STONE CUT OUT WITHOUT HANDS

To understand the Stone, contrast it to the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

1. The materials of the image - the gold, silver, bronze, iron and clay are all dug out of the earth. The Stone, however, comes down out of heaven. Christ said ‘I am from above’.

2. The image is sculptured into a giant man and we assume it is by man’s handiwork. The Stone is cut out ‘without hands’ from the mountain, so it is neither raised nor supported by human power or policy, but by the God of heaven.

3. The image is made up in stages but is still one image. The Babylonian gold is joined to the Medo-persian silver, to the Greek bronze, to the Roman iron and finally to feet and toes of iron and clay. Each stage proceeds from the previous and bears the weight of the previous. But the Stone is not an outgrowth of a previous stage of the image. It is totally separate from the image and sees the image as an enemy to be destroyed by a violent collision.

4. The diverse parts of the image degenerate downward in quality and value until we see unstable and brittle feet of iron and clay. The Stone becomes a great kingdom which will not decay. This great mountain ‘shall never be destroyed’, v. 44.

As to timing, the Stone cut out without hands appears in power to manifest the kingdom of heaven in the world. We should understand this as a future event for these reasons:

1. The Stone striking the image is in character with Christ’s second coming and not His first coming. In that day of vengeance, He will rule with a rod of iron and smash the vessels to shivers, Ps. 2. 9.

2. The Stone strikes after gentile world dominion has run its course. This had not happened at Christ’s first coming.

3. After the Stone strikes, nothing will be left of the image.

The kingdom of God on the earth will be uncontested.

Former kingdoms will be crushed, ‘like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors’ and no trace of them will be found, Dan. 2. 35. Our Lord said that on whomever this Stone will fall ‘it will grind him to powder’, Matt. 21. 44.