God's advance warning

“Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it …” (Revelation 13:7–8, ESV).

There is a fair amount of information in this verse. It speaks of a “beast” who is given authority by a “dragon” and who seems to have had a mortal wound, but whose wound has been healed, and whom the whole earth marvels at and follows. No personage in history to date has arisen who fits this entire description. This event is decidedly future to us.

If you need a good reason for why you should care about prophecy, the above verse in Revelation gives you one. Unless you and I are aware of this particular Spirit-breathed prediction, then if we end up living through that period of time when an evil leader with a wound that appears to have been healed will be “allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them,” we will freak out and will doubt the power or even existence of God. If, on the other hand, we are aware of this forewarning, and if we are on the lookout for it, we will not be unsettled by the apparent victory of the devil’s proxy on earth.

God does not give prophecy to confuse us; He gives it as advance notice, and we ignore it at our peril. Nevertheless, the prophetic portions of the Bible are much ignored, with the excuse that they are “difficult.” But difficult does not mean impossible; we are supposed to work at difficult things. God knows the prophecies need more careful study, and therefore, as an added incentive to not give up, He attaches a special blessing to the reading and study of them:

“Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy …” (Revelation 1:3, ESV).

As an example of the ordinary way in which God’s prophecies are meant to function in our lives, remember how Jesus gave his apostles a heads-up about the betrayal by Judas so that it would not throw them for a loop when it happened:

“I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he” (John 13:19, ESV).

Daniel likewise saw prophecy in this ordinary way when calculating the era he lived in with respect to Jerusalem’s history:

“In the first year of Darius … I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem …” (Daniel 9:1–2, ESV).

You and I tend to assume that old Anna and Simeon were the recipients of special revelation when they expected the appearing of the Messiah at the Temple. But it is just as likely that they and others did the math offered in Daniel 9:24–26.

Jesus’ attitude toward prophecy was that we should use it as a guide to understanding our times, and rebuked those who did not take prophecy seriously:

“When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times” (Matthew 16:2–3, ESV).

“For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared; who will not fear. The Lord GOD has spoken; who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:7–8, ESV)

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