You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image
on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.
Daniel 2:34
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon struck terror in the hearts of his subjects and all those in the neighboring countries around him. His word was law and his laws weren’t always rational. One night the king had a disturbing dream, but by morning he couldn’t remember a thing, so he called all his wise men and magicians. “You guys are supposed to be smart,” Nebu said, “Tell me what my dream was!”
When no one in the national think tank could do what the king commanded, he went into a rage and ordered the execution of all his advisers. A young, Jewish captive, named Daniel, had just started interning for the wise men when he found out that he was also scheduled to die. Concerned about his future, Daniel asked God to fill him in on the dream, so that night, the Lord gave him the same vision He had given to the king.
Daniel then related to Nebuchadnezzar what he saw in his dream. There was a huge statue made with parts of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay, but an even greater stone cut out without hands fell from heaven and ground down the awesome image into powder.
The king also heard the interpretation of the dream. Babylon was the golden head of the statue, which meant it was the richest and greatest. Lesser kingdoms would follow one after another and each would have less glory than the one it replaced. The young eunuch then explained the pulverizing stone: “Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold [—] the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this” (Daniel 2:45). All the great empires of the world will come to nothing by the power of God.
Egypt once ruled the world. now it’s a big sand box. Babylon the Great lies desolate and uninhabited in the desert. Greece is bankrupt, Rome is a tourist trap, and the Soviet Union has ceased to exist. Even the greatness and power of the United Sates is waning in the shadow of the Stone cut Out Without Hands, the Lord Jesus Christ.
November 15
