20230609

a scary statue

Daniel 2:31-35 (JDV)

Daniel 2:31 “You, King, perceived a colossal statue. That statue, tall and dazzling, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was scary.
Daniel 2:32 The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its midsection and thighs were bronze,
Daniel 2:33 its legs were iron, and its feet were part iron and partly fired clay.
Daniel 2:34 As you perceived this, a stone broke off without a hand touching it, struck the statue on its feet of iron and fired clay, and crushed them.
Daniel 2:35 Then the iron, the fired clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were shattered and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The wind lifted them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that had struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole land.

a scary statue

The statue Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream was colossal, tall, dazzling, and scary. We will learn as we keep reading that the figure depicted human empires and that they will be toppled by a divine reign — symbolized by the boulder.

Human history is filled with scary empires that swallow up nations and bring terror and shame to humanity. The more we know about these empires, the scarier they are. The good news for us as we look at today’s text is that there is a solution. It is not a political solution. It is not even a religious solution (in the sense of something the church can do). God’s plan to topple the mighty empires of the world is in his hands. His plan to rescue the universe requires a divine action — the return and reign of his Son.