Encouragement and TeachingSample

Prophecies of God’s salvation

Jesus Christ was born, suffered, and died about 2000 years ago. But the first humans were created thousands of years before all this took place. They did not yet know what God’s salvation plans looked like exactly, but God had disclosed parts of it. Throughout the Old Testament, we find prophecies about a Savior sent by God to rescue humanity from sin and to conquer evil for good. These prophecies offered people hope. They knew that God would bring about a solution to their deepest problems.

The first example of such a promise is given right after the first humans disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. God foretold that Satan would be defeated by the offspring of the woman. Later on, this “offspring” is called the Messiah, the Servant of the Lord, the Prince of Peace, and many more names that each reveal some aspect of His true identity.

These prophecies were true and reliable, because they were given by the Holy Spirit. But the people did not always understand them fully, even though they “searched and inquired carefully”. And this is still the case with prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled. We do not fully grasp what will happen in the last days, before Jesus creates the new heavens and the new earth. We don’t have a detailed scenario. But we do know that it will all lead to the fulfillment of “the subsequent glories” that God has planned from eternity.

Do you trust that God will fulfill His promises, even when you don’t understand the details?