"Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them" (Isaiah 42:9).
THEME
PROPHECY
Girolamo Cardano, a renowned sixteenth-century astrologer, predicted the hour of his own death. When the day came, he was healthy and safe. Lest he be branded a charlatan, he killed himself.
In Isaiah's day, humbuggery abounded. Isaiah spoke out against the fraud of street-corner prognosticators by showing how God's predictions always came to pass. He not only spoke of the past, but he predicted two future deliverers--Cyrus and Christ. Cyrus would rescue Israel from the Babylonians, and Christ would release Israel and all peoples from spiritual bondage.
Isaiah's prophecies about Christ are some of the most startling in the Bible; he foretold His death, burial, and resurrection hundreds of years before the actual events. The Gospels confirm Isaiah's detailed descriptions.
Christ made a few predictions Himself as He castigated the religious quacks of His day. Some considered Him a great Prophet, but many saw Him as nothing more than a wood-and-hammer man from Nazareth. Most inexplicable to His disciples was His forecast of His own death; somehow they had missed the point of Isaiah.
Christ was no impostor; He willingly gave up His life as a surety of His word and our future.
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JUL 15
JEREMIAH 6:9-17
"From the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely" (Jeremiah 6:13).
Scientists have a reputation for wanting to get the facts. Yet within the last few years some have shown themselves vulnerable to deception. One newspaper, for example, uncovered serious problems in the findings of a research team whose work had been influential in a controversy over alcohol. The experts studied whether or not persons once dependent on the substance could resume drinking without falling back into addiction. They claimed it was possible. Investigative reporting, however, later produced contrary evidence from patients who had been involved in the research. Those "cured" alcoholics who started drinking again were having extremely difficult problems. Some had even committed suicide. Apparently, those researchers were not so trustworthy after all.
Religious leaders, even more than scientists, should always be above making false claims. But Jeremiah cites evidence to the contrary. He shows that the priests, the prophets, and the preachers of his day were not speaking the truth. They told the people what they wanted to hear. They didn't want to learn about judgment, repentance, and their own lack of godliness. But their message of hope and peace was nothing more than a bag of lies.
We, too, sometimes fall into the trap of listening only to voices that tell us what we want to hear. We too easily assume that all preachers and leaders tell the truth. We need to make sure that we judge their message by the whole counsel of God. The Spirit and the Word will alert us to false claims.
--M.R.D.II
The first point of wisdom is to know the truth; the second, to discern what is false.
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JUL 16
HABAKKUK 2:1-8
"Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith" (Habakkuk 2:4).
Speaking to the graduating seniors of New Zealand Bible College, Brian Smith said, "How well I recall the remark of a senior missionary in India when he was reflecting on the phenomenon we call Hinduism. 'When you see its temples and hear the throb of its drums and smell the fragrance of its incense, and realize the tremendous hold it has upon the land, your heart sinks. And the consolation I have is this: This too, this mighty construction of religion and faith and worship, will disappear, like all those systems of the past. Where now are the ancient gods of the Assyrians, the Egyptians, and the Romans? Where now Artemis, "'great goddess of the Ephesians, she whom Asia and the whole world worships''? These are no more.'"
As Habakkuk wrote about the powerful Chaldean armies (1:6), he no doubt despaired over their seeming invincibility. A similar feeling must have swept over European Christians in the 1940s when they saw their homelands overtaken by the Nazis. And today the same is surely true of believers in atheistic countries. But for those who trust God, there is always hope. That's why the prophet Habakkuk affirmed that the just shall live by faith. God's people have the assurance that they will triumph--if not here, then in eternity.
Ungodly philosophies and false religions seem overwhelming at times, but they will not last. God has promised that righteousness will prevail.
--D.C.E.
That which does not begin with God ends in failure.
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JUL 17
MICAH 5:1-5
"Bethlehem Ephrathah, . . . out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be ruler in Israel" (Micah 5:2).
Isaiah, Micah, and many of the other prophets foretold many details of Jesus' birth, life, and death hundreds of years before they were fulfilled. The likelihood of these events occurring exactly as they were prophesied is too remote to explain away the phenomenon by calling it coincidence.
In SCIENCE SPEAKS, Peter Stoner applies the modern science of probability to just eight prophecies. He said, "The chance that any man might have . . . fulfilled all eight prophecies is one in 10. That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000." Stoner said that if we took that many silver dollars and laid them across Texas they would cover the state two feet deep. Then, to emphasize his point, he said, "Mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly. . . . Blindfold a man and tell him he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up [that one marked silver dollar.] What chance would he have of getting the right one?" Stoner concludes, "Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing those eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, . . . providing they wrote them in their own wisdom."
Since Christ's first coming was the exact fulfillment of many prophecies, we can expect the same of His second coming.
We can thank God for sending his Son to die and rise again. But we can also rejoice that He's going to send Him back to earth to reign. Bethlehem's Babe will return as creation's King, just as prophets foretold long ago.
