Greece: The Belly and Thighs of Bronze
Daniel, having explained the meaning of the head of gold and the chest and arms of silver now proceeds to describe the third kingdom as one which should rule over all the earth. All the earth in this case being the world as known to the middle eastern monarchs of the time.
Daniel 3:39 And another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
This third kingdom was the Grecian empire. And by the way, I am not merely guessing at the identity of these empires. Not only is history very clear as to the sequence of empires, but as you progress into the other prophetic sequences in Daniel, these empires are called by name.
If any empire, any people, could be characterized by bronze or brass it would be the Greeks. They were experts in the use of the metal. Greek soldiers wore helmets of bronze. They carried shields of bronze. Bronze was their metal of choice, so much so that historians have styled them “brazen coated Greeks.”
And just as silver is harder than gold, so is bronze harder that silver. The conquest of Medo-Persia by the Greeks was unprecedented for its swiftness. Under the command of Alexander the Great, the Greek armies conquered not only all of Persia, but also all of the then known world; thus fulfilling the words of prophecy that this third kingdom “shall bear rule over all the earth.” But the prophecy continues.
Rome: The Legs of Iron
Daniel 2:40 And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others.
In its turn, Greece gave way to Rome. And it is Rome that is represented by the legs of iron. For more than 500 years Rome seemed almost unconquerable. Known to history as the iron monarchy, it was Rome that conquered Greece. And it was Rome that ruled when Christ was born. Romans standards waved from the British Isles to the Sahara desert; from the Atlantic to the Euphrates. Her Caesars were worshiped as gods, and Rome ruled every nation under her influence with an iron fist.
Through the political and social turmoil of the ages, through the rise and fall of nations and empires, God was working out his purpose. But the prophecy does not end here, and this world’s history is not yet over. Daniel continues.
A Divided Kingdom: The Feet and Toes of Iron and Clay
Daniel 2:41-42 Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.
Rome was never conquered. Nevertheless, it fell. A new element of weakness is introduced. Clay is mixed with the iron. Rome lost that iron strength which had made it such an unstoppable force in those first centuries.
The iron legs of the image terminated in feet and toes of iron mixed with clay. Some have seen in this a symbol of our modern world largely built of reinforced concrete, iron and clay. At this point explicit mention is made of the toes, and it has been noted that the Western Roman Empire was in time carved up into ten divisions. All historians agree that out of the territory of the Western Roman Empire ten, (one for each toe) and only ten separate kingdoms were ultimately established. No historian places the beginning of this division of the Roman Empire earlier that AD 351, and there is general agreement in assigning it’s close to AD 476.
These ten divisions were the Lombard’s, Alemanni, Anglo-Saxons, Ostrogoths, Burundians, Franks, Suevi, Vandals, Visigoths, and the Heruli. Indeed, the connection between these ten kingdoms and the modern nations of Europe are still traceable in the names. For example, the Franks became the French. The Anglo-Saxons the English, The Alamanni the Germans, etc.
From time to time the exact number of European nations has varied. From time to time a strong nation would be able to weld a few of the fragments of the broken empire together, only to see them shatter once again. “Partly strong and partly broken” the prophecy said. And so, it has proven to be.
Daniel 2:43 As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.
The Iron Will Not Mix with the Clay
The iron was mixed with clay and lost the power of cohesion. From this time on the prophecy declares, no one man or combination of men would ever again be able to consolidate the broken fragments of the Rome empire into a single consolidated political entity. Yet that has not stopped people from trying, and the pages of history run deep with blood by the various attempts to once again weld the empire together.
- Charlemagne made an attempt and failed.
- Charles V tried and failed just as miserably.
- Louis XIV took a shot at it and failed.
- Napoleon tried, and for a time seemed to be on the verge of success, but failed, nonetheless.
A single verse of Scripture was mightier than all their armies and all their scheming. Time and again people have thought they could defy the prophecy, but history faithfully records their failure. The iron was mingled with the clay.
And it has not been by military might alone that men have tried to weld the empire back together. Diplomacy has also been used to this end, and one aspect of these diplomatic attempts receives specific mention. The prophecy says, “They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men.” Marriages were formed between the ruling parties with the hope of consolidating their power and uniting these divided kingdoms. And the history of Europe is a running commentary of the exact fulfillment of these words of prophecy until by the opening of the 20th century every ranking hereditary ruler in Europe was related to the British royal family. But this also failed. World War I showed the utter futility of these attempts.
- Kaiser Wilhelm II tried, and plunged the world into World War I, but the iron would not mingle with the clay.
- The League of Nations tried and failed.
- Hitler tried, and drenched the world in blood, but he failed just as miserably as all the others.
- The United Nations is trying and failing.
- Today many put their hope in the European Union, but prophecy says that that too will fail.
“Partly strong and partly broken.” Just strong enough to give false hope, but too broken for there ever to be true success. From time-to-time men have so come very close to fulfilling their dream of a fully united Europe, they just almost get it, but always, in the end, the word of God proves too powerful for them.
Psalm 33:9-10 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.
God has spoken. His will, will be done.
Alliances may come and go, and it may appear for a time that the iron is mixing with the miry clay. But God has said, “They shall not cleave one to another.” It may from time to time seem that the old animosities have disappeared, but the Scriptures cannot be broken.
We serve a great and mighty God. These verses bring this prophecy up to our own day. We are living in the days represented by the toes of the image. In, fact, we are most probably at the toenails of the image.
And still the prophecy continues, for this is not yet the end.
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