The Fourth Empire: Imperialism
2: 40-45
ADONAI begins to reveal to Dani’el the initial revelation regarding the Times of the Gentiles (see Ao – The Times of the Gentiles). He provides an initial overview of the four empires that will govern this period. As the book progresses, God’s revelation becomes increasingly specific, reaching their climax in Chapter 12.
Finally, the rest of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue – namely, its legs and feet – represents the Fourth Gentile Empire, strong as iron – for iron breaks and smashes everything – and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the other empires (2:40). The Fourth Empire is different from all the others. It goes through five different stages as seen below, with Rome being merely the first of these stages. What made this Empire different from all the others? The key difference was in the type of government initiated by Rome, which was a government of imperialism. When Rome conquered a land, Romans were sent to rule (for example, Pontius Pilate, Felix, and Festus). When the Babylonians conquered a land, they did not set up Babylonian rulers, but set up nationals to rule. In its conquest of Judah, Babylon first set up Zedekiah, and later Gedaliah was appointed to rule. Under Medo-Persia the same thing was done, and Jewish governors such as Zerubbabel and Nehemiah ruled. The Hellenists worked in the same way. Instead of sending Greeks to rule, they allowed the Jewish high priests to rule throughout the period of Greek domination.
The Times of the Gentiles describe four temporary Gentile Empires, with an emphasis on the fourth, which goes through five stages. Finally, the Fourth Empire will be destroyed by the Fifth Empire, the Messianic Kingdom, which will last for a thousand years (see Revelation Fh – The Dispensation of the Messianic Kingdom), before the onset of the Eternal State (see Revelation Fq – The Eternal State). Dani’el 2 gives us the perspective of the times of the Gentiles from a human viewpoint as something majestic, but when we get to Dani’el 7, it will give us the perspective from God’s viewpoint as something dreadful. Dani’el devoted more verses to the Fourth Empire than to the three preceding ones combined. The Five Empires are as follows:
The First Empire: The Babylonian Empire (Ay)
The Second Empire: The Medo-Persian Empire (Az)
The Third Empire: The Greek Empire (Ba)
The Fourth Empire: Imperialism
a. The United State: Rome (Bc)
b. The Divided Kingdom Stage: East and West Balance of Power (Bd)
c. The One World Government Stage: Absolute Imperialism (Be)
d. Summary Statement about the Fourth Kingdom (Bf)
The Fifth Empire: The Messianic Kingdom (Bg)84
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