In the ‘Sermon on the Mount’, Jesus taught the first church (5:1-2), His called out assembly, and provided them clear and precise truths to equip them to diligently pursue the kingdom of God (6:33-34). As He concluded the message to them, He emphasized the importance and need for hearing and obeying His words (7:24-27). His illustration, to emphasize the point, focused upon the need for a stable foundation. Jesus likened those who build upon the solid foundation, “a rock” (7:24), to “a wise man” as opposed to “a foolish man” (26). One of the main points of this teaching of Jesus is to emphasize the necessity of a solid foundation, for without it collapse, destruction, and loss is inevitable.
When the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed the dream about the “great image (statue)” (Daniel 2:31), God, through Daniel, provided Nebuchadnezzar with the memory of the dream and the interpretation (2:28-30). As Daniel declared the dream and the meaning unto the king, He describes the statue as a representation of empires or kingdoms (2:38-44) with the “small stone” (34, 45) being the final, and eternal, kingdom set up by “the God of heaven” (44).
With respect to “the fourth kingdom” (40-44) here are a couple of things to note. First, Daniel identifies “the fourth kingdom” as the “legs of iron” (33) with “feet part of iron and part of clay”. When he declared the interpretation to Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel described the following: “the fourth kingdom” (40) and then “these kings” (44). He, Daniel, used the designation of “these kings” in connection with “the toes of the feet” which he described as “part of iron, and part of clay” (41-43). The description of “the feet and toes” (41) and “the toes of the feet” (42) is: “it will be a divided kingdom” (41, HCSB); “part of the kingdom will be strong, and part will be brittle” (42, HCSB); “will not hold together” (43, HCSB).
Since “the God of heaven” (44, HCSB) has not yet “set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed”, we should conclude that, at the very least, “the feet and toes” part of the statue has not yet come together for their common purpose.
What might the formation, or coalition, of “the toes of the feet” (42) “kings” (44) look like, and what, amid the myriad of possibilities, might bring them together to form an “iron mixed with clay” (43) kingdom? From the well of possibilities the following suggestions might be considered: (1) hatred for the nation of Israel; (2) need/desire for energy, i.e. Israel’s vast natural gas reserves beneath her territorial waters in the Mediterranean Sea; (3) desire for power – such as those “ten horn … kings” (Rev. 17:12) who receive power from “the beast”; (4) maybe ‘d’ – all the above. Here is an additional consideration for the “strong” and “brittle” alliance, or coalition: religion.
Click the links below for related articles from the Jerusalem Post:
“Muslim world must unite against Israel, Erdogan says to Iran’s Raisi”
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-738692
“Iran kickstarts multi-front Middle East war against Israel – analysis”
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-738765
As tensions continue to mount, and escalate, in and around Israel
May we diligently watch to see and identify what is taking place as we pursue building upon the stable foundation of the Word of God.