Charles Ellicott Commentary Daniel 2:45

"Forasmuch as thou sawest that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure." — Daniel 2:45 (ASV)

The stone cut out of the mountain. The mountain was not mentioned in Daniel 2:34. In the language of prophecy, it must mean Mount Zion, which appears in other passages to be closely connected with the Messiah and His Kingdom, for example, Isaiah 2:2; Psalms 1:2. The stone is set free from this mountain, and as it rolls on in its destructive course, overthrows all the kingdoms of the world, and becomes a mountain which fills the whole earth.

The Messiah is elsewhere spoken of under the figure of a stone (Isaiah 28:16; Matthew 21:42). The phrase cut without hands refers to the supernatural agency by which the stone accomplishes its work. The stone is now rolling, as the kingdom of God spreads further and further day by day. The image is still standing; the stone has not yet fallen upon it. When that moment arrives, and not until then, the kingdoms of the world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ (Revelation 11:15).

Throughout the vision we must notice one great contrast. On the one hand, there is the image, which, of course, was weak because it was formed of such incongruous elements, composed of the most precious metals at the top, while the lower parts ended in miry clay—in fact, the image was top-heavy. On the other hand, there is the stone, an emblem of strength and solidity, single, despite the countless atoms that unite in forming it, growing in strength as it continues its historic course until it becomes a mountain, the type of all that is solid and indestructible. And one further point of contrast must be noted.

While one earthly empire passes into another as imperceptibly as the head yields to the trunk of the body, and as this, in turn, passes into arms, legs, hands, and feet, without any discontinuity—that is, as empire after empire passes away while the history of the world remains continuous—the same is not true for the stone. The work that it does is instantaneous. The moment it falls on the feet of the image, the whole collapses; in other words, the history of the world comes to an end. Such is the relationship between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world. They are all transient, despite their apparent strength, and their history will cease as soon as the stone shall fall and grind them to powder (Matthew 21:44).