If we say something is big we assume we have said something
important. If the grand stand is packed with the biggest crowd ever,
this is a big deal, even if the game was not worth seeing. The big
blast is all the rage on the screen or on the stage. Everything has to
be gigantic to get our attention, for we are brainwashed into thinking
that only the big is of real value. Hollywood never makes anything
less than spectacular. Everything is advertised as bigger and better
than ever. New terms have to be coined to keep up with the trend
toward the idolatry of the big.
W. J. Bryan says, "There are three kinds of larceny-petty
larceny, grand larceny, and glorious larceny. Glorious larceny is
thieving on such a large scale that its brilliant success atones for its
moral crookedness." When men worship bigness they care not if it
be evil or good just so long as it is big. The little lie will be rejected,
but Hitler proved that men will fall down and worship before the big
lie. Booth Tarkington has put the prayer of modern man's idolatry
into words:
Give me of Thyself, O Bigness,
Power to get more Power;
Riches to get more Riches;
Give me Thy sweat to get more sweat.
Give me of Thy Bigness to get more Bigness for myself.
O Bigness, for Thine is the Power and the Glory,
And there is no end but Bigness, forever and ever.
Man has really always been this way in his love for bigness. It is
just that today he has greater opportunity and a greater variety of
bigness. Nebuchadnezzar was a fanatic for bigness in his big city of
Babylon with its mighty walls and tremendous temples. The ancient
world went in for bigness in a big way. From the tower of Babel on
man has tried to build something so big that it would be the wonder
of the world and last forever. These Goliath works of man are
always built on clay feet, however, and they crumble when struck by
one stone aimed by one of God's Davids. This is what the dream of
Nebuchadnezzar is all about. It is about the colossal kingdoms of
men being demolished by the kingdom of God. A huge image of gold,
silver, bronze, iron and clay represents the 4 world empires from
Nebuchadnezzar to the coming of Christ. Here is real bigness, for
these 4 were the only 4 to ever rule the whole known world.
One of the amazing aspects of the book of Daniel is that it
predicts that there would be only 4 such universal powers before Christ,
and then no more after His coming. History has confirmed
this, for since the fall of the Roman Empire there has never again been
a nation that ruled the world. There have been great empires like the
British on which the sun never set, but no king of England has ever
been the king of the world. There were 4 universal kingdoms in a
row and then no more. Daniel's interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's
dream gives us an outline view of history up to the coming of Christ.
The stone of Christ brought all of the bigness crashing down into
dust and His kingdom began to replace them by spreading into all
the world to become the fifth and final universal kingdom built on a
solid rock foundation, which would make it the only eternal kingdom
that would never pass away.
The King said to his army, "Go into all the world and win men
to my allegiance." Jesus, without force and destructive weapons,
intended to build the greatest kingdom of all so that loyal subjects
will bow to him as king out of every nation, tribe and language.
Jesus thinks big also, but His bigness is based on growth and the
winning of individuals one by one, and not the bigness gain by force
like the kingdoms of the world. Force is faster, but it always has a
foundation of clay that will bring it to destruction. The way of Christ
is slow but sure, and His kingdom will have no end. This is a brief
summary of the significance of the colossal image of
Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
This great image represented nations. It was common for
ancient coins to contain human figures to represent the nation. We
do it yet today when we use Uncle Sam to symbolize our nation. This
image was so big and so bright that it was frightening even before
Nebuchadnezzar knew what it meant. How much more frightening it
must have been when he knew this giant statue would tumble and be
demolished. Keble wrote,
In outline dim and vast
These fearful shadows cast,
The giant forms of empire on their way
To ruin; one by one
They tower, and they are gone.
The head was of gold, and the arms and breasts of silver, and the
belly and thighs of bronze, and the legs of iron, and the feet were of
iron and clay mix. We see a downward trend in value from the head
to the feet. Each material becoming of less worth as you descend.
The biblical view of history places the golden age of the pagan world
in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and from there on it was a downhill
road to the coming of Christ. Daniel says that as Nebuchadnezzar
beheld this great image a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it
smote the image on those brittle feet of iron and clay, and like the
walls of Jericho it came tumbling down.
Daniel goes on in verse 33 to say the whole thing with all of its
metals was pounded until it was like powder so that wind carried it
away. Total defeat of the evil kingdoms of men by the kingdom of
God is what is illustrated. It is the total defeat of idolatry by true
godliness. John the Baptist used this same illustration to describe the
work of Christ in conquering the forces of evil. In Matt. 3:12 John
says of Christ, "His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear
His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the granary, but the
chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire." In all of this imagery we
see chaff represents the worthless things of life. Jesus came to
destroy the works of the devil, and to pound them to powder like
Moses did with the golden calf, and to replace them with works of
eternal value.
In the dream of Nebuchadnezzar we see in the miraculous stone's
demolishing of the colossal image the triumph of the kingdom of God
over the kingdoms of men. This stone becomes a great mountain and
fills the whole earth. It starts small, but it begins with a bang, there
is a great victory and then it grows. Jesus said the kingdom of God
was like a mustard seed, and though very small it becomes a great
tree. So the little band of disciples that Jesus chose went out and
turned the world upside down. This was the beginning of the last
universal kingdom that would be eternal, and whose king would gain
universal allegiance.
In verse 36 Daniel says, "I have told you the dream, and now I
will interpret it." Knowing a thing and understanding it are two
different things. Nebuchadnezzar's memory was restored, and he
knew the dream as well as Daniel, but he still did not know what it
meant. Knowing the Bible is good, but knowing what it means is far
better. A true interpretation of ten verses is of more value than
memorizing a hundred verses. Interpretation is the heart of Bible
study. What does it mean ought to be the perpetual question in our
minds just as it was the question in the mind of Nebuchadnezzar
about his dream. Daniel knew the meaning, and that is what made
him unique. Longfellow said,
Here at the portal thou dost stand,
And with thy little hand
Thou openest the mysterious gate
Into the futures undiscovered land.
It was not Daniel's hand however, but the hand of God that
opened this mysterious gate of the future. Daniel was only an
instrument in God's hand. It is amazing how God will share His
glory with man. In verse 37 Daniel calls Nebuchadnezzar king of
kings. This is not just flattery, but it is a fact. He was the supreme
king with many lesser kings paying tribute to him. Daniel had great
respect for this totalitarian tyrant even though he took his own
people captive and destroyed their holy city of Jerusalem. Others
who were less keenly aware of God's providence might have spit in
the face of Nebuchadnezzar, and then considered themselves glorious
martyrs as they were fed to the lions.
Daniel recognized that all the power and glory of
Nebuchadnezzar was a gift from God. He was God's man even when
God was not his God. Daniel's respect for the ruler of the land
matches that of Peter and Paul in the New Testament who taught
Christians to submit to and pray even for Nero. Even the authority
of evil men is to be respected, for that authority is given them by
God. Jesus said to Pilate that he would have no authority unless it
was given to him from above. Men can abuse this authority, but
they can also, even as unbelievers, wield their authority as God wills.
Political power can be the instrument of doing God's will in the
world, even when that power is in the hands of a dictator like
Nebuchadnezzar.
