What's Next?

At Abundant Health Wellness Center, we are committed to treating the whole person, including, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We were created with a need to connect spiritually with God. Your spiritual beliefs may be different from our spiritual beliefs and that is okay. But for those willing to explore, in this blog, which will be longer than our usual blogs, I want to address the looming question, “What’s next?”

I am sure we all agree, our world is in great turmoil, and it would seem World War III is about to break out at any moment. Our financial system is so fragile it appears ready to crumble and a digital monetary system seems inevitable. There are predictions of another pestilence on the horizon worse than COVID-19, while we are still recovering from COVID-19. Depression and anxiety rates are at an all-time high. And this country has never been so divided into polarized sides since the civil war. No wonder the question of “What’s next?” looms over us like a heavy cloud just waiting to burst forth.

But through all these events we can take great hope because we find a great outline of time and world events in the Biblical Scriptures.

In Isaiah 46:9-11 the Creator God makes a very bold statement: “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.”

The God of the Bible declares the way we can know He is the really God is the fact that He can tell the end from the beginning. This is God’s proof-positive evidence that He really is Who He says He is. Such a bold statement requires something to back that up.

In the second chapter of Daniel, we find just that; God foretelling an outline of world events. Has it happened just as He foretold? Let’s find out.

Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, has a dream. When he awakes, he forgets the dream, but he remembers it was something very important and he wants to know its meaning. He calls for his magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans, to come tell both what he dreamed and the interpretation of the dream.

The wisemen replied, “Let the king tell his servants the dream and we will give the interpretation of it.” This response did not please the king. He must have already been suspicious of the wise men because he calls them out.

“I know, with certainty, you are trying to buy time, because you see the thing is gone from me. But if you will not make known to me the dream, there is but one decree you: for you have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time has passed. Therefore, tell me the dream, and I shall know of certainty the interpretation is true.”

The Chaldeans are probably shaking in their boots because they know the request is impossible. Therefore, they try to reason with the king, “There is not a man upon the earth that can do as the king requires. It is an unusual thing that the king requests, and there is none that can reveal the dream, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”

The king orders that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed. And the decree went forth and included those in training to become wise men.

Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard knocks on Daniel’s door. Daniel has a good reputation in Babylon and the people of the court like him. Daniel asks Arioch what is going on and Arioch tells Daniel the whole story. Daniel then requests to be taken in before the king and permission is granted. Daniel asks the king for some time, promising he would show the king the interpretation. King Nebuchadnezzar had already refused the other wise men time, but he really wants to know the dream and the interpretation. Daniel has shown himself to be wiser than his peers (Daniel 1:19-20) so the king grants Daniel the time requested.

Daniel returns to his home and calls his friends to join him in prayer. They pray for God’s mercies to reveal to them the secret, that the lives of the wise men of Babylon might be spared. Daniel and his friends go to sleep, and that night God gives Daniel the same dream as Nebuchadnezzar. The next morning, Daniel calls for Arioch saying, “Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the dream and the interpretation.”

Arioch, having full faith in Daniel, hastily brings Daniel before the king and with an air of pride declares, “I have found a man of the captives of Judah that will make known unto the king the interpretation.”

As Daniel stands before King Nebuchadnezzar, the King questions, “Are you able to make known unto me the dream which I have dreamt and the interpretation thereof?”

Daniel replies, “The secret which the king has demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king; but there is a God in Heaven that reveals secrets, and makes known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed are these; As for you, O king, your thoughts came into your mind what shall come to pass hereafter? And He that reveals secrets has made known to you what shall come to pass.”

“You, O king, saw, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you; and the form thereof was spectacular. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. You watched until a stone was cut out without hands and smote the image on its feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then the iron, clay, brass, silver, and gold, all broken to pieces, became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This is the dream.”