7. Confidence About the Future

LONNIE: Welcome to Exploring the Word. I hope you’re ready to explore the riches of the Bible today.

JEANNIE: Thanks for joining us.

LONNIE: As always, we’ll start with a question, something you’ve been asking. Jeannie, what do you have for us today?

JEANNIE: This is actually a concern that I know you and I have heard many times. It goes something like this: “There are a lot of scary things going on out there. How can I have peace of mind about the years ahead? How can I know that God really has a plan?”

LONNIE: The headlines can be pretty scary, Jeannie. And when I’m out speaking I sense that people do have an uneasiness about what may be coming around the corner.

JEANNIE: And it matters on a very personal level. Does God really have a plan for my life? That where the rubber meets the road for a lot of people.

LONNNIE: I believe there’s something that can give all of us a little more faith in the plan, faith in the future. And that is Bible prophecy. Today we’re going to look at the big picture of God’s plan. We’re going to look at the three major empires that dominated the world, that shaped history, in ancient times. Those empires are Egypt, Assyria and Babylon.

Did you read Genesis 41, Jonah 3 and Daniel 4? That was our homework assignment from last week. These chapters are going to show us what happened when each of these empires had a dramatic confrontation with the God of Heaven.

So get your Bibles handy. We’re going to take a whirlwind tour through the sweep of empires---on the wings of Bible prophecy.

The first major empire we encounter in the Bible is the empire of Egypt, the empire of the Pharaohs—who were regarded as gods. These pyramid-builders managed to conquer much of the Middle East. They wielded incredible power from their cities along the Nile.

But the God of Heaven wanted to make a point. He wanted to demonstrate that He was sovereign over the kingdom of Egypt, that He was Lord even of the Pharaohs.

How would He do that? He started with a young man stuck in a dungeon.

Look at the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Genesis chapter 41.

This is the story of Joseph, a faithful Hebrew who’d been falsely accused by an Egyptian official’s wife. While Joseph languished in the dungeon, Pharaoh had a dream. It’s described in the first part of chapter 41. It was a disturbing dream about seven fat cows and seven lean cows, seven plump wheat stalks and seven thin wheat stalks.

Providentially, Joseph was brought before Pharaoh to interpret the dream. The young Hebrew listened carefully and then said this, verse 25:

“God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do…”

Joseph went on to explain that the seven fat cows represented seven years of plenty that were on their way, and the seven lean cows represented seven years of famine that would follow.

Joseph also advised Pharaoh: “This is what you can do about it. Store up lots of grain during the first seven years of plenty, so you’ll have enough to feed everyone during the seven years of famine.”

Pharaoh decided this made good sense. And, amazingly enough, he appointed Joseph to oversee the entire operation.

So what happened? Look at verse 47. There were indeed seven years of plenty, “the ground brought forth abundantly.” Joseph had the extra grain stored. And then, look at verse 53, “seven years of famine began to come.” Fortunately, Egypt was prepared.

God was making a point here, through His servant Joseph. He was saying, “I know what’s coming. I am sovereign over plenty and famine, over feast and famine. And if you’ll listen to me, I can help you prepare for the future.”

God demonstrated He can make blessing come out of disaster.

Many years after Joseph, one of the pharaohs enslaved the Hebrews. But, the book of Exodus shows us that God demonstrated He was Sovereign over Egypt in one more way: sovereign over all other gods.

How did He do that? Through the plagues that forced pharaoh to free his Hebrew slaves. God made the mighty Nile, worshiped as Osiris, turn to blood. God blackened out the sun, worshiped as the god Re. And several creatures the Egyptians deified--God turned into plagues.

God showed himself sovereign, in Egypt, in the mightiest empire of the day, sovereign over all other gods.

Now let’s turn to the second major empire of the ancient world: Assyria. What kind of encounter did the God of Heaven have with the Assyrians? Ever heard of a man called Jonah?

His book is right in the middle of the prophets, after Amos and Obadiah.

This is a remarkable story. Jonah, a very reluctant Hebrew prophet, found himself in the capital of Nineveh around 850 B.C. God had told him to warn everyone that the Sovereign God of Heaven was going to smash the city in forty days. That’s in Jonah 3:4.

