued on in Constantinople for nearly a millennium after this. Nearly a thousand years after this, the Eastern Roman Empire continued in Constantinople until the Ottoman Turks came and took it over and renamed it into Istanbul. Istanbul, Constantinople. You get it. In the West, what became the Roman Catholic Church? And I put it that way because it wasn't always the modern Roman Catholic Church. What became the Roman Catholic Church? continued its legacy. In instances like this, popes began adopting the title Pontifex Maximus, which was a title that used to be reserved for Roman emperors. In the year 8800, Pope Leo III also crowned Charlemagne the emperor of the Romans. Maybe you remember reading about that in history class and he lauded this as the Roman Empire He said this is the revival of the Roman Empire and the home Holy Roman Empire as it came to be called continued on until the 19th century When it finally came to an end in the Napoleonic Wars Much of Europe Continued Roman law and traditions and Roman influence, just as its ruins, continues to exist today. Now there's, of course, not a direct line of succession of Roman emperors. We can't say that this Roman empire continues to exist as it once did. Of course not. As we examine cultural, legal, and religious, and political threads, we can see continuity from today all the way back to the Roman Empire. We see it in modern Europe. In fact, as we look to the 20th century, we can see imperialistic tendencies in groups like the Nazis, right? Who wanted to establish the Third Reich. While European nations have a passing commitment to democracy today, we've also seen authoritarian tendencies there. People's free speech and rights can be squashed. Think about the fact that you can be arrested in many European nations today for a post on social media. And of course, I only need to say one word to prove this to you, COVID. People were being locked down. There were restrictions of movement and commerce. And you could not engage in such things unless you took this mark known as the COVID vaccine. Now, I'm not saying that the COVID vaccine is the mark of the beast or anything like that, but do we not see some chilling foreshadowing going on in modern Europe and in the world? With globalism still being a driving force in Western nations, it is not inconceivable that the Roman Empire will one day arise from the ashes, even electing an autocratic leader as a proverbial phoenix to handle some future crisis. Now, the text here tonight does not specify or even talk about the Antichrist here, so we will leave that for another time. But still, we might wonder about these 10 toes or nations here. It's difficult to say whether Daniel or the Lord intended for us to see exactly 10 nations, or if he is using this as a number of completion, as sometimes happens. In fact, in Daniel chapter one, we've already seen Daniel use it that way. So it is possible that this is a number of completion and that the nations could actually number greater than 10, Or it could be possible that it is exactly 10 and we just have to wait and see exactly how God chooses to fulfill that. But this is not supposed to be ancient Rome. This is supposed to be a confederation of nations which arise from Rome and are somehow connected to Rome. In the feed here, are described as being strong like iron, but will also have a brittle nature to them. Why? Because they are going to be a mixture of iron and clay or potter. Now, If you are engaged in some kind of crucible activity where you are maybe making knives or something like that, you know how to melt down metal, and you know that you can melt down a couple of metals, different metals, and create an alloy there. But you can't combine iron and clay. These two things just do not mix. They do not adhere to one another. There is going to be strength, of course, in the iron, but there is going to be a separation that naturally is wanting to take place. There is going to be significant weakness. But this will be a confederation of nations, and this confederation will both be strong in some ways, as well as weak and vulnerable in other ways. Now verse 43 continues the description here, and it says that they will combine with one another in the seed of men. Now this is a really strange expression here, and there are a couple of ways of understanding this. If you have an English standard Bible, it has translated this as mix with one another in marriage, and that may be a possible interpretation here. I'll just throw this out there, you don't have to turn there. Ezra chapter nine verse two uses very similar language, and that is talking about intermarriage there. And so this could be talking about some kind of intermarriage. And as we consider modern technology, genetic manipulation, cloning, and other scientific endeavors, we do see some dark possibilities for the future. But is that what this is talking about? I'm not, I'm not certain. There is another possibility here. One commentator explains that this mingling is with, is the strong with the weak. And that's what's being emphasized in the text. And that is what's being talked about with the nations, strong nations and weaker peoples coming together under the Antichrist. And that is possible as well. In the global alliance or new world order that is being built here, maybe it's being built, and think about this, maybe it's being built as humanitarian, as egalitarian. We're all going to be equal. This is not an elitist endeavor. despite what you may have heard. This is something where we are finally going to come together as one global community and we're going to have the weak and the strong coming together and we're going to be equals and there's going to be respect and there is going to be a fulfillment of some kind of Marxist vision. where class warfare is being eliminated, impoverished nations and lower classes are coming together with the strong, with the wealthy, with the upper classes, and now there is a flattening out, and it's gonna be so wonderful, it's going to be a utopia. Such attempts never succeed. They never have in history. and they won't in the future. Globalism, with its centralized federal government, will only create more problems than it solves. Treaties can be broken. People are still people. Fighting