Daniel chapter 2 is an amazing prophecy of the history of the world from the time of Daniel and the kingdom of Babylon to this present day. King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream which he cannot interpret and cannot even remember, but God shows both the dream and the interpretation to his servant Daniel!
In the dream King Nebuchadnezzar sees an image, a statue of a man with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly of brass, legs of iron, and feet part of iron and part of clay.
Daniel 2:32 This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
34 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.
We know from history this is a prophecy of the last four major empires on earth. The first was Babylon which is the head of gold, the second with the breast and his arms of silver, was the dual leadership empire of the Medes and the Persians, the third, the belly of brass, signified the Greek empire (the Greeks like to eat!) and the fourth, the Roman Empire which started off pagan and later in the 4th century adopted the face of Christianity while continuing pagan practices and persecuting true Christians.
Does Rome secretly rule the world today? According to the Bible, the last empire continues on to the very end till it is destroyed with “a stone was cut out without hands” — Jesus Christ and His return to earth! This means that the fourth and last kingdom of Rome must be covertly ruling the world this very day! Rome’s rule is represented as iron — a dictatorship. But what of the clay? My pastor David taught me it represented democracies, democratic forms of government while the iron today represents dictatorships such as North Korea and Communist China. But are so called democratic nations truly practicing a government based on the will of the majority the people? Or are they really covert dictatorships or oligarchies ruled by an elite few who ostensibly support the democratic process of giving people a choice in elections? No matter which party wins, long term polices often do not change. Are the elite keeping an iron control of policies no matter what the people choose? All my research tells me so! I think any honest researcher would agree with this.
Now to come to the point of this article: On June 1, 2016, while talking about the iron and clay of Daniel chapter two with a friend, he remarked, “the clay is covering the iron!” Suddenly I saw the iron and the clay in a new light! All democratic governments have an iron dictatorial core which the common people do not see! They can’t see it because it is hidden behind the democratic process, the clay which covers the iron control of the elite! Remember that though the majority of the American people were against the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, President Bush basically told them they had no choice in the matter. Call that a democracy?
For more information, please see John Gideon Hartnett’s article, Iron and clay in the toes of Daniel 2 image
We call clay covered iron “Enamel”
Many appliances are made this way, certain types of dishware and so on. A well known, low tech, process.
The process makes the iron so it does not rust, ie preserves it across time. (ie a long term fraud, since Roman times, at least.)
The process makes it pretty, so it looks nice. (Doesn’t democracy look nice? Seducing, even, to the crowds.)
The plastering process on Ebal and Gerizim is similar, baked by the sun instead of iron in an oven, and there are textual parallels to that story from Daniel.
So,the iron & clay don’t have anything to do with Islam or Sharia Law,or Muslims.
Not from what I understand the prophecy to mean.
I have two comments regarding the image of Daniel 2. First, the stone that is cut out without hands. Numerous New Testament references to Jesus as the Rock upon which the Church is built indicate that the “cut” stone should be depicted as a cut stone in your illustration. In 1 Corinthians 3 Jesus is referred to as the foundation stone in the temple and his followers are depicted as other “cut” stones in the temple. John’s gospel refers to the body of Christ that is the “temple” of God that would be raised up after three days, which is a metaphor for the church according to Ephesians 2. The phrase “without hands” is used several times in the New Testament in reference to the temple of God in heaven (made without hands Hebrews 8 ) and the believers in Ephesians 2 are said to be “circumcised” without human hands indicating that their conversion to God’s side in the struggle is solely by the operation of the Spirit of God (without the “will of man” as John 1 clearly states). Very Calvinistic! My second observation is concerning the Iron and clay. You are quite right in observing that Rome continues to the end of time. But the new element of “clay” surely is the new element introduced by Constantine in the operation of his kingdom. The operation of “religion” in the affairs of state was not a new phenomenon in Rome. It had operated in the Roman political system even during the “republic” history of Rome. It was only intensified during the Imperial period with Emperor worship. That did not stop with the “conversion” of Constantine. He maintained his role as “Pontiff” of the state religion. Now he was the “Pontiff” of the Christian religion. He took the place of Christ. That “role” was transferred to the “Bishop of Rome” in the Justinian Law Code two centuries later and was the rule in Europe until the French revolution which toppled most of the monarchies of Europe and made a “death wound” to the papacy as Revelation 13 predicted. So in this historical scenario the new element that is brought to view in the “clay” is the Catholic Church (Eastern and Western). That condition lasted until the tenth century when Eastern Orthodoxy split away. Later splits happened in England and Germany and Switzerland during the Protestant reformation. The relationship between the Iron and Clay are represented as “mingled together” and some translations depict it as “marriage.” This relationship is depicted in Revelation 17 as a “whore” riding on the beast with the name of Babylon written on her forehead. In Ezekiel 16 and 23 Israel and Judah are depicted as whores because of their treaties with Assyria and Egypt respectively. At Sinai Israel made a covenant with God. That covenant was broken when they made treaties with other countries for their protection rather than depending on God. That is and has been the relationship between the Catholic Church (and any state run church) ever since Constantine. So I believe the Clay in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is the Catholic Church as it is depicted in Revelation 17 riding on the back of the beast. The last iteration of the beast is found in the second beast of Revelation 13 which looks like a “lamb” but will eventually speak like the “dragon” and cause the whole world to worship the first beast. The Dragon of Revelation 12 and the first beast of Revelation 13 are said to rule for 1260 days but the second beast of chapter 13, although it comes up after the 1260 days (1798) does not have a time limit assigned to it, but according to chapter 17 it is a time when their are no crowns on the heads or the horns of the beast (the “crowns” were overthorwn by Neopolian where the beast still ruled in 1798). He was not successful in Russia and England at the time because the Pope did not rule there. Remember the retreat from Russia and his defeat at Waterloo! The atheist “Revolution” eventually toppled the monarchy of Russia but has not yet succeeded fully in England, but not for the lack of trying. It might yet be a “bloodless” event, in contrast to the Neopolianic wars or the Russian event. The European Common Market (republics not monarchies at present) just recently saw England pull out. It likely will not be compatible until the monarchy is gone. But the prophecy that the whore will ride the beast (without crowns on its horns) for a time but predicts that they will receive “crowns” some time in the future. That will be the last iteration of the beast, the seventh head, but it will last a short time.