Scripture: Look! They are preparing a great banquet! They load the tables with food; they pull up their chairs to eat. . . . Quick, quick, grab your shields and prepare for battle! You are being attacked! Isaiah 21:5
Observation: Verse 1 of chapter 21 says this is a prophesy about Babylon, and goes on about how it will be attacked and fall at the hands of the Medes. Verse 5 explicitly calls out that this will happen during a feast ... while the people are having a great banquet, they will be attacked by surprise and fall.
We know from the book of Daniel, and from historical fact, that this is exactly what happened. During a feast - the exact feast in fact where the king has used the sacred items from the temple and the hand of God writes on the wall that the king will die that very night - the Medes and Persians sneak into the city and overthrow Babylon in a single night.
In the course of nine verses, Isaiah recounts the exact event that will occur ~30-50 years in the future, including details that are impossible to know, involving the fall of a nation that has not in fact even risen yet, at the hands of a people who are not at war with them, and the resulting return of exiles who ... aren't even in exile.
Application: The Lord's words to his prophets are amazing in their reliability. I have learned that I should not fight against them, and yet in some cases I do not fully trust them.
Here is the discerning issue ... are the words spoken by others around me truly prophesy, or are they human extrapolations of actions based on prophesy, or are they simply personal hopes?
What I do know is that I am not a person given such prophesy, and thus my own thoughts are much more likely in the category of personal hopes. I can serve for an outcome. May I be shown the goals.
Prayer: My Lord and my God, you are great in your knowledge, wisdom, and authority. What will come to pass you know, and what you speak comes to pass. Help me to cooperate with others in your work, and please guide us all to understand the true purpose and objective of your will, today and in al the days to come. Amen.
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