Jonah believed that these Assyrians--of all people on earth---least deserved to be warned. And he had a point. After all, Assyria was the most militaristic of states; it boasted of captives skinned alive.

Well, wouldn't you know it, Nineveh got religion. The warning from a God ruling over all really sank in. Instant revival. Citizens everywhere were springing to repentance and belief.

Then the incredible happened. Look at verse 6. Word came to the bloodthirsty monarch of this bloodthirsty empire. And “ . . . he rose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.”

Amazing. This king issued a decree calling his countrymen to fast, seek God urgently, turn from evil and violence, and hope for a divine change of heart.

God showed Himself sovereign over hard hearts. Hard-as-nails Nineveh had met its match. The King of Kings humbled the violent. And then of course God relented and gave the city its reprieve.

However, later Nineveh would slip back to its old ways. Later kings like Ashurbanipal would renew their wars of conquest. Whole populations were terrorized. Conquered kings were tortured and mutilated.

So God sent a message through the prophet Nahum. After Jonah in your Bibles, comes Micah, then Nahum.

At the time, Nineveh seemed an unconquerable city that would continue dominating the world for hundreds of years. But God spoke in judgment. Look at Nahum 3:1:

“Woe to the bloody city!
It is all full of lies and robbery.
Its victim never departs.”

And then God of Heaven looked into the future and spoke through his prophet.

Look at chapter two. In verse eight, Nahum pictured Nineveh as a beautiful pool of water. But in verse 10, “She is empty, desolate, and waste!”

Verse 13 is even stronger. We see “chariots burned,” the sword devouring “your young lions,” in other words, your warriors. And “the voice of your messengers shall be heard no more.”

This was the prediction. This was the prophecy. So what happened? In 612 B.C., the Babylonians and the Medes joined forces and overthrew Nineveh. What’s more, this mighty city was utterly destroyed.

Two hundred years later Alexander the Great was leading his army through Mesopotamia and he came on a heap of buried ruins. “What was this place?” he asked his officers.

No one knew. No one could identify the site as ancient Nineveh. That’s how completely Nahum’s prediction was fulfilled. Nineveh lay lost for more than 2000 years, lost until a British archeologist digging around the area, began uncovering Assyrian inscriptions.

Again, God had shown himself sovereign, sovereign over the unconquerable city itself, yes mighty Ninevah. Sovereign over hard hearts in Nineveh, sovereign over the city itself.

Now let’s move on to the final great empire of the ancient world, Babylon. Around 580 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar had become the proud builder of the neo-Babylonian empire. We meet him in the book of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar was a brilliant military strategist, success had attended his every venture.

But one night the God of Heaven tapped him on the shoulder. The story is told in Daniel 2. This king got a haunting glimpse of the beyond---in a dream. He saw a statue of gold, silver, bronze and iron. Nebuchadnezzar couldn't sleep; the dream had to mean something.

And only a young Hebrew named Daniel could makes sense out of it. He uttered words that remind us of Joseph talking to Pharaoh. We find them in Daniel 2:28:

“There is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.”

Daniel told the king that the statue actually pictured a succession of kingdoms, a succession of empires, one after the other, that would climax in the indestructible kingdom of the God of Heaven.

Nebuchadnezzar was impressed, but not fully persuaded. He wasn’t yet ready to concede that history moved by providence in someone else's direction.

Daniel chapter three tells us that “the king made an image of gold.” He wanted everyone to bow down and worship the gold of Babylon, his image.

But chapter four tells us how this proud man’s will was broken. In verse 29 we see the king strolling on the roof of his royal residence. He looked out over his capital; he looked out over palaces, broad boulevards and elegant temples. And he said, verse 30:

“Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?”

The king had acknowledged God’s sovereignty in principle, but in practice he was still very much the absolute monarch, still the center.

As Nebuchadnezzar gloated, something inside him snapped. The king lost his sanity. The mind that had drawn up into itself suddenly collapsed. Verse 33 tells us, "He was driven away from men and ate grass like oxen.”

Well, crawling out in the fields, Nebuchadnezzar saw the down side of the self-sufficient life. The God of Heaven finally got through all the way. Babylon's king realized his utter dependence on the King of Kings. Daniel chapter four actually contains Nebuchadnezzar’s own testimony, in his own words. He describes his conversion in verse 34:

“I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever.”

