Hi SixofNine,
The dream described in Daniel chapter 4 does appear to be about rulership, that is, rulership that is under the control of the Almighty God. It deals with more than the relatively short reign of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors. The question then would be does this dream have anything to do with the kingdom of Israel as the WTS claims.
Jehovah did make a promise to David that one of his seed would sit on the throne ‘to time indefinite’ and that he would have subjects from ‘sea to sea’ and from ‘the river to the ends of the earth.’ (See 2 Samuel 7:10-16; Psalms 72:8-11) This promise has yet to be fulfilled as it concerns an earthly government not a heavenly one. These verses could very well apply to the tearing down of, but leaving the rootstock and banding it, and the subsequent resprouting of the kingdom of Israel that would fulfill these prophesies.
The tree was banded using two different types of metals, iron and copper, the significance of which I believe can be explained by considering the vision in Daniel chapter 2. In this vision, an image is described using four types of metal: gold, silver, copper, and iron. I think we can safely say that the gold represented Babylon’s kings. Babylon was the kingdom Jehovah used to cut down the kingdom of Israel. The silver represents Medo-Persia, the kingdom that was used to free Israel from captivity to Babylon. Although they were allowed the freedom to restore true worship and rebuild the temple, they were not allowed to reestablish a kingdom. They were continually dominated by the silver part of the image. The kingdom of Israel was to be further held down by the copper and iron bands.
The copper is said to represent the Grecian Empire begun by Alexander the Great and the iron, the Roman Empire. Now I question that the iron represents the Roman Empire only. No one can accuse Briton (UK) of being weak as is described by the feet and toes of iron and clay mixed. They ruled an empire such that it was said that ‘the sun never set on the British Empire.’ They were truly iron-like. And the same can be said for America. I therefore conclude that the legs of iron represent the Roman as well as the British/American Empires. If I am correct, then when the kingdom represented by the feet and toes ‘partly of iron and partly of clay’ emerges, then the bands would have been removed from the rootstock. Daniel 2:44 will have its fulfillment. Many scholars believe that this combination of iron and clay represent a federation of nations that join together but do not have the toughness of iron to rule with the strength of the previous kingdoms. In fact, if the ten toes have any meaning, then we might expect there to be a federation of 10 or more nations joining together to form a kingdom, but these nations will not prove to be ‘sticking together as iron is not mixing with molded clay.’ As Daniel describes it, ‘it will be partly strong and partly fragile.’ I say 10 or more because Daniel 7:8 shows a “small horn coming in among them and there were three of the first horns that were plucked up from before it.”
In harmony with your suggestion that ‘the lowliest one’ does not refer to Jesus, I checked Strong’s Concordance and found that the word translated ‘lowliest’ means ‘basest.’ And I certainly agree that you could never apply the word ‘base’ to a perfect man as Jesus had been. You’d have to look elsewhere for an application other than the application to Nebuchadnezzar himself.
bjc
