The God-centered Kingdom: Daniel 2:1-48

In Matthew chapter 16 Peter confesses Jesus to be the Christ the Son of the living God. Peter makes that good confession in verse 16. In verse 18 Jesus changes his name from Simon to Peter because Peter means rock.

Then Jesus affirms He will build His church on the rock Peter just defined. People have interpreted this to mean Jesus would build His church on Peter. The language of this text makes it clear Jesus is going to build His church on the rock of what Peter confessed.

The rock Jesus will build His church on is Himself as the Christ the Son of the living God!

This rock shows up around 630-plus years earlier in Daniel’s prophesy! Ultimately, this rock is about a God-centered Kingdom and is of primary importance to us today!

The historical account is found in Daniel chapter 2. The Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. The dream bothered him. So, he called all the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers in his kingdom and asked them to do two things. Tell him what his dream was and tell him what it meant.

I like to call these guys the Babylonian government experts. Among them were 4 Hebrew guys, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

The government experts asked Nebuchadnezzar to tell them the dream. He refused saying he wanted them to tell him what the dream was and then interpret it for him.

The government experts tried this angle a couple of times to buy time, but it just made Nebuchadnezzar angry, so he commanded the government experts, including Daniel and his friends be put to death.

When the commander charged with putting these guys to death came around, Daniel asked him what was going on. When Daniel spoke to the commander with tact and wisdom he was compelled to go into the King and asked for time so he could interpret the dream for him.

That led to Daniel returning to his three Hebrew buddies and asking them to plead for mercy from God so they could interpret the dream and save themselves along with the Babylonian government experts.

They prayed an affirmative prayer to God with confidence He would provide the dream and its interpretation. God came through.

Daniel went to the commander and asked for an audience with Nebuchadnezzar to interpret the dream for him. When before the king Daniel affirmed no wise man or government expert could interpret the dream, but “There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries,” (Daniel 2:28A NIV)

Daniel told the king the dream and explained it to him. The king saw an enormous and dazzling statue that was awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was pure gold, the arms were silver, the belly and thighs were made of bronze and the legs of iron with feet made partly of iron and partly of baked clay.

Daniel told the king as he looked at the statue a rock cut, not by the hands of man came and destroyed the entire statue making it into chaff. That included the feet of iron and clay along with the legs of iron, the bronze, silver and gold.

That rock became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth!

Daniel interprets the dream for the king. He explains the head is Nebuchadnezzar and his dominant kingdom of Babylon. Babylon would dominate the known world from 606 BC to 539 BC.

Babylon would fall to the Medo-persian empire in 539 BC which would become the dominant world power until 331 BC. The chest and arms of silver are the Medo-persian empire.

The belly and thighs of bronze stand for the Grecian empire which would be the dominant world power from 331 to 146 BC.

The legs of iron, and the feet or iron and clay are the Roman empire that dominated the world scene from 146 BC to 476 AD.

God is giving the history of the world in advance to King Nebuchadnezzar before that history happens. I like to call this pre-recorded history. God gave this to the king around 600 BC and it covered world history more than 1,000 years, accurately!

This is prophetic! Prophesy from God is 100 percent accurate! If something isn’t 100 percent accurate it isn’t prophesy! This is prophesy and is 100 percent accurate.

The rock would destroy the kingdoms of men and dominate the world! That’s the same rock Jesus talked about in Matthew 16. It’s the rock Jesus would build his church on, the fact Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God.

Daniel 2:44 is important to our understanding of the rock kingdom, “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. (NIV)

The point of the rock is it’s the Kingdom of God and God will set it up. It will bring all the kingdoms of the world to an end and will never end.

This kingdom was set up on the day of Pentecost in AD 33. This kingdom is the rule of Jesus over a person’s life when that person choses Jesus as Lord and surrenders to Him. It’s empowered by the person, presence and power of God the Holy Spirit.

This Kingdom is a God-centered rule. It will eliminate all worldly kingdoms at the end of time and this Godcentered Kingdom will never end.

This God-centered Kingdom takes effect now and will forever and it even works back to Babylon and Daniel’s time as the text clearly says all the old Kingdoms to include the one that was the head of Gold will be crushed by it.

Worldly kingdoms and the governments of men will come and go, but this God-centered Kingdom will never end and will ultimately dominate all worldly governments.

Daniel’s heart was committed to and centered on this God-centered Kingdom more than 600 years before it was officially established, but that rule of God empowered him to live in a false-god-centered culture without compromising his Godcentered life!

Remember Daniel’s life was threatened by the power of evil Nebuchadnezzar’s rule in a false-god-centered kingdom, that of ancient Babylon. When Daniel and his three Hebrew pals prayed for an answer to the kings dream God came through and saved them and all the other government experts!

In fact, Daniel served at a high place in that evil government without compromising his Godcentered life for close to 70 years.

Today many governments in the world are in total opposition to the Christian message and a God-centered life. Sadly, in America there are many in high places who want to limit, and in some cases take away the right to worship God and commit to His standard of God-centered living.

During the pandemic we’re still dealing with today no one is trying to close liquor stores! In fact, several permits to sell cannabis have been issued for Porterville, but worship as we understand it has been limited.

There are some in Congress who want to move toward and into what they call socialism. When they describe it, they’re describing Marxism and Communism! A Marxist or Communist form of government is one in which the government is god and religion is outlawed or at the very least limited.

That’s exactly what Daniel, and his Hebrew buddies were dealing with in Babylon 2,600 years ago. They decided to live under the rock that was to come, by their commitment to a God-centered life and they found the power to flourish for God in the midst of Godlessness.

One of the most powerful Christian movements in the world today is in Iran. In Iran you can be executed for living the Christian faith! Yet the rock is moving powerfully in that Islamic country. Thousands come to Christ and meet in small groups to study the Bible and worship and pray.

Hitler’s Germany tried to burn all the Bibles to limit Christianity and a God-centered life. When the burning was done there were more Bibles than before the burning started.

In the 1970’s I was in youth ministry. While involved in that kind of work we were excluded from meeting on some high school campuses. We just met in homes off campus and kids kept coming to Christ.

People want to stop the God-centered life and that Kingdom of God! One day all the governments the world has ever known will be gone and God’s Kingdom will dominate the entire world.

In 1977 I was serving in youth ministry. A family in our church had a foreign exchange student from Japan stay with them for the school year. He came with their kids to youth group. His name was Mitsihero Okomoto. The kids called him Hero. His family worshipped their ancestors and Christianity was difficult for him.

The last day he was in this country we had a beach day at Manhattan Beach in L.A County. I saw Hero and one of our students named James off talking alone on the beach.

After several hours James came over to me with Hero. He said, “Hero wants to be baptized and accept Christ.” James and I baptized Hero into Christ in the surf that last day he was in this country.

He made a choice to live a God-centered life and go back into an environment that was totally opposed to that life!

I haven’t seen or heard from Hero in almost 45 years. What became of him? I don’t know, but I do know he lives in the power of The God Centered Kingdom, just like Daniel did and just like you and I can today.

Chose that God-centered Kingdom and claim Romans 8:37, “No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” God will grant the power to live that God-centered life in the midst of opposition and times of difficulty!

Tom West works in advanced planning with Myers Funeral Service in Porterville. You can reach him on his cell number at 602.758.1168. You can see Tom’s messages on his Youtube channel at Life In The God Lane.