May 26: BROKEN BEFORE GOD
Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure. Daniel 2:45
The stone [that] was cut…without hands is an explicit reference to Christ. Paul directed his readers to Him as the Sustainer in the wilderness for the rescued children of Israel: they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). We need to understand that He is pursuing us, not to force us to love Him but to show His love for us in the hope that we will freely choose to love Him back.
We have seen that the successive kingdoms are symbolized by the various earthly minerals. These kingdoms rise and fall, as they are established by men under the sovereignty of God. Regardless of the show of power and splendor by each, they are all temporary. We are being given time to compare the kingdoms of men with the eternal kingdom under the divine rulership of God. It takes spiritual eyes with which to make this comparison, yet even a child can readily understand the difference.
What better way to convey the message of God’s love, His omniscience, and His plan to save people while bringing about an end to sin, than to show the leader of the pagan world the answer to his question: an outline of what is to come, all the way to the end of our fallen, sin-sick world.
A brief history of the Babylonian Empire: it came to be the leading earthly power under the great general Nabopolassar, who became its king. When he died in 604BC, his son, Nebuchadnezzar became king. Events had already proven this son as a powerful and brilliant commander, physically and mentally strong, and hailed as worthy to succeed his father. Nebuchadnezzar would become the greatest man of his time in the Near East, and famous as a splendid soldier, statesman, and architect; and all of this under the hand of the LORD (see Jeremiah 27:6).
Though the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this, it takes a while for Nebuchadnezzar to recognize and receive the facts for himself. The Lord Jesus recognizes, welcomes, and receives all who come to Him in true repentance. What a door to blessing it is to be broken before God! But the prideful souls who refuse to see the need for the Savior will die along with the sin that they refused to give up. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream has prophesied that no trace of them [will be] found (Daniel 2:35), for they shall be as though they had never been (Obadiah 16).
Jesus referred to Himself as a stone:
And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. Matthew 21:44 (see also Luke 20:18)