The Lens of Prophecy
Part 2
The Skeleton
Fast Fact: Most kinds of octopi "have almost entirely soft bodies with no internal
skeleton. They have neither a protective outer shell like the nautilus, nor any vestige
of an internal shell or bones, like cuttlefish or squids. A beak, similar in shape to a
parrot's beak, is the only hard part of their body."—Wikipedia.com. Because of this, a
600 lb Octopus can squeeze itself through a hole the size of a quarter or transform
itself into the shape and texture of whatever they want in their immediate
surroundings for camouflage! Like the Octopus, if you don't have the skeleton of
prophecy in place you can make it say or go whatever or wherever you want it to—
but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're getting the right picture.
Daniel 2:29-36—King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that He believed to be very
important; so important, in fact, that to reduce the probability that his wise men
would just make up an interpretation he ordered them not only to tell them what the
dream meant but to tell him what his dream was! Of course no one was able to know
his thoughts, so they were unable to obey the king's demand and were sentenced to
death. After that, God showed Daniel the dream and its interpretation, thus saving
the lives of the wise men and dramatically building the skeleton off of which the rest
of the books of Daniel and Revelation would be built.
This dream had a huge image with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and
thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet and toes part of iron and part clay. A huge
stone was cut out without human hands and struck the image at the feet, crushing the
image and grinding it to powder. That stone then grew and filled the earth. Not only is
this prophecy the skeleton of Bible Prophecy, it also tells us a little about what
skeleton we should use for our lives (1 Peter 1:23-25)
Daniel 2:37-38—The first part of this statue, the head of gold, represented king
Nebuchadnezzar and the empire of Babylon that he had built. Nebuchadnezzar had
poured massive amounts of gold into adorning the capital city of Babylon. He
intended that his empire should last forever; however, Babylon ruled from 605 to
538 BC. Notice how clear Daniel makes the point that it was God who gave
Nebuchadnezzar this position. The Israelites, like Daniel, who were in captivity in
Babylon, probably had a hard time seeing the cruel Nebuchadnezzar as being part of
God's plan, but this dream reveals that God has plans that don't necessarily make
sense to us but are still perfect.
Daniel 2:39—The great empire of Babylon was not to last forever; the dream
revealed that after Babylon another empire would take the scene. Represented by
the chest and arms of silver, the Medo-Persians conquered Babylon in 538 BC, by
diverting the Euphrates River and walking under the wall on the riverbed into the
town while the Babylonians were having a drunken party. This amazing victory and the
name of the general that would gain it were predicted about 150 years earlier by the
Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 44:27-45:4). Medo-Persia ruled from 538 BC to 331 BC when
the empire fell to Alexander the Great's Greek army. This third kingdom, Greece, was
the belly and thighs of bronze in Daniel's image. Just as Babylon was known for its
wealth as seen in its abundance of gold, and Persians were known as lovers of silver,
the Greeks fought their way into supremacy with their bronze weaponry. From 331
BC until about 168 BC the Greek empire spread its influence through the known
world. By the time they fell, Greek was the universal language throughout Europe
(which made spreading the gospel easier in New Testament times).
Daniel 2:40—Unlike the previously mentioned kingdoms, Daniel never mentions the
name of the fourth nation, Rome (168 BC - AD 476). He does, however describe it in
greater detail than any other kingdom, so it is pretty easy to recognize who he's
talking about. Even secular history records, "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."—Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire. (Quoted in SDA Bible Commentary vol. 9 p. 829)
Daniel 2:41-43—After a list of successive empires, one would expect yet another.
But "God correctly predicted Rome would not be overthrown by another single
kingdom like the others, but it would divide into ten separate nations in Western
Europe. Though some of these resulting kingdoms would be strong and others weak,
they were to remain separate, resisting all efforts to reunite them. Ancestors to
seven of these nations still exist today."—Gary Gibbs, Prophecies of Hope: Our Day in
Bible Prophecy. Later in this series we will see what happened to the other three
nations of the ten toes. Many attempts have been made to reunite Europe; but all
have met with failure just as God predicted. The division of Rome was complete by
AD 476 and remains to the present.
Daniel 2:44-45—in the days of divided Europe, our day, Jesus, our Rock (1 Corinthians
10:4) will come and set up an eternal kingdom that will last forever. If God has been
so consistently accurate in the past, we can be confident that the next part of this
prophecy will come true—Jesus will come!
The word skeleton often carries a scary connotation. At Halloween time people dress
up as skeletons so they can jump out of a dark place and scare their friends. If
Hollywood wants to make a scene creepy they will often have a skeleton in the
corner. And there's the old colloquialism, "they have a skeleton in their closet"
referring to someone who has a deep dark secret that they want to keep hidden. But
a skeleton is a very important thing. Without one, our bodies would be completely
unusable. A car has a skeleton (frame) that all the rest of its parts are attached to. If a
car's frame is bent it lowers its value considerably! Basically a skeleton is the frame
that you can build everything else off of. Daniel 2 is Bible Prophecy's skeleton. As we
go through this series we'll find ourselves going back to this prophecy over and over
to put other prophecies in to place.
1 Peter 1:23-25—Throughout the ages people have built their lives and dreams on
many manmade skeletons. And while many have attained some amount of success; just
as the nations we've talked about, they seem strong for a time but, like grass, they
wither and someone else takes their place. You can have salvation that's based on the
Word of God which lasts forever, instead of the withering attempt for grandeur that
humans offer if you choose to build your life on the skeleton (framework) of the
Word of God, the one who can predict and orchestrate the rise and fall of
superpowers? After all, His kingdom will cover the whole earth and last forever!