God tells us a bit about Himself in Isaiah 46:9-10 which we need to understand as we begin “…I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all My purpose.’”
All of creation and time belongs to God. He did not give it to us to be owners; He only asked us to be caretakers of His creation (Genesis 1:28-31 and 1 Corinthians 10:26).
But the interesting thing in the Isaiah verses is that God says He is telling us things, from the very beginning, which will be true at the end. This is called prophecy. Please note, He does not say He tells us everything. There are some things which are secret because we would not be able to understand or live with certain information. For example, if you knew today that you would die tomorrow in a car accident, you would be sad and angry. You would probably make certain to NOT be anywhere near a car tomorrow because you do not want to die. You would want desperately to change God’s plan. Yet, it might be that in your death many people would come to know Jesus. And if you were to live instead, all these people would not accept Him and therefore would go to hell for eternity.
Even Jesus, when He was here on earth, said there were some things from God He also did not know (see Mark 13:32-37).
There are also mysteries named in the Bible which were not revealed for a while but are revealed at a later time. One of the greatest of these mysteries is the Church. All through the Old Testament, God worked with the people of Israel. Yet, He left clues to this mystery in many places, as early as telling Abraham that all the people of the earth would be blessed through him (Genesis 12:3 and Galatians 3:8). We can read a greater detail of this mystery being revealed in Ephesians 3:1-13.
I encourage you, therefore, wherever you find the word “mystery” in the Bible to highlight it and study further on this subject. It is something Jesus wants you to know, but it will be given to you only through diligent study, and your determination to understand it from God’s point of view.
Prayer: Our Lord God, we come to You humbly today to ask Your revelation to our hearts of the things You want us to know. You have said in 1 John 3:3 You want this information to purify us, purity of desire and ambition and purpose for our lives here on earth. It is also a purity of focus on You and all the things You desire to complete through us before the time is gone. We freely give ourselves to You for Your will to be done through us each moment of this day.
Prophecies Given and Already Fulfille
How do we know that prophecies we are reading about the end times will be fulfilled? All we need to do is look at the Bible and history to see how God’s prophecies have been fulfilled in the past. We will study two specific prophecies here as examples of many more fitting the same pattern of being fulfilled.
First, we look at the prophecy God gave to Daniel in 2:31-45. This is sometimes called Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream. The king dreamed of a huge statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, stomach and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron mixed with clay. God gave the interpretation of this dream to Daniel – a kind of world history of great conquerors. Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold, and the Medo-Persian empire would be the chest and arms of silver. In Isaiah 45:1, over 300 years before it happened, God told Isaiah the name of the king – Cyrus – who would be instrumental in returning the Jewish people from their captivity in Babylon. We can all read history to see how the Greek and Roman empires became the third and fourth great conquerors of the world, and many of the details of these two conquerors are also given as prophecy by God.
We find a restatement of these conquerors given in Daniel chapter 7, with some additional details which were also fulfilled in every detail.
Second, we look briefly at a picture-prophecy God gave in the Tabernacle He designed for the people of Israel – Exodus 2 – and the High Priestly role He commanded for Aaron – Exodus 26. While this space is far too small to give all the details, here are some of the ways this building was a prophetic picture of Jesus Christ:
– One entrance – Jesus is the only way (John 14:6).
– Bronze altar and fixtures – bronze speaks of judgment; Revelation 1:5 shows Jesus with feet of bronze).
– Silver for the foundations – this silver was received as “redemption” payments the people paid for every male (Exodus 30:11-15) – Jesus paid the price of our eternal redemption.
– Curtains of fine linen – linen is a picture of righteousness (Revelation 19:8).
– Colors used in the Tabernacle: purple (Jesus is King of Kings – Matthew); red (Jesus’ blood); white (Jesus’ perfect life); blue (Jesus’ eternal home).
– Porpoise skin as the outer layer for the Tabernacle – this was the source of shoes, and there would have been no more available in the desert, so this becomes a picture of Jesus providing for all our needs.
We continue with the order of furniture in the Tabernacle:
– Bronze altar – Jesus’ sacrifice.
– Laver – keeping our hands and feet (our life) clean from sin.
– Candelabra – Jesus is the light of the world, and also calls us the light of the world (Matthew 5:14).
– Table of Showbread – fellowship with other believers in Jesus, the Bread of Life (John 6:22-40).
– Altar of Incense – prayer.
– Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat – Jesus gave His life, His blood, so we can come before God.
Prayer: Father, help us to see the wonderful pictures of Jesus you have given us throughout the Bible and all the prophecies You have given for us to understand. Amen.
Posted: from Hiswordseries.com
