The Fifth Empire

As we, citizens of the American Empire, prepare to celebrate once again, if our overlords permit, our great heritage it would be wise if we, citizens of the kingdom of God consider a right view of history itself. I think it fitting to begin by looking at Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzer’s dream of the great statue. There Daniel gave the king of Babylon roughly a thousand years of world history, before it happened. He foretold the fall of the Babylonian empire to the Medo-Persian empire. He saw that next would come on the scene a nation that would conquer all the known world, as Alexander the Great would do for Greece. He saw that Rome would follow on the heels of the Greek empire, and in turn that it would be divided.

We need to, in the midst of our celebrations, to remember, as Daniel so powerfully made known, that our God controls all of history, that our God reigns. That reign is certainly not restricted to “spiritual” matters. Nor is His rule restricted to Palestine, or other “special” lands, as some see America or England. Instead, all that comes to pass, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the drop in the bitcoin today, to the tomatoes and peppers reaching toward the sun this afternoon in my back yard, all of this happens by God’s sovereign, efficacious decree. He brings it all to pass.

Daniel tells us why these four empires came and went when he gets to the fifth empire, “As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze and the gold all together were broken in pieces, and became like chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not one trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” (2:34-35). Nations rise and fall for the same reason rivers rise and fall, for the same reason that death follows life, for the glory of the King of that last, and eternal kingdom.

We live in the midst of a fairy tale that has been rightly summarized, “Kill the dragon; get the girl. History then is the study not merely of God’s providence, as if He were managing a machine. It is instead the story of the King. It begins “In the beginning” and it ends, “And they all lived happily ever after. And in between, therein lies the tale. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.