Prophetic Messages

Posted on by korgrocker

“For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw his majestic splendour with our own eyes when he received honour and glory from God the Father. The voice from the majestic glory of God said to him, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” We ourselves heard that voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place—until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts.”
2 Peter 1:16-19 NLT

The Jewish nation was well supplied with prophetic messages. The great prophets such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Jeremiah and others were all well known in Peter’s day through the accounts recorded in their Bible called the Tanakh. This included three main sections – the Law, the Prophets and the Writings. Jesus referred to the Hebrew Bible in verses such as Matthew 7:12, “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets“. Jesus extensively quoted from the Tanakh, at times very effectively as we can read in the account of His temptation from the devil. We pilgrim believers are very blessed in that we not only have access to the Hebrew Bible – we call it the Old Testament – but we also have another set of writings from men who had had a personal encounter with Jesus and which form the New Testament. And in 2 Peter 1:19, Peter wrote, referring to the Mount of Transfiguration event, “Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place—until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts“. Peter made the connection between Jesus and the “message proclaimed by the prophets”. 

According to Bible scholars, there were 450 or so prophecies about the coming Messiah made in the Old Testament and Jesus fulfilled over 300 of them at His first advent. The rest are still to come. But the Bible doesn’t say when this will be and even Jesus Himself, when asked by His disciples, confessed that He didn’t know. After laying out a list of End Time signs, Jesus said, as recorded in Matthew 24:36, “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows“. Then in Matthew 25:31, we find out the manner of Jesus’ return, “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne”. There are many prophecies about the End Times, but they are all focused around the person of Jesus. It is all about Him.

Peter wrote that because of his mountain experience he had great confidence in the prophetic messages that were woven into the warp and weft of Jewish society. The accuracy of some of those writings looking forward to the first Advent, and given many years before Jesus’ birth, is astounding. We look at Isaiah 9, for example, which builds until verses 6-7, “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!” Only part of this prophecy has been fulfilled, and we have confidence that the remainder will one day come to pass. In another example of Old Testament prophecy, we read the poignant words of Psalm 22, foretelling Jesus’ death experience. 

In other places the prophets of old warned the Jewish nation that there would be consequences for their bad behaviour. For example, Hosea prophesied that one day the people of Israel would be taken into captivity because of their unfaithfulness. We read in Hose 9:1-3, “O people of Israel, do not rejoice as other nations do. For you have been unfaithful to your God, hiring yourselves out like prostitutes, worshiping other gods on every threshing floor. So now your harvests will be too small to feed you. There will be no grapes for making new wine. You may no longer stay here in the Lord’s land. Instead, you will return to Egypt, and in Assyria you will eat food that is ceremonially unclean“. In Hosea 9:7-9 we read some more depressing details, “The time of Israel’s punishment has come; the day of payment is here. Soon Israel will know this all too well. Because of your great sin and hostility, you say, “The prophets are crazy and the inspired men are fools!” The prophet is a watchman over Israel for my God, yet traps are laid for him wherever he goes. He faces hostility even in the house of God. The things my people do are as depraved as what they did in Gibeah long ago. God will not forget. He will surely punish them for their sins“. Historical events vindicated prophets who were often punished and even killed because of their faithfulness in declaring God’s message.

Of course, prophetic messages were not all doom and gloom. One of my favourite chapters is Isaiah 40. There we read, “Yes, the Sovereign Lord is coming in power. He will rule with a powerful arm. See, he brings his reward with him as he comes. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young” (Isaiah 40:10-11).

So we pilgrims should take note of Peter’s words and the prophetic messages we find in the Bible. Through them we get a wonderful picture of our loving Heavenly Father, and His desire to work out His love in His children, those who believe in Him. Where do we stand with Biblical prophecy? We will be spiritually impoverished by avoiding it. Peter wrote, “You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place—until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts”. We too have words that shine in this dark and sad society in which we live. It will be even darker without our presence standing as a prophetic message to those around us.