--D.J.D.
Prophecy is history written ahead of time.
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JUL 18
MALACHI 4
"Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse"
(Malachi 4:6).
Last words are powerful. Malachi 4 expresses God's final words to Israel under the Old Testament dispensation. For four hundred years He would remain silent until they would hear "the voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord'" (Mt 3:3). Although Malachi 4:6 appears to be a curse, it really is not. It does not close the door on hope. On the contrary, it was God's last appeal of love. The threat of a curse, expressed by the word LEST, was aimed at averting the natural consequence of disobedience.
G. Campbell Morgan noted that from Malachi's time until Christ's, rabbis did not end their reading of Malachi with verse 6. Skipping from verse 4 to 6, they then reverted to verse 5, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." And in the Greek Old Testament, verse 4 is put at the end. Thus the Jews regarded God's final words as spoken in love, not in anger.
God's final prophetic words to believers in the New Testament are also filled with hope: "He who testifies to these things says, 'Surely I am coming quickly.' Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen" (Rev 22:20-21).
God's last words to Israel and to the church can give us hope. The assurance of His grace and the warnings from His love will keep us living close to Him.
--D.J.D.
The Christian's future is as bright as the promises of God.
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JUL 19
NAHUM 1
The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries
(Nahum 1:2).
Nahum means "consolation, full of comfort." And that's what Nahum's message of doom upon Nineveh and Assyria brought to the people of Judah. Mighty Assyria had made Judah a vassal state, extracting heavy taxes and inflicting harsh slavery on them. With their security constantly threatened by pillaging raiders from Nineveh, God's people were asking, "Has Jehovah forsaken us? Why does an evil nation prosper while we suffer?" Against this background--Assyria's pride, cruelty, and seemingly invincible power in contrast to Judah's forlorn hopelessness--Nahum thunders his prophecy: "Nineveh will fall! God has not forsaken His people."
Translating the prophet's message into today's language, it might sound something like this: "Might does not make right. Countries with the most nuclear weapons and the biggest armies are not exempt from divine wrath. Any nation that thwarts justice and oppresses people will ultimately fall into ruin--whether it be Libya, Russia, China, Great Britain, Germany, or the United States."
The next time the evening news shows a dictator living in luxury while the people languish in poverty or innocent victims suffer under the cruelty of tyrants, recall the message of Nahum. The sovereign Ruler of this world will have His day. Justice will prevail. What a Nahum. What a consolation.
--D.J.D.
The highways of history are strewn with the wreckage of nations that forgot God.
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JUL 20
OBADIAH
"As you have done, it shall be done to you; your reprisal shall return upon your own head" (Obadiah 15).
Among others, many prominent entertainers and respected educational leaders reject God and deny the existence of an absolute moral standard. They say we can determine for ourselves what is right and wrong. They laugh at words like patriotism, duty, loyalty, and godliness. But now their influence is reaping a bitter harvest--multiplied abortions, heartbreaking divorces, violent crimes, teenage suicides, and disturbing payoffs by foreign agents for military secrets. Discussing an unprecedented rash of Americans spying for other countries, Charles Colson said that the U.S. is reaping what it has sown.
Obadiah warned the Edomites that they would reap what they had sown. Using the past tense but speaking about the future, he portrayed the lighthearted drinking of their wild parties and said that their derisive fun would soon give way to somber drinking from the cup of God's wrath. His prophecy was fulfilled. Within a few years Edom was destroyed by Gentile powers.
We must remember the reaping principle. Woven into the fabric of life, it applies to individuals as much as to nations. It's both a warning and a promise. When we do evil, we reap judgment. But when we do good, we reap the blessing of God's approval.
--H.V.L.
Those who plant thorns cannot expect to gather flowers.
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JUL 21
ISAIAH 13
I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity (Isaiah 13:11 kjv).
The problem of compulsive gambling may be foreign to most of us, yet the obsession is all too real. Some studies estimate that between one and six million Americans are psychologically addicted to the habit. Hoping to get rich fast, gamblers bet against high odds. Gambling gives excitement but almost always ends in defeat. It is indeed a temporary pleasure.
Some Christians have a similar problem--spiritual gambling. They bet against God. Hoping to enjoy worldly pleasure, they bet against God's prophecies about future punishment for sin.
Even though we know there is no such thing as luck, we often dabble in sinful pleasures as if it were possible to ignore the will of God and still come out ahead. We seem to be addicted to the excitement of risk. We apparently think that just because we won't lose our soul in hell we need not be concerned about a life of spiritual defeat.
God did not give us five-to-three odds that He would keep His word. The odds are not even one thousand-to-one. We can be absolutely sure that what He promised will come true. That's why it is foolish to trust our own wisdom, instincts, or desires. We must trust in the reliable word of the Lord rather than take our chances with the temporary excitement of sin.
