168 - Response to Prophecy [B]

Response to Prophecy. Rev. 8:1

There are several reasons in Scripture for why God has revealed certain aspects of the future to us and they don't have anything to do with satisfying our curiosity or stimulating our interest in terms of trying to figure out where we are on some prophetic timetable, or what time it is in some prophecy stopwatch countdown. There are various things that we can learn from studying prophecy about how we should be responding to the truths that we are studying. Revelation 8:1 is one of those verses that give us a clue as to the kind of response that we should have.

Chapter seven focuses on what happens within the same time frame as the initial seal judgments. Chapters eight and nine focus on what happens on the earth in the next series of judgments. So when the seventh seal is opened it reveals seven more judgments, identified as the trumpet judgments.

Revelation 8:1 ^NASB "When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour." What this shows us is the heavenly response to the prophetic revelation that occurs at this particular time. This indicates one of the responses we should have to prophecy. It is believed that this silence in heaven that we see at this time is related to several passages in the Old Testament that relate to this time period, the most specific of which is found in Zephaniah 1:7 ^NASB "Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near, For the LORD has prepared a sacrifice, He has consecrated His guests." That term "day of the Lord" is a technical term that is sued in the Old Testament to refer to a time of divine judgment. When we come to various prophetic passages the term "day of the Lord" can have a broader and a narrower meaning. Here it has the narrower meaning which is descriptive of those final judgments that occur at the end of the Tribulation period. But before that period occurs there is a time of silence that precedes those end-time judgments, culminating in the campaign of Armageddon. This terminology from Zephaniah 1:7 focuses our attention on that final period at the end of the Tribulation. This silence precedes that as the judgment intensifies in the trumpet judgments and the vial judgments, everything focusing on preparing for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the seven-year period.

Psalm 76:8 ^NASB "You caused judgment to be heard from heaven; The earth feared and was still." This tells us that this silence related to judgment is a pattern that we see in Scripture, for Psalm 76 focuses back on God's deliverance of the Jews from the slavery in Egypt. [9] "When God arose to judgment, To save all the humble of the earth. Selah." Judgment from God should produce in us an attitude, a mentality of fear as we realise that there is accountability. There is a time for everyone in the future where we will have that report card from God. For believers there is a different aspect to that report card for the basis of our performance as believers is related to the rewards at the judgment seat of Christ, and that relates to our future in the Millennial kingdom, our future destiny to rule and reign with the Lord Jesus Christ as kings and priests, a royal priesthood during the Millennial period. For those who have never trusted Christ as saviour the issue that is going to be presented at the great white throne judgment whether they have the righteousness God requires to come into heaven. God evaluates them on the basis of their works. Their works are not adequate to measure up to that perfect righteous standard that God requires to come into heaven. These have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son (John 3:18) and therefore they do not have the righteousness of God; they have a relative righteousness based on human works and they are spiritually dead still, dead in their trespasses and sins, and there is no entry for them into heaven. Judgment should cause the believer to stop and think, because even though our destiny is secured in heaven there are dimensions to God's judgment that are truly awful (in the sense of awe-full) or inspiring, and we should be brought to a standstill, almost stopped dead in our tracks, as we contemplate that which God must do in order to carry out His judgment of sin to fulfil His own character. As we study this judgment we should be reminded that this is necessary because of the horror of sin, because of the devastating consequences of sin in personal lives in history and in the way in which it affected all of God's creation.

Another passages that reflects upon this is Habakkuk 2:20 ^NASB "But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him." So we see that one of the responses that we should have to prophecy is that of silence, that of reflection, that of realisation of the seriousness, the significance of God's judgment. Many people, though, have a problem with prophecy. They think that this has to do with satisfying people's curiosity, doing newspaper exegesis trying to figure out how close we are to the end times, with all the people trying perhaps for some sort of wor4ld solution to the collapse of the markets, problems in international economics, etc. This is the kind of scenario (not saying it is) that will transpire prior to the Tribulation as there is international crisis that propels people to seek a one-world leader who can solve their problems—the economic problems, the political problems—and bring peace upon the earth. But we don't study prophecy for that reason.

When we ask the question, Why study prophecy? we ought to be aware of a couple of statistics. First of all, 28 per cent of the Bible was prophetic when it was revealed—more than pone quarter of the verses of Scripture were unfulfilled prophecy when they were initially given. Fifteen per cent of the Bible is still unfulfilled prophecy. So we have to have an understanding of these to be able to truly understand and interpret the rest of Scripture. Eighteen per cent of the New Testament, almost one out of every five verses, is unfulfilled prophecy. So to understand almost 20 per cent of the New Testament we have to have an understanding of God's prophetic plan. One in twelve verses in the New Testament refers to the second coming of Jesus Christ. One in ten verses in the epistles refers to the second coming of Jesus Christ. Sixty per cent of the verses in the New Testament are affected in terms of their interpretation by eschatology in order to be properly understood. So prophecy is an extremely important area of theology to be aware of and to study because of its impact on the rest of Scripture.

