(Daniel 2:20b-22) “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are His. He changes times and seasons; He deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him.”
Last week Israeli precision guided airstrikes took out top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday and top Hezbollah commander Faud Shukr in Beirut on Tuesday. During an emergency session of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran gave an order to launch a retaliatory attack on Israel. During a Wednesday televised address Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said; “In recent days, we delivered crushing blows to all of our enemies, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis,” adding “we eliminated Nasrallah’s deputy. Israel will charge a very heavy price for any aggression from any arena,”
Tensions continue to escalate as Israel continues to fight Hamas and Hezbollah as well and Iran backed militias ‘upping the ante’ on their relentless attacks on Israel by rockets and missiles. Last Saturday, a Hezbollah strike on a soccer field in the Golan Heights, a contested area of Israel claimed by both Syria and Israel, killed 12 children and teens and left other Israeli casualties.
Prime Minter Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Tuesday’s strike on Shukr was in retaliation for Hezbollah’s attack. The strike that killed Shukr also killed three and wounded 74. It was a precision strike by Israel. The Biden Administration have a growing fear that Israel may well invade Lebanon and are seeking to thwart s full-scale war.
Realistically the days for a so called ‘diplomatic solution’ has passed and Israel is now facing a major war on two fronts, with the war still going in Gaza and a war escalating in intensity and ferocity with Hezbollah in Lebanon, not to mention the Houthis in Yemen threatening Israel with missile strikes and with armed drones.
As for the United States, on Tuesday earlier this week carried out an airstrike on a Tehran-backed Iraqi militia, the Popular Mobilization Forces in the Iraqi town of Musayib. Also it was reported in the news media on Tuesday that U.S. warships were assembling off the Lebanese coast. At this stage America is still willing to defend Israel if it is attacked. In April this year we did see the Iranian missile barrage sent towards Israel consisting of 170 drones, over 30 cruise missiles, and more than 120 ballistic missiles toward Israel and the Golan Heights. The Israel Defence Forces used Arrow 3 and David’s Sling systems to shoot down many of the incoming weapons. American, British, French, and Jordanian air forces also shot some down. France, which intervened at Jordan’s request, deployed warships to provide radar coverage.
According to a report in All Israel News it stated; “U.S. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talked on the phone for around 30 minutes on Thursday evening, as Israel is bracing for the revenge attacks threatened by Iran and Hezbollah after two surprise assassinations in Beirut and Tehran these past days. The U.S. believes Iran will retaliate for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in its capital, for which Israel has not taken responsibility, according to the news outlet Axios.
In addition, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed revenge for the Israeli strike that killed his deputy and Hezbollah’s military chief, Fuad Shukr, in the terror group’s stronghold Dahiyeh, in southern Beirut. Speaking remotely at the funeral of Shukr on Thursday, Nasrallah stressed he also expected Iran, as well as other of its proxies in Iraq and Yemen, to retaliate against Israel for the death of Haniyeh. He said; “We are not talking about separate fronts anymore. This is an open campaign on all fronts, and there is no doubt the war has entered a new phase,” he went on to say; “Israel should prepare for “rage and revenge on all the fronts supporting Gaza,” adding; “Israelis “will weep terribly” in the coming days.”
It is possible that we might see the war described with a prophetic future application described in Psalm 83 between Israel and its immediate hostile Islamic neighbours conspiring together to unite to attack Israel with a united front, a war that Israel will win by God’s supernatural intervention (See Psalm 83). Ultimately all of the nations of the world will combine their armed forces to attack Israel, and Israel will not be able to stand against it. However, in their hour of adversity and when it looks like Israel will be destroyed as a nation, the Messiah our Lord Jesus will intervene, rescue Israel, and destroy all of the armies gathered against Jerusalem after which the Messiah will inaugurate His Messianic Kingdom.
When we see wicked political leaders and despots commanding armies and the real threat of a Middle-Eastern conflagration that more than likely could lead to a third world war, we need to know from the Word of God that He is still in control of everything that is happening on earth.
In Daniel Chapter two the prophet Daniel had just been given the interpretation to the dream by the Spirit of God that King Nebuchadnezzar’s had experienced. The details of the dream and its interpretation were a 100% accurate. It was an overview, broad in scope of the future empires to come and the events leading up to the coming of the Messianic Kingdom to smash all earthly kingdoms at the end of this present age.
