How Does Repentance Help Us to Predict the Future?
Good Morning Friends,
Last week I contemplated the prophets in the Bible. And came to realize that for many of them their predictions did not come true in their life time. But then it was never really about them. Consider Jonah. He brought on a storm by failing to obey. Only when he repented did things get better. Only when he realized that prophecy is a continuing process, not a once and done action does he get it. Last week two of my dear friends brought some clarity to the situation of prophecy that has been resonating with me the last few days. One, Paul, shared the thoughts of a Messianic Rabbi named Baruch who taught that the Spirit of Prophecy is the very act of repentance. Another, Malcolm, reminded me that there are two kinds of prophecy. One is fore-telling, the other is forth-telling. The former “fore-tells” future events, the latter “tells-forth” the truth about who we are, to whom we belong, and how we should live. Malcolm reminded me that the Biblical story contains far more of the latter, whilst we humans tend to want more of the former. With those thoughts in mind I ask today’s question. How Does Repentance Help Us to Predict the Future?
Scripture: Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, ‘I called to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, “I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?” The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O Lord my God. As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!’ Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.
Jonah 2:1-10 (NRSV)
So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
2 Peter 1:19-21 (NRSV)
But he answered them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Matthew 12:39 (NRSV)
for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak.
John 12:49 (NRSV)
Message: People without conscious thought make thousands of tiny predictions each day. In fact we are really pretty good at it when it comes to mundane events. Just watch a group of people watching a football game.
Scientists now think that how we go about predicting the near future is a vital key to understanding perception, language processing and learning. Of course if you are in power and control of a situation it is much easier to predict outcomes but that is no guarantee.
We can be wrong especially when our self-will gets in the way of the Holy Spirit. The book The World’s Worst Predictions lists some of history’s all-time prophetic goofs by people in power: King George II said in 1773 that the American colonies had little stomach for revolution. An official of the White Star Line, speaking of the firm’s newly built flagship, the Titanic, launched in 1912, declared that the ship was unsinkable. In 1939 The New York Times said the problem of TV was that people had to glue their eyes to a screen, and that the average American wouldn’t have time for it. An English astronomy professor said in the early 19th century that air travel at high speed would be impossible because passengers would suffocate. This morning as we think about prophecy I am all too aware that we can get it wrong.
Learning from ones mistakes is the focus here. That is why repentance is so very important for our future. In the final analysis becoming in the will of God is how we learn who we really are. Maybe that is why Peter addresses the danger of false prophets. He wants us to understand the plumb line by which we are to measure the words of men…our own words. And this opens a flood gate of questions. Where does prophecy come from? How do we know that prophecy is true? And, what difference does it make to our lives today? I think Peter is telling us that no prophecy of Scripture originates from the minds of men. There is no valid Scripture that comes from anywhere but the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God.
And that brings us to Jonah who had trouble with very issue. Note that it was a prayer offered after his confession… after he had been thrown overboard…after he had been rescued from a watery grave that turns the tide. It is a prayer of thanksgiving in a time of trouble. Here Jonah prayed the Psalms. They teach us of a God of second chances.
They teach us that sometimes God comes up with a future beyond our imagination.
Pray we live our lives today with an understanding of what is ahead. Pray we find truth in repentance and the compassion of second chances and second comings. Pray that though we struggle with repentance we be reminded that all of creation is in God’s hands. Pray we let God be God. Pray we rejoice in the sign of Jonah. Pray we realize that the purpose of God’s judgment is to judge sin and to bring men to repentance. Pray we realize that if we cling to worthless things of the world we forfeit the joy of the Kingdom. Pray we realize that if we are trying to escape our responsibility to do God’s will, we foolishly we will be missing the mark, we will be missing the joy of His Way, we will be Missing Grace. Pray we have the will of the Father. Pray we enjoy this day.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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