Prophecy is given to us to remind us of God's character. As it focuses on God's character it then works itself out in terms of God's plan and purpose for His creation. It reminds us of His sovereignty, that God is the one who is the ultimate ruler in history. Kingdoms will rise and kingdoms will fall, empires will rise and fall, nations will rise and fall, ultimately at the determination of God. This is seen especially in the prophecies in the book of Daniel in the Old Testament.

The second thing we are reminded of is God's faithfulness. As Daniel writes his prophecies he is no longer in Jerusalem, in the promised land that God had given to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob;  he is virtually a captive. He and his friends have preserved themselves by standing firm for the Word of God. The prophecies given to Daniel were given in order to comfort and encourage the Jews, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that while they are out of the land God is going to be faithful to His promises and will eventually bring them back to the land.

Prophecy also emphasises God's righteousness and justice, for in the prophecies there is a focal point on God's ultimate judgment of sin and evil, and for the rebellion of Hid creatures against Him, both angelic and human. But in these judgments there is still the emphasis on grace, and in prophecy we are reminded of God's love and goodness, and we are reminded of His grace. So for us as believers we are to study prophecy because it motivates us to prepare for eternity. We are living today in light of eternity. What we will be in eternity is determined by the decisions that we make today. So this specifically challenges us to get our priorities straight, to make the study and application of God's Word the highest priority in our life. This also emphasises that it is through the study of prophecy that our confidence in the Scripture and in the Lord is strengthened.

There are several responses given to prophecy in the Word of God, and these responses are not responses related to people who are just interested about what God is going to do in the future or what is going to happen in their future. In the book of Daniel we see a number of different responses. The first was in the dream that was given to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter two. Nebuchadnezzar was deeply troubled. Eventually Daniel came forward and because of his relationship with God, God revealed to Daniel the meaning of the dream and the meaning had to do with the destiny of the kingdom of Babylon as well as the gentile kingdoms. But notice Nebuchadnezzar's response, Daniel 2:46 ^NASB "Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel, and gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant incense." At this time we see an initial response of Nebuchadnezzar to prophecy where he is relieved but not yet really impressed by God. His curiosity has been somewhat satiated but he has not real change, which the Bible refers to as repentance. His basic problem has not changed, he is still rather arrogant.

What we see is that he is like a lot of unbelievers when they hear anything about Christianity or the Bible they may be somewhat impressed, become a little bit curious, but it is only a superficial level, it never impacts the way they think, they never decide to trust God, it is just a very superficial response. Unfortunately, after salvation, there are a lot of believers who are like that. They are saved, they know they are going to go to heaven, they are glad they are going to go to heaven, but they don't have any deep response to anything else in the Word of God. So their lives are often no different from unbelievers. They know that the Bible is true but unfortunately they let the details of life crowd out their spiritual priorities. Before long they just sort of let their relationship with God float completely to the back burner in their life and they never develop any kind of real change.

The seven letters of Revelation were written to the church and each of the letters was the divine report card for these churches. The Lord was saying: "You need pay attention your strengths and weaknesses here," and then He would say: "Repent." The idea was they needed to change, i.e. Now that you know what is good and what is bad you need to change, and then there is a reward for the one who is the overcomer, to one who continues to persevere in spiritual growth and application, and the one who actually changes. The response to the Word of God is such is that it changes the way they think and the way they live. Otherwise they are left in the trap of arrogance, which is what we see in Nebuchadnezzar. He is a perfect depiction of one who has mastered the arrogance skills.

Arrogance begins with self-absorption, being focused on self. We come out of the womb like that, we are totally consumed with our own needs and getting them fulfilled. Self-absorption leads to being self-indulgent. Because we have this need we want to indulge in it. Then we justify it: it's right; it's good. We figure out all kinds of rationales to justify our self-absorption. This leads to self-deception; we begin to generate false views of reality that ultimately allow us to justify all of our self-absorption and self-indulgence. Ultimately this leads to self-deification. All of this is described in Romans chapter one but it is displayed in an incredible way by Nebuchadnezzar. In Daniel chapter three he is going to construct this enormous statue of himself and he is going to demand on penalty of death that everyone in his kingdom bow down and worship this idol of himself—the ultimate in self-deification. So we see that he has had no real change, no response at all for what God revealed to him in the vision of Daniel chapter two, and so he goes on to expressing his own self-deification.

The penalty for not worshipping this statue was death, death in a fiery furnace, and there were three who did not submit. Daniel apparently was not in the country at the time for he is not mentioned at all in the chapter, and so these three friends of his refused to bow down and worship the idol and God miraculously preserved the three men. When Nebuchadnezzar looked into the fire he saw four personages and said that the fourth was like the Son of God. So again he has been impressed with the revelation of God and he has a slightly more intense response. He is impressed now but no so that he changes.

Daniel 3:28 ^NASB "Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, 'Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king's command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God. [29] Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses reduced to a rubbish heap, inasmuch as there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way'."  He is so impressed that he is going to legislate that everybody needs to treat their God with honour, but notice it is "their God."

In chapter four there is another dream, and this dream relates to what God is going to do personally to Nebuchadnezzar because of his arrogance. For a period of seven years God disciplined and judged Nebuchadnezzar so that he became insane. He was completely psychotic and at the end of the seven years God gave him back his right mind. At the conclusion of that event Nebuchadnezzar praises God and expresses his praise in terms of his own personal salvation. So prophecy is also given for the purpose of evangelism. Daniel 4:37 ^NASB "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride"—his personal testimony.

