Tidings for Tuesday

But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel, for they are at hand to come. Ezekiel 36:6

One of the most used bookmarks in my browser is the one for the weather office; I like to check daily to see what the forecast is for the coming week, and if the weather is bad, I will check it more frequently and more deeply. They hire smart people at the weather office, and they have excellent equipment for predicting the weather. But even with all their smarts and their tools, they get it wrong frequently. And they are rarely right when they predict the weather six or seven days ahead. Forecasting the weather is hard to do, it seems. So is predicting economic conditions a few months from now, but many of the banks and financial companies make the attempt. They are usually wrong. And that’s just a few months, forget about anything but pure fiction if they tried to guess what will happen a few years from now. So, if those things are so hard to predict, why is the Bible so accurate in its forecasts for future events?

We know, of course, that the One Who holds the future can easily unveil it in His Word. Prophecy in Scripture is always accurate, although we sometimes have difficulty figuring out the time frame. That’s what the difficulty is with today’s text. God, Who promises a blessing to Israel, is waiting to fulfil that promise to its fullest extent, although we can see signs of God moving in that direction now. Our text speaks of Israel returning, and Israel has. But Israel has not yet accepted her King, and her glory will not return until she does.

Israel’s position today is of particular interest to Christians. What God has done so far is exciting, because God’s blessing for Israel is on a timeline that has a direct bearing on us. Despite Israel’s occupation of their ancient homeland, much has to happen before the King returns and is received. And one of those great events, the greatest as far as we are concerned, is the Rapture. God’s program for His earthly people will proceed only so far until the Rapture occurs. Although we can’t tell, we may be already at or near the point at which the Rapture will trigger the next move in Israel’s chronicle. Our exciting future is about to be unveiled, or so it appears.

God’s timing is perfect, but we don’t have the ability to grasp it. When He moves, we will be part of an amazing transformation that we can not even imagine. But we can be ready, working, waiting, watching for our Lord to come for us.  -Jim MacIntosh