A Precious Stone

The king awoke with a start. What could it mean? The sleepless night wore on until he called for his wise men. These would tell him the meaning of his troubling dream or die trying. If not for the God Daniel served that’s exactly what would have happened. For the king also wanted his people to tell him the dream and the interpretation.

After a night of prayer with his 3 friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, the secret was revealed.

“Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.” Daniel 2:19.

In this dream a great statue appeared.

“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.” Daniel 2:31-33.

Daniel’s interpretation reveals the image as representative of ruling nations. The head of gold was Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian kingdom; Silver indicated the Mede & Persian empire to follow; the brass -Greece; and iron prophesied the coming of the Roman empire. Each of these have come and gone just as prophesied. The iron and clay are yet to come.

The real message is not found in the kingdoms that came and went nor the kingdom yet to come. The real message is in the stone the king saw.

This stone was,

• “cut out without hands,
• which smote the image upon his feet …
• and brake them to pieces.
• Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together…
• and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain,
• and filled the whole earth.” Daniel 2:34,35.

The second coming of Christ is a major theme throughout the Old and New Testaments. Hundreds of prophecies allude to God restoring all that was lost in the fall of man. Daniel’s book plays a major part in that theme as the Lord God outlines his plan of the ages.

“ 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 forever…

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

Jesus Christ is the stone crushing all kingdoms in the king’s dream. He is the one Daniel saw setting up His everlasting kingdom.

“I saw in the night visions, and behold,

one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven,

and came to the Ancient of days,

and they brought him near before him.

And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom,

that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him:

his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

which shall not pass away,

and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”

Daniel 7:13,14.

Jesus is more than the stone seen in Daniel.

Isaiah proclaims Jesus a sure foundation, a precious stone.

“Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.” Isaiah 28:16.

Paul makes clear the foundational stone.

“For other foundation

can no man lay than that is laid,

which is Jesus Christ.”

1 Corinthians 3:11.

Jesus voice is heard.

“And Simon Peter answered and said,

thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said unto him…

upon this rock I will build my church;

and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Matthew 16:16-18.

Isaiah says for many He will be,

“a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel…And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.” Isaiah 8:14-15.

Peter characterizes those who will stumble and those who know Him as the head of the corner.

“Unto you therefore which believe

he is precious:

but unto them which be disobedient,

THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS DISALLOWED,

THE SAME IS MADE THE HEAD OF THE CORNER,

AND A STONE OF STUMBLING,

AND A ROCK OF OFFENCE,

even to them which stumble at the word,

being disobedient;

whereunto also they were appointed.”

1 Peter 2:7,8.

Moses knew Jesus as the rock from which living water flows.

“Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink…” Exodus 17:6

Paul referred to Jesus as the spiritual Rock the Israelites drank from.

“And did all drink the same spiritual drink:

for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them:

and that rock was Christ.”

1 Corinthians 10:4.

Today Jesus invites all to drink from the same spiritual rock.

“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying,

If any man thirst,

let him come unto me, and drink.

He that believeth on me,

as the scripture hath said,

out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

(But this spake he of the Spirit,

which they that believe on him should receive…”

John 7:37-39.

Daniel knew Jesus as the stone who would be King of kings. Isaiah, Peter, and Paul met Him as the corner stone, precious, the foundation. Isaiah and Peter introduced Jesus as a stumbling stone to many. Moses and Peter both knew Him as the living stone…the One who gives life.

Jesus is the Rock from which living waters flow. Believe, drink, and know life.

Who is Jesus to you?