King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had a series of nightmares that disturbed him. He was king of the known “civilised” world at the time. This region was called the “oikoumene” or “oecumene” by the Greeks. There were civilisations in other parts of the world, in India, China, Africa, etc, but this dream does not include them.
Nebuchadnezzar’s worst nightmare was of a huge image, in the shape of a man. It had a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and outer thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet and toes of iron mixed with clay.
A stone hit the image on the feet, and the whole image disintegrated, and was blown away. The stone then became a mountain which filled the earth with a new kingdom, made by God. (Daniel chapter 2).
Nebuchadnezzar was shown in this dream, and in a later dream (Daniel chapter 4), that God rules in the kingdoms of men, and gives it to whom He wills.
A Jewish prince, Daniel, was a captive in Babylon during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. Daniel prayed to God for wisdom that he would be able to interpret the dream for the king.
This dream was a long term vision of the future, which has yet to be fulfilled.
The metallic parts of the image’s body were a series of empires, where kings reigned over other kings:
The golden head was King Nebuchadnezzar himself. He was a “king of kings” , a king over other kings, an emperor, Dan 2:37. His empire would be succeeded by a lesser monarchy, the silver chest and arms, the Medes and then Persians.
That would be succeeded by an even lesser brazen monarchy that would cover a larger territory. The long iron legs would follow, with feet that were weak because of the mixture of iron and clay.
The first empire was Babylonian, followed by the Medo-Persian, then Grecian, and then Roman empires. All of these empires had control of the Jews, in the land of Israel, and throughout their kingdoms, where many were dispersed.
These empires in Daniel 2 were a parallel to the series of 4 “beasts” that Prince Daniel saw in his own night vision.
The fourth, Roman “beast”, was would be renowned for its cruelty. (Daniel chapter 7). The Romans ruled over the land of Israel when Jesus lived there in the first century AD. They appointed local kings, the Herodian family, who were not Jews.
Roman soldiers crucified Jesus. Roman legions destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70, and after a Jewish revolt in AD 135, when a million Jews were killed, many Jews were sent as slaves throughout their empire. It stretched from Portugal and Spain at the western end of the Mediterranean Sea, to Persia in the east.
In the 4th century AD, under pressure from the northern Barbarians, the Roman imperial capital was moved from Rome to Constantinople. Constantinople was called “New Rome” or the “Second Rome”. The emperor and his court lived in Constantinople. He was also head of the developing church.
At the end of the 8th century, there was no emperor in Constantinople, as his wife had had him killed. This situation did not last long as their son then had his mother banished, so the dynasty continued.
The head of the Roman Catholic Church, the pope, was in Rome. In 800 AD the pope took advantage of the situation, with no eastern emperor, so he appointed a new emperor.
The German king, Charles, later known as Charlemagne, had defeated the barbarians who were attacking Rome, so the pope crowned him king of Rome on Christmas Day 800 AD.
This meant that there were two parallel royal dynasties each calling themselves Roman, and each having a Roman form of religion.
The Western Roman Emperor was initially based in Aachen in Germany. The Habsburg dynasty, Roman Catholics, and the Holy Roman Empire, dominated Europe until 1918 Their capital was moved from Aachen, via Cologne to Vienna in Austria. The royal regalia of the Holy Roman Empire is in Vienna today.
The Eastern Roman Emperor, the Byzantine emperor, continued in Constantinople, with the Orthodox church. It had split from the Roman Catholics in 1054 AD, but claimed to be the original Catholic Church. The head of this church is called a Patriarch.
The Ottoman Turks began rebelling against the Byzantine emperors at the end of the 13th century. The last Byzantine dynasty, the Palaeologus family, was defeated when Constantinople was captured by the Turks in 1453 AD.
The Habsburgs then decided that they were now the only Roman emperors. This was premature, as within 20 years another dynasty had started, claiming succession to the Byzantine Empire. It was in Russia.
The original Roman emperors, Caesars, had used a single head eagle as their symbol.
The Palaeologus family, the last Byzantine emperors, had added an extra head to their Roman imperial eagle, as propaganda to show that they had control over the east and west. This imperial double-headed eagle was adopted by the Habsburgs, who were called Kaisers, the European form of Caesar.
The last Byzantine royal children were sent to Rome for safety before the fall of Constantinople. The royal ivory throne and other treasures went with them. Twenty years later Princess Zoe Palaiologina married Prince Ivan III of Moscow. The ivory throne, which was decorated with double-headed eagles, was part of her dowry. It is in Moscow today.
