King Nebuchadnezzar has a disturbing dream that leaves him quite shaken. In fact, his actions afterwards are rash and impulsive. We see very little of him as a man, but his response seems to be a far contrast to the wisdom he exercised in Daniel 1 in which he educated select people of the royal family of Judah.
The king wants the dream interpreted and summons his magicians and enchanters. He does not tell them the dream because he wants the interpreter to tell him the dream. This shows some bit of skepticism and even some wisdom. He wants proof that the interpretation is correct and the proof is that the interpreter must tell him what the dream actually was.
The magicians cannot tell him what the dream was.
The king overreacts and decrees that all of the wise men of the realm must die. We are not just talking about the magicians, but also all the wise men. This is basically a Stalinist purge of the all the advisors of Babylon. The king does not trust anyone. The over-inclusive group includes Daniel and his three comrades.
The soldiers come to put Daniel to death and he immediately asks for a delay to see the king himself. That night, he gets a vision from God in which he sees the dream that the king had and the next day, goes before the king and interprets it.
The dream was of a statue made of different materials. A golden head, arms and chest of silver, thighs of bronze, and legs of iron and clay. A massive stone smacks and breaks the statue. Daniel interprets the statue to be represent a succession of empires beginning with the golden head of Babylon. There will be three other empires before the kingdom of God comes, an empire more powerful than others.
The king is impressed. He falls prostrate and gives Daniel a promotion - an entire province to administer.
There are a few similarities with that of Joseph and Pharaoh's dreams in Genesis 41. In particular, the man of God interpreted the dream and the king was so impressed that he immediately gives the man of God a significant power and authority. One interesting difference between them is that the Pharaoh told Joseph what the dreams were. But that does not matter too much because as Daniel's story shows, God would just reveal the dream to another if necessary.
So, as for the statue, I think the common interpretation from the Christian perspective is the following:
1. Golden head = Babylon (this is stated in the text)
2. Chest/arms of silver = Persian empire (text states it is an inferior empire)
3. Bronze thighs = Greek empire (text states it will take over the entire world; although the Alexander the Great did not literally conquer all 7 continents of the world, he conquered the entire known world and famously cried because there was nothing else to conquer. Bronze was the choice metal of the Greek infantry)
4. Iron legs = Roman empire (The Romans used a lot of iron in their infantry and the text states that it would be an empire divided. Divisions of empires happen in just about every empire, the Greek itself was partitioned into 5 after Alexander's death. But the Roman empire was famously divided between the Roman and the Byzantine, but this did not happen until it had reached its height)
From a Christian perspective, the rock hitting the iron legs represents the kingdom of God emerging during the Roman empire. This would be Christ.
So, a few interesting questions:
what effect this would have on the Jewish captives in Babylon?
How do contemporary Jews today interpret this? (similarly, how they deal with the crucified Messiah of Isaiah?)
Was God's primary purpose of giving this dream to King Nebuchadnezzar simply to promote Daniel? God could have given this dream directly to Daniel. So, I think it perhaps it was.
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