Despite some of the error that modern science tries to promulgate as truth (such that our universe by itself arose from “absolutely nothing” or that all life on earth arose by chance from simple chemicals), science has nonetheless given us some astonishing insights into God’s creative power. The harmony, the balance, the precision of many aspects of the natural world, even in its fallen state, continue to astound those who study them.
And if God can be so precise with physical things, He certainly would be precise with spiritual things, as well. Hence, in the opening verses of Deuteronomy, we can see more of God’s incredible precision.
Read Deuteronomy 1:1-6. What is the prophetic significance of the fact that Deuteronomy 1:3 talks about the “fortieth year”?
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After the fiasco, when Moses sent spies from Kadesh Barnea to check out the land, and the people rejected the call to take the land — what happened? They were told that they would not enter into the Promised Land as they had hoped. And for how long would they wait before entering? “According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection” (Numbers 14:34).
Hence, Deuteronomy takes up the story of God’s people in the fortieth year, exactly as God had told them. In other words, God’s prophetic Word is as trustworthy as God Himself, and what we see here in the opening verses of Deuteronomy is more evidence of that trustworthiness; that is, God will do what He says and will do it when He says that He will do it.
Of course, this isn’t the only prophetic time period that was fulfilled as God had said. Looking back from our vantage point today, we can find in Daniel 9:24-27, for instance, the time period for Jesus, fulfilled just as the Lord had said. We can see that the “time and times and half a time” (Daniel 7:25; see also Revelation 12:6, Revelation 12:14; Revelation 13:5) has been fulfilled in history, as well as the 2,300 days of Daniel 8:14.
And besides the precise time elements, the prophecies of Daniel 2, 7, 8, which so precisely and accurately predicted world history, have given us overwhelming evidence of God’s foreknowledge, control, and trustworthiness.
| We can see that the Lord faithfully fulfilled these past prophecies just as predicted. Why should this give us confidence that we can trust Him on the things He said would come that are yet in the future? |
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