RAYS OF LIGHT BIBLE STUDY GUIDES

A NEW WORLD ORDER

THE CRUMBLE OF THE KINGDOMS

Introduction
The restless king turned over and over in his bed. He just couldnt get back to sleep!
Something had happened, yes, he had seen
something
, but he just couldnt remember
what! All of a sudden, he sits up, yelling at the top of his lungs, GUARDS!!! Two men

come rushing in. He then commands them, Go get my advisers! We need to talk. The
two guards hurry to do his bidding. Little did they know the impact the occurrence of that
night would have on the history of the world from that time onward.

1. Who was this king, and what about that dream of his?
Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzars reign,
_______________________________________________ had dreams; and his spirit was so troubled that
his sleep left him
(Daniel 2:1)
.
Nearly two and a half millennia ago, there was a king in the ancient empire of Babylon by
the name of Nebuchadnezzar. At the time, his empire was so extended that he could
have been referred to as the king of the known world. Yet even though it seemed that he
had everything going for him, he still had questions many people have today--questions
about life, death, and the future. So the God of heaven, in His mercy, decided to give
Nebuchadnezzar a preview of the future.
But there is a ______________ in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King
Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the _______________________________ days...As for you, O king,
__________________________ 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
(Daniel 2:28, 29)
.

2. Upon waking, what was the first thing Nebuchadnezzar did?

Then the king gave the command to call the magicians, the _________________________, the
sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.
And the king said to them, I have had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream.
(Daniel 2:2, 3)
.
Nebuchadnezzar called in all the wise men, those who claimed to have a special
connection with the gods.
(Note: In Babylonian culture, dreams were considered to be

special messages from the gods. That is why repeatedly throughout the book of Daniel,
Nebuchadnezzar is seeking to understand various dreams he has.)
When they came in, the
king explained that he was troubled by a dream he had. The wise men then said,
O king,
live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation
(Daniel 2:4)
.
But the king

replied by saying that he had forgotten the dream, and that it was up to them to tell him
the dream AND its meaning! The kings advisors found themselves in a predicament. If
the king told them the dream, they could concoct some interpretation that wasnt
necessarily true; but now, they had to tell the kind exactly what he had dreamt the

previous night! They told the king,

There is not a man on earth who can tell the kings matter;
therefore no king, lord, or ruler has ever asked such things of any magician, astrologer, or Chaldean
there is no other who can tell it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh
(Daniel

2:10-11)
.
By this time the king was extremely upset--he was furious! He realized that the
wise men had been lying about their abilities all this time, and he had fallen for it! So in
anger,
He gave the command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon
(Daniel 2:12)
.

3. Who was included in the kings death decree?

The king gave the command to destroy ____________________ the wise men of Babylon. So the
decree went out, and they began killing the wise men; and they sought
____________________________ and his ____________________________________, to kill them
(Daniel
2:12, 13)
.

Four young men--Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah--had

been taken captive from their home city of Jerusalem several
years prior to this story. When given a three-year training that
would equip them to be of service to the king, these young men
had excelled in their studies and were found to be ten times
better than all the wise men in the kingdom (Daniel 1:20).
Therefore, they were included in this death sentence, even
though they were not present at the kings meeting with his
advisors.

4. Upon hearing of the kings death decree, what did Daniel do?
So Daniel went in and _______________________ the king to give him ________________________, that
he might tell the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house, and made the decision
__________________________ to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might
seek ______________________________ from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that
Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon
(Daniel
2:16-18)
.

We find that Daniel did three things:

A. He asked the king for time.

B. He used the time to talk to his friends about the situation.

C. He used the time to pray to his God about the situation.
Daniel believed that God could be trusted, and so when confronted with a difficult
situation, he took the matter to God in prayer. We have that same privilege that Daniel
did! We can
come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in
time of need
(Hebrews 4:16)
.
The Bible tells us that God heard and answered Daniels prayer (see Daniel 2:19). How
wonderful! He will hear and answer our prayers, too!

5. Upon waking, what was the first thing that Daniel did?
... the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel _______________________________
the God of heaven
(Daniel 2:19)
.
This is one of the main characteristics of Gods true prophets--they always give glory and
credit to God!
Daniel then went in before the king and proceeded to give an introduction to the dream.
The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the
soothsayers cannot declare to the king. 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 were these: 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. 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
(Daniel 2:27-30)
.

6. What were the details of King Nebuchadnezzars dream?

You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great
image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form
was awesome. This images head was of fine gold, its chest and
arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet
partly of iron and partly of clay. 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.
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
(Daniel 2:31-35)
.
By now, Nebuchadnezzar was amazed that Daniel was able to tell the dream in stunning
detail! But he also wanted to know what it meant. For the remainder of this lesson, we
will take a look at what God revealed to Nebuchadnezzar and the human race at large
through this interesting dream.

7. Who is the only who truly knows the future?

Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is
none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet
done
(Isaiah 46:9, 10)

.
God is the only one who truly knows the future, and He has decided to reveal some
things about the future in His Word. In fact, Bible prophecy is one of the greatest
evidences that there is a God, and that He can be trusted! If you approached this study
with any skepticism concerning the Bible, it will vanish as you see how God has predicted
the future with 100% accuracy!

