First Reading
Daniel 2:31-45
Read this as the first big movement of the day. Notice what God is doing, who is speaking, and what part of the story or teaching should stay with you.
31You, OH king, sawest, and look there was as it were a great statue: this statue, which was great and high, tall of stature, stood before you, and the look thereof was terrible.
32The head of this statue was of fine gold, but the breast and the arms of silver, and the belly and the thighs of brass:
33And the legs of iron, the feet part of iron and part of clay.
34Thus you sawest, till a stone was cut out of a mountain without hands: and it struck the statue upon the feet thereof that were of iron and of clay, and broke them in pieces.
35Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of a summer's thrashingfloor, and they were carried away by the wind: and there was no place found for them: but the stone that struck the statue, became a great mountain, and satisfied the whole earth.
36This is the dream: we will also tell the interpretation thereof before you, OH king.
37You art a king of kings: and the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, and strength, and power, and glory:
38And all places in which the people, and the beasts of the field do dwell: he has also given the birds of the air into your hand, and has put all things under your power: you therefore art the head of gold.
39And after you shall rise up another kingdom, inferior to you, of silver: and another third kingdom of brass, which shall rule over all the world.
40And the fourth kingdom shall be as iron. As iron breaketh into pieces, and subdueth all things, so shall that break and destroy all these.
41Arid whereas you sawest the feet, and the toes, part of potter's clay, and part of iron: the kingdom shall be divided, but yet it shall take its origin from the iron, according as you sawest the iron mixed with the miry clay.
42And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
43And whereas you sawest the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall be mingled indeed together with the offspring of man, but they shall not stick fast one to another, as iron cannot be mixed with clay.
44But in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and his kingdom shall not be rescued up to another people, and it shall break in pieces, and shall destroy all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand forever.
45According as you sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and broke in pieces, the clay, and the iron, and the brass, and the silver, and the gold, the great God has shewn the king what shall come to pass hereafter, and the dream is true, and the interpretation thereof is faithful.