Old Testament Summary Lesson 46: “A Kingdom Which Shall Never Be Destroyed”

Historical Takeovers of the Little Land of Israel: Archaeology reveals close to thirty major different levels of conquering and habitation. The conqueror’s quest was to secure the “Crossroads of the East.” It reached from the north, sometimes governed by Assyrians, Babylonians and others and extended south to Egypt and the gateway to Africa. Babylon (today’s Iraq), was one of the major conquerors.
Daniel Interprets: Prayer, alone as well as by those who accompanied him, was able to lead Daniel through the confusing dreams of Nebuchadnezzar. The children of Israel have always thought and spoken in illustrative imagery. The Old Testament only has less than 9,000 different words, (English Old Testament has about 12,000) yet the illustrative capacity of the prophets is expressed through the images that are given. Hence, Daniel was able to interpret the king’s dreams using “the learning of the Jews” as well as being “Highly favored of the Lord.” (See 1 Nephi 1:1-2)

Silver, Gold, Positive and Negative: “They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling block of their iniquity.” (Ezekiel 7:19) “Awake, O kings of the earth! Come ye, O, come ye, with your gold and your silver, to the help of my people, to the house of the daughters of Zion.” (Doctrine & Covenants 124:11)
Clay like Formation and Shaping of God’s People: “Formed out of clay.” (Job 33:6) “But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” (Isaiah 64:8) “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.” (Jeremiah 18:4) “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.” (Jeremiah 18:6) Analyzing the various metaphors we can see that beyond the riches and apparent beauty of man’s creations, what is more solid, prevailing and will continue to exist into eternity is the “Rock” or “Stone,” the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords!