“And the fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron, forasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things. And as iron that crushes all these, will it break in pieces and crush. And whereas you saw the feet and toes, part of potter's clay and part of iron, it will be a diverse kingdom, but there will be in it the strength of iron, forasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom will be partly strong and partly broken. And whereas you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, they will mingle themselves with the seed of men. But they will not cleave one to another, even as iron does not mingle with clay.”
But then Nebuchadnezzar's gaze moved downward and he first saw iron as he gazed at its legs. He would immediately recognise both its strength and its inferiority to what had gone before. Armaments were made of iron. It was a picture of stark strength. But then he came to the feet, and the iron became a mixture of iron and clay, brittle and unstable. And the toes also were equally strange, part of clay and part of iron, a strange mixture of weakness and strength. Daniel's interpretation makes clear that this all represents the fourth kingdom, otherwise we might have seen in the iron and clay a fifth kingdom. But it had all to be the final fourth kingdom because in his visions history was depicted in terms of four kingdoms (Daniel 7:3 and inferred in 8). And he also makes clear that the fourth kingdom is the kingdom that is there at the end of time. (The number four sums up the world).
Four is the number of universalism, of the world as against Israel. Four rivers fed the world from Eden. The wind comes from the four quarters. The world is north, south, east and west. Thus the kingdoms are building up to the universal kingdom, which contains within itself the essence of the other three kingdoms. It represents the whole. All are in the end part of that whole. The image still stands as one image, the image of empire, one being incorporated in the other.
So this fourth kingdom specifically carries within it, and supports, the other three. At first it seems the strongest of all, but then it deteriorates until it is totally unstable. It has no strength. And when it crashes, all the kingdoms crash with it (Daniel 2:35). It is made up of them all. It represents world empires, weakened and diverse because by their nature such empires, based on false gods and false religion, carry within them the seeds of their own disintegration.
We can make all kinds of speculation about it but Daniel nowhere tells us who the fourth kingdom represents (although see Daniel 11:30 which may be a hint and represent Rome). It is tempting, because of history, for us to see it as Rome, but many empires have arisen since Rome, as the legs became the feet, and the feet became the toes. Thus in a sense the fourth kingdom represents the idea of continuing world empire, of a world kingdom, it represents the spirit of kingdomship, seen in the first three kingdoms and now continuing on in the fourth. After Greece will come ‘the fourth kingdom', the kingdom of the distant future, the apocalyptic kingdom, whatever that includes. His patterns of four required that this should be so.
It will commence strongly. We may see in this the power of Rome. But then it will divide up into kingdoms of various strengths. This explains the brittle nature of the kingdom, it is made up of kingdomship, of many diverse kingdoms, and moves from being strong as iron to being totally brittle, and all part of that which represented false religion.
We notice elsewhere the gradual growth, one kingdom, a twofold kingdom, a fourfold kingdom and then a manyfold kingdom (chapter 8). This idea is also included here, although not so precisely; a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron and feet of iron and clay, with the toes also very much in mind although not directly stressed (Daniel 2:42).
‘The fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron, forasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things. And as iron that crushes all these, will it break in pieces and crush.' This fourth kingdom will be more terrible than them all. Certainly the contemporaries of Rome, with its iron clad legions, would have seen it like this. And for centuries it ruled the known world, and crushed all opposition with its mighty legions. And certainly it proved to be brittle (like all empires in the end). But all empires of man crush others, and all are brittle. Thus the fourth empire represents more than Rome. It represents man at his worst, determined to crush his fellowman. It represents onflowing empire. The ghosts of Babylon and of Rome continued through the ages. It is the apocalyptic empire, the empire of Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38-39), and of the prophets (Isaiah 5:25-30; Isaiah 24; Isaiah 66:15-16; Joel 1:6-7; Joel 1:15; Joel 2:1-11; Joel 3:2-3; Zechariah 14:1-2). It is man against God and His people.
‘And whereas you saw the feet and toes, part of potter's clay and part of iron, it will be a diverse (composite) kingdom, but there will be in it the strength of iron, forasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom will be partly strong and partly broken. And whereas you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, they will mingle themselves with the seed of men. But they will not cleave one to another, even as iron does not mingle with clay.' Here is clearly represented the ‘diverse kingdom'. It is part iron and part clay. Iron is strong and clay is good for building with, but the two will not mix. Thus it is powerful and yet weak. It is strong and yet broken. It seeks alliances and yet it is divided. It is a world at war with itself. We might almost see in it the United Nations, and yet that would be to be too specific. It is many united nations and alliances through the ages, all part of what represents false religion and worship (compare chapter 3), at war against God and His people.
‘They will mingle themselves with the seed of men.' This probably refers to intermarriages between peoples, a desperate attempt to seek to cement some unity. But the point is that it will not work. All man's attempts at unity will fail in the end.