Isaiah 46:10-11 “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 will I bring about;
what I have planned, that will I do.”

Every once in a while God has to remind us just who He is. We are so quick to start thinking He is like we are! Here He is pointing out the prophecies He has spoken through various people. These aren’t like Nostradamus, who gained fame for predicting things far in the future that never came to pass, but rather a wide variety of things, many of which have indeed come to pass exactly as He said them, though not necessarily in the way people at the time understood them. The failure of the Pharisees to see how Jesus did fulfill so many Messianic prophecies was a distinct factor in their failing to accept Him for who He was. From our perspective the match seems obvious, but their preconceptions got in the way. When so many prophecies in the Bible have indeed been fulfilled, it would only be logical to expect the rest to be fulfilled as well! I have never been a fan of trying to see where we are on some prophetic time line that someone has laid out, because we are no freer from preconceptions than the Pharisees were, but we should have a sense of anticipation of what God is going to do, and the faith to believe that what is going on is part of what He is doing. When we try to dictate the timing of prophetic fulfillment we get into deep trouble, as so many have demonstrated in the 2000 years since Jesus’ ascension.

I have been saddened to see some preachers I liked and respected spend hours and hours haranguing their congregations over a particular prophetic time line, but perhaps in reaction, I have failed to teach this congregation to be looking forward to the fulfillment of prophecy. There have been private teaching moments, such as yesterday when someone asked me if there was a solution to the Israel/ Palestinian problem. My answer was, “Christ’s return.” When we have a Biblical world view, a Biblical framework to our thinking and understanding of world events, then lots of things become much clearer. The answers we get that way are seldom “politically correct,” but they make a LOT more sense than anything else. I need to be giving this congregation a better background in how God has predicted and then fulfilled, again and again throughout history, so that they may have more peace about what is happening now and more anticipation of how God is going to use even what is happening now to fulfill His purposes. The Left Behind series of books contains a lot of fanciful imagining of how prophecies might be fulfilled, and it adheres to a particular time line that is debatable at best, but it does give a degree of anticipation that what God has said is going to be fulfilled, and that is valuable indeed.

Father, I need Your wisdom as to how to impart anticipation to this congregation. I could also use more anticipation myself! Help me see You and see Your Word first, and then through that lens see the world and events around me, so that I may walk in obedience as Your agent in my every interaction, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!