Nebuchadnezzar’s nightmarish image in Daniel chapter two corresponds with Daniel’s vision of beasts rising up from the sea in Daniel chapter seven.
The head of gold of Nebuchadnezzar’s image corresponds with the first beast Daniel sees rising up from the sea. Both represent Babylon, the world’s first great Gentile world power.
The silver breast and arms of Nebuchadnezzar’s image corresponds with the second beast Daniel sees rising up from the sea. Both represent Medo-Persia, which conquered the Babylonians and became the world’s second great Gentile world power.
The bronze stomach and thighs of Nebuchadnezzar’s image corresponds with the third beast Daniel sees rising up from the sea. Both represent the Greek Empire, which, under Alexander the Great, conquered the whole known world.
The iron legs of Nebuchadnezzar’s image correspond with the fourth beast Daniel sees rising up from the sea. Both represent the Roman Empire, the final and greatest of the ancient world’s Gentile world powers.
The ten toes on the iron and clay feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s image correspond with the ten horns on the head of the fourth beast Daniel sees rising up from the sea. They both represent ten powerful empires which will arise in our world after the fall of the Roman Empire.
Finally, the clay and iron feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s image corresponds with the little horn that rises up in the midst of the ten horns on the head of the fourth beast Daniel sees rising up from the sea. Both the iron and clay feet and the little horn represent the final and greatest Gentile world power in all of human history, which will serve as the world’s end-time superpower.
Now, notice these distinguishing, howbeit discomforting, distinctions that help us to identify this unprecedented and Biblically predicted end-time superpower. First, as the iron and clay feet show, it will be pulled apart in the end by internal conflict, things like political partisanship, racism, sectarianism, and class warfare. Sound like any superpower you know?
Second, as the little horn shows, this end-time superpower was unknown in Daniel’s day; that is, it was nonexistent at the time. Apart from prophecy, it would have been impossible to foresee, being unimaginable in Daniel’s day. Furthermore, it would not only become a nation, but grow to become the greatest world power in all of human history, by uprooting three of the ten powers that would rise in the earth after the fall of the Roman Empire.
If we are daring enough to look back over our shoulder today with 20/20 hindsight into history, we will find ourselves forced to conclude that our own country perfectly fits the description of Daniel’s predicted little horn. After all, we became a nation by uprooting three other nations, our colonizing powers, England, France, and Spain, all of which were powers that rose in our world after the fall of the Roman Empire. Then, as Daniel predicted, we not only grew to become the greatest power in all of human history, but stand alone in these last days as the world’s sole superpower.
A closing word of warning is warranted here for all American flag wavers. Our great boasts about America, a country that has turned its back on God, actually amount to blasphemy against God. To speak so highly of our God-forsaking country is to speak against the most High whom we’ve forsaken (Daniel 7:8, 20, 25). We are, as Daniel predicted the little horn would be, more than any other nation in human history, a world power that has grown way too big for its britches (Daniel 7:20).
Over and above all of this, however, is this most off-putting part of Daniel’s prophesied little horn. Far from warranting the praise of God’s saints, America, as is becoming increasingly evident by the rising spirit of antichrist within our society, is soon to become the saints’ paramount persecutor (Daniel 7:21, 25). As Daniel predicted, Christians are about to make their last stand in the little big horn of the end-times! Are you ready, or are you still blinded by the Red, White, and Blue?