Prophecies of Hope!
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I did some fun research this past week on some of the world’s worst predictions (prophecies).
King George II said in 1773 that the American colonies had little stomach for revolution.
Telephones will never catch on …
In 1876, William Orton, the president of Western Union, dismissed phones as a “toy” when Alexander Graham Bell offered to sell him the patent for $100,000. According to True West magazine, Orton wrote an internal memo stating: “The idea is idiotic on the face of it. Furthermore, why would any person want to use this ungainly and impractical device when he can send a messenger to the telegraph office and have a clear written message sent to any large city in the United States?”
Electricity will flicker out of fashion…
So said Junius Morgan to his son J.P. Morgan. J.P. had hired Thomas Edison to wire his mansion, making it the first private residence in New York to have electric lighting. Luckily for his bank account, J.P. Morgan didn’t listen to his father and invested heavily in Edison, eventually financing General Electric.
Cars will stop being popular …
In 1903, the president of Michigan Savings Bank warned Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham, to safeguard his money. “The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad,” he advised.
An English astronomy professor said in the early 19th century that air travel at high speed would be impossible because passengers would suffocate.
20th Century Fox mogul Darryl Zanuck dismissed the idea of “idiot boxes” keeping people out of theaters to see his company’s films, including How Green Was My Valley and The Grapes of Wrath. In 1946, he predicted, “Television won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.”
In 1966, Time published an essay called “The Futurists” that looked ahead to life in the year 2000. Here’s one thing they thought would be rejected by humankind: “[R]emote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop—because women like to get out of the house, like to handle the merchandise, like to be able to change their minds,” the essay said.
“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to gain any significant market share. No chance.” That’s what Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, said in 2007.
Thankfully for you and me, when God says He will do something, He does it.
“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
For you and me, this should give us great hope and comfort.
Earlier in the service, I had Logan and Katlyn read from Isaiah 7:14 and Micah 5:2 as they lit the first of the four Advent candles.
Let’s revisit those verses again this morning...
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”
“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.”
Not only do Isaiah and Micah write about “How” Jesus would be born (from a virgin), but they also tell us “Where” He would be born (in Bethlehem).
Isaiah and Micah both lived in the 8th century BC, about 700 years before Jesus' birth.
As we have seen from our silly human predictions of the future, the words of prophecy they wrote would have been impossible unless they came from God.
Let’s start with the 'How' in Isaiah and why it is so important.
Notice the key phrases in this verse.
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
“a virgin will be with child and bear a son” Jesus had to be born of a Virgin, or He would have been born with sinful flesh.
Does that mean Mary was sinless? No! She was born in sin just like you and me.
However, the Bible tells us that the propensity to sin is passed down from the seed of the man, starting with Adam after he sinned with Eve in the Garden.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.
By normal birth between a man and a woman each person is born with the sin nature… However, Jesus was not born by man but by God through Mary.
This means Jesus was not born in sin like you and me. Why does this matter? Jesus had to be sinless, or else His sacrifice on the cross for you and me would have just been that of a good man dying for another and would not have any eternal significance.
who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth;
Jesus was born of a virgin and was born without sin.
Look at what else the prophet Isaiah says about Jesus: “and she will call His name Immanuel.” Immanuel means God with us.
So not only is Jesus born of a virgin and born without sin, but He is truly God!
Throughout His ministry on earth, Jesus confirmed multiple times that He was/is indeed God in human flesh.
Isaiah shows us the "How," and Micah reveals the "Where."
“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.”
Imagine with me if you will the wise men studying the scriptures… perhaps they had already studied the words of the prophet Isaiah predicting the type of birth He would have, but they also read verses on how they would find Him…
“Nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.
“I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, A scepter shall rise from Israel, And shall crush through the forehead of Moab, And tear down all the sons of Sheth.
After seen a theme of a star and light representing this new King they may have come across other verses like,
Let the kings of Tarshish and of the islands bring presents; The kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts.
“A multitude of camels will cover you, The young camels of Midian and Ephah; All those from Sheba will come; They will bring gold and frankincense, And will bear good news of the praises of the Lord.
The last missing item they needed to find this King was found Micah 5:2 but they didn’t see this verse until after they met with Herod in Jerusalem.
When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.
They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:
‘And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, Are by no means least among the leaders of Judah; For out of you shall come forth a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ”
They had the symbol of a star, knew the general direction to go, and understood that the baby was special. In fact, He is God (Immanuel—God with us); they even brought the gifts as prophesied, but now, with the help of the chief priest and scribes pointing them to Micah 5:2, they knew the exact location: Bethlehem.
Micah 5:2, though, gives us much more than just the location of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem; like Isaiah, Micah confirms who Jesus is: He is God!
“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.”
The wise men were seeking a baby born of a virgin, and they found not only Immanuel (God with Us), but also the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. They discovered the creator of all things; in this tiny baby was God Himself.
Jesus would later confirm their findings by making multiple statements declaring Himself as “I Am.”
You might be thinking… okay Ben, thank you for the information, the verses read, and maybe some new insights, but what does all this mean for me?
This is why prophecy is so important and how it inspires hope.
The Scriptures remind us in multiple places that God does not change, He does not lie, and what He says will happen, will happen.
Since this is true and these prophecies have come true, we can also trust that other prophecies that have not yet been revealed will also come true.
This is what gives us Hope!
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
You and I can have hope knowing that our sins are forgiven, as Psalm 103:12 states: “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
We can hope that one day He will return for us. 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17: “16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”
What is great about these verses we read this morning in Isaiah and Micah is that they remind us that… God is truly with us, once in bodily form as Jesus, and now He lives in our hearts. God came to humanity with one purpose… to redeem man from sin… by dying on the cross for our sins.
Interestingly, the location of Bethlehem found in Micah 5:2 was not just some random city chosen by God, but I believe it held a deeper significance than what appears on the surface.
The word Bethlehem in Hebrew literally means “House of Bread."
Jesus tells us He is the bread of life… eternal life is impossible without Him.
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus consistently uses the analogy of bread as His body and identification with Him.
As we prepare to take communion together, take a moment to reflect on the hope we have in Jesus. Not only for what He has already done, but also for what He will do in the future.
Let’s pray