Prince Ivan decided that he was now a “Tsar” (Russian form of Caesar). Moscow became known as the “Third Rome”. Successive Tsars were crowned on the ivory throne.
The Russian Orthodox Church was dominant. The Tsars adopted the Byzantine double-headed eagle as their emblem. They claimed succession as the inheritors of the traditions of the Eastern, Byzantine, Roman Empire. In fact they claimed to be the original imperial line, and that they were the only true Christians. The dynasty’s name was Romanov, which means “of the Romans”.
Both “Roman” dynasties ruled until near the end of World War I. For 3 centuries there had been 2 parallel empires in Europe, and Russia, that had claimed descent from Rome, and used Roman titles and double-headed eagles.
The Habsburgs in Austria, were allied with the Germans at the start of World War I. There was German emperor, but his empire had only begun in 1871, when several German monarchies united. At the end of the war in November 1918, when the Germans were defeated, the Habsburg emperor, and his family were expelled from Austria and exiled to Spain. Only since the 1990s have members of the Habsburg family been allowed to live in Austria again.
The Romanov family in Russia was less fortunate. The communist revolution in 1917 resulted in the royal family being executed in July 1918. The emperor and his immediate family were killed, but some cousins survived. One particular Romanov family member has visited Russia frequently since the USSR ended in 1991. Grand Duke George Romanov has been acknowledged as the Tsarevitch (Tsar in waiting) by members of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government.
Both the imperial Roman, iron, dynasties ceased within 5 months of one another in 1918. The double-headed eagles disappeared from view.
This was the end of the solid, metallic monarchies of Nebuchadnezzar’s image. The legs had finished.
The 4th beast in Daniel’s vision had a near fatal wound but didn’t die and is to be restored.
However, the image has feet of iron and clay, which showed that a Roman form of government would continue. This is the Republican form, with dictators and senates, and single headed eagles, as in the time before the Caesars in ancient Rome.
In the Bible “clay” is used to show the frailty of humanity. The clay in the feet represented Roman “people power” with all the “–isms” dominant in the politics of Europe and Russia: Communism, Socialism, Marxism, Fascism, Nazism, Humanism.
The cruelty shown towards the Jews who were concentrated in these territories was horrendous. Millions of Jews were exterminated under the Romanov and Nazi eagles. Millions more were forced into slave labour, or exile.
This fulfilled a prophecy given by Moses to the Jews shortly before he died. An iron yoke would be put upon them if they disobeyed God. A nation would come like an eagle upon them from the end of the earth. It would besiege their cities and scatter the people. Their carcase would be a prey to birds, Deuteronomy 28.
Jesus repeated this warning that where the carcase is, the eagles will be gathered together, Mat.24:28.
Nebuchadnezzar’s nightmare image is top heavy, with unstable feet. It has 10 toes made of iron and clay, which were described as “kings”, Daniel 2:44.
We think that these toes, which are yet to mature, will be constitutional monarchs, from the royal family members that have survived. They will be appointed by governments in the former Habsburg and Romanov territories.
These are not Protestant, British and northern European monarchies, as they must include Roman symbols, including Roman religion (Roman Catholic or Orthodox).
These are not Muslim monarchies and nations, as they have not used a Roman eagle, nor mode of government, and they regard those churches as idolaters.
It is possible that the Russian nation will include the former Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire) territory of modern day Greece, Turkey, Syria, etc, when Gog, the Tsar of Russia, the king of the north, comes south to take possession of Constantinople and Jerusalem, as prophesied in Daniel 11 and Ezekiel 38 and 39.
The 10 toe monarchs will be the equivalent of the 10 horns on the head of Daniel’s fourth beast, Dan 7:24. They will only arise in “the last days”, when the dream stone is ready to strike the feet of the image.
These kings will make war with the stone, led by another king who will arise among them.
The stone that smashes the image is not made with hands. It comes from God, and it represents the Lord Jesus Christ who described Himself as a stone, Mat 21:42, Mar 12:10, Luke 20:17 and this is confirmed by Peter, Acts 4:11, 1 Pet 2:7.
Jesus Christ will establish the Kingdom of God on earth, when He returns. The kingdoms of men will be finished.
Jesus will be the ultimate emperor, who will be called “King of Kings” and “Lord of Lords”.