and desires still will arise. compete and the feet of Such endeavors will prove to be too weak to keep such a kingdom of man standing The inevitable conclusion is an infighting and infighting and competing Desires and goals will cause the entire Union to fracture The end times world government is doomed to failure on its own. This vulnerability is true of all human attempts, by the way, especially if Christ is not in them. Even the best of human governments are human at best. Are we not all clay? And of course, our efforts will eventually bow before the Lord, as we see next. Second, note the coming divine kingdom. Verses 44 and 45. In those days, or in the days of those kings, I should say, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. And that kingdom will not be left for another people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, The great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future. So the dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy. So Daniel now briefly, with a little bit more commentary than he gave to the other nations, but not quite as much as he gave to the fourth kingdom, he gives an overview of the fifth and final kingdom here. Now, as we look at this, there's gonna be some disagreements here. Those who are amillennial, who say that we are currently in the millennium, or those who are postmillennial, who typically also say that we are either in the millennium or about to be in the millennium, will see this stone as the church and the progress of the gospel message. Now, I don't want to mock that because the preaching of the gospel is so important, and we should want to see that continue as much as possible. We want to support that as much as possible. And even though we may disagree with the eschatology, the end times views of our amillennial and postmillennial brethren, we would gladly link arms with them if it meant a gospel endeavor and making sure that more people hear about the greatness of Christ and his kingdom. We are happy to do that. But we do disagree here that that is what is being spoken of in this passage. The imagery here suggests a complete and violent overthrow of the world's kingdoms and again a termination of human history apart from God. This can only describe the second advent of Christ and his establishment of a kingdom. So if you haven't figured it out by this point, we are pre-millennial here. We believe that we exist in a time before the millennium, before the kingdom of Christ. Now, as we believe in the gospel, of course, we are spiritually brought into the kingdom. We do experience some benefits today. of the kingdom, and even the lost world around us, the kingdom of man, can experience some fringe benefits of the kingdom of God being lived out in a spiritual. But this is not the same thing as what we're reading about here, where the stone strikes the statue and takes it down. That's not something that we are involved with. That is something that Christ is going to do. And we read that it will come about in the days of those Kings This this physical kingdom of Christ will come in the days of those Kings now does this mean in the days of Nebuchadnezzar well Christ hadn't even come in his first advent yet this doesn't mean in the days of the Medo-Persian Empire with Darius and Cyrus it doesn't mean that that Christ would come in the days of Alexander the Great. Really, if we're gonna look at the kings, we could only really speak of one king in ancient Rome, which would be the Roman Emperor. We wouldn't normally talk about many kings. There were kings, of course, like King Herod, but these were subjects of the Roman Empire. No, we're talking about something a little different, and that is in the toes, in the feet of the statue, these kingdoms which would arise from the Roman Empire. Out of this confederation of kingdoms, or nations, would come some rebellion against Christ, and Christ will physically return and subdue it. He will overthrow the statue. He will smite the nations as pottery. See, Rome thought it was doing its smiting, right? With the rod of iron. Jesus is coming back with a rod of iron. Jesus is coming back and he will smite the nations and they will crack like pottery. And is that not interesting that the text here talks about the toes being a mixture of iron and pottery. He will strike it and things will fall just like that. Just like that. Thank you for the illustration back there buddy. I appreciate it. Things will fall. and he will then set up his physical kingdom. And at that point, as the Legacy Standard Bible translates it here, God will cause a kingdom to rise up. What is that kingdom? Let's go back to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter nine. Hmm, this is one that you're familiar with at Christmas time, right? Isaiah chapter nine. You can go to a couple of places for Christmas and have Christmas in July, but we'll just read this one here. Isaiah 9, verses six and seven. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us. You say, yes, that was the first Advent. And the government will rest on his shoulders. Now does that describe the first Advent, the first coming of Christ? No. I mean, we are indeed brought spiritually into the kingdom of Christ, but we don't see this physical government yet. The government will be upon his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor. And indeed today, we do see him as a Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Eternal Father, or the Father of God. Eternal life we could render that Prince of Peace He is indeed all of these things but verse 7 says there will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom hmm to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and righteousness. From then on and forever, the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this. Now, there's two ways we can read about the kingdom of Christ. We can either allegorize it and say, well, this all has something to do with how Christ rules in our hearts and how we then live out according to his commands. Okay, we could allegorize it, or we could read it as literally saying there's going to be a kingdom, and he is really going to set up a throne, and he's really going to sit on that throne, and he's really going to rule the nations. By the