Our God has revealed His plan for human history. He has revealed His plan for human history, and His plan includes your story. This morning we’re going to see it and learn to set our hope on it, because that makes all the difference for how we feel, think, and live right now. Our God has revealed His plan for human history.

Last week we began our eleven-week journey through Daniel and were introduced to King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled over the ancient superpower Babylon. In 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar led the Babylonian army into Jerusalem, the capital of God’s people, and conquered it. However, the shrewd king didn’t destroy everything. Instead, he took the best and brightest teenagers from Jerusalem back to Babylon as exiles, where they would be “Babylonized” for three years and then serve as advisors in the king’s court. Among those taken were Daniel and his three friends—Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Their lives were turned upside down, but God was with them in Babylon. He empowered them to remember Him and their identity, enabling them to serve in Babylon without giving Babylon their highest allegiance. God empowered them to live in the world without becoming worldly. He even prospered them in exile and gave Daniel the ability to understand and interpret visions and dreams—a gift Daniel desperately needed in chapter two.

In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that deeply troubled him. Have you ever had a dream after which you couldn’t go back to sleep? The king dreamed of a statue made of various metals, which was struck by a small stone that destroyed it and then became a great mountain filling the earth. In that dream, God revealed His plan for human history.

Here’s the big idea of our passage: Our God has revealed His plan for human history. Through the dream and its interpretation, He has made His plan known. So what should we do? Our passage gives us three responses:

Admit you’re stuck without the plan (vv. 1–11).

Turn to the God who reveals the plan (vv. 12–30).

Set your hope on the plan (vv. 31–49).

God’s actual plan isn’t revealed until the end of the chapter, so hang tight—we’ll get there in point three.

ADMIT YOU’RE STUCK WITHOUT THE PLAN (vv. 1–11)

Daniel 2 begins with Nebuchadnezzar having a terrifying dream. Why? Because, as we later learn in verse 45, the dream revealed the future—and the king seemed to know it wasn’t good news. But since he couldn’t interpret it, he couldn’t act on it. Nebuchadnezzar reminds us that without God’s revelation, we’re stuck. If you don’t know God’s plan, then you don’t know why you exist, why you work so hard, what your purpose is, or what truly matters. Death looms over everything, making life meaningless without God’s plan for human history. That’s why Nebuchadnezzar was so troubled. Have you ever been there—lying awake, unsettled about the future?

So the king summoned his “wise men” to interpret the dream. But Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t naïve; he knew they’d flatter him if he told them the dream. So he demanded they tell him both the dream and its meaning—or die. The wise men admitted defeat: “The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh” (Dan. 2:11). The narrator is mocking Babylon’s gods, who neither care for people nor reveal truth—because they’re nothing.

Friends, our modern “gods” are the same: technology and medicine, sex and personal fulfillment, achievement and wealth, acceptance and approval, beauty and comfort. None of them can tell you God’s plan for human history. None of them can answer a child’s simplest questions: Why am I here? Where is it all going? What happens when I die? Like Babylon’s wise men, we’re stuck without God’s plan. As Dale Ralph Davis writes, “Life is a dead-end street without a God who discloses what the future holds.”

At least Nebuchadnezzar admitted he was stuck. He was troubled, even desperate. Are you willing to admit the same? Without God’s revelation, we can’t explain why we wake up, why we work, why we stay faithful, or why anything matters if everything ends in the heat death of the universe. When you finally admit the world’s idols have left you empty, then you’re ready—ready to open your heart to the God who does dwell with flesh. Ready to open your heart to Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment of God’s plan for human history. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

TURN TO THE GOD WHO REVEALS THE PLAN (vv. 12–30)

Up to this point, Daniel and his friends haven’t been mentioned. But now they’re caught in the fallout: since no one could interpret the dream, the king ordered all the wise men of Babylon—Daniel included—to be executed.

Imagine being in Daniel’s teenage shoes when the captain of the guard arrived to kill you. Would you panic? Plead? Rage? Daniel responded with calm wisdom and faith. He asked for time to interpret the dream—even though God hadn’t revealed it yet! Why? Because Daniel trusted the God who had been with him before would be with him again. That kind of trust doesn’t come in a moment; it grows from daily walking with God and living among His people.

But Daniel knew he was still stuck unless God revealed the dream. So he did what the Babylonian wise men didn’t: he turned to the God of heaven. Daniel gathered his friends, and together they prayed for mercy. And God revealed the mystery in a vision.

This is how we turn to God today—not by waiting for dreams, but by opening Scripture. As one scholar put it, “God now speaks through His completed revelation, the Bible, rather than sporadic dreams.” The Bible is sufficient, clear, authoritative, and necessary. It is God’s Word, and it reveals His plan for human history. Prayer and Scripture go together like breathing—inhale God’s Word, exhale in prayer.

When God answered Daniel, he didn’t rush to the king. First, he paused to give thanks. Listen to his prayer of praise in Daniel 2:20–23. If you need words to express gratitude, borrow Daniel’s: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever… You have made known to us the king’s matter.” God has revealed His plan for human history—so let’s never stop thanking Him.

SET YOUR HOPE ON THE PLAN (vv. 31–49)

By now you might be asking, “Okay, but what is the plan?”

The king’s dream was of a statue made of four metals, symbolizing four successive empires:

Head of gold → Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar’s reign).

Chest and arms of silver → Medo-Persian Empire.

Belly and thighs of bronze → Greek Empire.

Legs of iron → Roman Empire.

What’s astonishing is that Daniel recorded this vision around 600 BC—centuries before these kingdoms rose. God reveals history before it happens. But the most important part of the dream wasn’t the statue—it was the stone.

A stone “cut without human hands” struck the statue, shattered it, and became a great mountain filling the earth (Dan. 2:34–35). That stone is Christ. During Rome’s power, God sent His Son to establish a kingdom that will never end. As Daniel says: “The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed… It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever” (Dan. 2:44).

Through His sinless life, atoning death, and victorious resurrection, Jesus inaugurated this eternal kingdom. It is already here, but not yet complete. When Christ returns, it will be perfected—and those who trust Him will reign with Him forever. Revelation 21 gives us a glimpse: a new heaven and new earth, God dwelling with His people, every tear wiped away, death and pain gone forever.

Why did exiles need this hope? Because without it, they might fall into the heresy of “if only.” If only Nebuchadnezzar were gone… If only we could go home… then we’d have peace. But the dream reminded them more kingdoms would come and go. Their hope had to be in the stone, not in shifting empires.

We fall into the same trap: If only I got into that school, landed that job, made more money, got married, had a child, fixed my marriage… then life would be meaningful. But the dream calls us to shift our hope away from “if onlys” and onto Christ.

When your hope is set on His eternal kingdom, everything changes. Anxiety loosens its grip. Discouragement fades. Sin loses its shine. Even suffering becomes bearable, because “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed” (Rom. 8:18).

Praise God—He has revealed His plan for human history: a kingdom in Christ that will never be shaken. Admit you’re stuck without it. Turn to the God who reveals it through His Word and prayer. And set your hope fully on it, because when your hope is in a kingdom that cannot be shaken, you won’t be either.