When we read prophesy in the Old Testament, we wonder how anyone could know what it meant at the time and the full extent of it.
Here’s an example that literally speaks of the coming Messiah but at the time it was written, the people of Israel could not have known what Moses fully meant.
Deuteronomy 18:14-19
14 For these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to soothsayers and diviners; but you, The LORD your God does not allow you to do this. 15 “The LORD will raise up for you a prophet like me from among yourselves, from your own kinsmen. You are to pay attention to him, 16 just as when you were assembled at Horev and requested The LORD your God, ‘Don’t let me hear the voice of The LORD my God any more, or let me see this great fire ever again; if I do, I will die!’ 17 On that occasion The LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they are saying. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I order him. 19 Whoever doesn’t listen to my words, which he will speak in my name, will have to account for himself to me.
The biggest error that the Hebrews of old, and Believers today, make regarding understanding prophecy is that they (and we) don’t take it literally enough. When we look back at the prophecies that have already been fulfilled, invariably they have hit the nail on the head including details that may have seemed improbable or not comprehensible until these fulfillments finally occurred.
So, what can we learn in regard to prophesy that has not yet been fulfilled leading up to coming again of the Messiah or the happenings during the last 7 years leading up to His return and those things that God has planned for those that love Him?
The near universal tendency in Christian academic circles of teaching prophecy with hidden meaning because the scholar can’t see how the event can happen literally as the Bible predicts sometimes takes Believers on wild goose chases or builds false expectations that are completely wrong.
Some of this is due to our impatience to know the outcome of a prophecy in advance and rather than waiting for it to actually happen. The result is that speculation is substituted for fact and then it is adopted by the eager student or congregation member as a settled truth.
This then calls for patience in knowing that our Heavenly Father has a plan and He is working the plan. We know from His Word that He is controlling all that happens in the World today and is guiding it towards the fulfilment of prophesy.
Separately, God is searching the hearts (minds) of all to find those who will believe, and having prepared them to pay attention, they are waiting to hear the words of their salvation from believers like us.
Are their examples of this in God’s Word? Yes, as we recount the story of Lydia of Philippi who worshipped God but did not have the saving knowledge of what God had accomplished through His Son. First, God sent for Paul to travel to Philippi and then God put it into Lydia’s heart to pay attention to what the Apostle Paul had to say. She heard, believed and was saved!
We can take to heart then the words of Peter in his epistle that each one of us should be ready to give an answer for the reason of our belief and hope in the salvation that our Lord and Savior brought when he died upon that cross, was buried and rose again the third day.
The will of our Heavenly Father is clearly stated in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
God is reaching out to each and every person with the offer of everlasting life. How can we as God’s people neglect to tell others of so great a gift?
For those who think our main purpose as Christians is to feed the poor are correct but hear and understand the words of our Lord: “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word out of the mouth of God”
There is food for the body and there is food for the spirit. We and they need both so why not feed both body and soul?
There are many who are alive in the body but dead in the spirit and without hope in the world. Those dead in the spirit are separated from God.
Let’s offer them living water too!