Today we continue our journey through Daniel 2 as Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s troubling dream of the great statue. While there are plenty of details we could explore about the kingdoms represented in the dream, today we step back and look at the bigger picture: God is not surprised, and kingdoms rise and fall. Babylon seemed permanent, but it wasn’t. Neither are the things in our own lives that sometimes seem so permanent. Our lives are finite, human institutions are temporary, and the world around us is constantly changing—but God is eternal. When life surprises us or things don’t go according to plan, we can remember that God isn’t caught off guard. Our hope isn’t ultimately in what is temporary; our hope is in the God whose kingdom will stand forever.
Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.
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Good morning. It’s good to be with you on this Wednesday morning. Hope you are well and doing good.
I am very excited about today because Wednesday nights are back up and going here at First UMC, and that means I get two Bible studies today. I’m teaching a Bible study on James this morning at 10:00 here at the church, and that’s going to be a lot of fun. Then tonight, during our Wednesday night programming, I’ll be doing Matthew.
I’m really excited to be able to do Bible study again. I love Bible study. These reflections every morning are kind of like a Bible study, except it’s a one-way conversation. I’m talking and you’re listening. But I love Bible study because I love the conversation. I love getting to ask questions. I love when people ask those deep, ponderous questions that make us really dig down into our faith and think about what we believe and why we believe it.
That’s one of my favorite things to do as a pastor, so I’m excited to be back doing that today.
And if you’re around Starkville and you want to come to a good Bible study, join us at 10:00 here at the church. Then tonight, come eat with us and stay for adult Bible study, children’s activities, youth activities, and all the other good stuff going on around here.
Today we’re going to pick back up with Daniel chapter 2. Yesterday we talked about dreams and how God can sometimes speak to us through dreams. Today we’re going to hear Daniel’s actual interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
The dream is about this enormous statue. It has a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, a middle and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet that are partly iron and partly clay. Then a stone, one that was not cut by human hands, comes and strikes the statue at its feet. The entire statue falls apart, and the stone becomes a great mountain that fills the earth.
Daniel then explains the dream.
Nebuchadnezzar is the head of gold. But after him will come another kingdom, and then another, and then another. Kingdoms will rise and kingdoms will fall. And eventually, God will establish a kingdom that will never be destroyed.
There are a lot of things we could talk about here. You can find all kinds of commentaries and explanations about exactly what each part of the statue represents. And there’s certainly value in understanding the historical kingdoms that Daniel is talking about—Babylon, Persia, Greece, and eventually Rome.
But I always like to step back and look at the big picture.
And there are two things that really stand out to me.
First, God is not surprised by anything.
I had a friend named Lonnie Schrader who used to say something whenever something unexpected happened. He would say, “God’s not surprised by any of this.”
That has always stuck with me.
Because we get surprised.
Something happens in our lives that we didn’t expect. Something happens that we couldn’t have planned for. Something happens that we don’t understand, and we’re just completely taken aback by it.
But God isn’t.
Nebuchadnezzar is the most powerful king in the world. He probably couldn’t imagine a time when Babylon wouldn’t be the great kingdom. He couldn’t imagine his kingdom falling.
But God could.
God already knew that Babylon would rise and fall. God already knew that Persia would come. God already knew Greece would come. God already knew Rome would come. God knew all of it.
And eventually, God would establish a kingdom that would last forever.
That’s a good reminder for us.
When something happens in your life that you didn’t expect, when something comes along that you couldn’t have planned for or prepared for, it’s okay to be surprised. It’s okay to say, “I didn’t see that coming.”
But we can also remind ourselves:
God’s not surprised by any of this.
God sees what we can’t see. God knows what we don’t know. And even when we don’t understand what’s happening, we can trust that God is still at work.
And then there’s the second thing I think Daniel reminds us of:
Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall.
Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom seemed permanent. Babylon seemed like it was going to last forever.
But it didn’t.
And that’s true of every human kingdom.
That’s true of every human institution.
That’s true of every generation.
That’s true of us.
We have a tendency to think that the way things are right now is the way they’re always going to be. We get wrapped up in what’s happening today and we forget that history keeps moving.
But Scripture reminds us that our lives are brief.
The psalmist says, “Teach us to number our days.”
Our days are numbered. Our lives are finite.
But God is eternal.
That’s the difference.
Babylon wasn’t eternal.
Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t eternal.
Persia wasn’t eternal.
Greece wasn’t eternal.
Rome wasn’t eternal.
And neither are we.
But God is.
So don’t put all of your hope in the things that are temporary. Don’t get too wrapped up in the stuff of humanity—the things that seem so important right now but won’t ultimately last.
Our hope has to be in something bigger than ourselves.
Our hope is in God.
Because kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall, but God’s kingdom stands forever.
And I think that’s one of the great messages of Daniel. When everything around us feels uncertain, when the world feels like it’s changing faster than we can keep up with, when something happens that surprises us or scares us or catches us off guard, we can remember that God isn’t surprised.
God is still God.
God is still in control.
And God is still eternal.
So, as we go through our day today, let’s remember to keep things in perspective. Our lives are brief. The things around us are temporary. But God is everlasting.
So let’s put our hope in the one thing that will last.
Thanks for being with me today. Daniel has interpreted the dream, and tomorrow we’ll look at what happens next.
Hope you have a great day. We’ll see you in the morning.