A fourth response to prophecy is seen in the fifth chapter of Daniel. This is the opposite response to what Nebuchadnezzar gave and that is a complete rejection of God coming out of pure arrogance. This is seen in Nebuchadnezzar's great, great grandson Belshazzar who was co-regent with his father Nabonitus. This is the situation of the handwriting on the wall. Daniel 5:5 ^NASB "Suddenly the fingers of a man's hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing… [25] Now this is the inscription that was written out: 'MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.'" MENE refers to that which is numbered; TEKEL indicates something that is weighed out; UPHARSIN indicates something that is divided. The interpretation of the meaning is then given by Daniel. Daniel has been ignored by Belshazzar. He knows all the stories about Nebuchadnezzar, he knows about Daniel and has heard it all but he has completely rejected God. He doesn't have anything to do with the truth or with God's Word, he is completely hostile to the truth and so now God is going to judge him. He is scared to death when he sees this, and this is one response to prophecy.

Daniel tells him that MENE MENE means that his number is up; TEKEL means you don't measure up; PEREZ (upharsin)means that your kingdom is divided, you will be divided up. What was Belshazzar's response? It was a lot like Nebuchadnezzar's the first time. He is going to honour Daniel and dress him up but he has no interest in believing what Daniel says. Belshazzar is not going to change in response to God's Word, he is going to keep on doing what he wants to do. This shows us that there are many people who seem to have an external positive response toward Christianity but they really don't have anything to do with it.

There are two other responses that we see in Daniel and both of them are seen in Daniel himself. After the vision in chapter seven, which again relates to this progression of kingdoms, and it is all over with and Daniel has seen how things are going the culminate in history, the coming of the son of man, His destruction of the kingdoms of man and the establishment of His own kingdom, he writes in v. 28 ^NASB "At this point the revelation ended. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming me and my face grew pale, but I kept the matter to myself." The word translated "alarming" is the word that indicates to be frightened, to be terrified. He is not terrified for himself but as he sees and understands and comes to grips with what God is going to do to bring sin and evil to its final culmination and judgment it is extremely sobering. It is frightening to realise how horrible sin is and the horrible consequences of evil, and what must be done in order to bring that to ultimate judgment. Daniel's response is that he is profoundly disturbed as he realise what God must do to judge sin and evil. This same word that is translated "alarming" is also expressed in Daniel 4:19. When he understood the dream for Nebuchadnezzar he was also appalled, frightened and alarmed. 

In Daniel chapter eight is another expression of his response. Daniel was exhausted and sick for days. Probably none of us have read the book of Revelation and walked away sick for days because we really understood the depths and horrors of what God's judgments would bring. Sometimes we think much like the martyrs expressed it in their prayers and Revelation 6, that we pray that God would finally bring this judgment on earth, but then to come face to face with what that means what happens in Revelation 8:1, there is silence in heaven.

One other thing that happens as a result of prophecy is that we as believers are strengthened and encouraged spiritually. When Daniel sees the prophecy in Daniel chapter ten that is expressed in Daniel chapter eleven an angel appears to him, and in 10:18 ^NASB "Then {this} one with human appearance touched me again and strengthened me. [19] He said, 'O man of high esteem, do not be afraid. Peace be with you; take courage and be courageous!' Now as soon as he spoke to me, I received strength and said, 'May my lord speak, for you have strengthened me'." What we see in this passages is several words that all reflect the same Hebrew word—strengthened, to be courageous. These indicate in some passages to be strengthened and in other passages it has the idea of courage (physical or moral or spiritual). It is the same idea as in the promise that we frequently claim in Philippians 4:13 ^NASB "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." Actually, the verb there should be translated, "I am strengthened to do all things through Christ who empowers me." That word "empower" is the same word we find in Ephesians 6:10, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might." It is the Lord who gives us the power to be strong in the midst of difficult circumstances, whatever those circumstances may be. It is through the Word of God that Daniel is strengthened and empowered, and that is one of the impacts of prophecy. It reminds us that no matter how chaotic our world may be, that when we face possible international collapse of world markets, when we are faced with political despair, whatever the circumstances may be, it is God's Word that strengthens and empowers us to be able to face and handle any of those circumstances. When we understand God's plan for history, and that prophetic plan that helps us to understand God's plan and purpose for our lives, it enables us to focus on what we are doing today. To understand that that there is a plan and a purpose, even though we may not understand all of the details, it does give us that ability to focus, that ability to recognise that there is a plan and a purpose, and that no matter how tumultuous, how chaotic things may appear in our lives right now, we can claim those promises and understand those prophetic principles, and it gives us stability in the midst of crisis.

As we look at what is going on in our world today—and we can go through some horrendous crises—it is only believers who have answers, who are going to be able to look at whatever happens, whatever the circumstances may be, and who are going to be able to relax and to have joy in the midst of these crises, because of trust in the Lord and the principles they understand from God's Word.

Illustrations