Prophesy - Rise and Fall of Nations
Introduction. The books in the OT were written between 1500 BC and 400 BC. Being hand copied generation after generation, can we be certain they are still accurate? Since Jesus used them and never questioned their authority, Christians must accept His verdict. Not only that, but the Holy Spirit who inspired the apostles to write the NT proclaimed that all Scripture (OT & NT) were inspired and given by His inspiration. If there were any issues with the OT, it would have been pointed out then.
This is the bedrock of all true faith in God. Since God created the heavens and earth in six days and raised Jesus from the dead, it would not be difficult to keep the Scriptures intact. Along with the words of Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the internal evidences that they are Scripture from God. One of the most powerful proofs are the more than 200 prophecies in the OT about the coming Messiah fulfilled by Jesus. With perfect accuracy, they predicted the Messiah’s nation (Israel), tribe (Judah), city of birth (Bethlehem), betrayal (by a friend for 30 pieces of silver), manner of death (hands and feet pierced) and many of other specific details.
What is more amazing than the prophecies is God’s challenge. God affirmed if any single prophecy did not come to pass, the author who wrote it and the entire book he wrote must be cast away as a forgery. This challenge was to those living when the prophecies were spoken, those living when they were fulfilled, and those of us today who can compare the prophecy and fulfillment. Think about the risks involved if our perfect God was not the author!
This shows the author’s confidence and conviction on a grand scale. A single failed prophesy would remove an entire book of the Bible. For example, Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible (Genesis and the Law). If a single prophecy recorded in them did not come to pass, we would be obligated to reject all five books. If that happened, then, like dominos, each book would crash into another until the entire OT lay in a scrap heap. Only God could confidently make such a challenge! If the Bible were written by men, it would be folly to make such a claim.
The ability to see into the future is not an ability God shared with us. When man seeks to predict the future, it can only be a guess. It might be an educated guess, as a weather forecaster using computers, but it is still a guess. Unforeseen factors beyond man’s control make it wrong as often as it is right. Only God can see the future perfectly. Such flawless accuracy in speaking of future events is designed to create awe, reverence and respect for the entire OT. But there is more!
God also gave many specific details about the rise and fall of nations. He told Abraham his children would become a great nation. After being slaves in Egypt, they would return to Canaan and take it as their promised land. After many centuries, they would reject God for idols, be carried off to Babylon and after 70 years return to their land. Although prophecy carried a risk of failure, God with great confidence “calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” (Rom. 4:17-18)
In the book of Daniel, God foretold the rise and fall of four world empires. He did this knowing the risk to Daniel’s book. In Nebuchadnezzer’s dream, the four metals (gold, silver, bronze and iron) of His image were revealed to be four world empires. After Babylon would come the Medo Persia empire and then Greece. While the fourth empire was left unnamed, God promised that in the midst of that fourth kingdom (Rome), the Messiah would come and set up His everlasting kingdom. This proves conclusively that God “rules in the kingdoms of men and gives it to whoever He will.” (Dan. 2; 7-8; 4:17).
The rise and fall of nations is based on God’s righteousness and His longsuffering desire to save as many as possible. When God saw the evil imaginations and the violence of men per Gen. 6, He removed them to restart the human race with a righteous man (Noah). In Gen. 18 when God saw the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, even with Abraham’s pleading, He could not find the 10 righteous needed to save them. As God revealed the future for his offspring to receive the land of Canaan, He told Abraham the decision to remove them as a nation would be based on their sin. “In the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” (Gen 15:16). As God looks into the future He can see exactly when a nation will reach the point where it must be replaced. But ultimately, it is not His decision, it will always be theirs:
We see this in action when God sent Jonah to Nineveh: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” His message: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" Yet after their repentance and fasting, “God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.” (Jon. 1:2; 3:4, 10). With such clear vision into the future, God saw Babylon’s wickedness and fall and the rising of Media and Persia and the name of their first king centuries before it came to pass (Isa. 44:28; 45:1-8).
