Change of Season (3) - Rock and Mountain

If we want to be part of what God is doing in this time, we must understand his plans. The key is understanding that human history this side of the cross has two halves. We are involved in a game of two halves (see the Rugby Parable). During the first part, the focus is on the church. During the second stage, the Kingdom of God grows to fulfilment.

These two stages are explained in Daniel 2. The Babylonian king dreamed about a great statue. God revealed the dream and its interpretation to Daniel. He explained that the statue represented four kingdoms. The head of gold symbolised the Babylonian empire. The feet of iron and clay represented the Roman Empire, which would come 300 years later. Nebuchadnezzar also saw a great rock smash into the feet of the statue and destroy it.

While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace (Dan 2:34-35).

When the Roman Empire has come to power, God would set in process his plan to destroy the empires of world.

The Hebrew word for stone (eben) is etymologically linked with the word for Son (ben). God sent his son into the world as the servant messiah. After his ascension, Jesus will send the Spirit from heaven to build the church on earth. This first part of the New Testament age is centred on the church, which is represented by a Rock.

Daniel explained that the second stage of history will be more like a Mountain. This is what Nebuchadnezzar saw.

But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth (Dan 2:34-35).

During the second stage, the Rock is transformed into a huge Mountain. Daniel explained its meaning.

In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever (Dan 2:44).

God will establish a kingdom that can never be destroyed. The Church will inherit the Kingdom of God, which is the great mountain that fills the entire earth. God will crush all other kingdoms of the world and bring them to an end. They will be like chaff that is swept away without a trace.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,
as the waters cover the sea (Hab 2:14).

God has promised that the glory of his kingdom will fill the entire earth. This promise has not yet been fulfilled, so we are still in the age of the Rock.

The Kingdom of God has not yet filled the whole earth, so even if we are getting close to the transition from rock to the mountain, we are still in the age that focuses on the church.