The book of Habakkuk, written during Judah’s decline in the seventh century BC, is instructive. Times are really bad in Judah. Judah was a high crime and sin place. Habakkuk cries out to the Lord.

“Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will
not hear? …” Hab 1:2a

“2 … I cry out to you “Violence!” and will you not save? 3 Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up. 4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice goes forth perverted.”
Hab 1:2b-4

Indeed, why? Then God says He will do something astonishing! God says He will raise up the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, to punish sinful Judah. What are they like? God says they are a bitter and hasty nation. “They are feared and dreaded.” They have horses swifter than leopards. They gather prisoners like sand, and they laugh at kings and fortified cities. Strength is their god. Hab 1:6-11.

But now Habakkuk has a bigger problem!

Yes, Habakkuk recognizes that God’s decision, Hab 1:12; but he asks,

“You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you … keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,”
Hab 1:13 WEB

So he essentially says, but Lord, the Babylonians are worse than we are! Are you really going to let the Babylonians swallow up everything? Will you really let them “kill the nations without mercy?” Hab 1:17.

Habakkuk decides to wait for God’s answer.

“I will stand at my watch, and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.”
Hab 2:1

Then God says, write all of this down, in big letters so that even a running man can read it. This is true, and it will NOT prove to be false. “Though it takes time, wait for it; because it will surely come.” Hab 2:2-3.

Yes, Babylon is puffed up, and is not upright,
“but the righteous will live by his faith.”
Hab 2:4

In essence God says in chapter two, Judah will be punished severely, and God will also get around to Babylon, but the righteous man will survive by his faith in God. God will care for him.

This the grand theme of the book of Romans, Rom 1:17.

Things are out of OUR control, but they are
NOT out of control.

“6 Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city,
Without the people being afraid?
Does evil happen to a city,
And Yahweh hasn’t done it?
7 Surely the Lord Yahweh will do nothing,
Unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.”
Amos 3:6-7

The grand scheme of history is laid out in prophecy, from Genesis to Revelation. This is part of the grand scheme, and is also reflected in Revelation.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

This is not something new. God has given Jesus present rule.

“ … “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.”
Mtt 28:18 WEB

Jesus is now, and will be “the ruler of the kings of the earth,” Rev 1:5. He will continue to rule from the heavenly Jerusalem until,

“… he has put all his enemies under his feet.”
1Cor 15:25 WEB

To think that Jesus would step down from ruling ALL from the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev 21:1-2, etc.), to rule from earthly Jerusalem, is a gross misunderstanding of prophecy. The premillenialists confuse prophecies of this present earth, with prophecies of heaven.

These are ongoing processes.

“He increases the nations, and he destroys them.
He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.”
Job 12:23 WEB

Sometimes nations seek good things, and God prospers them. Or they turn away from good things, ruin themselves, and God disciplines or destroys them. Once again, these are ongoing processes in history, reflected in prophecy, all the way from Genesis to Revelation, and is definitely still going on. In the words of the prophet Daniel,

“21 He changes the times and the seasons; he removes kings, and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who have understanding; 22 he reveals the deep and secret things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.”
Dan 2:21-22 WEB

We often act as if God does not know what we are doing, but it says,

“9 He who implanted the ear, won’t he hear?
He who formed the eye, won’t he see?
10 He who disciplines the nations, won’t he punish?
He who teaches man knows.”
Psa 94:9-10 WEB

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (ruling 605-562 BC) wrote of Yahweh,

“34 … his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation. 35 All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or tell him, What do you?”
Dan 4:34-35 WEB

That is history. It is the Liberal theories that are myths and fantasies, mere narratives to distract us from the truth.

Some of this is scarcely complimentary to either
rulers or the peoples.

Again this is the words of Nebuchadnezzar.

“… to the intent that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whoever he will, and sets up over it the lowest of men.”
Dan 4:17 WEB

Isn’t that the truth.

God decides where peoples will live, Acts 17:26.

Yahweh says,

“… “Haven’t I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?””
Amos 9:7 WEB

And purpose, what is the purpose?

“that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”
Acts 17:27 WEB

We are studying the context in which God deals with men, earth age long!

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901