Bible Question:

Who are the ten nations that are mentioned in Daniel 2? Where does the USA fit into prophecy?

Bible Answer:

Daniel 2 is about a dream that God gave to Nebuchadnezzar. In this dream, Nebuchadnezzar sees a statue which has a head made of gold, a chest made of silver, a waist made of bronze, legs made of iron, and feet mixed with iron and clay. Then a stone which was made without hands smashes the statue and completely destroys it. The metals stood for five different nations. Gold represented the empire of Babylon. Silver represented the Medo-Perisan empire. Bronze represented the empire of Greece. Iron was the Roman empire, and iron and clay is a future version of the old Roman empire. The stone represented God’s eternal kingdom as described in Daniel 2:37-45.

Ten Nations

Later in the book of Daniel the restored or future version of the Roman empire is described in greater detail. We can find this description in Daniel 7:7-8 and 7:17-24. In Daniel 7 the empires of Babylon, Medo-Perisa, Greece, and Rome are now described as four animals. The last animal is a beast.

After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. (NASB) Dan. 7:7

The fourth beast is the Roman empire, and sometime later ten kings will come to power. These ten kings or ten nations are the restored Roman empire.

Thus he said: “The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it. As for the ten horns, out of these kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.” (NASB) Dan. 7:23-24

Unfortunately, we do not know the precise identity of these ten nations.

Untied States

Scripture is also silent about the future role of the United States. Does this mean that the United States has no role? The answer is unknown. It is possible that we are connected to the revived Roman empire in some way since scripture tends to focus more on a group of people rather than on geographical location. Scripture is usually more interested in a lineage rather than the borders of a nation. Since the Roman empire was primarily of European nations, and since most of the United States has been of European descent, it is possible that the United States could be part of the revived Roman empire.

Conclusion:

Ultimately, scripture seems to indicate that the world will have great economic and political interest in the Middle East. We see that today. The Middle East supplies oil to the entire world. It is economically important to the world. It also has significant political interest. It holds the key to peace in the world. Because the United States supports Israel there is a growing conflict between the Muslims and Christians that is spreading throughout the world. The United States could have a role in the end times and yet not be part of the ten nations that will finally rule the world. You may be interested in a more detailed study of Daniel which discusses many of the details of the future.