Babylon's Prophetic Iron Kingdom
- Michael E.B. Maher
- Mar 27
- 5 min read
Daniel 2:27-45 “Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, "The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. (28) But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, were these: (29) As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed, about what would come to pass after this; and He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be. (30) But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart. (31) "You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendour was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. (32) This image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, (33) its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. (34) You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. (35) Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. (36) "This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. (37) You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; (38) and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all--you are this head of gold. (39) But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. (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. (41) 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. (42) 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. (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. (44) And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. (45) 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.”
We will begin our discussion about the composition of the eight kingdoms mentioned in John’s vision by looking at the above quoted passage of scripture, which is the account of Daniel’s interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. We can see from this account that God used both the King of Babylon and the Babylonian kingdom, as the starting point for the prophetic timeline of end time events; for this prophetic account begins with the reign of the king of Babylon and ends with the millennial reign of Christ.
There are six kingdoms represented by the image in this dream. The first kingdom is the head of gold, the second kingdom is the chest and arms of silver, the third kingdom is the belly and thighs of bronze, and the fourth kingdom is the legs of iron. Daniel goes on to tell us that the kingdom of iron would be divided, thus implying that a fifth kingdom would emerge from the kingdom of iron. The sixth kingdom in this image is represented by its feet and toes.
It is important to note that the sixth kingdom represented in this image will be the final kingdom of this age. We know that, because in speaking about the feet and toes, Daniel says ‘in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed’, referring to the millennial reign of Christ. The kings Daniel is referring to is represented by the ten toes in this image. These are the same kings represented by the ten horns on the beasts shown to John and Daniel which, as we have already seen, will be present on the earth when Lord Jesus returns.
In this image the Lord’s kingdom is represented by a stone cut without hands becoming a great mountain that fills the earth while crushing all other kingdoms; beginning with striking the image on its feet of iron and clay and breaking them in pieces. In other words when the Lord Jesus returns to set up His millennial reign in the earth He will destroy the ten kings and the kingdom they represent. Although Nebuchadnezzar’s dream only reveals six of the eight kingdoms shown in John’s vision, it does show us the first five and the eighth, i.e. the last kingdom; thus making it easier for us to identify the missing two as we follow the trail to the kingdom of the Antichrist.
The first kingdom described in this passage is the head of fine gold. In this passage Daniel tells us that the head of gold in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was in fact the Babylonian Empire over which King Nebuchadnezzar was reigning at the time. Historical records reveal that the Babylonian Empire began in the year 605 BC and ended in the year 561 BC[1]. This empire had a lifespan of 44 years. It is important to note that the map of the Babylonian Empire shown below incorporates the geographic location of the city of Babylon. At the time that the angel explained the seven kingdoms (heads) to John, this was one of the five which no longer existed. And so we see that the first of the seven kingdoms was the Babylonian Empire.
Map of the Babylonian Empire (605 BC - 561 BC)
Michael E.B. Maher
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