God has always used dreams to speak, to Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Solomon, Job, and pagan kings alike, because, as he told Israel, when a prophet is among them he reveals himself in visions and speaks in dreams. Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful monarch of his age, dreamed of one great, unceasing kingdom built on human hope, a world made new without God. What his mind saw instead was terrifying: an immense statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron mixed with clay, and a stone, cut without human hands, that struck the statue and became a mountain filling the whole earth.
Daniel made known both dream and meaning: Nebuchadnezzar himself was the head of gold, and kingdom after kingdom would rise and fall after him, each more fragmented than the last, until the God of heaven sets up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, one that will break all human kingdoms in pieces and stand forever. The terror of that dream, like every human attempt, such as Babel’s tower, to build lasting security apart from God, is meant to remind proud kings and ordinary people alike that no earthly kingdom, however golden, can outlast the one kingdom God himself will establish.