It is important to know as much as we can about this “evil in My sight” that would lead God to “pluck up, pull down, and destroy.” Sodom and Gomorrah fell because “they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.” (Ezek. 16:50). As Israel prepared to enter Canaan, God revealed two of these abominations that had defiled and polluted the land of Egypt and Canaan leading the land to “vomit out its inhabitants.”
The first abomination is the violation of the sanctity of marriage. When God created Eve and brought her to Adam, they were one flesh (already married). All sexual activity was created exclusively for a man and his wife. When marriage is kept sacred, God’s will is being fulfilled. All sexual acts outside of this marital relationship of the man and woman God joined, He calls an abomination. God listed many forms of fornication that can exist outside of marriage (Lev. 18:1-30). Egypt and the seven nations of Canaan had practiced these things and “by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants.” When a nation gives itself to sexual immorality, it is committing an abomination that God has warned will bring it to an end. Israel was warned that they would receive the same punishment: “lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you.” (Lev. 18:28-29)
God was also deeply concerned with murder. He told Noah and his sons that the lives of men, women, children and unborn infants are sacred because they are in the image of God: “Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.” (Gen. 9:5). He later told Israel when innocent blood is shed there is only one way to remove the pollution: the murderer must be executed. ““you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.” (Num. 35:33). If this blood is not atoned for by the execution of the murderer, the pollution will continue to grow and as the stench of that blood grows, ultimately God will be forced to act against the nation that allows it.
Manasseh was the king who led to the destruction on Judah. In His reign, he “seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel” and he “shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another.” The sexual immorality and murder he brought to Judah led God to say: “I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.” (2Kgs. 21:1-16; 23:26-27).
Conclusion: God gave the prophets the ability to foretell the future. They gave many details of the Messiah and the rise and fall of nations. God wanted to build faith in His people. He also wanted us to know why nations rise and fall. He wanted us to understand that their fall is always based on their own wickedness and evil choices - choices of which if they repented, He could relent of their punishment. All of this to save as many as possible and give them the gift of eternal life.
- All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, (2Tim. 3:16-17)
- no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. (2Pet. 1:20-21)
This is the bedrock of all true faith in God. Since God created the heavens and earth in six days and raised Jesus from the dead, it would not be difficult to keep the Scriptures intact. Along with the words of Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the internal evidences that they are Scripture from God. One of the most powerful proofs are the more than 200 prophecies in the OT about the coming Messiah fulfilled by Jesus. With perfect accuracy, they predicted the Messiah’s nation (Israel), tribe (Judah), city of birth (Bethlehem), betrayal (by a friend for 30 pieces of silver), manner of death (hands and feet pierced) and many of other specific details.
What is more amazing than the prophecies is God’s challenge. God affirmed if any single prophecy did not come to pass, the author who wrote it and the entire book he wrote must be cast away as a forgery. This challenge was to those living when the prophecies were spoken, those living when they were fulfilled, and those of us today who can compare the prophecy and fulfillment. Think about the risks involved if our perfect God was not the author!
- when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. (Deut. 18:22).
This shows the author’s confidence and conviction on a grand scale. A single failed prophesy would remove an entire book of the Bible. For example, Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible (Genesis and the Law). If a single prophecy recorded in them did not come to pass, we would be obligated to reject all five books. If that happened, then, like dominos, each book would crash into another until the entire OT lay in a scrap heap. Only God could confidently make such a challenge! If the Bible were written by men, it would be folly to make such a claim.
The ability to see into the future is not an ability God shared with us. When man seeks to predict the future, it can only be a guess. It might be an educated guess, as a weather forecaster using computers, but it is still a guess. Unforeseen factors beyond man’s control make it wrong as often as it is right. Only God can see the future perfectly. Such flawless accuracy in speaking of future events is designed to create awe, reverence and respect for the entire OT. But there is more!
