Nebuchadnezzar's dream

“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. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.” Daniel 2:44
In Daniel 2 we have the familiar account of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. He used it as a test to see if the magicians he had inherited from his father as advisers, actually knew their stuff – by asking them to tell him what his dream was, and then interpret it. (In ch. 4 he has another dream which he tells Daniel, which indicates that he found him to be trustworthy.)
In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream there was an image made of various metals: a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, abdomen and thighs of bronze, legs of iron and feet of iron mixed with clay. Daniel interprets each of these as a kingdom, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom, Babylon, being the head of gold. Each one is inferior to the one that proceeded it. The Medo-Persian empire succeeded the Babylonian empire; this is the chest and arms of silver. Next came the Greek empire; the abdomen and thighs of bronze, which “will rule over the whole earth” (Dan. 2:39). Finally was the Roman empire, the legs of iron, the “fourth kingdom, strong as iron – for iron breaks and smashes everything – and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others” (Dan. 2:40). The feet of iron mixed with clay, some believe, refers to the revived Roman empire that will arise when the Antichrist comes to power during the Tribulation; this corresponds to the little horn that grew up later on the head of the ‘terrible beast’ in Dan. 7:8.
But even while Nebuchadnezzar was looking at this statue, the world empires, the pinnacle of human power, a ‘rock cut without hands’ came and smashed the statue to pieces, then became a mountain that filled the whole earth. This is what we long for, and what we pray for when we say, ‘Your kingdom come.’ One day Jesus will return to earth in power and great glory. He will destroy all human governments and establish His own kingdom of righteousness on the earth. The corruption and ego trips we see in the halls of power today will not continue forever. Are you looking forward to that day?