As we see people in all walks of life from the political spectrum down to the average person in the street we see many starting to faint in terror and uncertainty, being apprehensive of what is happening on earth with no seemingly end in sight for the growing conflict globally that is occurring between the super powers, such as Russia and China, but more so with the spread of radical Islam globally and with a major war looing in the Middle East that will inevitably draw the nations of the world into its fiery cauldron.
Added to this, we see the growing persecution of the Body of Messiah on a global scale never before seen in history, that is not only happening in Islamic countries, in Russia, in North Korea and in China, but spreading into the western democracies traditionally associated with Judeo-Biblical Christianity which are now neo-pagan nations with spiritually corrupted politicians and ungodly policies and legislation.
Having said all of these things we need to be encouraged that God still has everything under control which we see expressed in the grateful and joyful heart of Daniel with the praise of God on his lips, having had the revelation that settled the future of the ages to come. As for the leaders of the nations God has that under control as well. Let’s now look at what Daniel says…
“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are His. He changes times and seasons;
Infinite wisdom and power belong to God alone. Whatever He chooses to do, He does according to His perfect, good and acceptable will. He knows the beginning from the end because He inhabits eternity and in His foreknowledge of all things knows how everything will work out in the end and He works to achieving His desired plans. God can do all things and no plan of His can be thwarted (Isaiah 46:8-11) (Job 42:2). According to His sovereign will He changes times and seasons. His timing is always perfect in every situation and He is never too early or never too late but always on time. Every situation in the world is under His control and even though He allows for the free will of man He always has the final say. No circumstance is beyond His control and if He decides to change a certain situation then He does it and asks no man’s permission. The world may look like it is spinning out of control but God has everything under control. And then we read…
“He deposes kings and raises up others.”
No matter the king or leader of a nation it is the LORD our God that has put them in that position, even though they may have obtained it through nefarious means. God works everything out for His purposes even the wicked for the day of judgement. As we read in the Book of Proverbs; “The LORD has made everything for His purpose— even the wicked for the day of disaster. Everyone who is proud in heart is detestable to the LORD; be assured that he will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 16:4-5). It may look like certain leaders are getting away with what they are doing in the world today but they will be held accountable by the LORD for what they are doing or failing to do. The Bible clearly shows this principle when we see the LORD deposing and raising up kings and leaders. And again we read in the Book of Proverbs; “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD” (Proverbs 21:30) and then we read…
He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him.”
When God rises up any king or ruler or political leader to a position of power He expects that leader to discern, to seek wisdom and knowledge to govern well. To this man God will reveal deep and hidden things if this man continues to seek God’s guidance, and has around him men who are godly and can counsel him with godly wisdom. Any leader who is not a despot but wanting to be a good leader, if he will seek God’s wisdom to govern, then the country over which that leader rules will be blessed. God is no respecter of persons, but He is a respecter of faith and rewards it (Hebrews 11:6). Man may look on the outward appearance but God looks upon the heart and sees the thoughts and motives behind what we say and do. He knows the depths of spiritual darkness and spiritual light because He is perfect pure and untainted eternal light and no darkness, deviousness or deception lies in His character (1 John 1:5).
If God knows all things then He most certainly knows all about us as His blood redeemed children, and in His wise, all knowing and infinite love has the plan of our life already mapped out from all of eternity, and that nothing will happen to us, which He permits that is not according to His good, acceptable, infinite and perfect will. King David understood this when he wrote in Psalm 139; “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:13-16).
No matter what we see happening in our world today God has it all under control, and although the devil is ranging to and fro across the surface of the earth working His murder and mayhem, he only does what God permits Him to do. Man has a free will and the Spirit of God striving to save men and women gives them the capacity to repent and by faith in the Messiah our Lord Jesus to turn to the LORD and be saved and to seek Him (Isaiah 55:6-8), yet the blessed Holy Spirit will not decide for them, they must decide (John 3:16-18) (Joshua 24:14-15) (Deuteronomy 30:19).
There are many mysteries in life and in our own personal lives that we cannot fathom, situations that look like they are out of control, prayers of God’s faithful people that seem to go unanswered, desires as yet unfulfilled, and yet in all of these things as a child of God we know that He does have everything under control. May our confidence in the LORD be that of Job who in his severe extremity declared; “But if I go to the east, He is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find Him. When He is at work in the north, I do not see Him; when He turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of Him. But he knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:8-10).
