"Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets"
(Read Daniel chapter two)
"But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth." - Daniel 2:35b
"You saw a stone break off from the mountain without a hand touching it and it crushed the iron, bronze, fired clay, silver, and gold. The great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is certain, and its interpretation reliable.” - Daniel 2:45
The stone cut without hands shatters a confederation of kings, represented by the feet of the image, and then God’s Kingdom will dominate the earth. The stone cut out of that mountain is Christ's earthly kingdom which will grow into a mountain; a final and an eternal world empire. Beginning with the advent of Christ during the reign of the Iron Age Roman Empire occupation of Israel. His kingdom is established on a Roman cross. Jesus Christ Himself, being the chief cornerstone is rejected by his people, and in him the whole building grows into a holy temple in the Lord. The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the stone cut out of the mountain without hands. It can not be raised up, or supported by human power and political policy. No United Nations committee can create it. It will be done both invisibly and incarnate by the Spirit of the Lord of Creation who establishes all things. His kingdom is both spiritual and earthly, divinely created and born in the flesh. Born a child in Bethlehem.
The stone which the builders refused, they refused him because it was not cut out by their hands. His kingdom is not of this world, he said as much when he faced his executioner Pilate. Even so, it is set up in the world, God among men.
Nebuchadnezzar's dream reveals the kingdoms of the sort that the world sets up and tears down. Not kingdoms in heaven coming into the world, but kingdoms that mankind has set up, though used by God at times to bring about his will. And use them he does. He fashions these forces throughout the ages and ultimately cuts off a mountain from them that will crush them all. Divine justice punishes wicked rulers and brings mankind's empires to ruin. God has an ongoing plan of judgment for the wicked and a plan of redemption for those who trust in him, and he faithfully carries those plans out. And now we are in the final stages of that prophecy. The stone has been cut. Jesus has come and crushed Satan's head. Now is the time of his second coming. And his kingdom has come and is coming. And Christ's government and ultimate peace will have no end. The Lord reigns to the end of time, forever, beyond time.
And it's not going to be Jesus meek and mild that gets it done. This stone cut without hands is the Messiah, not the Church.
"This isn’t the gradual salvation of the world by the church; “Smashing" is not salvation. "Crushing" is not conversion. "Destroying" is not delivering nor is pulverizing the same as purification.” (Heslop)
Not an evolutionary rise of the supreme human family. Not made of gold, but a kingdom of clay and iron. The final superpower. Both God and man in the person of Jesus Christ. Not just divinely supernatural, but human and superior in every way to the kingdoms of man.
The prophecy is true and certain, and what it proves is, the only reason that God can predict history is because he can control it. Nebuchadnezzar confirmed the prophecy, and Daniel wanted the glory to go to God, and it did.
What makes me laugh is Nebuchadnezzar bows down in worship to this power he's seen first hand, and yet in the next chapter we see him building a golden statue for everyone to worship or die. In his worldly arrogance he tries to regain control again from the God he's just seen at work in his own courts. And isn't that the thing. God uses these corrupted people to bring about his will. They're reliable for at least that. God knows they'll do the wrong thing. And he uses them and ties it all together to bring about his kingdom on earth.