Dear Father God. Thank You for the faithful men and women who have prophetically declared Your messages in their generation. May we, Your people, do the same in ours. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Christ’s Suffering

Posted on by korgrocker

“This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward.”
1 Peter 1:10-11 NLT

Those prophets in Old Testament times wrote down some stuff that they thought must have been very strange. They heard what the Holy Spirit was saying to them and they faithfully recorded His words, but they couldn’t make the connection with a real event either then or yet to happen. Take Psalm 22 for example. If we look hard enough there appear to be about nine or so predictions of Christ’s death embedded in this Psalm, written by David. Take Psalm 22:18 for example, “They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing”. That happened as Jesus was crucified, as we can read in John 19:24, “So they said, “Rather than tearing it apart, let’s throw dice for it.” This fulfilled the Scripture that says, “They divided my garments among themselves and threw dice for my clothing.” So that is what they did”. Those Roman soldiers would never have read Psalm 22, and even if they had, would it have made any difference? When David wrote Psalm 22 it was almost as though he went through the crucifixion experience in his Holy Spirit inspired imagination. Perhaps it happened as a dream and we can almost imagine him waking up and quickly writing down what must have been a vivid sleep experience.

In Psalm 22 the tone changes after verse 19. He is back down to earth and looks around again at the difficult time he was having. He turns from writing and praying about his current predicament to look upward into Heavenly places. And a warm glow starts to build in his spirit as he looks to God. In verses 25 and 27 he wrote, “I will praise you in the great assembly. I will fulfil my vows in the presence of those who worship you. … The whole earth will acknowledge the Lord and return to him. All the families of the nations will bow down before him”. David couldn’t wait to experience again the joy of worshipping and praising God along with his fellow people, and he even had a glimpse that perhaps one day all the nations of the world, Jews and Gentiles together, would join together in a wonderful praise event like never before seen.

The old prophets could dimly see an event in the future in which the Messiah, the Christ, would experience great suffering and death. We pilgrims, with the benefit of hindsight, know what happened on that fateful “Good Friday”. That day the prophets could “see” coming but without the full knowledge that it would change the world forever, and usher in a new age, one where the Saviour’s legacy was the continual presence of the Holy Spirit. And as the times get more and more wicked, the Holy Spirit within us can shine brighter and brighter in the darkness around us. God declared that light is good – Genesis 1:4, “And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness“. In John 8:12 we read, “Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”” The light we display to those around us makes a difference, and God has said it is good. The world might not think so, but, then, what does that matter?

Dear Father God. We thank You for giving us Your light to shine in our generation, in our families and communities. Amen.

The Two Witnesses (1)

Posted on by korgrocker

“And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will be clothed in burlap and will prophesy during those 1,260 days.” These two prophets are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of all the earth. If anyone tries to harm them, fire flashes from their mouths and consumes their enemies. This is how anyone who tries to harm them must die. They have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall for as long as they prophesy. And they have the power to turn the rivers and oceans into blood, and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.”
Revelation‬ ‭11:3-6‬ ‭NLT

We are still in the part of John’s vision between the second and third terrors or woes. And he was busy. John has just finished measuring the spiritual well being of the Church when he noticed two figures arrive, dressed in burlap, which is a very coarse, hessian-based cloth. Straight away I am reminded of John the Baptist, who appeared out of the desert dressed in clothes made of coarse camel hair. So these two people, referred to as “witnesses”, were dressed in the traditional way of Old Testament prophets. Perhaps the implication of wearing what was effectively sackcloth was to demonstrate, in the Jewish way, the importance of repentance.

And prophets they were. John said so. And they prophesied for 1,260 days, which is, more or less, the 42 months we read about in previous verses. There has been some speculation about who these two prophetic witnesses were. The most popular suggestion was that one of them was Moses, because of the reference to turning rivers into blood (Exodus 7:17) and that the other was Elijah, who commanded no rain to fall, coincidentally, for 42 months (1 Kings 17:1, James 5:17). But the Scriptures do not say specifically who the two witnesses were.

The reference to “the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of all the earth”  is underpinned by the writings of the prophet Zechariah. We read in chapter 4:11-14, “Then I asked the angel, “What are these two olive trees on each side of the lampstand, and what are the two olive branches that pour out golden oil through two gold tubes?” “Don’t you know?” he asked. “No, my lord,” I replied. Then he said to me, “They represent the two anointed ones who stand in the court of the Lord of all the earth.” So in John’s vision he saw the culmination of another prophesy, made many years before. An olive tree represented fruitfulness and the source of the Holy Spirit, and the lampstand declared the light of God to those around.