way, all Christians believe Christ is coming back. What will Christ do when he comes back? It is not such a stretch to say he is setting up an actual kingdom at that point. And of course, that's what we believe will happen. When Christ began to fulfill this in his first advent or coming, he did not establish an earthly government. He could have, but he did not. We are spiritually made citizens of the kingdom today. We try to bring these principles to light in human government, but we understand that we are still looking for a better country. And that country is coming. That government is coming. And it's on the horizon. And it will be physical. because we read here that it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms. Not it'll gently put them to bed because now the gospel has been preached and everyone just believes the gospel. No, it's going to knock them over and grind them into powder. It physically interacts with the kingdoms and the statue, and in verse 45 we see a re-emphasis of that. And just as it was future for Nebuchadnezzar, guess what, it's still future for us as well. Because why? We still live in the times mentioned in the statue. We still live in the times the New Testament calls, the times of the Gentiles. We still live in that era. And so this is a kingdom that is not yet established. But once it is established, verse 44 again, it will not be left for another people. Now what is that talking about? That is talking about the kingdom being restored to Israel. It is going to be best fulfilled in what we see in Revelation, that thousand year or millennial reign of Christ in Revelation chapter 20, verses one through 10. It's described there. Now some say, okay, wait a minute, wait a minute. How can that be? Because Matthew chapter 21 verses 43 and 44 sounds like Christ is saying he's taking away the kingdom. And we can take a look there. And there is an undeniable familiarity with the words that he uses there. Matthew chapter, I don't know why I turned so far over. Matthew chapter 21. and verses 43 and 44, we read this. Therefore, Jesus is saying this to the Jews, therefore I say this to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust. Ooh, that sounds just like what we're reading there. And so our odd millennialist and post-millennialist brethren might say this. Well, looky right here. Jesus condemns them because of their rejection of him. He says, the promises now no longer apply to you. I'm taking the promises away from you, and I'm giving them to another. But we might ask here, did he mean that entirely or did he mean that temporarily? Turn now to Romans 11. Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11, we see in verse 25, Paul's assessment of the situation. He says, I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, so that you will not be wise in your own estimation, he's speaking to Gentile Christians, that a partial, a partial hardening, a partial hardening, has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. I said that we are in the times of the Gentiles, right? He says until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, there is a partial hardening. What's partial hardening mean? Well, Paul himself is a Jew. Jesus was a Jew. The disciples were all Jews. Most of the early church, as we look through Acts, from Acts chapter one to Acts chapter 10 to 13 there, Most of the early church there are Jews. And so Jews are coming to Christ, but many are not. Why? Because there's a partial hardening that has been pronounced upon them. But that is a hardening that will come to an end. Because he says that in verse 26, that all Israel will be saved. There is coming a time when that is. You say, well, how do you know that's what that means? Because in verse 29, he says, the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. What God promised to the fathers, what God revealed to Nebuchadnezzar is irrevocable. And praise God for that because when we sin, he doesn't take away salvation from us and say, okay, now that you've sinned, I'm going to take away the promise of the kingdom from you and give it to someone else who bears fruit. He could say that to us. He could, but he doesn't. because it's irrevocable. So what was Jesus saying in Matthew 21? Jesus was saying to the nation, to the people who had rejected him, then you are not going to get these promises right now. And I'm going to give you, I'm going to give these promises to someone else right now. But eventually it's going to come back around. You say, well, how do you know that we're not talking about like spiritual Israel here in Romans 11? Well, how do you know that we're, or why do you assume that you're talking about physical Israel? Because verse 28 says, from the standpoint of the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. Spiritual Israel is not an enemy to us for the sake of the gospel, right? Yeah, physical Israel is an enemy. Physical Jews who are not believers are enemies concerning the gospel. But from the standpoint of God's choice, look at this, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. And then we get to verse 29, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. God still has a plan for Israel. And by Israel, I don't mean just spiritual Israel, I mean physical Israel. And these things will be fulfilled. Verses 30 through 32, just as he showed mercy to the Gentiles, he will show mercy to them as well. branches that were broken off will be grafted back in. It is coming, it is coming. And it will come, and it will be fulfilled at the kingdom. Now at the kingdom of Christ, we have this thousand year reign, and then it transitions. And just like sometimes when you're looking out at the mountains, you can't always tell where one peak ends and the next peak begins. As you travel closer to it, you might be able to begin to discern where that break is. Well, there is, from Daniel's standpoint here, two mountains in front of him, but it looks like the same mountain. On the one hand, you have the thousand-year reign of Christ, but then it transitions into the eternal state, the consummation of the age. And just very briefly, I'll throw this out here. First Corinthians 15, 24 says that Christ will hand over the kingdom to the God and Father, to his God and Father when he has