Bible Study 7
- May we understand prophecy?
2 Peter 1:19-2 - What did Christ say of Daniel’s prophecy?
Matthew 24:15 - Why was Nebuchadnezzar troubled?
Daniel 2: 1 (Read verses 1-35) - Who gave this dream to the King?
Daniel 2:28 - What was the dream to reveal?
Daniel 2:29 - Whom did the head of gold represent?
Daniel 2:37-38
God gave the kingdom to Nebuchadnezzar. (Daniel 2:37; Jeremiah 27:1-11) Egypt given as wages for work against Tyre. (Ezekiel 26:7-11; Ezekiel 29: 18-19) - What kingdoms were to follow Babylon?
Daniel 2:39-40 - What did the silver (breast and arms) represent?
Medo-Persia
Daniel 5:28-31 - How long did Medo-Persia rule?
From 538BC to 331 BC. - What did the brass symbolize?
Grecia
Daniel 8:20
Homer writes of ‘the glorious deeds of Trojan warriors and of brass-clad Greeks.’ - What empire followed Grecia?
Rome
Daniel 2:40
Daniel 8:23-25
Luke 2:14
The historian Gibbon says: ‘The arms of the republic, sometimes vanquished in battle, always victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and the ocean; and the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve to represent the nations and their kings, were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome.’ – Decline and Fall, Vol 3. - What change was to come to the kingdom of iron?
Daniel 2:41
‘The iron legs are the fourth kingdom: and that is the Roman, the strongest of all the kingdoms before it. But the feet, part of iron, and part of clay, prefigure the Roman Empire to be so divided, as that it should never unite again: which is equally fulfilled. Forasmuch as the Roman territory is occupied by foreign nations or rebels. And we see …barbarous nations mixed with our armies, cities, and provinces.’ – T Newton in ‘Dissertations on the Prophecies.’
‘These ten kingdoms came into existence in the territory of the Roman Empire between the years AD 351 and 476. They were the result of the barbarian invasions of those times. The kingdoms were as follows: The Alemanni (Germany), the Franks (France), the Burgundians (Switzerland), the Suevi (Portugal), the Vandals (who have been destroyed), the Anglo-Saxons (England), the Visigoths (Spain), the Ostrogoths (who have been destroyed), the Heruli (who also have been destroyed), and the Lombards (Italy).’ – C B Haynes in ‘Our Lord’s Return.’ - How would these kings try to strengthen themselves?
By intermarriage
Daniel 2:43 - What eternal kingdom was to be set up in the days of these kings?
Daniel 2:44 - What represented this eternal kingdom in the dream?
Daniel 2:45 - What must take place before Christ’s kingdom is established?
Matthew 24:14