The Prophecy Of Daniel And The Understanding Of The Meaning Of The World Events (Part 4)
The iron weakened by clay
“As for the fourth kingdom, it will be strong like iron. For just as iron crushes and pulverizes everything else, yes, like iron that shatters, it will crush and shatter all of these. “And just as you saw the feet and the toes to be partly of clay of a potter and partly of iron, the kingdom will be divided, but some of the hardness of iron will be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom will be partly strong and partly fragile. Just as you saw iron mixed with soft clay, they will be mixed with the people; but they will not stick together, one to the other, just as iron does not mix with clay” (Daniel 2:40–43)
Iron symbolizes the expression of the power of the Roman Empire, and its extension to our time, by iron weapons, swords, lances, shields and later, cannons, rifles, machine guns, bombs and bombers dropping fire from the sky, to use the expression from the book of Revelation, about the wild beasts of two lambs horns, representing the current world power: “It exercises all the authority of the first wild beast in its sight. And it makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first wild beast, whose mortal wound was healed. And it performs great signs, even making fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the sight of mankind” (Revelation 13:12,13).
For example, during World War II, Italy, Germany, and Japan (Axis Powers) set the world on fire. At the end of this World War II, far from pacifying the world, the allied powers, particularly France, the British, Holland, the United States and the former Soviet Union, in turn shed blood and tears, during the Cold War, in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Indonesia. Nevertheless, these iron powers, with their military strength, were hampered by clay. How? Let us take two examples, France and the United States: After the Second World War, these two countries engaged in colonial wars, in Africa (in the Maghrib), in Asia (in Korea, Vietnam and Laos). On the military level (iron), these countries have undoubtedly exerted a power comparable to iron which destroyed everything in its path, by rifles, machine guns, cannons, incendiary bombs destroying men, women and children living in villages, and forests, in Vietnam and Laos. Nevertheless, the clay, the men and women, the public opinion, was quick to denounce the exaction of these great colonial powers, which “weakened” their military action (iron), to the point of converting their military victories, in political and diplomatic defeats.
Currently, the actions of iron governments are largely hampered by human clay, the “many waters”, in the form of crowds protesting against the authority, revolutions, terrorist acts and mob movements that are flexing the authority of “militarized iron”, widely relayed by union and media powers, particularly the Internet, which have acted and are acting as powerful checks and balances. The prophecy of Daniel mentions the “toes” of iron and clay, which accentuates the fragility and stability of the “statue”, through Balkanization and claims of autonomy that have fragmented great empires. This phenomenon has been accentuated after the fall of the former Soviet Union, from the beginning of the years 90. New forms of conflicts by worldwide generalized terrorist actions, with the appearance of the Internet, make that the human clay has nowadays become almost uncontrollable by most governments with their police and militarized iron power.
The uncontrolled and rebellious clay, of the prophecy of Daniel, finds its symbolic correspondence with the book of Revelation, with the horizontality of the rough sea and the many waters: “One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me: “Come, I will show you the judgment on the great prostitute who sits on many waters. (…) He said to me: “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is sitting, mean peoples and crowds and nations and tongues”” (Revelation 17:1,15). While iron is represented by the verticality of the governmental “former heaven”, in the book of Revelation, it is written that they will disappear: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more” (Revelation 21:1). Their demise at the great tribulation is also foretold in the prophecy of Daniel:
“You looked on until a stone was cut out, not by hands, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and of clay and crushed them. At that time the iron, the clay, the copper, the silver, and the gold were, all together, crushed and became like the chaff from the summer threshing floor, and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a large mountain, and it filled the whole earth. (…) In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. And this kingdom will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it alone will stand forever, 45 just as you saw that out of the mountain a stone was cut not by hands, and that it crushed the iron, the copper, the clay, the silver, and the gold. The Grand God has made known to the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy” (Daniel 2:34,35,44,45).
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