Smashed to Pieces! The Vision in Daniel 2

Daniel’s visions are endlessly fascinating to Christians.¹ So are those from Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Revelation. They stick in your mind so vividly because they’re exciting, dramatic, bizarre, otherworldly, almost fantasy-like. This is a very particular style of writing God uses to communicate hope to desperate people.

Daniel and many others are prisoners in Babylon. Their homes are destroyed, family members are dead, their nation is no more, and they’re far from home. They’re tired, lonely, anxious, scared, and perhaps doubting God’s promises. God wants to give hope to His people, and for that an essay won’t do. This is why bible books containing these fantastic visions always come during times of terrible persecution and despair. So, Daniel’s visions are not fodder for timeline speculation. They’re about hope for desperate prisoners.

In Daniel 2, God’s point is that one day His kingdom will smash everything bad, everything evil, everything unholy in this world to pieces—and then there will be peace on earth. These visions and the hope they bring aren’t just for the Jews in exile in Babylon. They’re also for believers in exile in this world today who are longing for a better country—a heavenly one (Heb 11:16).

Space does not permit a detailed run-up to the vision itself. Suffice it to say that King Nebuchadnezzar was lying in bed one night when his “mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen” (Dan 2:29). He was not a kind or good man. He was brutal and cruel—vowing to kill his magi and their families if they failed to accurately describe the dream and what it meant (Dan 2:4-12). Daniel and three friends are caught up in this death sentence, but God reveals the dream and its explanation to them during the night (Dan 2:14-19). The next morning, they’re rushed into the king’s presence, and we hear about the vision for the first time.

The Vision

Here it is:

³¹Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. ³²The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, ³³its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. ³⁴While 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. ³⁵Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces 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 (Daniel 2:31-35).

This is a composite statue. The startling bit is the sudden appearance of a rock not fashioned by human hands which pulverizes the figure and turns it to dust (Dan 2:34). The rock strikes its brittle legs, which are forged from a bizarre mixture of iron and clay. Clearly, a rock will crush clay! Because this is a fantastic otherworldly vision, we need not look for absurd literalism (e.g., how can a rock crush iron?). The point is that the rock strikes with such force that the whole thing comes tumbling down and turns to powder. This rock alone now holds the field, and it gradually grows to fill the whole earth.

What the Vision Means

Daniel explains that Nebuchadnezzar represents the head of gold (Dan 2:36-38). The king and his kingdom are synonymous—each represents the other. Daniel does not name any other king or kingdom in this vision. He accurately describes the power and majesty of the king’s reign: “the God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory” (Dan 2:37; cp. Dan 4). Babylon is the preeminent power player in the Ancient Near East. Yet, God is above all. This vision presses that message home forcefully, as we’ll see.

Working on down the statue, Daniel hurriedly mentions two kingdoms which will arise after Babylon passes from the scene (Dan 2:39). The second, Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar, is “inferior to yours” (Dan 2:39) and is presumably represented by the “chest and arms of silver” (Dan 2:32). The third is “of bronze” and “will rule over the whole earth” (Dan 2:39, cp. 2:32— “belly and thighs of bronze”).

Daniel is most interested in the fourth kingdom because it is the one the mysterious rock attacks (Dan 2:34). This kingdom is incredibly strong. Its “iron” composition means it will smash and destroy “all the other” kingdoms which came before (Dan 2:40). Yet, because it’s a mixture of iron and clay, it is curiously brittle. This frailty means “the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay” (Dan 2:43). Most commentators and English bible translations understand this to mean intermarriage, but the larger point seems to be a kingdom without a shared national identity.

Daniel explains that “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,” (Dan 2:44). This eternal divine kingdom “will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever” (Dan 2:44). This is surely the rock which smashes the statue.

Because the kingdoms are successive (“after you” … “next” … “finally” (Dan 2:39-40)), and because the rock smashes the fourth kingdom which has since destroyed “all the other kingdoms” (Dan 2:40), then God’s kingdom will not come until the time of the fourth kingdom. This suggests that when Daniel says, “in the time of those kings” (Dan 2:44), he refers to the fourth kingdom—a secular “kingdom” dynasty which the divine rock suddenly pulverizes.

But, in this vision Daniel is not interested in divine timetables or in naming the kingdoms. God’s point is simple—His kingdom will win. That’s it. That’s the point of the vision. “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” (Dan 2:45).

Nebuchadnezzar had been lying on his bed at night, wondering what the future held. Well, God says, this is the future—you lose. Everyone loses. I win. My kingdom wins. I’ll smash everything unholy, dark, and wicked to pieces, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.

What the Vision Means Considering God’s Whole Story

Otherworldly visions like Daniel’s are hope for people who are suffering, tired, and doubtful. Every earthly kingdom is really Babylon under different cover—Revelation 17 and 18 show us the penultimate “city of darkness” falling after God’s avenging angels “pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth” (Rev 16:1). But, in the meantime, “Babylon” shape-shifts.

No matter which nation holds sway over the world, Daniel 2 assures us that God’s kingdom is coming, and it’ll smash everything else to pieces and fill the whole earth (Dan 2:35). All the great nations, the great empires, the great corporations in this world will become like chaff—only God’s work, God’s good news, and God’s values have eternal significance (cp. 1 Cor 3:11-15; Rev 18). Think of Rome, Spain, and Great Britain. Think of corporations like U.S. Steel, Sears, Kmart, or even Red Lobster! They all fade away, and a new kid enters the stage for its five minutes of fame.

What do you give yourself to? Is it worth your heart and soul? Is it of eternal significance? Do you give yourself to something that will be crushed one day?

God, through Daniel, says “Your King is coming!” Just as Nebuchadnezzar is the head of his mighty but temporary kingdom, so Jesus is the head of the eternal kingdom that’s now come—the one that’s smashing everything else to pieces even now as it expands throughout the world. Jesus said He was the stone which crushes His enemies (Lk 20:18), likely alluding to the divine rock from Daniel’s vision. Jesus said His miracles proved that “the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Lk 11:20). He told the Pharisees that the kingdom of God was not an observable phenomenon, but instead “the kingdom of God is in your midst” (Lk 17:21). One enters the kingdom of God by being born again of water and Spirit (Jn 3:3, 5).

It’s significant that the stone smashes the fourth and most fearsome kingdom, and then grows into a mountain over time (Dan 2:35).² Peter may have adapted this figure when he said each believer was a “living stone” and part of a spiritual house—a “rock” which was gradually growing to fill the whole earth (Acts 1:8) as Jesus people “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19).

Daniel 7 has more details for us about these four mysterious kingdoms and their fate. But in our passage at Daniel 2, it’s enough to know that God promises hope if you’re suffering, if you’re tired, if you’re doubting God’s promises in the mess of everyday life. At Daniel’s place in God’s story, this vision assured God’s people: “The king will come one day!” Today, from the vantage point of the new and better covenant, Daniel’s vision tells us: “The king is already here—He said His kingdom is in our midst! And He’s coming back again soon!”

Notes