The First Kingdom



Daniel 7:1-4 (and 2:31-38)
2:31“You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening.
32 The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
34 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.
35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
36 “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation.
37 You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory,
38 and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold.

7:1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter.
2 Daniel declared, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.
3 And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.
4 The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it.

As was mentioned in an earlier post, Daniel is gifted by God with visions, dreams, and the ability to interpret them. This ability apparently came to him early in his captivity, as he is able to interpret for Nebuchadnezzar while still a very young man. Now Daniel himself has dreams similar to Nebuchadnezzar’s which speak of the coming kingdoms of man of the final Kingdom of God, including the advent of the Messiah. If you would like to see a chart of those visions, click the link below.


The dream we deal with in chapter 7 of Daniel displays the 4 kingdoms that comprise the history of world powers between the time of Daniel’s life and the Roman empire and even beyond into the second coming of Christ. The reason we look back at chapter 2 is because the same four kingdoms were represented in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream by the giant statue. The head of that statue was indicative of Nebuchadnezzar himself as he ruled with great power for a long time. But, as we see in Daniel’s dream in chapter 7, Nebuchadnezzar was also punished by God and made to range through the wilderness like an animal until he should come to realize that only God is sovereign over all, including himself. So, for a time he lost his mind but it was returned to him.

One might wonder why God is bothering with this pre-history lesson for Daniel. But what is displayed in these coming chapters and verses is a fantastic picture of God’s broad plan of salvation played out in human history. All of Daniel dreams and visions lead up to the coming of the final authority and power over all, Jesus Christ. Daniel helps us keep in mind God’s big picture and perfect power that will fulfill the will of heart and that is to see all of us saved by Jesus’ blood.

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