Friday Night message: The Bible - Past, Present, Future, Part V

May 24, 2024

Good evening brethren…

The title of this current series of Friday Night Messages is The Bible – PAST, PRESENT and
FUTURE.

1. The PAST – The Bible as history
1-A Key to Understanding the present
1-B The Principle of Cause and Effect
1-C Lessons from the Past

From the past, let us now journey all the way into the future, bypassing the present for now
… we’ll come back to it later in the series.

2. The FUTURE – The Bible as prophecy

It seems that many people have a real fascination with the future: the popularity of the Star
Trek TV series (multiple generations), movies like Star Wars, ET, Close Encounters of the
Third Kind. Science Fiction literature is frequently near the top of the best seller’s
lists. And then there’s the considerable part of the populace that follows astrology, or go to
palm readers, or those who have crystal balls, Tarot cards, and the like.

Well, the Bible’s contents is almost 1/3 prophecy, most of which has yet to be fulfilled, so
the Bible is definitely a book about the future.

And in many of these movies, sci-fi books, etc. there are some common themes …. such as
the classic struggle between good and evil, the hope for a better world, and the existence of
something beyond this physical life – an after-life, if you will.

And indeed, God’s word has a lot to say about each of those themes. Each of those
themes could be a full sermon in itself. But what is written in the Bible is not something
that Hollywood dreamed up. Rather, what the scripture reveals about these future things is
REAL, it is the TRUTH.
What then are the purposes of prophecy? Even as Biblical history had value, what can we
gain from Biblical prophecy? For this evening’s consideration, the two principles of
prophecy below. Then next Friday Night a third principle.

• 2-A – A vision of the future

God wants to reveal the future to His servants.

John 15:14-15 – You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call
you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you
friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

We are God’s friends and he wants us to be aware what is going on, and what is going to
happen. True friends don’t keep each other “in the dark”. They like to share their
knowledge and interests and plans with each other. They even share their hopes for the
future, the things that they want to see happen, but haven’t quite yet happened.

Amos. 3:7 – Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the
prophets.

Rev. 1:1 – the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants things
which must shortly take place.to show His servants the things which must shortly come to
pass.

God won’t do anything major, unless He first reveals it to His spokesmen, And this granting
a vision into the future then has a purpose for both the wicked and the righteous ….
Prophecy acts as a warning for the wicked, and as a motivator for the righteous.

• 2-B – A warning to the wicked

The Almighty is always fair in His dealing with people, and He wants to give the sinner a
genuine chance to repent.

Jer. 36:2-3 – Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you
against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you , from
the days of Josiah even to this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the
adversities which I purpose to bring upon them, that everyone may turn from his evil way,
that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.

So, God’s message is oftentimes primarily doom and gloom, but maybe some will take it to
heart and will abandon their evil ways, upon hearing this warning.

God wants to ensure that mankind doesn’t have the excuse to complain to God… “Why
didn’t you warn me? If I had known what was going to happen, then I certainly would have
done something different to avoid such calamity. I would have repented, I would have obeyed,
I would have served You”!.

The examples of people repenting as a result of hearing impending doom from a prophet of
God are conspicuously rare in the pages of the Bible. However, there is a very notable
exception, found in one of the minor prophets. It is, of course, the story of Jonah.

Jon. 3:4-5, 9-10 – And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out
and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! So the people of Nineveh believed
God, proclaimed a fast and put on sack cloth, from the greatest to the least of them… Who can
tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not
perish? Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways; and God
relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.

Although it is not intuitively obvious, an interesting perspective to take on prophecy is …
that it is often more effective and really better accomplishes its purpose when
it fails rather than when it is fulfilled, because it is not God’s desire to see people suffer and
be punished for their sinfulness.

Ezek. 18:31-32 – Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and
get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I
have no pleasure in the death of one who dies, says the Lord God. Therefore turn and live!

God wants to see repentance, not death. So a major purpose of unfulfilled prophecy is
to encourage Godly behavior … to urge evildoers to repent of their wickedness. In a
somewhat similar vein, prophecy can be a motivation for those who already know God and
fear God.

Have a rewarding Sabbath,
Fred