Michel Nostradamus was a 16th-century physician and astrologer. Many people today say that he was a prophet, even a psychic. He made predictions about the future, but not like you would expect. He didn’t use Tarot cards or palm-reading or crystal balls, he wrote quatrains – four-line verses. To the people in his day, the verses appeared to be a bunch of non-sense, but people today say that they were actually predictions of the future. The verses were muddled and obscure before the predicted event, but became crystal clear after the event occurred. Here are two of the predictions he made:
The year 1999 seven months / From the sky will come the great King of Terror / To resuscitate the great king of the Mongols / Before and After Mars reigns by good luck.
Sounds like nonsense to us, but his followers say this was a prediction about John F Kennedy’s plane crash in July of 1999. Here’s another one and this one’s kind of freaky:
In the year of the new century and nine months / from the sky will come the great king of terror / they sky will burn at forty-five degrees / fire approaches the great new city / in the city of York there will be a great collapse / two twin brothers torn apart by chaos / while the fortress falls the great leader will succumb / third big war will begin when the big city is burning…
This is supposedly Nostradamus’ prediction of 9/11. If it is, it’s kind of weird. But, it’s been confirmed that this one was a hoax. Whether it was a hoax or not, Nostradamus has been hailed as one who knows the future.
Sometimes I wish I could know my future. The Bible tells us that God has a plan for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans for a hope and a future. That’s great, but why’s it such a mystery? Can’t I just see what’s going to happen this year or next year? Can’t I just have a little peak? Unfortunately, the answer is “No.”
We’ll never know what our future holds until we get there. But, what we do know about the future is that it’s coming. And, knowing that the future is coming, we can begin to plan for it. Are you planning for your future? What are you doing? Are you stuck in this mode of wondering what’s after college or your career? Has your future even crossed your mind? Do you have a five-year or ten-year plan mapped out? How are you planning for your future?
Your future is coming and you need to have a plan for it. And, I can tell you, not to be a downer, that chances are your future isn’t going to be easy. I’ve lived long enough and have heard enough life stories to confidently say that most people never predicted how difficult their lives would be. I have a friend who got married four years ago, but last year his wife told him she didn’t love him and never did. He couldn’t predict that. I have another friend who married the man of her dreams, but he cheated on her. She couldn’t have predicted that. And another friend has had treatment for cancer twice now and he’s only thirty-two. He never could have predicted that. There are twists and turns in life that you will never be able to predict, but you can plan for them. You can take steps now to plan for your future and that’s we will spend the next several weeks studying the tactics of the great biblical leader, Nehemiah. Next week we will look at the first thing Nehemiah does to plan for his future.
1 comment:
Dear Jeremiah,
I enjoyed this entry! (Even though it was kind of sobering.) Made me think of the first chapter of the Steve Farrar book I gave you for graduation, which told the story of several pastors whose futures looked bright, but they turned out to be not so bright after all. Thanks for keeping up with your blog, I'm looking forward to the Nehemiah stuff.
Did you know that they recently discovered remnants of Nehemiah's wall in Jerusalem, and a seal of a family name that is mentioned in the Biblical accounts connected with the wall? If I can figure out a way to attach the article I'm thinking of to this entry, I will: otherwise I'll send it via e-mail. It was a neat article, in that it confirmed that we can trust the Bible to be true even in the smallest details.
Hey--there it is below! I did it! :-) Hope you get something out of it, and I'll be looking for your Nehemiah entries.
Your friend, JimP.
First Temple Seal Found in Jerusalem
A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.
The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name "Temech" engraved on it, was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation underway just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig.
According to the Book of Nehemiah, members of the Temech family were servants of the First Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BC. The family was among those who later returned to Jerusalem, the Bible recounts.
A crescent moon, the symbol of the chief Babylonian god Sin, appears on the top of the altar shown on the seal. Under this scene are three Hebrew letters spelling Temech, Mazar said. The fact that this cultic scene relates to the Babylonian chief god seems not to have disturbed the Jews who used it on their own seal, she added.
The Bible refers to the Temech family: "These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one unto his city." [Nehemiah 7:6]... "The Nethinim [7:46]"... The children of Temech." [7:55].
The seal of one of the members of the Temech family was discovered just dozens of meters away from the Opel area, where the servants of the Temple, or "Nethinim," lived in the time of Nehemiah, Mazar said.
"The seal of the Temech family gives us a direct connection between archeology and the biblical sources, and serves as physical evidence of a family mentioned in the Bible," she said. "One cannot help being astonished by the credibility of the biblical source as seen by the archaeological find."
The archeologist, who rose to international prominence for her recent excavation that may have uncovered King David's palace, most recently uncovered remnants of the wall described in the book of Nehemiah.
Post a Comment