Then he said to me, "These words are
faithful and true." And the Lord
God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things
which must shortly take place.
Revelation 22:6
Revelation 22:6
Old
Testament prophesy is hard to get a handle on; it is often disjointed, mixing
the first and second comings of Christ in the same chapter and sometimes even
in the same verse. It often gives visions and allegories that aren’t literal, so
the actual meaning is unclear, but after the prophesy is fulfilled, then it can
be understood. These prophets got glimpses of things they didn’t understand, but
preached it or wrote it down, even though they were clueless to its meaning.
They were given the sacred responsibility of conveying God’s word to His
people, so they blindly obeyed out of fear of the Awesome God they served.
Moses,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the others saw images of God that the
rest of humanity wasn’t privileged enough to see. The experience was sometimes
so terrifying that they’d fall to the ground like dead men. In many of these
cases, they were seeing the preincarnate Christ. He is the Lord God of the holy prophets.
Now that
much of the prophesy is fulfilled and the whole cannon of scripture is given,
believers today have a much better understanding of God, His Messiah, His will,
and what is going on in Old Testament prophesy, than even the prophets who wrote it.
Although those seers were very privileged in their day, above all their peers, the
average run of the mill believer who came during or after the life of Jesus of
Nazareth was blessed to a far greater degree. The Lord Himself told His
disciples: “…Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; for I
tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and
have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it"
(Luke 10:23,24).
In the
last chapter of Revelation, the Apostle John is touring the New Jerusalem at
the end of time. All the promises and prophesies that were ever written in
God’s word are now fulfilled and Christ stands before the holy men of God that were used to record scripture. He then reveals Himself to them as the Lord God of the Holy Prophets.
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