Prophetic Fulfillment
We should use fulfilled prophecy
as a powerful means to demonstrate
that the message of the Bible
is true and trustworthy.
Here's Gene:
In this section of Jeremiah,
we have a number of prophecies
regarding certain nations.
And the fact is that the great majority
of these prophecies came true
within that timeframe that
Jeremiah was prophesying.
Let's take a look at these rather quickly
because they're very significant.
We have prophecies against Egypt.
We read in 46:2:
About Egypt and the army
of Pharaoh Neco, Egypt's king.
Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt.
There was a prophecy against Egypt
that Nebuchadnezzar is going to destroy them.
And by the way, that's why Jeremiah,
you remember, told the remnant
that stayed in Jerusalem and in that area
not to go down to Egypt.
And they rejected Jeremiah's
words from the Lord.
And ultimately, they went down to Egypt
and they were destroyed.
So it was a prophecy against Egypt.
Also, we have a prophesy against the Philistines:
This is the word of the Lord
that came to Jeremiah the prophet
about the Philistines.
And you see Philistia.
And again, we see the
judgment came on the Philistines.
Thirdly, we read about Moab:
This is what the Lord of Hosts,
the God of Israel, says.
Chapter 48, verse 1 and there you have Moab.
And the interesting thing is that
Moab was a nation that came
from the loins of actually
the daughter and her father Lot
when he committed that immorality
after they left Sodom and Gomorrah.
And remember Ruth was a Moabite.
They were idolaters.
And of course, Ruth then left her religion,
her idolatry, and became a follower
of the one true God.
We also have a prophecy:
About the Ammonites,
this is what the Lord says.
And there you have the
region of Ammon.
And interestingly, this was the
second daughter that committed
immorality with her father Lot.
And out of that relationship
came the Ammonites.
And the Ammonites also
were idolaters and God judged them.
We have a prophecy:
About Edom, this is what the Lord says.
And here is Edom.
Edom comes from Esau.
And you remember Jacob,
as much of a rascal as he was,
his brother Esau was worse.
And from him came the land of Edom.
And ultimately, God's judgment fell on Edom.
And then you have Damascus.
Interestingly, because that city
is so prominent in history within Syria.
And there was judgment on Damascus.
There's also Kedar and Hazor
which is in the Arabic region.
Judgment came on them.
And then finally in this list, we go all the way
east to Elam, which is basically
the land of the Persians
or what we call today Iran.
So these are judgments. And I said
most of these judgments,
these prophecies, came true.
There were some unfulfillment
that project into the future
that will be probably fulfilled.
But if all these details were fulfilled,
you can be sure that all prophecy
will eventually be fulfilled.
It's an amazing situation.
Prophecy.
Let's take Daniel.
Daniael--amazing story of this man.
Chapter 8 in the book of Daniel.
And he wrote in the 6th century BC.
And there are details in chapter 8 of Daniel
regarding the future. Medo-Persia--
which would come after Daniel.
Greece. And the details are incredible.
So much so that skeptic says
Daniel could never, ever have
prophesied that and written it down.
It's amazing.
But what happened when they
discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls?
You see, the Dead Sea Scrolls,
which were discovered in 1947--
beginning the process. Part of Daniel,
was found there.
And in the book of Daniel, in those scrolls,
which takes us back a thousand years
beyond the manuscripts that were
present at that time. A thousand years back.
And you have verification
that this was prophecy.
And here's an amazing statement
from Wayne Jackson
about Daniel's prophecy:
No single writer has related
so many circumstances in such exact
order of time as Daniel foretold them.
He even in prophecy is more perfect
than any single historical account--
Greek, Roman or Jewish.
In other words, when you look at
human historical documents,
they are not as precise as Daniel.
Why?
Because he spoke from the Word of God.
He spoke from revelation of God--prophecy.
And so let's remember that God
is the source of all true prophecy.
We read about this in 2nd Peter
when he wrote:
First of all, you should know this:
No prophecy of Scripture
comes from one's own interpretation,
because no prophecy ever came
by the will of man;
instead, men spoke from God
as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
About 25 percent of the whole Bible
they say is prophecy.
And about half of those prophecies
have all come true.
And we can be assured,
the rest will come true.
So here's a question for
Reflection and Response:
In what creative ways can we use
prophecy appropriately
to communicate to people
that the Bible is the Word of God?
And as I was reflecting on that, just recently
I read a story of another Daniel.
I don't know if that's his real name
but is his name is Dan.
And he was a young man
that was born in Israel.
Grew up in a Jewish family
but not a practicing Jewish family.
But he met a Christian girl
in school there in Israel.
And he met her dad.
And this man who is a seminary graduate
began to talk with Dan about prophecy.
And Dan would come over to his house
about once a week and they would argue.
He would argue.
The Christian man didn't argue.
But he would argue.
Dan would argue against the Scriptures.
Against Jesus Christ as being the Messiah.
But this man kept sharing prophecies.
And here I'm just going to
read a report on that.
The man's name was Noam.
And Noam led Dan through the
Old Testament to show him Jesus.
And while rereading the book of Zechariah,
Dan reached a turning point.
Zechariah 12:10 speaks of a time
when Jerusalem will be surrounded
and God will pour out His Spirit
of grace and supplication.
And the passage also says that:
then they will look on whom
they have pierced.
Old Testament.
The text of Zechariah had sentimental value
for Dan because he read it for his ar mitzvah.
The text became more significant as he
worked through it again with Noam.
The Hebrew was very clear.
God was pierced by His own people.
Dan went to several Jewish commentators
but none could offer any help.
Where else had this happened
in history except with Jesus Christ?
The text of Zechariah was
the tipping point for Dan.
But it was clear that Jesus
was everywhere in his Hebrew Bible.
And he became a believer.
And now, preparing for the ministry
as a believer to lead others to Christ--
his fellow Jews.
You know it's amazing,
when you think about Jesus.
And I was just simply reflecting
on some of the prophecies regarding Jesus
and I covered some of these
in Principle 36 in the book of John.
But there we have prophecies regarding
the place of Jesus's birth which came true--Bethlehem.
Herod's massacre is predicted. It happened.
John the Baptist. It happened.
These are all the Old Testament.
Riding on a donkey coming into Jerusalem.
It happened.
The resurrection.
And here's one: The prophecy
regarding 30 pieces of silver.
If you know anything about probability,
just take the fact there's a prediction
it would be 30 pieces. 30 pieces.
And it would be silver.
And it came true.
I mean, that point in itself,
the probabilities of that happening
by chance are beyond comprehension.
His body would be pierced.
His garments would be distributed.
These all were predictions in the
Old Testament just regarding Jesus Christ.
And I've just shared eight.
And there many more.
The probability as someone said is
one chance in 100 million billion
that these eight prophecies
could come true by chance.
There are many more.
So here's the Principle that
grows from this passage:
We should use fulfilled prophecy
as a powerful means to demonstrate
that the message of the Bible
is true and trustworthy.