Remember
the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God. I am God, and there is none like me. Only I can tell you the future before it
even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish. I
will call a swift bird of prey from the east— a leader from a distant land to
come and do my bidding. I have said what I would do, and I will do it. “Listen
to me, you stubborn people who are so far from doing right. For I am ready to
set things right, not in the distant future, but right now! I am ready to save
Jerusalem and show my glory to Israel. Isaiah 46:9-13 NLT
When
is the last time you looked at the news and wondered, “What in the world is
going on”? Many people are wondering the
same thing and I am sure it has a lot to do with the number of events occurring
around the world which many are terming “potentially apocalyptic”. You can take your pick today from wars,
epidemics, natural disasters, predictions of worldwide economic collapse, bizarre
weather, famine, and just about anything else to worry about if you are so
inclined. Yet as many struggle to make
sense of current events, isn’t it reassuring to know that as believers, we
already know exactly what is going on because the God who knows the beginning
from the end has already told us?
When
people ask me why I study prophecy, of the many reasons I can give I usually
always begin by stating what I believe to be the most obvious and that is the
fact of prophecy already fulfilled. You
see, my belief that God is in control and has prophesied the future is based on
the fact of prophecy already foretold which has accurately come to pass. In the passage from Isaiah, God states
plainly that He is the only one who can accurately predict the future because
He is the one who created the plan, and He is the only one who has the power to
execute that plan. He also has chosen to
reveal that plan, and we are not the only ones to look around and wonder what
in the world is going on.
In
the book of Daniel, we are told that God reveals His entire plan for this world
to King Nebuchadnezzar, which predictably made no sense to him at all. Thankfully God in His wisdom provided someone
to explain it all to the king, (and to us as well) and this is the person we
know as Daniel. In chapter two of Daniel
we find that God revealed His plan to the king by way of a dream, and then sent
Daniel to interpret the dream so that he, as well as us, can know exactly what
God has planned for this world.
Daniel
answered and said: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, For wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes
kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those
who have understanding. Daniel
2:20-21 NKJV
As
might be expected, as ruler of the known world at that time, we will find in
the book of Daniel that King Nebuchadnezzar had a rather inflated opinion of
himself and his power. The first thing
God lets him know is that as powerful as he may be, his own circumstances were
orchestrated by God alone, and it is by His permission that he is king. God also decided to help prove that point by
giving a dream to the king where the future of world history is laid out which
would prove not only that God knows the future, but also knew the very thoughts
that the king had been contemplating while lying in his bed.
“As for
you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed, about what would come to
pass after this; and He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be.
“But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more
wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes who make known
the interpretation to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your
heart. “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great
image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. “This
image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver,
its belly and thighs of bronze, “its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and
partly of clay. “You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which
struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Daniel 2:29-34 NKJV
While
over the years man has tried to explain the history of the world with untold numbers
of books, theories, explanations, entire libraries devoted to the subject, our
God manages to do so with a simple illustration of a statue made of four
distinct parts, each composed of elements designed to reveal the strength and
character of the kingdoms they represent.
Only God could show us the plan He has made for the course of world
history from the rule of Nebuchadnezzar to the establishment of His Kingdom on
earth with such a simple illustration.
“This is the dream. Now we
will tell the interpretation of it before the king. “You, O king, are a king of kings. For
the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; “and
wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of
the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and
has made you ruler over them all—you are this head of gold.
“But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a
third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. “And the fourth
kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and
shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces
and crush all the others. “Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of
potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the
strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with
ceramic clay. “And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and
partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and
partly fragile. “As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with
the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not
mix with clay. Daniel 2:36-43 NKJV
As
I said at the beginning, one of the reasons I choose to study prophecy is the
amazing fact of already fulfilled prophecy.
At the time of his dream, Nebuchadnezzar was described by God Himself as
a “king
of kings”, given “power, strength, and glory”. Yet God also makes it clear that the
entire scope of world history will only entail four kingdoms, as illustrated by
the statue Nebuchadnezzar sees in his dream.
History has shown this to be a true and accurate description as
Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom was conquered and replaced by a coalition of the Medes
and Persians (the chest and arms of silver), which in turn was conquered by the
Greeks under Alexander the Great (the stomach and thighs of bronze), which in
turn was conquered by the Roman Empire (the legs of iron). Yet the Roman Empire was never conquered, but
rather dissolved into pieces which, territorially, still exist today
Now
what I find to be most interesting about this prophecy given by God is that today,
at this point in time, the world has arrived at the last part of the statue
where God chooses to describe a kingdom in terms that many find confusing if
not difficult to interpret. Much has
been written about the ten toes of iron mixed with clay, and as you can
imagine, there are many different interpretations to choose from. I want to examine this last piece of the
dream in greater detail next week, but I will leave you with this to think
about.
Two
very obvious facts present themselves as we look at this picture of world
history given to us by Our Father in Heaven.
Of the four kingdoms He describes for us, the most valuable was
Nebuchadnezzar’s head of gold. From then
on the value of the metals decreases until we arrive at a point in time where
the foundation of the statue is worth basically nothing (iron and clay). Conversely, if you look at the relative
strength of the metals you will see that the statue gets stronger as time goes by. So the obvious conclusion we can all agree
with is that God is telling us that at the time of the end, which is where most
believers feel we are, His description of the world could be interpreted as
strong yet worthless. Accurate?
Keep
watching.
