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WHAT ABOUT PROPHECY? PART #1

WHAT ABOUT PROPHECY? PART #1. What Were Prophets and What Is Prophecy?. PROPHETS ?. Prophets were not fortune tellers that read a crystal ball. They were simply someone who spoke a message from God. They did not just report on what God thought, they actually spoke the very words of God.

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WHAT ABOUT PROPHECY? PART #1

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  1. WHAT ABOUT PROPHECY?PART #1 What Were Prophets and What Is Prophecy?

  2. PROPHETS? • Prophets were not fortune tellers that read a crystal ball. • They were simply someone who spoke a message from God. They did not just report on what God thought, they actually spoke the very words of God. • Sometimes this could be a blessing and sometimes this was a warning.

  3. PROPHECY? • The message given by a Prophet is called Prophecy.

  4. 1ST PROPHET • MOSES • Moses is the 1st writing prophet mentioned in Scripture, and the one who established the criteria for being accepted as a prophet.

  5. Deuteronomy 18:17-22And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or  who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

  6. Thus Prophets were never wrong. • The penalty for a prophets false testimony was death. • Also, the words of the prophet were to be obeyed as God’s own words.

  7. There are other occasions in the Bible, where prophecy takes the form of future events that are so far ahead of there fulfillment that it could not have possibly been intended to authenticate the prophet during his lifetime. They still must come true if the prophet is a true prophet. • God uses these prophecies to reveal Himself as a faithful God who keeps His promises and in whom we can place our trust.

  8. In prophecy we see God designing and ordering history using seemingly unconnected acts of people disconnected by time and purpose.

  9. Examples of Prophecy Fulfilled in the Old Testament • Given the advantage of hindsight and the advances of archaeology, we should be able to take a look at some of the predictive prophecies and test the accuracy of their fulfillment – if they were fulfilled at all. • There are several books and resources available from people who have taken up this task. We will look at a few.

  10. THE CITY OF TYRE • Ezekiel 26:3-14 3 therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. • 4 They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers, and I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock. • 5 She shall be in the midst of the sea a place for the spreading of nets, for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. And she shall become plunder for the nations, • 6 and her daughters on the mainland shall be killed by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord. • 7 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, and with horsemen and a host of many soldiers.

  11. 8 He will kill with the sword your daughters on the mainland. He will set up a siege wall against you and throw up a mound against you, and raise a roof of shields against you. • 9 He will direct the shock of his battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers. • 10 His horses will be so many that their dust will cover you. Your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen and wagons and chariots, when he enters your gates as men enter a city that has been breached. • 11 With the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets. He will kill your people with the sword, and your mighty pillars will fall to the ground. • 12 They will plunder your riches and loot your merchandise. They will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses. Your stones and timber and soil they will cast into the midst of the waters.

  12. 13 And I will stop the music of your songs, and the sound of your lyres shall be heard no more. • 14 I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for the spreading of nets. You shall never be rebuilt, for I am the Lord; I have spoken, declares the Lord God. • Ezekiel 26:21 21 I will bring you to a dreadful end, and you shall be no more. Though you be sought for, you will never be found again, declares the Lord God.”

  13. TYRE • Tyre in the time of Ezekiel existed in two parts, one on the coast of the mainland (what is modern day Lebanon) and the other on an island about a half a mile from shore. • In 585 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, was on a campaign to conquer the region. Other cities such as Jerusalem and Sidon had already fallen, but Tyre pit up a valiant fight.

  14. The resistance of the people of Tyre was so great that Nebuchadnezzar had to lay siege to the city, the siege lasted for 13 years before the city fell. When the Babylonian soldiers entered the city they found most of the treasures and wealth were missing, it seems they had been smuggled out to the island city. • 7 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, and with horsemen and a host of many soldiers. 8 He will kill with the sword your daughters on the mainland. He will set up a siege wall against you and throw up a mound against you, and raise a roof of shields against you.

  15. After Ezekiel’s death • In 322 BC, long after Ezekiel’s death, Alexander the Great undertook the task of defeating the island city of Tyre. He decided to take the city not by sea but by linking the island with the mainland. It seems he was inspired by the huge amount of debris of the old city that was still lying where they had fell.

  16. 4 They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers, and I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock. • 12 They will plunder your riches and loot your merchandise. They will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses. Your stones and timber and soil they will cast into the midst of the waters.

  17. The clearing of the debris created a flat place that fishermen still use today to dry their nets. Fulfilling verse 14. • 14 I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for the spreading of nets. You shall never be rebuilt, for I am the Lord; I have spoken, declares the Lord God. • Following Alexander's conquest, it fell to Antigonus in 314 BC and to the Muslims in 1291 AD. Fulfilling verse 3 • 3 therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves.

  18. Though today there is a tiny fishing village on the spot of ancient Tyre, the great city has never been rebuilt. Fulfilling the prophecy of the second half of verse 14. • 14 I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for the spreading of nets. You shall never be rebuilt, for I am the Lord; I have spoken, declares the Lord God.

  19. 1 IN 75,000,000 • Mathematician and astronomer Peter Stoner calculated the odds of all these prophecies being fulfilled as 1 in 75,000,000

  20. THE KINGDOM OF EDOM • Jeremiah 49:17-18 “Edom shall become a horror. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters. 18 As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities were overthrown, says the Lord, no man shall dwell there, no man shall sojourn in her.

  21. ALEXANDER THE GREAT • Daniel 11:2-4 “And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. 3 Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. 4 And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these.

  22. Daniel wrote his prophecy in Persia 200 years before the birth of Alexander the great in 356 BC. • Alexander took the throne at the age of 20 and immediately embarked on a campaign to conquer Persia in retaliation for an attempted invasion by King Xerxes over a century earlier.

  23. After his sudden death in 323 BC, his empire was divided among his generals, not his heirs. The kingdom was separated into 4 different kingdoms. Fulfilling verse 4 • 4 And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these.

  24. NEXT TIME WE WILL DEAL WITH THE PROPHECIES THAT ARE CONCERNED WITH JESUS

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