And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever (Dan. 2:44).
In his monumental work A Study of History Arnold J. Toynbee describes the rise and fall of 20 civilizations down to our own time, and says: "Having explored the extension of our Western society in space, we have to consider its extension in time; though we are at once confronted with the fact that we cannot know its future."
To the world's most brilliant minds the future of our civilization is an absolute blank, but to the eye of faith it is revealed in such great promise prophecies as our text today. "In the days of these kings"--that is, in the days of the kingdoms of modern Europe--the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom. In other words, heaven on earth.
We read the entire second chapter of the book of Daniel and see that the image of prophecy as become the image of history--the head of gold, Babylon; breast of silver, Medo-Persia; belly and sides, Grecia; legs of iron, Rome; feet part of iron and part of clay, the broken fragments of the Roman Empire, partly strong, partly brittle. Then the mystery stone, cut out without human hands, smites the image on its feet and grows to be a mighty mountain and fills the whole earth. It is the fifth kingdom, God's kingdom, the kingdom of Christ, the "stone which the builders rejected" (Luke 20:17). And it is to be in the days of these kingdoms, these modern kingdoms that we know.
The kingdom of grace is ours now, the kingdom that is within you (Luke 17:21). The kingdom of glory is surely coming. Behind the changing Kaleidoscope of civilization, behind the confusion and chaos of sin, this world is God's world; and the glory is coming--soon.
MEDITATION PRAYER: "Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth" (Ps. 57:5).
In his monumental work A Study of History Arnold J. Toynbee describes the rise and fall of 20 civilizations down to our own time, and says: "Having explored the extension of our Western society in space, we have to consider its extension in time; though we are at once confronted with the fact that we cannot know its future."
To the world's most brilliant minds the future of our civilization is an absolute blank, but to the eye of faith it is revealed in such great promise prophecies as our text today. "In the days of these kings"--that is, in the days of the kingdoms of modern Europe--the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom. In other words, heaven on earth.
We read the entire second chapter of the book of Daniel and see that the image of prophecy as become the image of history--the head of gold, Babylon; breast of silver, Medo-Persia; belly and sides, Grecia; legs of iron, Rome; feet part of iron and part of clay, the broken fragments of the Roman Empire, partly strong, partly brittle. Then the mystery stone, cut out without human hands, smites the image on its feet and grows to be a mighty mountain and fills the whole earth. It is the fifth kingdom, God's kingdom, the kingdom of Christ, the "stone which the builders rejected" (Luke 20:17). And it is to be in the days of these kingdoms, these modern kingdoms that we know.
The kingdom of grace is ours now, the kingdom that is within you (Luke 17:21). The kingdom of glory is surely coming. Behind the changing Kaleidoscope of civilization, behind the confusion and chaos of sin, this world is God's world; and the glory is coming--soon.
MEDITATION PRAYER: "Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth" (Ps. 57:5).
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