Believes That God Rules The Whole World

Believes That God Rules The Whole World

A HERO’S TALE

Beads of sweat trickled down Daniel’s forehead. His sleeping body tensed and twitched as a cool Middle Eastern breeze swept through his open bedroom window in Babylon. He was having a bad dream.

In his nighttime vision (see Daniel 7), four frightening beasts emerged from the storm-tossed waters of the Mediterranean Sea. These four beasts —a lion with eagles’ wings, a bear, a leopard with bird wings, and a “terrifying” beast (7:7) with iron teeth and 10 horns —climbed ashore and destroyed everything in their paths.

Daniel’s dream was a special vision of the future from God. The four beasts represented four great empires that came to power during or after Daniel’s lifetime —Babylon (lion), Medo-Persia (bear), Greece (leopard), and Rome (“terrifying” beast).

God gave Daniel many other prophetic visions in his lifetime. In fact, chapters 7–12 of the book of Daniel are filled with futuristic visions.

Much of Daniel’s visions predicted what would happen in the next 400 to 500 years in the ancient world. But some of Daniel’s visions seem to have double meanings, also predicting events that we are still waiting to see today. And God even gave Daniel a sneak peek at the first coming of Jesus, the “son of man” (Daniel 7:13), which was still more than 500 years away from Daniel’s lifetime. Amazing!

Don’t feel bad if you read Daniel and come away a little confused. It’s a hard book to understand, even for full-time Bible scholars!

DECODING THE MESSAGE

God didn’t give Daniel these amazing glimpses into the future simply for an advance history lesson about ancient Greece or Rome. God did it to show his complete sovereignty.

The word sovereignty means “supreme power.” God has all power in the universe. He created and rules everything. He doesn’t answer to anyone. Even the mightiest kings and empires are under his control.

This must have been a great comfort to Daniel and his fellow Jews, who were scattered all over the world after the fall of Israel and Judah. Life was difficult and scary during Daniel’s lifetime. Wars were everywhere. Empires rose and fell with alarming speed.

So God gave Daniel special knowledge of future events before they happened to prove that he ruled it all. He also assured Daniel that he would take care of his people.

This is an important lesson for us to learn today. God rules everything. No matter what’s going on in your life or in the world around you, he is in control and he loves you!

BATTLE PLAN

Read the entire book of Daniel to learn more about this incredible hero and the all-powerful, sovereign God he served! Isaiah 40 is also a good chapter about God’s sovereignty.