abolished all rule and all authority and all power. When is Christ going to abolish all rule and all authority and all power? He's going to do that with his second coming. But then, with his millennial reign, when everything has been subdued, then, at the end of the thousand years, he will hand all of this over to God, and that will be the consummation of the age, when we will transition from the thousand-year reign into the eternal states. And, again, Daniel, looking at the whole picture, in Daniel 2.44, he says, that the kingdom will itself endure forever. Now these are all words that are important for Jews in Babylon and for all believers who are in exile to hear. That one day all of this is gonna come to an end. And you will receive the kingdom and no one's gonna be able to take it away from you. It's going to endure forever. Now, as we consider all of this, I should also mention, we are talking about Nebuchadnezzar's dream. What's Nebuchadnezzar been doing all this time? He's probably, I mean, he hasn't said a word. He's probably dumbfounded, right? He's probably just sitting there, just mouth agape, taking it all in. Because God has revealed all of us to him. And he knows it because now God has also revealed it all to Daniel and through Daniel. So how does he respond? That brings us to this third and final point here. Note the current recognition of man. Verses 46 through 49. Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel and gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant incense. The king answered Daniel and said, surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries since you have been able to reveal this mystery. Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon. and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. And Daniel made requests of the king and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the administration of the province of Babylon while Daniel was at the king's court. This momentous Revelation causes King Nebuchadnezzar to forget all his dignity. It was unheard of for a king to bow before a slave. But King Nebuchadnezzar is so overtaken by the weight of the moment, he forgets himself. And he prostrates himself before Daniel. He is amazed by what God has done. And he's not even upset that the conclusion of this revelation is this, that Nebuchadnezzar, that neither Nebuchadnezzar nor his kingdom will endure forever. He is just so blown away by what God has revealed that he is accepting of all of it. Now the king, as he's paying homage to Daniel, he's not doing so as though Daniel is divine. He recognizes that Daniel is representing the God of heaven. And so he is treating him as a representative, or as an ambassador of this Lord of Kings, And this is likely a way, as one commentary says, to honor Daniel's God. And so he presents him with an offering, with an incense, or with, as the New American Standard footnote says here, with sweet odors. He brings all of this before Daniel. And I imagine Daniel was quite uncomfortable with this. of this because he's continually said this is not me this is God who is doing all this Daniel's made it clear that the glory should go to God alone but still the king acknowledges God and he promotes day just like Joseph got promoted in Genesis 41 And so he would be the ruler of the province of Babylon, which was the central district of the empire. There were several provinces in Babylon, so he is in the central one. And since Daniel had a connection with the divine that all the other wise men obviously lacked, well, of course, Nebuchadnezzar does a sensible thing and puts Daniel over all the wise men in Babylon. And Daniel takes advantage of the situation in, I believe, a good way. Sometimes you are in a position where you can do some good, and you have that moment, you take that moment to do some good. He, of course, asks that his friends be exalted, and so they are also placed in key administrative roles there in Babylon as well. Now, This will also set them up for the temptation that comes in chapter three. And so this could be looked at in a couple of different ways, but we'll get into that in chapter three when we get there. but Daniel would continue to serve in his roles in the royal court. Why is that? So that Nebuchadnezzar could probably have easy access to him. He could be an advisor because would you not want this man to be your advisor? So he says, you're going to serve right here in the royal court. Now, Nebuchadnezzar is on the right track. I think you would all agree that he is on the right track. But is he converted? Not quite, no. No, he was happy to acknowledge this one God above all the other gods, but he's not ready to reject all the other gods. He's a polytheist. He's happy to say, okay, yeah, there's this other God out here and he's the supreme God. Okay, great, yes. That's not the same thing as converting to God, to saying, okay, I will only listen to you and listen to you only. I reject all other voices. In fact, we'll see in the next chapter, he is still willing to associate with the kingdom of man, and he will challenge divine authority. So there is current recognition. However, it's not the right recognition. Of course, the question then becomes, how do we respond? How do we respond to this vision? How do we respond to the stone of stumbling? If we stumble over it, we may find ourselves broken along with the rest of humanity one day. But on the other hand, if we accept Christ as the true king and embrace him, we'll find ourselves as part of that coming kingdom which will fill the whole earth kingdom that he is already building today. And that's how we should respond. Throughout this chapter, we've seen one truth. God is sovereign over the affairs of man. We need to bow to that. God already has rules. He already rules. He already has authority. He already has a reign. Even now before the rock is tossed at the statue, he controls history. He dictates our affairs. He has declared our future. So we must bow. We must bow to what he has declared. We must bow to his word. We must bow to him. And we must do so, not just recognizing and confessing our sins, we must do so by drawing hope from his gospel promises. Let's be faithful until he calls us home, or until that day when he draws history to a close.