What On Earth Is Going To Happen? Series

The year 2020 continues to be a year like no other we have experienced.

We are hurdling toward election day here in the U.S., it is now only 16 days away. And it’s an election that is likely to divide our country in the midst of a pandemic and social unrest like no other since the Civil War.

Both Presidential candidates have said the other is going to attempt to steal the election. Many are casting doubts on the ability of the U.S. to hold a fair election because in the Pandemic mail-in voting is being permitted. The President has refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power if he loses and appears to be preparing to have the election settled in the Supreme Court. And no matter who wins or who loses, emotions are running so high, and so much is at stake, it is almost certain that a significant portion of the losers may be unwilling to accept the results.

In the midst of a chaos that was almost unimaginable a few years ago, anxiety is sweeping the nation. People are preparing for the worst, as though the social unrest in the wake of the George Floyd killing were only the beginning. The evidence of that is the sudden spike in gun sales. An L.A. Times article by Jennifer Carlson says that gun-sellers who were interviewed about this spike in gun sales “talked of a civil are in the event of a Trump win or a Biden victory, of generalized unrest leading up to and after the vote. Few doubted that this election would turn out to be contested, and many acknowledged—some reluctantly, some enthusiastically—that the clock was running out on chances for peaceful resolutions to differences.

So come November, next month, what on earth is going to happen? What will happen to our nation? More than that, what will happen to each and every one of us?

As we grapple with these questions, anxieties and uncertainties, we come upon the single chapter in all of the Bible that addresses the big picture of human history with all its tumult and turmoil and addresses it squarely.

And it tells us this, don’t worry, though nations will be in tumult and turmoil, God’s People, and God’s Man, Jesus will prevail.

It’s Daniel 7, a chapter of the Old Testament that was a favorite of many Hebrew Scribes, who considered it the pinnacle of all the Scriptures.

Now as we come to Daniel 7, we encounter a second and distinct segment of the Book of Daniel. The first six chapters were historical narrative—stories of the great interventions by Daniel’s God in his life in the Kingdom of Babylon. The events in chapters 1-6 are told to us in chronological order. However, both the chronological order and the subject changes in Daniel 7. Beginning with Daniel 7, we have the description Daniel’s prophetic dreams and visions. There are four of Daniel’s dreams and visions recounted. They come in chronological order as well, but only within themselves. The first of these, in Daniel 7, actually comes 12-15 years before the events recounted in Daniel 6 about Daniel in the lion’s den. Belshazzar, who was killed in Daniel 5, is in his first year as King of Babylon, and it’s about 551 to 555 B.C. depending on whom you read.

Daniel tells us in verse one he saw a dream and visions—apparently one and the same--one night as he lay on his bed. And the first thing he tells us of this dream reflects an important truth for all of us during these chaotic and fearful times. God’s in charge though the world’s in turmoil. Know this, God is in charge, though the world is in turmoil.

Verse 2 tells us that. What he saw was that the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. The great sea, as we compare this verse with the angel’s interpretation in verse 17, represent the nations of the earth from which four kings arise. The nations are in an uproar here, even as the sea is turbulent and tumultuous, a comparison that we find other places in the Old Testament Scriptures, such as Isaiah 17:12-13.

Of course what is acting upon the tumultuous sea of men are the four winds of heaven. Heaven, of course, in Scripture, is well-known to be the dwelling place of God. The winds of heaven, possibly angels, are certainly subject to the control of Heaven. And so what’s happening upon earth among the nations who are in turmoil is under the control of and is being affected by the four winds of heaven. In other words, God is ultimately in charge despite the obvious lack of peace among the nations of men upon the earth.

Feeling anxious, remember this. God is still in charge. He is on His throne. Nothing has escaped His notice. He’s working all things out for His glory and our good, even though there may be all kinds of turmoil, even wars on the earth. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests of god and the peace of God which surpasses understanding will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6 applies especially in these times. God’s working all things for our good, as Romans 8:28 tells us.