Now, dear reader, let’s turn the dials in our imaginary time machine again. Set your watch back yet another 700-odd years – and discover how we can go forward from there!

This takes us to the time ancient Rome was founded and the first Olympic Games got under way in ancient Greece.  Also, Assyria was poised to conquer the Middle East and become a mighty regional power.

A Hebrew prophet and student of geopolitics, Isaiah, could see conflict approaching and, sure enough, the northern kingdom of Israel, Samaria, fell to Assyria in 721BC. A couple of decades earlier, Isaiah had a profound vision of the glory of The Holy Lord of Heavenly Hosts within His temple (see 6th chapter of The Book of Isaiah).

Not only did Isaiah thus come to hear the Lord and learn of His heart and mind for his own time, but he was also given a revelation into the far distant future of the life and personality of Jesus Christ. This is recorded in the 53rd chapter of the Book of Isaiah within the Bible’s Old Testament.  Prior to that, the Lord Most High had told him:

“For I am God and there is no other, I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand and I shall do all My pleasure’…” (Isaiah 46:9-10 NKJV)

In my humble opinion, therein lies the key to foretelling the future.  We’re privileged to learn what Almighty God has decided is to happen. He shared his plans with a select number of ancient sages, or prophets, over a long period that started 29 centuries ago and several centuries before Christ.  Amidst extensive instructions He told the prophet Isaiah:

In fact, some years before Isaiah the first of the ‘writing prophets’ had received a distinct word about God’s intention to divulge His plans. This is recorded in Amos’ scroll at the seventh verse of the third chapter (in modern notation):

“Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.” (NKJV)

Now, allow me to divulge the inspiration behind this posting:

During an online visit one Sunday afternoon to a live service at Church of His Presence in Mobile, Alabama (mid-morning there), we were thrilled by Reverend John Kilpatrick’s sermon entitled ‘Foreshadows’.  To watch this, play the video below and, as gray buffer bar progresses, click to advance to 52 minutes for start of John’s revelatory homily:.

John Kilpatrick speaks in a novel way of the parable of the good Samaritan, saying it’s only one of several passages for which the Lord’s given him fresh insights. They can all be regarded as ‘foreshadowing the future’ and he attests to his scriptural authority for that conclusion as being Isaiah 46 verses 9-10, as above.  What amazed me, however, was that upon opening my old, well-annotated paperback NIV Insight Bible, I saw those very verses already highlighted in bright yellow because I’d previously marked them!   W O W !!

I had to conclude, therefore, those above verses are especially appropriate for this blog.

Now, let’s return to the future and set or watches forward well over 2600 years to 14th September 1989 at Reading in Berkshire, England for a personal date with destiny.