|
About Jesus Steve Sweetman How
Foolish You Are "Men
will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from the dread
of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty when He rises to shake the
earth". (Isaiah 2:19) My
pastor friend once told me that studying Biblical prophecy makes one more
heavenly minded to be of any earthly good.
By concerning yourself with the future, you neglect the importance
of the present. I believe the
reverse to be true. The more
you understand Biblical prophecy, the terror that ends this age, and our
choice between eternal damnation or eternal salvation, the greater the
burden you have for unsaved family and friends.
Besides, if you ignore Biblical prophecy, you ignore a huge portion
of the Bible. Isaiah
2:19 speaks of a day when fear and dread will inflict the hearts and souls
of mankind. As Saddam Hussein
buried himself in a hole in the ground for fear of the Americans, so
people will literally hide in rocks, in mountains, in caves, and in holes,
to escape the majesty and wrath of the Lord.
Some
750 years or so after Isaiah prophesied this dreadful time, Jesus
prophesied the same period of time. While
on the cross, just moments before He died, He predicted, "they will
say to the mountains, 'Fall on us!' and to the hills, 'cover us!'"
(Luke 23:30) This has to be
one important time in human history if Jesus repeated Isaiah's prophecy,
just minutes, maybe even seconds, before He died. Sixty
plus years after Jesus predicted these future days of terror, the apostle
John saw these unprecedented and horrific events in a vision.
"Then the kings of the earth and the princes, the generals,
the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and
among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and to the
rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne
and from the wrath of the Lamb! For
the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"
(Revelation 6:15-17) If
Isaiah predicted the days to come, and Jesus confirmed this prediction
while on the cross and in a vision He gave to John, shouldn't we take such
predictions seriously? After
His resurrection, and while walking to Emmaus with two prophetically
confused men, Jesus addressed this very issue.
In all kindness, Jesus said to them, "how foolish you are, and
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken". (Luke
24:25) I picture Jesus just
shaking his head in amazement because of the lack of prophetic
understanding these men had. Note
that these men weren't chastised for not knowing the prophecies, but for
not believing the prophecies. If
Jesus thought that not believing prophecies that are known was foolish,
then I suggest He'd think ignoring the same prophecies would be doubly
foolish. As
hard as Biblical prophecy might be to understand, we still need to take it
seriously. "Blessed is
the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who
hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is
near". (Revelation 1:3) I
guess we have a choice; be blessed or be foolish.
|