God humbled the head of the most powerful empire of that time. God demonstrated that He was sovereign over a King’s ego, sovereign over an ego the size of Nebuchadnezzar’s.

He was a Lord who could humble the mightiest earthly sovereign.

And remember that prophecy in Daniel 2, that statue of gold, silver, bronze and iron picturing a succession of empires? History played out exactly as predicted.

Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, these empires followed one after the other exactly as foreseen. And the empire of Rome split apart, precisely as pictured in the feet of iron unmixed with clay.

This amazing prophecy is explained in detail in our Discover Bible Guides, in Guide number seven, “About Your Future.”

Through Daniel 2, God demonstrated that He was sovereign over the sweep of empires.

Friends, the prophecies of the Bible tell us something wonderful about God, and about life on this planet. They tell us something wonderful about our future. They tell us that God is in charge. He’s got His hand on the future.

Armies may conquer; kings may rise and fall, but God is sovereign over Egypt, over Assyria, over Babylon.

God is sovereign over feast and famine, sovereign over hard hearts, sovereign over kingly egos.

Yes, God is sovereign over all other gods, over unconquerable cities, over the sweep of empires.

That’s a picture you can carry with you. It’s a picture that can give you great assurance about who’s in control.

JEANNIE: You know, I never quite realized that God had such dramatic encounters with all these world empires. I guess we’re used to focusing just on Israel in the Old Testament. But wow, God got His message around, didn’t He.

LONNIE: It shows me that God’s plan of redemption really did take in the whole world. And it shows me that God really is in charge of history.

JEANNIE: So tell us Lonnie, how we can apply this to our day-to-day. What can we believe about our individual lives and God’s plan?

How do we answer people who are looking for peace of mind about the future?

LONNIE: Here’s our starting point about the future. Here’s what we can know. God’s prophets stand in contrast to all the other self-proclaimed seers who have tried to peek into the future. It’s reasonable then to trust God's Word regarding the great events yet to come. And it’s reasonable to trust God regarding the events in our own lives. We can confidently entrust Him with our future.

This is not about mere hunches. This is not a matter of playing games with stars or crystal balls or magic formulas. This is about basing our future on the proven credibility of God’s Word.

So I ask you, do you know where you’re going? Is the future dark and mysterious? Does the chaos of the world sometimes threaten to stamp out your hope? Does the confusion around you sometimes suffocate your faith?

Please remember God's sure word of prophecy. It stands out against the dark and the confusion---a brilliant arrow, a beckoning light. It shouts: God knows where we are going!

And think about it, what a wonderful future it reveals! Eternal life with Jesus. An end to suffering and despair. A glorious, everlasting kingdom of heaven. We’re going to learn much more about that in the weeks ahead.

Earthly empires do turn to dust. But right now I’d like you to place your trust, your faith, in something that doesn’t turn to dust, something that doesn’t get blown away into a footnote in history. The Word of God. God’s eye on the future. God’s hand in your life. As Isaiah tells us, the grass withers, flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.

Stand with Him today. Stand with His Word. Place your future in the hands of the One who proved Himself sovereign over Egypt, Assyria and Babylon.

Friends no matter how much we can accomplish in our life, no matter how high we build or how much we sell or how famous we get, we will have lived in vain if we don't attach ourselves to this eternal Word of God, attach ourselves to God’s vision of the future. We may think we have made it to the top and have need of nothing, but it will all turn to dust in our hands unless we place our hand in the hand that holds the future.

Let’s pray.

Lord thank You for the wonderful hope we can have in Your plans, Your purposes. Thank You for the prophecies that give us confidence--we can know that YOU know where we are going. We place our weak faith in Your hands. We give our sliver of hope to you. Now give us a more confident faith. Make our hope strong. Give us peace about the future. Because we fix our eyes on Your promise and Your plan. In Jesus’ name, amen.

JEANNIE: It’s time to mention next week’s topic: the second coming of Jesus Christ and to give you a little reading assignment. We’re going to be looking at the letters to the Thessalonians. First and Second Thessalonians. There Paul talks a lot about what he calls the “blessed hope.”
LONNIE: So be sure and read those epistles, First and Second Thessalonians before our next program and try to think about why Paul regarded it as the “blessed hope.”

Until next week, God bless you and yours. And remember, never stop exploring the Word.