God tells us in the book of Isaiah: Isaiah 46:9–11 (NIV): I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.' From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do.

The book of Daniel tells the story of a young man and his three friends taken into captivity from Jerusalem by the Babylonians. The nation of Israel had grown increasingly wicked and because of their evil practices, the Lord raised up Nebuchadnezzar, and sent him and his army to destroy Jerusalem and the surrounding nations. Notice in the verse from Isaiah the Lord says "from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose." That is exactly what the Lord accomplished with Nebuchadnezzar. Notice what God revealed to Jeremiah, a prophet in Jerusalem before Israel's captivity:

Jeremiah 25:8–11 (NIV): Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: "Because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon," declares the Lord, "and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. (Israel and the surrounding nations)

It is evident from these verses that God has a way that He deals with nations. When they become wicked and the cup of their iniquity overflows, He sends some form of destruction against them. Usually it is another nation.

Shortly after arriving in Babylon, the young man Daniel was put to a severe test. One night, King Nebuchadnezzar had a marvelous dream. In his dream was revealed a huge statue made of different metals. Nebuchadnezzar awoke from his dream in quite an alarmed and agitated state. He must know its meaning and now!

Calling all his wise men together he gave orders to them to tell him the dream and its interpretation. Of course, the wise men were unable to tell the king the dream and they said as much, revealing the impotence of their false gods. It is likely that Nebuchadnezzar planned it this way, so that his supposed wise men couldn't just make up an interpretation and give it to him.

The King was angry so he pronounced a death decree on the whole lot of them realizing they were all pretty much worthless. This included Daniel and his three friends, even though they were not among the group who initially went before the King.

Daniel 2:14–23 (NIV): When Arioch, the commander of the king's guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact. He asked the king's officer, "Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?" Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel. At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him. Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said: "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. I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you..

Daniel was thrilled to say the least. God had heard and answered his prayer plus he had received a most amazing revelation of the future to top it off. Forthrightly, Daniel went in to see the King and explain the dream.

Daniel 2:29–45 (NIV): As Your Majesty was lying there, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind. "Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. "This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold. "After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay. "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. "The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy."

Here are two important points we need to glean from this dream God gave to Daniel and the King:

God is revealing future kingdoms that by His authority alone will be set up and taken down. For example, we read in Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 25:12–14 (NIV): "But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt," declares the Lord, "and will make it desolate forever. I will bring on that land all the things I have spoken against it, all that are written in this book and prophesied by Jeremiah against all the nations. They themselves will be enslaved by many nations and great kings; I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands."

God is giving us a timeline of Kingdoms, starting with the head of gold and culminating with the setting up of His Kingdom – the Rock! God can do this because He has Sovereign authority over the universe. He "declares the end from the beginning." So, where are we in "time" on this great statue? Daniel tells us the vision is "true and trustworthy" and each of the kingdoms in the image have taken place as the Lord predicted. Today, we live in the time of the feet, where some nations are weak and others are strong – iron and clay. It cannot be long until the "Rock" smashes the image and the Lord sets up a kingdom that will never be destroyed.

Isaiah 45:21 (NIV): Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. Isaiah 45:21 (NIV): Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me.

Timelines of Bible Prophecies [2020 update]