TODAYS BIBLE READING:
 

Not everyone has this same interest in prophecy. What is so important about prophecy besides verifying Biblical history? It isn't over yet. As we find ourselves in uncertain times we can look to this same book, written over 1400 years from the time of Moses and ending with the writings of John the Apostle, for prophecies which have yet to be fulfilled. But with a record of being 100% accurate, we can look to future events, such as the Rapture, the coming of Antichrist, the future one world government, the second coming of Jesus, etc, as not possibilities, but as definite future events. We may not know the exact times and dates, but we can be sure of their occurrences either during our lifetime or in the future. These truths should comfort us, not frighten us as we place our trust in a God who is in complete control and moving things along according to His timetable, not ours and not others.

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At a quick glance, the beginning of one of the most amazing prophecies could easily be missed from today's reading. We read in Nehemiah 2:1, "And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes,..." So we have a date. Nehemiah tells the king in 2:3, "Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies in waste, and it's gates are burned with fire." Nehemiah makes a request to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls of the city and we read in 2:6, that the king agreed and sent him. If we turn to Daniel 9:25, we see why this date is so important, "Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;...". Daniel wrote this prophecy over 500 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. These weeks mentioned are weeks of years (7 years). The beginning of this prophecy is when Nehemiah is told to restore the walls. If we take the 483 years given by the 69 weeks mentioned above , we get 173,880 days using the 360 day calendar which was in use at the time. If you do the math, accounting for no year "0", incorporating leap years and using our modern 365 day Gregorian calendar, we arrive on the exact date of Palm Sunday, when Jesus was openly declared Messiah. It is on this same Palm Sunday road, that the day prophesied by the Psalmist came true in Psalm 118:24-26, and the people all shouted, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!". It was on this same road that the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9, that, "Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey." Daniel's seventy-weeks prophecy goes on in Daniel 9:26, "And after sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;...", describing that our Messiah would be killed but for us, not for Himself.

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This amazing prophecy described in razor sharp accuracy the Palm Sunday road entry and His death for our salvation. This is why the entirety of Scripture is so important, there are no portions which are irrelevant. Some will state that they already believe, they don't need any more proof. That's great, but we are living now in very uncertain times. The Bible is not just to convince us of history, it is to reassure us about our future. We have nothing to fear, because we follow and serve a God who already has it all planned out. Revelation was written, not to frighten people, but to calm them down unveiling the future, to let God's people know that He will ultimately win and so will those of us who are on His side. Those who have not yet made a decision to accept Jesus' offer of salvation and enter into a relationship with Him, please do so now. We read in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, "Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,". It is not that these events might happen, they will happen. People within the church might differ on timing, etc., but God's Word is infallible and will come to pass. This should comfort all of us and cause peace in times of seeming chaos.