Three things are specified with regard to it: its origin, its duration,
and its destructive energy. The origin is heavenly, in sharp contrast to
the human origin of the kingdoms symbolised in the colossal man. That
idea is twice expressed: once in plain words, 'the God of heaven shall
set up a kingdom'; and once figuratively as being cut out of the
mountain without hands. By the mountain we are probably to understand
Zion, from which, according to many a prophecy, the Messiah King was to
rule the earth (Ps. ii.; Isa. ii. 3).
The fulfilment of this prediction is found, not only in the supernatural
birth of Jesus Christ, but in the spread of the gospel without any of
the weapons and aids of human power. Twelve poor men spoke, and the
world was shaken and the kingdoms remoulded. The seer had learned the
omnipotence of ideas and the weakness of outward force. A thought from
God is stronger than all armies, and outconquers conquerors. By the
mystery of Christ's Incarnation, by the power of weakness in the
preachers of the Cross, by the energies of the transforming Spirit, the
God of heaven has set up the kingdom. 'It shall never be destroyed.' Its
divine origin guarantees its perpetual duration. The kingdoms of man's
founding, whether they be in the realm of thought or of outward
dominion, 'have their day, and cease to be,' but the kingdom of Christ
lasts as long as the eternal life of its King. He cannot die any more,
and He cannot live discrowned. Other forms of human association perish,
as new conditions come into play which antiquate them; but the kingdom
of Jesus is as flexible as it is firm, and has power to adapt to itself
all conditions in which men can live. It will outlast earth, it will
fill eternity; for when He 'shall have delivered up the kingdom to His
Father,' the kingdom, which the God of heaven set up, will still
continue.
It 'shall not be left to other people.' By that, seems to be meant that
this kingdom will not be like those of human origin, in which dominion
passes from one race to another, but that Israel shall ever be the happy
subjects and the dominant race. We must interpret the words of the
spiritual Israel, and remember how to be Christ's subject is to belong
to a nation who are kings and priests.
The destructive power is graphically represented. The stone, detached
from the mountain, and apparently self-moved, dashes against the
heterogeneous mass of iron and clay on which the colossus insecurely
stands, and down it comes with a crash, breaking into a thousand
fragments as it falls. 'Like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors'
(Daniel ii. 35) is the débris, which is whirled out of sight by the
wind. Christ and His kingdom have reshaped the world. These ancient,
hideous kingdoms of blood and misery are impossible now. Christ and His
gospel shattered the Roman empire, and cast Europe into another mould.
They have destructive work to do yet, and as surely as the sun rises
daily, will do it. The things that can be shaken will be shaken till
they fall, and human society will never obtain its stable form till it
is moulded throughout after the pattern of the kingdom of Christ.
The vision of our passage has no reference to the quickening power of
the kingdom; but the best way in which it destroys is by transformation.
It slays the old and lower forms of society by substituting the purer
which flow from possession of the one Spirit. That highest glory of the
work of Christ is but partially represented here, but there is a hint in
Daniel ii. 35, which tells that the stone has a strange vitality, and
can grow, and does grow, till it becomes an earth-filling mountain.
That issue is not reached yet; but 'the dream is certain.' The kingdom
is concentrated in its King, and the life of Jesus, diffused through His
servants, works to the increase of the empire, and will not cease till
the kingdoms of the world are the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ.
That stone has vital power, and if we build on it we receive, by
wonderful impartation, a kindred derived life, and become 'living
stones.' It is laid for a sure foundation. If a man stumble over it
while it lies there to be built upon, he will lame and maim himself. But
it will one day have motion given to it, and, falling from the height of
heaven, when He comes to judge the world which He rules and has
redeemed, it will grind to powder all who reject the rule of the
everlasting King of men.