By Song Tao

When it comes to Bible prophecies, the majority of us Christians all want to understand their implied meaning. In particular, we want even more to have a clear knowledge and understanding of the prophecies regarding the Lord’s return because it concerns whether or not we will be able to welcome the Lord’s coming. Then how should we deal with Bible prophecies in accordance with God’s will? After a period of seeking, I finally understand how to correctly approach Bible prophecies.

Reading the Scriptures Got Me to Reflect

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be on His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, on the throne of David, and on His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from now on even for ever. The zeal of the Jehovah of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6–7).

“But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall He come forth to Me that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2).

Every time I read these prophecies, I always thought: The earliest Pharisees often studied these prophecies and they, based on their literal meaning, believed that the One who was to come would certainly be called Messiah, that He would be born in a royal palace with a magnificent appearance, and would be imposing and mighty with a kingly style, and that He would be a great warrior who could lead them to drive the invaders oppressing them out of Israel and would enable them to live a peaceful and happy life upon the earth.

However, the facts completely exceeded their imaginations. When the Lord came, He wasn’t called Messiah but Jesus; He wasn’t born into a royal palace but into a carpenter’s family; He wasn’t so transcendent and extraordinary as they had imagined, but instead He looked ordinary and normal; furthermore, He didn’t come to power on the throne, much less lead them in the overthrow of Roman government, but He instead taught people to be tolerant and patient, to love their enemies and forgive others seventy times seven times, and so on. In the Pharisees’ eyes, the fulfillment of the Bible prophecies wasn’t at all linked to the work the Lord Jesus did. But in fact, all the prophecies concerning the Messiah’s coming had been fulfilled and the Lord Jesus was the Messiah. It seems that, if we only interpret the prophecies in a literal way and aren’t able to receive their meaning purely, it will be difficult for us to welcome God’s appearance and work. Then, how should we treat Bible prophecies in accordance with God’s will?

How to Deal With Bible Prophecies in Accordance With God’s Will

Later on, by chance, I knew of a Christian sister. Her fellowship about the Bible was fresh and enlightening and was a great help to me. So, I told her about my confusion.

After hearing what I said, the sister said, “Speaking of Bible prophecies, we all know that they prophesy what will happen in the future, that they are very obscure and that no one knows what they truly mean before they are fulfilled. As the Scripture says: ‘Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit’ (2 Peter 1:20–21). From this we can see that the prophecy is the words spoken in accordance with the original will of God as the speakers were moved by the Holy Spirit, and that the prophecy directly comes from the Holy Spirit and isn’t what we humans can understand. No matter how profound people’s understanding of Bible prophecies is, it can’t represent God’s will. Only God Himself can reveal His prophecies and mysteries, while man will never be able to fathom them. For example, the prophet Jeremiah once prophesied, ‘In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not’ (Matthew 2:18). If we understand this prophecy relying on our own will, we can only interpret it like this: All the children of Rachel had passed away, so she was weeping bitterly. In reality, however, the words refer to King Herod slaughtering baby boys because of the Lord Jesus’ birth. To give another example. The Old Testament once foretold the coming of Elijah, but no one at that time knew John the Baptist was exactly the coming Elijah. Not until the Lord Jesus revealed the mystery did people come to a sudden realization. Therefore, the correct attitude toward Bible prophecies is that of seeking and waiting and we absolutely must not use the literal meaning of the prophecies to imagine and guess God’s work; otherwise, even if the prophecies have really been fulfilled, we will deny it because in our eyes it is at odds with the literal meaning of the verses. The consequences of that are unthinkable. Just like the Pharisees at the time, they stubbornly clung to the literal meaning of the Bible prophecies and stubbornly believed that what they clung to was right; as a result, they did their utmost to deny, condemn and oppose the Lord Jesus and in the end, they nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross and severely offended God’s disposition.”

Hearing this, I came to understand that the prophecies from God are really so profound and so unfathomable, and that we are incapable of imagining them with our brains. So, when it comes to prophecies, we must be cautious because once we rely on our own personal meaning to explain them and interpret the text literally, we will inevitably make the same mistake that the Pharisees did in defining and opposing God. Just as the Bible says, “For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6).

Source From: Our Daily Devotionals
 

Read more on our Bible Prophecies page. 

If you want to know more about the mysteries about the second coming of Jesus, click on our Second Coming page.