December 26: Of Certainty

Zechariah 9:1-17

Revelation 17:1-18

Psalm 145:1-21

Proverbs 30:32

Who doesn't want to know what is going to happen in the future?  People who buy stocks certainly want to know what a stock is going to be worth tomorrow.  They want to buy the ones that go up, and avoid the ones that go down. Because every time there is a buyer, there has to be a seller, that tells you that for every trade, someone is going to be right, and someone is going to be wrong.  Fifty-fifty - that doesn't sound like either side is guaranteed an outcome.  If only there were someplace where the forecasting track record was much better than 50%.

Well actually, there is - and the stakes are much higher than earthly riches.  Zecharaiah 9:9 in today's OT reading is an example of at least 55 Old Testament prophecies that are fulfilled in Jesus, in this case in Matthew 22:2-7.   In fact, according to an article published on The Jesus Project, the chair of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy, Peter Stoner, looked at just 8 specific prophecies about Jesus and, using conservative probabilities of each one being fulfilled, came to the conclusion that the prospect anyone would satisfy all 8 prophecies was just 1 in 10 to the 17th power.  

They put that into perspective.   Ten tickets in a jar, one of them marked, a blindfolded person has a one in ten chance of pulling out the marked one.  This would be like hiding one silver dollar somewhere in the state of Texas, then taking enough silver dollars to cover the entire state two feet deep…and then asking that same blindfolded person to find the right one. 

The point is, for those of us who seek certainty, there is a certainty to Scripture we already know in respect of events that have already come to pass.  But there is so much more to Scripture, so much more that talks about what is yet to come.  And on this, my last blog of the year, I'd like to invite you to join us again next year, to get to know the promises God has made to all of us - promises that are certain to be fulfilled, that are already being fulfilled.  

Let's go on this journey again next year, together.