a wee look: keeking

In the past few days here in Bulgaria, I have had opportunity to be at rest and to reflect, read and pray. This morning I was able to read through the wonderful section of Isaiah 40 - 66, which is key in both our grasping the early Christian understanding of Jesus and Jesus' own self-identity and, indeed, the message of the 'good news' that he proclaimed.

I think a reading of and reflecting on this 'mini-gospel' in Isaiah should be mandatory for the Bible student; for the person who seeks to grasp what God chooses to reveal to us in His Word and how we are to understand it. Both the prophecies of the Old Testament and the visionary teaching of Jesus and, indeed, the message of the Book of Revelation, are largely defined by what is here presented.

The first thing we are faced with  is what it is that God wants us to understand: that the height of knowledge for us in knowing more of Jesus. And after that? Still more of Jesus. This is why there is no 'keeking' over Jesus' shoulder to see what is really going to happen next in world history. For the answer is: yes, the final word from God for us to grasp is His Word is life in and with Jesus. Every prophecy, every pointer, wherever we look between Genesis and Revelation, takes us to gaze forward from the Old Testament times or backwards from the New Testament or in these present times towards the focus of our Saviour's Cross and Resurrection. The victory and resolution that is found in him and Him alone.

When God touches the lives of men and women, it is like a stone skimming across the water, jumping across the waves before it reaches its terminus. We sense the touch of God taking us forward. And then that taste, that foretaste, always takes us to gaze afresh of the mystery revealed to us through our being drawn to participate more in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Here isthe true understanding of biblical prophecy. When we grasp where it always leads us - and not to spurious timetables and convoluted theories of end-time scenarios - then we truly grasp the deeper meaning and power of its mystery made effective and outworked in our lives now.