John was told that the two witnesses, the two anointed ones, prophesied for three and a half years. I wonder what they said. We might get some help from Scripture. 2 Peter 1:20-21 says, “Above all, you must realise that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God“. So a genuine prophet is someone who communicates, via the power of the Holy Spirit, what God wants people to hear. In John’s vision the two witnesses had some fearsome abilities to defend themselves from harm, so it can be concluded that what they were prophesying was not always a blessing to their listeners. The signs used by Moses and Elijah were used to back up the witnesses’ prophetic words, and I suspect that the two prophets were also using their power to draw people’s attention to what they were saying, lending weight to their messages.

What do we think of prophecy today? One thing for sure, there are many counterfeit prophecies. People claim to be able to see into the future and make declarations of things to come, usually far enough away to avoid any repercussions if they turn out to be in error because they will be long dead. And a common aberration is the use of horoscopes. But such devices are not of God. We pilgrims must always beware of getting caught up by counterfeits from the devil. We are told to test prophecies (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21). And take note that no prophetic message will contradict what God has said in His Word, the Bible.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your prophets, men and women who are prepared to stand up and declare Your message to us. And we thank You for caring so much about us that You send us direct messages. We are so grateful. Amen.

God’s Mysterious Plan

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand toward heaven. He swore an oath in the name of the One who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and everything in them, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it. He said, “There will be no more delay. When the seventh angel blows his trumpet, God’s mysterious plan will be fulfilled. It will happen just as He announced it to His servants the prophets.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭10:5-7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

We return to the picture of the huge angel standing astride the sea and land. He raises his hand to Heaven and swears an oath in the name of God. And he then made an announcement, that “God’s mysterious plan will be fulfilled”. Do we swear oaths in the name of God? I suppose the nearest we get to such an event is in a court of law, when we take the witness stand. And raising a Bible in our right hands, we declare an oath, “I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I shall give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”. There is something significant and solemn about such an occasion. And the angel declared an oath in God’s name, affirming without doubt that “God’s mysterious plan will be fulfilled“. This event was to take place when the seventh trumpet is blown.

In Ephesians, Paul wrote about what God intends to happen one day. Paul called it a “mysterious plan”  and that description continues in John’s writings. Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:9-10, “God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfil his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.” So the angel’s announcement that “God’s mysterious plan will be fulfilled” implies that this must be the “right time” referred to by Paul. All those End Times prophecies in both the Old and New Testament are about to be completed.

We all make plans but they are hardly a mystery. We plan our holidays. We plan our lives. We plan the week ahead. And once the plan has been made, we communicate it to those around us, those who will be affected by it. Before the foundation of the world, God made a plan. We read in Ephesians 1:4, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” God could see that one day sin would enter the perfect world that He had made and He needed to make provision for mankind to be reconciled to Him. And the plan was absolutely amazing. Who would have ever thought that the Creator of the Universe would plan to allow His Son to come to this earth as a human being and end up being crucified on a Roman cross, to redeem the sins that had so blighted the world He had created? God didn’t tell anyone about this part of His plan right at the beginning, but instead revealed that the Messiah would come through His prophets, warning the peoples of their times about what was to come. And their prophetic voices continued with what would happen after the Messiah had returned to Heaven. The Book of Daniel is a fascinating read.

Paul revealed more about God’s “mysterious plan” in Ephesians 3. We read “God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.” (‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭3:10-11‬). God’s plan didn’t end with the coming of Jesus. As mankind embraced His Son, the plan continued with the creation of the Church, to be His Son’s bride, holy, spotless and unblemished, free from sin and wickedness. And at the Time of the End, the Kingdom of God will finally reign supreme. Jesus spoke much about His Kingdom during His time here in Planet Earth. He taught during His short time here on earth that His Kingdom was near. Jesus said in Matthew 24:14, “And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.” Isn’t it both humbling and amazing that pilgrims like us are instrumental in bringing about the end times through our sharing of the Gospel? Through sharing our messages of hope, our testimonies, with our neighbours and friends. In our communities and nations.

But we look around us in our wicked and war-torn world, and wonder if the End Times have already started? Hmmm..

Father God. We thank You that Your plan for mankind is still in process and that You have graciously allowed us time to become part of Your family. Once again I pray that we would have more opportunities to share Your Good News with those around us, giving them the chance of joining Your family as well. In Jesus’ name. Amen.