NOTES for Dan 2:1-49
The Book of Daniel describes not only the faithfulness of the faithful; it also contains descriptions of visions, some of which can be considered prophetic and others apocalyptic. At first glance, there is no substantial difference between the two: after all, God often revealed something very important to the prophets precisely in visions, as happened, for example, with Ezekiel. But apocalyptic visions have their own features, connected not only with their length, which as a rule exceeds the length of a prophetic vision.
The point is that apocalyptic is inseparable from history. Apocalyptic visions are always connected with the revelation of the Kingdom; but the Kingdom appears not in a vacuum. It enters an already existing order of things, which cannot fail to react in one way or another to this entrance. And apocalyptic reflects an experience of revelation that describes the era of the Kingdom's coming in its relation to preceding history. Of course, earthly history in this case is also perceived primarily in its spiritual aspect, and not in a social, political, or economic one. And it is revealed to Daniel in just this way: like all visionaries, he sees not historical events that have already happened or will still happen in the future, but God's design for the Kingdom and for the world, including world history. This is precisely God's revelation of His plans and designs, and not foresight or prediction of future events; it is no accident that pagan magicians and sages turn out to be unable either to guess what the king saw in his dream or to explain what he saw (vv. 1-11).
Daniel, however, is not a predictor and not a seer; he is rather like a prophet, receiving revelation from God (vv. 17-23). He differs from the prophets only in that the revelation he receives concerns future events, and not the nearest ones; he sees the coming of the Kingdom, which still lies ahead, whereas the prophets, as a rule, testified either about events of which they were contemporaries or about what was directly connected with them. But the meaning of the vision opened by God to the king (vv. 26-36) does not become any less clear to Daniel because it refers to future times (vv. 37-45).
Today it is not easy to determine which "kingdoms" are meant; in all probability, Babylon, Persia, Hellenistic Egypt, and Hellenistic Syria, which successively ruled Judea (one should remember that this vision, like all the others described in the Book of Daniel, was revealed to its author or to someone else whose experience he describes around the middle of the second century). The main meaning of the vision is that earthly kingdoms are replaced by another, new Kingdom, founded no longer by human beings, but by God (vv. 44-45).