See the series here
So why would The Lord ordain, authorize and support
what we today might consider as ‘bully nations’??
As global populations began to explode during the 2nd age (the post-flood/pre-cross age), The Lord strategically ordained and supported hegemony among the family of evolving nations. 1 He allowed select city states or nations to become ‘significantly strong’ in various areas of life, especially economically and militarily, capable of exerting various influences over less endowed nations and city-states. As noted, when and where indicated, these nations would also become The Lord’s ‘battle axes’ to wage wars against nations He intended to judge -- nations that would have frustrated His long-term Grace to them, and that failed to repent of, and turn from their mounting, gross sinfulness. Interestingly, this does not indicate hegemon nations would be ‘more righteous’ than cities and nations The Lord intended to judge via their power! Historically, every ‘battle axe’ hegemon nation was, itself, later …severely judged, either for reasons similar to those of nations they, themselves had invaded, and/or for their own excessive pridefulness, e.g., about what ‘they’ had accomplished – refusing to recognize or give honor to The Lord, Who by the way, HATES PRIDE.
The first major/huge hegemon ‘city-state’ recorded in The Bible appears to have been Babylon, initially led by the first King Nebuchadnezzar, who ‘built’ the Babylonian Empire early in the 2nd age of history through a wide array of military conquests. 2 Several years after he had conquered Judah, destroying most of Jerusalem (including the first Jewish temple), and transporting many Judean captives to Babylon, The Lord claimed responsibility for this king’s successful conquests. Here’s how He did it.
Daniel chapter 2 highlights a fascinating, historical account of a very disturbing dream King Nebuchadnezzar had when he had become excessively prideful about all he had accomplished, both in Babylon, and across his empire. He began to ponder what would become of it all …after his death. To answer his pondering, The Lord gave him a curious, disturbing dream. But for days after this dream, the king could not recall the dream!! He only recalled it was about something that was sorely disturbing. So he severely pressured all his wise men and magicians to tell him what he had dreamed, or else!!! Of course, no one could do such a thing.
So Daniel, one of the king’s young captive wisemen from Judah, prayed to The Lord to know the dream and its interpretation. The Lord answered remarkably. In an effort to prevent the king from slaughtering all of his wisemen, as he had threatened to do, Daniel rushed to share with the king what The Lord had revealed – both the dream and its interpretation. As Daniel shared, Nebuchadnezzar marveled. He recalled the details of his dream. After hearing the dream and its interpretation, the king was so impressed that he promoted and lavished gifts on Daniel.
The Dream and Its Interpretation
The dream was of a huge statue, comprising a gold head, silver chest and arms, bronze belly and thighs, iron legs, and mixed iron and clay feet and toes. The interpretation was a vivid, prophetic illustration of the rise and fall of several major hegemon nations across the northern hemisphere, from the early centuries of the 2nd age, to and well beyond our current days in the 3rd age of history! Read that again…
Thus far, world history literally… ‘heeded and bore the fruits of these ancient, prophetic seeds!’ (See: Prophecy Seeds=>Our Deeds (Series)). The last part of the dream was of a large stone, ‘cut out, but not by hand’, that was hurled at, and struck the feet of the statue, causing the statue to fall and crumble into dust. The dust was blown away without a trace, and the stone became a mighty mountain that filled all the Earth. Major WOW!!!
Historically, in their predicted order, this is what the various sections of the statue represented:
1. gold head… the Babylonian Empire
2. silver chest/arms… the Medo-Persian/Persian Empire
3. bronze belly/thighs... the Grecian Empire
4. iron legs… the Roman Empire
5. feet and 10 toes… some current-day and/or possible future nations
From predictions across The Bible, it seems clear the stone ‘cut out, but not by hand’ represents either the full or partial set of apocalyptic judgements The Lord promises on our grossly sinful world during the last half of the next age of history -- the tribulation age, and/or the final event in those judgments, i.e., the Armageddon War, predicted in Revelation 19 after the ‘7th bowl judgment’. This war will end the 4th age of history, and the short (7-year) global rule of the predicted anti-Christ man, ‘the son of satan’. 3 It will signal the start of the 5th age of history, The Millennial Reign age.
Again, from predictions across The Bible, it seems clear the mighty mountain that fills all the Earth, represents either The Lord God’s long-promised Millennial Reign as God on this current version of Earth, during the predicted 5th age of history - The Millennial Reign age, or both His Millennial Reign, and also His eternal reign on the long ago-predicted new, eternal Earth. 4
Though other global and regional hegemon empires have existed in history, The Lord chose the above-noted hegemon nations as the focus of His ‘prophetic message’ to Nebuchadnezzar… and to us today! Therefore, since we are currently in the post-Roman Empire era, the pertinent question for us is,
‘What do the mixed clay feet and toes
of the statue represent for us, today??
Searching the Internet will yield a myriad of insights on this question. From my diligent efforts to ‘let Scripture interpret Scripture’, here are the notions I perceive the clay feet and toes likely represent:
a. The top 10 or even many remnant nations of the Roman Empire, i.e., current-day mix of strong and weak nations that have principally adopted various aspects of Roman systems (political, economic, socio-cultural, legal, educational, linguistic, etc.) 5, or
b. The 10 nations that will be initial close allies of the coming anti-Christ government, as signified in a dream Daniel had, and that was interpreted by an angel. 6, or
c. All current and/or future nations that will experience the full weight of the apocalyptic plagues at the end of the 4th age of history, the tribulation age. 7
Curiously, Daniel 2:41-44, refer to the feet and toes of the statue as ‘the kingdom’ and ‘it’ (both singular terms), and as ‘these kings’ (plural). These references might hint of a united kingdom of several nations, e.g., items b and/or c above. Recall, in ancient times, a major hegemon nation or city state, under the rule of a dominant king, would typically establish vassal kings to rule over conquered territories. 8
So, if the feet and toes of the statue represent items b and/or c above,
What might this infer for us today, in these
post-Roman Empire – pre-tribulation age days??
Lacking absolute clarity about what the feet and toes of the statue represent, we can only use Scripture to intuit what The Lord’s strategy allows regarding hegemon nations in our day, i.e., allow Scripture to interpret and shed light on Scripture.
In Part 3, let’s ponder the above question by examining plausible correlations with other ‘hegemon-like’ structures The Lord designed for humanity.
Could there be possible correlations (strong or weak)
between The Lord’s designs of:
(a) the father figure in families,
(b) governments in cities and nations,
and (c) hegemon nations among the family of nations??
Stay tuned for Part 3
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1 Hegemony - the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant nation over smaller, weaker nation(s), usually based on the threats of, or actual military conquests of smaller or weaker nations.
2 In Jeremiah 51, The Lord, through the prophet, gives us His abundantly clear, 10-point reasons for allowing King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to be so immensely successful, and for Babylon to become likely the first-ever, major hegemon nation in history! Thus, this pivotal chapter literally ‘sets the stage’ for how The Lord would henceforth exercise ‘the sword’ (warfare among nations) as one of His 4 predicted judgment henchmen against un-repented sinfulness in ANY land. just as promised in Deuteronomy 32, Leviticus 26, Ezekiel 14:12-23. (See: Four Henchmen, Explained) It is absolutely critical that we, today, understand this as FACTS, not as religion! Our failure to ‘connect the wars-to-sinfulness’ dots has given satan a MAJOR WIN against humanity. If only…
3 For more on these critical topics, please see: Revelation - Future Attacks in Israel, anti-Christ (Series), and Revelation – Seven Bowls Poured (Series).
4 See: Millennial Reign (Series) and also Earth’s Next Versions (Series).
5 Some Bible scholars closely associate the toes of the statue only to nations across Europe, rather than to the broad mix of nations across the western world that have adopted various aspects of the Roman systems.
6 See: Daniel 7 and also anti-Christ (Series).
7 These plagues will be The Lord’s judgment on the crescendo of gross sinfulness across the world. They will clean-up and substantially re-structure the Earth for His Millennial Reign. (See: Millennial Reign (Series)).
As oft repeated in this blog, judgment is the 2nd point in The Lord's strategy in dealing with humanity, as He succinctly declared in Jeremiah 9:23-24. It is horribly unfortunate for humanity that we have roundly, persistently and ardently IGNORED, DENIED and dismissed His declaration, and have devised 'other means' to explain ...what's going on in the Earth!
Since every strategy requires implementation tactics, The Lord revealed His key Grace and Judgment tactics in Deuteronomy 32 and Leviticus 26, then He summarized/distilled His 4 judgment tactics in Ezekiel 14:12-22. See: Four Henchmen, Explained.
8 Very interestingly, The Bible even hints Jesus will follow this exact pattern, both: (a) in His predicted ‘iron rod’ Millennial Reign on this current version of Earth, and also (b) throughout eternity on His promised new, eternal Earth. (See: Earth’s Next Versions (Series), and also What If? (Subsequent Creations)).
