Clearly there is a present application for the prophecy in
the life of the king. That a virgin will
give birth is a prophecy we cite with regard to Jesus' birth but here the
virgin refers to someone else. This prophecy,
in context, is given to indicate that soon and very soon the enemies will
fall. A young woman will give birth to a
son who will know good and evil and choose the good and while this one is yet
young, Ahaz' enemies will no longer pose any threat at all. There will soon be a time when prosperity and
peace will reign in the land. The New
Testament writers see the fulfillment of this prophecy in Jesus' birth to the
virgin Mary. The nations who oppose her
indeed failed to carry out their intentions against Jerusalem and yet the
promised time of peace and prosperity failed to materialize. With prophecy we have to be careful to
understand and appreciate the horizons. John
the Baptist, for instance, saw Messiah coming and yet what he saw was judgment and
Jesus stated He had not come to judge. Was
John wrong? No, there were two prophetic horizons and the prophet failed to
discern the difference, like we do when we drive and see mountains at a
distance and they appear to be back-to-back when in reality there are many
miles between them. Seeing the valleys
in between is important too.
When Jesus says, "I tell you that from now on I will
not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes", the
disciples clearly take that to mean that the kingdom will soon come. They weren't prepared for what actually came
next, His arrest, trial and crucifixion.
They immediately began thinking about which of them was going to be the
greatest when Jesus came into that kingdom.
Who could blame them after Palm Sunday and the acclaim with which He had
been greeted in the city? Everything pointed
to this being the moment when Passover would be completely fulfilled and they
would again triumph over a foreign power and be restored to the glorious promise
of the Land. They missed the valley
between Jesus receiving the kingdom and the kingdom being established. The book of the Revelation tells us that
indeed these men sit on thrones in the kingdom but for now we don't see it with
our eyes.
While Paul has written a good bit to the Thessalonians about
the end times and it has seemingly been an issue there in ways it doesn't seem
to be in other places Paul established churches, what is more important is how
to live in the valley between Jesus' ascension and the establishment of His
kingdom on earth. They have been saved
but now they are called to stand firm and hold to what they have been
taught. We have eternal hope and good
comfort in Jesus but we still have to live here and glorify Him as He came to
make known and glorify the Father. We live
in the valley and we need to keep our eyes fixed on the mountain while we wait
for His coming in glory.
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