THE STONE THAT WAS CUT WITHOUT HANDS

According to the Bible, sometime around 600 B.C. the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, had a dream.  The problem was that, while he thought the dream might be significant, he couldn’t remember either the dream or what it might have meant. 

 

Having many “wise” men in his employ, Nebuchadnezzar called them together and demanded that they tell him what the dream was that he had dreamed, and the interpretation of that dream.  After all, wasn’t that what he was paying these guys for?  Oh, and as a little incentive, if they couldn’t come up with the dream, the king was going to have them cut in pieces.  No pressure. 

 

The wise men naturally urged the king to reveal the dream to them and they would then gladly interpret it for him, but that was useless because the king truly had forgotten it.  It seemed like a good test for his wise men also.  He would be able to see which of these guys really were wise and which were not.  After their reasoning and pleading failed, the king became furious and decided to have all of the wise men in the kingdom destroyed. 

 

At this time there were four young Hebrews who were considered to be among the wise men of Babylon.  Their names were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, though they were given the Babylonian names of Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  They had been carried away as captives into Babylon when Israel was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar’s armies.  These young captives were therefore marked to be slain with the other wise men.

 

Daniel was able to convince the king that he and his friends could deliver on the king’s demand if he would give them a little time.  The king agreed and Daniel and his friends went before the Lord for mercy, true wisdom, and revelation concerning the king’s dream.  God was faithful, as he always is toward those who earnestly and fervently seek Him, and the Lord revealed to Daniel both the dream and its meaning.

 

Daniel extolled God and said, “Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are His…He revealeth the deep and secret things: He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him” (Daniel 2:20, 22).

  

Daniel quickly told the captain of the guard to arrange a meeting with the king and that he, Daniel, would reveal the dream to the king.  The captain hastily went before the king declaring, “I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation” (Daniel 2:25).  Isn’t it wonderful how God chooses the weak, lowly, and foolish to accomplish His will and glorify His name?  Those who man would discount and think unworthy are the very ones who God wants to use.  “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

 

Daniel was very humble about this gift that God had given him knowing that true wisdom and knowledge can only come from the Lord in heaven.  He told the king, “The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king; but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days” (Daniel 2:27, 28); and, “But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart” (Daniel 2:30).  In all things we must remember that we have nothing that we have not received from the hand of God, and by His grace and mercy.

 

Then Daniel revealed to Nebuchadnezzar the dream that the king had dreamed.  He said, “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.  This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth” (Daniel 2:31-35). 

 

Having the benefit of history, we know that the image represented four great kingdoms which were the Babylonian Empire, the Medea-Persian Empire, the Grecian Empire, and the Roman Empire.  Each empire was inferior to the one that preceded it just as the materials used to represent each empire were of decreasing value: gold, silver, brass, iron, and finally iron mixed with clay.

 

Of the fourth kingdom, Daniel had much to say, “And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.  And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.  And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.  And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay” (Daniel 2:40-43).  The Roman Empire was certainly strong as iron.  The strength of her legions subdued many tribes and barbarian nations and expanded their lands further than any previous empire.  Like the iron mixed with clay however, the people that they conquered did not assimilate into the empire and this created much unrest.  Eventually the kingdom was divided and ultimately overrun by barbarian armies.

 

Of the stone that was cut without hands, Daniel says this, “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.  Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure” (Daniel 2:44, 45).  The fact that the stone was “cut out without hands” indicates that it was formed by God Himself and was not the work of some man or men.  This kingdom would be established by God, would never be destroyed, but would stand forever.  It would be sovereign and would not give up that sovereignty to any other people or nation.  Finally, it would break and consume all other nations and kingdoms.     

 

The fulfillment of this dream began to come to pass when Jesus Christ was born in the city of Bethlehem in the land of Judea, which was part of the Roman Empire at the time.  Jesus was a stone “cut out without hands” in that He was conceived by the Holy Ghost and not by the seed or will of man.  The message that He proclaimed was clear from the beginning: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).  He was sent to challenge the kingdoms of man and usher in the Kingdom of God on earth.  This would not be a visible kingdom at first, but an invisible one born in the hearts of men and women who were hungry for truth.  The psalmist prophesied of Jesus, referring to Him as the Stone, when he wrote, “The Stone which the builders refused is become the Head Stone of the corner.  This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.  This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:22-24).  When the Jewish patriarch Jacob was near the end of his life he gathered together his sons and imparted blessings upon each of them.   Upon his son Joseph, Jacob spoke this prophetic word: “But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel)…” (Genesis 49:24).  Of course this was referring to Jesus, the Messiah, the Great Shepherd, and the Stone of Israel.  He was the One Who was foretold in scripture, the One Who was sent to establish the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

During His earthly ministry Jesus revealed in parables the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven and how it would slowly but relentlessly displace the kingdoms of this world.  “Then said He, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it?  It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it” (Luke 13:18, 19).  Here He likens the progressive, deliberate growth of a very small seed into a great tree to the growth of the Kingdom of God.  The process doesn’t happen at once, but it takes years for the tree to mature and become great, and so it is with the growth of God’s Kingdom.  It started with just 12 men who Jesus asked to follow Him.  It quickly grew to 70, then 120, and then thousands.  The message of the gospel, and of the Kingdom of God, was truly in a short time “turning the world upside down.” (Acts 17:6b). 

 

Another parable that Jesus told to emphasize the idea of the slow, determined growth of the Kingdom of God is the parable of the leaven.  “And again He said, Whereunto shall I liken the Kingdom of God?  It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened” (Luke 13:20, 21).  Again the lesson here is clear.  As leaven, or yeast, is mixed into flour it becomes invisible because it mingles with all of the other ingredients, but though it is unseen, it exerts an irresistible force on the whole mass and causes it all to rise.  Similarly, those who have received the New Birth through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ have become ambassadors of His heavenly Kingdom, are mixed throughout all the peoples and nations of the world, and are slowly changing the world from the inside.  They are in the world, but they are not of the world for they have recognized the higher allegiance that they have been called to.

 

We may not always be able to see the advance of the Kingdom of God on earth – it is sometimes very slow – but do not doubt its power to prevail.  We have a sure word of prophecy that these things will be fully realized in God’s time.  The more the early Church was persecuted, the more it grew and flourished.  Today there is scarcely a place left in the world that the Gospel has not been preached.  That precious Stone that the builders tried so hard to reject and destroy has become the chief Cornerstone and Architect of the city that God is building, and not man.  He has become King of kings, Lord of lords, and Potentate of the Kingdom that God has formed.  And we, as lively stones, have been built upon the foundation of this Spiritual House, and have been made a Royal Priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

This Stone that was cut without hands has already struck at the feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s image and the effect has been felt throughout the world as the kingdoms of man rise and fall.  The empires that the King of Babylon saw in his dream were the greatest kingdoms of all time, but one by one they all failed.  Daniel’s interpretation has proven accurate to the letter – and will continue to do so till the end of the age.  God’s Kingdom will prevail, and Jesus, the Messiah, will reign forever and ever!  Amen!