“When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey His voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that He swore to them. For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of” (
Ein Gedi Nature Trail
Conventional wisdom encourages me to look forward, freeing me from the past and always considering the new. Mankind is evolving, I’m told. Science is advancing; products and life are improving. Even the good news associated with God’s return to walk the earth is proclaimed in the New Testament. What is it, then, Lord that causes me to keep glancing back?
I know I’m not to live in the past, but that doesn’t mean I can’t learn from it or that I shouldn’t study its purpose. Your Word references time after time when You, Jesus, spoke scriptural history into the hearts of Your listeners.
Church of The Annunciation
You alluded to the writings of Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel and many of the other prophets in order to reveal Yourself as Messiah. When You warned Your disciples of the tribulation to come, suggesting a reference in Isaiah; we as believers are compelled to trust in that passage. When You, Savior, said, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings,” referencing Hosea, we willingly acknowledge You and strive to follow Your example of mercy and grace.
So if you gave Your blessing to these verses from the Tenackh as truth, what does that say of the entire writings of those same prophets? You, God of all wisdom, wouldn’t pick one piece of fruit from a tree without blessing the whole crop. You said Yourself, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.”
Genesaret: Abraham’s Tent
Am I to assume from Your endorsement of the prophets that all they had to say is truth? If one verse of one prophet’s pen is validated by You, Jesus, doesn’t that mean all the words of that prophet must be taken as truth? Can I separate one from the other?
So when You tell us to participate in specific feasts and festivals and use the word forever, am I to take that lightly or dismiss You? When You command me to love my neighbor as myself in Deuteronomy, does that suggest I love them only when convenient to my purposes and only under the conditions I interpret to be necessary?
Source of the Jordan River
You, the Logos who created all things on this planet and beyond, once went to Jerusalem on the Sukkot (Feast of Booths, Feast of Tabernacles) and proclaimed Yourself to be the Source of Living Water. Because of Your reference to Zechariah, many on that day realized You to be the Messiah. Do I acknowledge the same? Is my faith rooted in scriptural prophecy? What does that mean regarding the truth of the rest of those messengers?
I don’t know why it has taken me so long to connect the dots relating to Your Word, but now it makes sense: You, Jesus, had no hidden agenda—Your message concerning the prophecies and Scripture is clear and precise: Buy into all of it or be a part of none of it.
I was taught in Boy Scouts, Lord, that to find the freshest (untainted, unpolluted) water to follow a river or stream to get as close as possible to its original source. Apparently the Boy Scouts learned that from You, and I need to remember You as Creator made no mistake in creating truth. Forgive me for my past denials of Your truth and the Scripture that illuminates it.
In regard to the future, Master…If this Reverse Scriptural Reasoning applies to things that have happened, shouldn’t those biblical verses pointing to times present and beyond also be taken seriously? What does that imply of Isaiah’s words: “On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven in heaven and the kings of the earth on the earth…” …or when he explains: “Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks; foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers; but you shall be called the priests of the Lord; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast.”
Am I to respond to Zachariah’s edict: “Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. If any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.”
Samaria
Adonai, maybe I’m not evolving. Perhaps the world is not improving, but is the same as it has always been. Maybe You, El Shaddai, have been consistent and steady down to the least jot and tittle. If these things are true, then what else can be true? Who is it who must be willing to change in order to honor this truth…You or me?
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: Look to the Rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug” (
Bitcho bo (Trust in Him)