8. What did the different metals in Nebuchadnezzars dream represent?

Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. He removes
______________________________ and raises up ______________________________
(Daniel 2:20, 21)
.
You, O king, are a king of ______________________________
(Daniel 2:37)
.
When Daniel addressed Nebuchadnezzar as a king of kings, he was not putting
Nebuchadnezzar on the same level as Jesus, who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Rather, he meant to say to Nebuchadnezzar, You are one king out of many kings that will
arise, or Your kingdom is one out of many that will arise (in the Bible, a king is
synonymous with his kingdom; see Daniel 7:17, 23). So Daniel is hinting at the fact that
the different metals in the statue in Nebuchadnezzars dream represented different

kingdoms that would rise in world history. We see this confirmed as Daniel explains the
dream.

9. What did the head of gold in the image of Nebuchadnezzars dream represent?
___________________ are this head of gold.
(Daniel 2:38)
.
In other words, Daniel was telling King Nebuchadnezzar that his kingdom was symbolized
by the head of gold in his dream.
The kingdom of
Babylon
, which lasted from 606-539 B.C.,
was a great and glorious empire. In Isaiah 14:4, the

prophet referred to Babylon as a golden kingdom. It

truly was a golden kingdom. The hanging gardens of
Babylon, which Nebuchadnezzar built for his Median
wife, were among the seven wonders of the ancient
world!
Yet Babylons might and glory would not last forever, for Daniel told the king,
But after you
shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours
(Daniel 2:39)
.
Another kingdom would overpower
Babylon, and this kingdom would be represented by the chest and arms of silver.

10. What kingdom was represented by the chest and arms of silver?
The specific kingdom is not mentioned here in this chapter, but from the interpretation
of the dream in Daniel 2, we find that this kingdom would immediately follow the
kingdom of Babylon.
In Daniel 5, we find the account of the fall of the
Babylonian empire. It occurred during a feast where the
Babylonian gods were honored. The king of Babylon
desecrated the sacred vessels used in the worship of the
God of heaven, taken from the temple in Jerusalem. Then,
without warning, a bloodless hand wrote mysterious
words on the wall: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and UPHARSIN,

which predicted the impending fall of the Babylonian empire. That very night the king of
Babylon was slain, and the empire of
Medo-Persia
was established.
Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians
was the proclamation made

by Daniel when interpreting the writing on the wall that fateful night, and it indeed came
to pass
(Daniel 5:28)
.

11. What kingdom was represented by the belly and thighs of bronze?
We know that, just as with all earthly kingdoms,
Medo-Persia had its limitations, and in 331 B.C.,
at the Battle of Arbela, Alexander the Great, the
ruler of Greece at the time, defeated Darius III
of Medo-Persia. The empire of
Greece
was then
established, and held sway over an extensive

empire that stretched from Europe all the way

to India! Interestingly enough, the Greek
soldiers carried shields made of bronze!
Unfortunately, soon after establishing the Greek empire, Alexander the Great passed
away, and Greece fragmented into different divisions, four major ones to be exact.
Greece would never be restored to the glory it once had under Alexander the Great.

12. What was the fourth kingdom represented by, and why was this so significant?
And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as ___________________________, 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
(Daniel 2:40)
.
In 168, B.C.,
Rome
came to power as the Romans defeated
the Greeks at the battle of Pydna. It can truly be said that

Rome ruled with an iron fist. They brought many nations

into subjection under them and crushed them if they did
not give tribute.

Rome was the empire ruling when Jesus was born, conducted His earthly ministry, and
died on a cross. In fact, it was a Roman governor who ordered that He be put to death!
It is interesting to note that Rome was never replaced by another empire,
and prophecy
said that that was the way it would be!

13. Instead of being replaced, what would happen to the Roman Empire?
Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potters clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be
________________________________________________
(Daniel 2:40)
.
What an interesting turn of events! Rome
was indeed divided; in fact, it fragmented
into a total of 10 major divisions, just as
there were probably ten toes on the
statue! These divisions became the
different nations of Modern Europe.
Daniel predicted that down through
history, the leaders of these various
nations would
mingle with the seed of men,
in other words, intermarry, yet
they will

not adhere to one another; just as iron does not

mix with clay
(Daniel 2:43)
.
There was a point when all the monarchs of Europe were in

some way or another related to each other! That made the many wars fought in Europe
simply family squabbles!
Although Charlemagne, Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Adolf Hitler, and many other rulers
wanted to have their way, God had said that, try they might, they would not be able to
reunite the divisions of the Roman Empire.
Whatever God says will happen will come to pass! His Word is true! We can trust Him!
That is why the prophecy of Daniel 2 is so important--it shows us that we can put our
trust in the God of heaven.

14. Will there be any other kingdom in the future, and, if so, how long will it last?

And in the days of the kings the __________________ of heaven will set up a
_________________________________, will shall _________________________________ 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 ______________ ___________________
(Daniel 2:44)
.
One day soon, the God of Heaven Himself will set up an everlasting kingdom--a kingdom
full of perfect love, joy, and peace. We find it described in Revelation 21:3, 4:
And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He
will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their
God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow,
nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away
(Revelation
21:3, 4)
.

What a wonderful place that will be! The exciting part is that we dont have to wait to be
citizens of Gods kingdom. We can become citizens of Gods kingdom NOW! Gods
kingdom is where God reigns. If you trust Him with your life, if you allow Him to lead and
guide you, to take full control of your life, you can be a citizen of Gods kingdom. Jesus
said,
The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, See here! or See there!
For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you
(Luke 17:20, 21)
.

Will You Allow God to Lead and Guide You?

______________________________________________________

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