God also gave many specific details about the rise and fall of nations. He told Abraham his children would become a great nation. After being slaves in Egypt, they would return to Canaan and take it as their promised land. After many centuries, they would reject God for idols, be carried off to Babylon and after 70 years return to their land. Although prophecy carried a risk of failure, God with great confidence “calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” (Rom. 4:17-18)
In the book of Daniel, God foretold the rise and fall of four world empires. He did this knowing the risk to Daniel’s book. In Nebuchadnezzer’s dream, the four metals (gold, silver, bronze and iron) of His image were revealed to be four world empires. After Babylon would come the Medo Persia empire and then Greece. While the fourth empire was left unnamed, God promised that in the midst of that fourth kingdom (Rome), the Messiah would come and set up His everlasting kingdom. This proves conclusively that God “rules in the kingdoms of men and gives it to whoever He will.” (Dan. 2; 7-8; 4:17).
The rise and fall of nations is based on God’s righteousness and His longsuffering desire to save as many as possible. When God saw the evil imaginations and the violence of men per Gen. 6, He removed them to restart the human race with a righteous man (Noah). In Gen. 18 when God saw the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, even with Abraham’s pleading, He could not find the 10 righteous needed to save them. As God revealed the future for his offspring to receive the land of Canaan, He told Abraham the decision to remove them as a nation would be based on their sin. “In the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” (Gen 15:16). As God looks into the future He can see exactly when a nation will reach the point where it must be replaced. But ultimately, it is not His decision, it will always be theirs:
- “Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! 7 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, 8 if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. 9 And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 10 if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.” (Jer. 18:1-10).
We see this in action when God sent Jonah to Nineveh: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” His message: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" Yet after their repentance and fasting, “God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.” (Jon. 1:2; 3:4, 10). With such clear vision into the future, God saw Babylon’s wickedness and fall and the rising of Media and Persia and the name of their first king centuries before it came to pass (Isa. 44:28; 45:1-8).
It is important to know as much as we can about this “evil in My sight” that would lead God to “pluck up, pull down, and destroy.” Sodom and Gomorrah fell because “they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.” (Ezek. 16:50). As Israel prepared to enter Canaan, God revealed two of these abominations that had defiled and polluted the land of Egypt and Canaan leading the land to “vomit out its inhabitants.”
The first abomination is the violation of the sanctity of marriage. When God created Eve and brought her to Adam, they were one flesh (already married). All sexual activity was created exclusively for a man and his wife. When marriage is kept sacred, God’s will is being fulfilled. All sexual acts outside of this marital relationship of the man and woman God joined, He calls an abomination. God listed many forms of fornication that can exist outside of marriage (Lev. 18:1-30). Egypt and the seven nations of Canaan had practiced these things and “by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants.” When a nation gives itself to sexual immorality, it is committing an abomination that God has warned will bring it to an end. Israel was warned that they would receive the same punishment: “lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you.” (Lev. 18:28-29)
God was also deeply concerned with murder. He told Noah and his sons that the lives of men, women, children and unborn infants are sacred because they are in the image of God: “Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.” (Gen. 9:5). He later told Israel when innocent blood is shed there is only one way to remove the pollution: the murderer must be executed. ““you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.” (Num. 35:33). If this blood is not atoned for by the execution of the murderer, the pollution will continue to grow and as the stench of that blood grows, ultimately God will be forced to act against the nation that allows it.
Manasseh was the king who led to the destruction on Judah. In His reign, he “seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel” and he “shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another.” The sexual immorality and murder he brought to Judah led God to say: “I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.” (2Kgs. 21:1-16; 23:26-27).
Conclusion: God gave the prophets the ability to foretell the future. They gave many details of the Messiah and the rise and fall of nations. God wanted to build faith in His people. He also wanted us to know why nations rise and fall. He wanted us to understand that their fall is always based on their own wickedness and evil choices - choices of which if they repented, He could relent of their punishment. All of this to save as many as possible and give them the gift of eternal life.
- And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 so that they should seek God, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; (Acts 17:26-28).