Summary

As Nebuchadnezzar watches, he sees that the head of the image is of pure gold, the chest and arms are of silver, the middle and thighs are of bronze, the legs are made of iron, and the feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

Before we pay attention to the various parts, we do well to take a look at the whole. This image forms one unit. This unity also has significance in the explanation of this dream. The image as a whole points to the history of the world from the time of Nebuchadnezzar to Christ’s return.

The history of the world is a unity. Since the time of the Fall, there is a certain thought that moves people again and again. This is the thought that we see emerging in the Bible precisely from Babylon. It is not by chance that in this image we encounter Babylon as the head in the history of mankind. After the Fall, man seeks unity and strength in order to prove his independence from the Lord. Man does not want to be subject to God. Again and again in history, men intend to prove that they are able to construct their own world of happiness, a world where people themselves would provide an eternal life. Thus, the kingdom of man stands opposed to the kingdom of God. We see this unity movement and the desire for such a state of unity very clearly in Genesis 11:1–9. The Lord gives mankind the command to scatter over the earth and the people refuse to do so. The punishment that then follows is that the one language the people together speak becomes confused. From one moment to the next people are no longer able to understand each other. The city where this happens is called Babel, which means confusion.

The history of men after the Fall is characterized by their rebellion against God. Time and again great empires arise that do not want to serve God but rather seek their own greatness and power. As we now start to look at the components of this image, we see that it involves a succession of empires and kingdoms until, at Christ’s return, every human empire will have been totally destroyed.