DANIEL 2:36-45

Here we see a huge statue of a man designed as a broad outline of the world's major kingdoms from the time of Babylon until the future return of Jesus at the Day of the LORD.

Briefly then, the head of Gold refers to Babylon; the breast and arms refers to Persia; the belly and thighs refers to Greece; and the legs and feet refer to Rome. The legs refer to the Roman Empire at its strongest (iron) until its official fall in 476 AD. The feet and 10 toes refers to the world-wide cultural and political influence of Rome from its fall throughout all of history even until the present time.
It does not refer to a final "revised" Roman empire as is sometimes taught.
That "final" form of Gentile rule (revised Rome) is represented at verse 44, "and in the days of those kings." This refers to the days of Gentile control over the world as represented by the kingdoms portrayed in the statue. At some time in the future history of Gentile control, the Messiah will bring to an end that control and will establish the earthly kingdom of God.

Concerning the twofold division of Greece and Rome as represented by the image, Walvoord concludes,

"The upper part of the legs represented the twofold stage of the last period of the Alexandrian Empire, which especially concerned the Jews, namely, Syria and Egypt. This was two-legged because it embraced two continents, or two major geographic areas, the East and the West. The Roman Empire continued this twofold division and extended its sway over the entire Mediterranean area as well as western Asia." (Daniel, page 73)

Concerning the "dual" character of this "Roman" kingdom as represented by the iron and pottery, Daniel records at Daniel 2:43,

"And in that you saw the iron mixed with 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."

The significance of the iron and pottery:

The two Aramaic words, chasaph and tiyn, used together indicate "baked" clay rather than "natural" clay and therefore should be rendered as "pottery" and not "clay." This is confirmed in the passage by the description of this element as being, "brittle," which refers to pottery rather than clay.

The meaning of this "dualism" has been the subject of many and varied interpretations, and since it is not clearly stated, the most logical should probably be based on the "nature" of the substances involved in the whole image.

Keil summarizes,

"As, in the three preceding kingdoms, gold, silver and brass represent the material of these kingdoms, i.e. their peoples and their culture, so also in the fourth kingdom iron and clay represent the material of the kingdoms arising out of the division of this kingdom, i.e. the national elements out of which they are constituted, and which will and must mingle together in them." (Keil and Delitzsch, Daniel at verses 42, 43)

This dualism indicates the division within the kingdom that will occur later in its history. It has been suggested that the dualism represented by the iron and clay refers to the division of the Empire into West and East. However, that geographical division is indicated by the "two legs" of the image while the iron and clay speaks of some other factor.

The first aspect of this division refers to the two spheres of power that will exist within the Empire after its "iron" stage. Those two spheres are political and religious with neither truly being able to merge with the other.

The second aspect of the division is that the one half will be strong and the other will be brittle. And these two will not be in harmony. Eventually, the political sphere will give way to the religious. The political, being more brittle, will shatter into many segments as separate and diverse nations are formed. The religious, however, will remain strong and administer its own political influence through its massive economic and religious controls. This is the power of Babylonian evil, which is the demonic and religious influence in all the world empires since the time of Nimrod.

The next major factor concerning this image is its scope. This image traces the history of the 4th empire UNTIL the time when "the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed." It bypasses the 1st advent of Messiah and extends far into the future without even hinting at the length of time involved, but it ends with the Messiah bringing an end to Gentile rule and establishing His own reign on the earth.

What we should gather from this, is that Daniel's 4th empire, which is generally identified as Rome, would eventually diminish in its power and influence and yet remain "mingled" with the seed of men, without itself being a major political body. Often people speak of the Roman Empire coming to an end and no longer having any kind of impact on the world as a whole, but this has not been the case. Peters quotes from Freeman's, Historical Essays:

"It may be a hard saying, but it is one which the facts fully bear out, that hardly one student in ten of medieval history really grasps that one key to the whole subject without which medieval history is simply an unintelligible chaos. The key is not other than the continued existence of the Roman Empire. As long as people are taught that the Empire came to an end in the year 476, a true understanding of the next thousand years becomes utterly impossible. No man can understand either the politics or the literature of that whole period, unless he constantly bears in mind that, in the ideas of the men of those days, the Roman Empire, the Empire of Augustus, Constantine, and Justinian, was not a thing of the past, but a thing of the present." (G.H.N. Peters, The Theocratic Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 643).

The influence then, of the Roman Empire, will continue to be felt throughout subsequent history and finally reach a stage in the last days where it is to be viewed as a 10 nation confederacy which will once again have a world-wide impact. And yet, this confederacy is not to be viewed as a kingdom "power" on the earth, but rather a political body or organization which works for the mutual benefit of the whole world. Since this organization will not have "authority" itself, it is probable that its influence will be carried out in a "behind the scenes" manner until such time as it is taken over by the world leader.

Dan. 2:41-43,

"And 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. And 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."

The diversities within the the Roman Empire continued to cause more and more division. The political side totally crumbled into many separate and distinct cultures, whereas, the religious side strengthened and wielded its own political influence through the power of its religious and economic controls.

But through it all, the cultural and political influence of Rome spread throughout the world as the normal process of marriage and procreation thrived.
This cultural effect is indicated by the phrase, "they will combine with one another in the seed of men." NASB.
The subject is, "they will be." This refers to the people of the "pottery" and the people of the "iron."
The idea of "combine" indicates union. The nature of that union is indicated by "in the seed of men."
This is an accurate translation from the Aramaic, zera (seed of, descendants) and enash (men, mankind).
So, the word combine used with the seed of men refers naturally to the process of procreation.

And yet, there continued to be disagreements and divisions with the various ruling families so that new and diverse societies and nations were formed.
This vision records the GENERAL progress of this effect, and only our knowledge of subsequent history validates that progress.

We find then today, that the religious sphere is still strong and influential in world affairs, but carries no "direct" political clout.

However, the political sphere, which long ago splintered into many different pieces, is now pushing and shoving; moving toward some kind of political union that will be able to once again administer the affairs of the world with a "unified" political authority as the Roman Empire did for so many years.

Verse 44, "and in the days of those kings." This refers to the "final" days of those kings.

Eventually, this pursuit will result in a 10-nation organization which will exist at "the time of the end."
This is mentioned at Dan.7 and is not in view in this vision.

From within this organization there will arise a dynamic world leader who will resolve the economic, religious and political crisis in the Middle East through the establishment of a 7-year peace experiment. After about 3 1/2 years, the personage known as the beast will arise and begin the great persecution of Jews and Christians. His kingdom will be the final form of Gentile control, which will be destroyed by the Messiah at the culmination of the Day of the LORD judgments.

So the vision skips over a lot of details and jumps right to the time period of the end.
1. The rise of the benevolent world leader.
2. The rise of the beast.
3. His destruction.
4. The establishment of the Messiah's earthly kingdom.

Questions and comments are always welcome

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İRon Wallace, http://www.biblefragrances.com. Anyone is free to reproduce this material and distribute it,
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