My dear readers,

Seeing the hand of God in Your Life!

Revelation 1:3 “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”

Predictive prophecies in the Bible are more than revelation of future events. When God reveals a prophecy to His people it is meant to help them know Him better. The phrase that keeps repeating itself when miracles occur (cf. Exodus 6:7) and predictive prophecies were given is “And ye shall know that I am the LORD”! 

Ezekiel 13:9 "And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.” Ezekiel 13:14 "So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered morter, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” Ezekiel 13:21 “Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” [Emphases added] These are some of the Bible passages where the above phrase appears. 

Ezekiel with 10,000 Jews were brought into Babylon in the second captivity of Judah before her final destruction in 586 B.C. While Ezekiel was in captivity in Babylon the LORD continued to reveal Himself to His people. The reason stated by God Himself when these predictive prophecies were given was so that when Israel saw the fulfilment of these prophecies they would know that it was the LORD’s doing. It was not because Nebuchadnezzar was more powerful than Judah or that the gods of the Babylonians were stronger than the God of Judah but that the LORD gave Judah over to the Babylonians. The reason for the captivity was that Judah refused to repent of her idolatrous way of life even after many decades of repeated warnings from the prophets of God. To remain in idolatry and continue to call herself the people of God was a very great transgression before the LORD. In addition they reduced the LORD to a mere idol and stubbornly held on to idols and continued persecuting the prophets of God whom God sent to warn them to clean house or else they would face destruction. Judah refused to repent even after they witnessed what the LORD did to her northern brother Israel when she was destroyed by the LORD in 722 B.C. Such failures and stiff necked refusal would result in the LORD sending an outsider like Nebuchadnezzar to clean the idols out of the Land of Promise! When Judah’s house was dirtied by idols and idol worshippers the LORD had to forcibly remove these hateful objects and sinners from His holy sight. 

The world was dying in sin without Christ. Judah was to be the spiritual light for Christ to point the world to Him to be saved. But when Judah held on to idolatry despite the repeated decades of warning from the LORD through His faithful and fearless servants, the prophets, the LORD was left with the ultimate choice of sending Israel and Judah into exile. Even while Judah was in exile, the LORD continued to reach out to His people, preparing them and the next generation to return and rebuild their holy witness for Christ in the Promised Land. That was one of the key reasons the LORD revealed His prophecies to His people even when they were already living in captivity! 

Seeing the hand of God in their lives would strengthen their faith and help them resolve to obey the LORD and live for Him even in captivity! God’s people were not to take God out of the equation of their lives. The moment they did so they would forget the LORD and live in sin and carnality! Many of them would blame an external source for their lifeless faith in Christ so that they would not admit to their lives of carnality and reveal to their own soul that they have sinned against the LORD. Running away and hiding behind another through blame worthiness is the death nail to one's own soul. 

For without admission of guilt there is no beginning of repentance and restoration of their walk with the LORD!  For every child of God that ought not to be his desire. The continuous prompting of the Holy Spirit in every believer’s heart that is in sin will never stop until the sin is repented of. The longer he stubbornly refuses to admit guilt and repent of his sin, the more his conscience will prick him. This pricking of conscience will continue and increase in intensity till it reaches to vexation of spirit, the way Lot felt daily when he refused to get out of Sodom because of his love of money. It ruined his testimony and life and his children and wife became the casualties of his stubborn refusal to repent and return to the Lord.

The book of Revelation is the only Book in the Bible where the LORD specifically states that the one who reads it will be blessed even though every child of God knows that all sixty books of the Bible when read and obeyed will bring great blessings! The specialty in the Book of Revelation is that it reveals to all God's children the signs of the last days and their final home in the new heaven and new earth! It is a Book about the doings of God and when these prophecies will be fulfilled, i.e. become a reality. His children will be able to see clearly the hand of God in these earthly events even when these events are catastrophic and give the appearance that evil and evil men are victorious over the causes of God and God’s children will be totally defeated. These were some of the prophecies that the LORD gave to Ezekiel before the Temple’s and Jerusalem’s final destruction and the Jews were sent into exile in Babylon and the remaining Jews devastated and overwhelmed by shame and death. 

The people of God must see the hand of God in such times of great calamities more than in times of great plenty! Times of sorrow, pain and inner turmoil and darkness that will cover every facet of the believer’s life, and hopelessness prevailing, the ability to see the hand of God, the LORD had already prophesied that these will occur. Their spirit would be lifted and the bright light of God’s hope and ultimate victory over all His foes and sin will energise them to hold tightly to their faith and keep on trusting in the Lord even when everything and everyone around them seem to have given up hope. They will hold on to the end. 

The Book of Revelation reveals the last days events before this world ends and the evil one will be given his day in the sun to rule the world. Evil will manifest itself in ways that the world has never seen before that would cover the face of this earth. When this happens God’s people must see the hand of their God and hold on to Christ to the every end.

Yours faithfully in the Saviour’s Service

Rev Dr Quek Suan Yew, Pastor