No. 2.
DANIEL speaks here (chap. 2.) of the God of Heaven. He was no longer the God of the earth. His people, those among whom He had said He would dwell, are no longer owned by Him, and He can acknowledge no others. He may commit authority to them, and show how impossible it is for the creature to stand in any position of responsibility, but the glory when it leaves the temple ―its earthly rest― departs from the Mount of Olives for Heaven.
Israel was that nation among whom God had said He would dwell; if they failed He would go to no other. “The gas and calling of God are without repentance.” Hence in Daniel God calls Israel “thy people,” in speaking to him. He never says “my people.” He had cast them off for a time. They were now according to Hosea: “Lo-ammi” (not my people). Remark the accuracy of Scripture. None of the prophets who prophesied after Israel was carried away give Jewish dates, they always reckon according to the years of the Gentile kings in Daniel 2. Here we have a remarkable instance of it. In the first chapter he uses Jewish time, as he is there speaking of when they were still owned of God, though just about to be cast off; but in chap. 2 he is among the Gentile powers, and dates according to their time in Haggai and Zechariah, while those who prophesied when the people were still in the land and owned of God, (though they might tell of coming judgment and the dispersion of the people,) made use of Jewish time in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and Micah. It is very blessed to see the effect of a revelation of God’s mind upon the one who is seeking to walk with Him in the light; that which would exalt one walking in the flesh, tends only to keep humble him who is living in the light. (Jer. 2.; 2 Cor. 12) We have the “man in Christ up in the third heaven” ―the flesh is altogether lost sight of. It is no longer, “I Paul,” but, whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell; the soul that is in the light is no longer occupied with himself, but with the One who is there―who abides there, who is light Himself. If I am in any way occupied with self, I am not in the light. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all; and I can only be in His presence and abide there, when everything that is of the flesh has been laid aside, when self is utterly forgotten. Daniel had an opportunity to exalt himself: that which was causing so much trouble to the great king of the earth, and was bringing death on others, had been revealed to him. But what use does he make of it? To exalt the God of heaven, content that He should be everything, though it made him nothing. (vv. 28-30.) Blessed picture for us all, if we would walk so as to know His will―to have the place of the confidential servant. What higher portion could we ask for than that? But such is our privilege, and should be our place. May the Lord give us to enter into it, and stand up for Him in this present evil day; to walk humbly because of the flesh, judging ourselves in His presence, that we may know what it is to be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
In the vision of Nebuchadnezzar, we have the history of the Gentile powers, as set up in the earth by God, till their judgment. Why they are so judged other scriptures tell us. It is merely the purpose of God to present them to us here as a whole in the figure of a man, “and the form thereof was terrible;” it is the man of the earth in the eye of God, but in his public splendor in the eyes of men, glorious and terrible. Its origin and establishment is divine-hence the head of gold: “The God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory: and wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and fowls of heaven hath He given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all.” But there would be a deterioration; the next kingdom would be inferior; none of them would have the same excellency and greatness as the first, whose peculiarity consisted in its having received power from God Himself, the others succeed more by providential principles. The character of the fourth is especially given. There would be a decline of imperial power, but none of material strength; inasmuch as “iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things.” But its imperial authority would be weak, having to contend with a democracy―the seed of men who would neither mingle nor mix. The last power, moreover, has two forms (v. 33): legs of iron the first form of the kingdom, then feet and toes part of iron and part of clay. This agrees with Rev. 17, where we have the last form of Gentile dominion described as the beast that was, is not, and yet is, in the Revelation; there are here ten toes, both representing the final character of the kingdom subdivided under ten kings; and it is on these that the stone falls which destroys the whole image; so that the iron, the clay, the brass, and the gold, are all broken in pieces. The chief characteristics of each find their full development at the end and are there judged; none escape, but disappear forever; and become as the chaff of the summer threshing-floor. The fifth kingdom, as the one that God establishes (v. 44), is in the days of these kings (the ten toes). We get more details about them in chap. 17, but it is important for us to observe this, as it shows that it is not the gospel that is meant by the stone cut out of the mountain without hands. When it began, the Roman Empire was not subdivided into ten kings―that is its last form. The miry clay is the will of man devoid of all conscience, such as Paul describes in 2 Tim. 3, and will be one of the characteristics of the latter days―man doing without God, and seeking to be without Him. Such is the end of all the progress and science of the present day; it will end by man setting himself up against God; but the result of it we have here―they will be broken in pieces and consumed by a kingdom that shall stand forever; and in that kingdom we have our place and portion and home. Why, then, be taking a place down here in that which is to be broken up and destroyed ―carried away as the chaff of the summer threshing-floor? for when He, who is to usher in this scene, described in ver. 44, appears, “then shall we also appear with Him in glory.” “The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.”