Sundayword BY PROSPER TINGINI
Divine revelations foretelling what is to happen are normally referred to as prophecy in religious circles.
It is also common in the dark world of sorcerers to have soothsayers making predictions that would come to fulfilment.
Augury is the term normally used to describe this dark side’s oracle prophecies. God forbids us from associating with such people of hoodoo prophecy.
Prophets are messengers of God that carry messages from the Almighty to the intended recipients. Let me touch on a biblical story of accurate prophecy by a little known prophet during King David’s time. His name was Nathan.
Most of us are familiar with the story of Bathsheba, David’s married lover-turned-wife, whose first husband Uriah was set up by David to be killed at the battle front. After the shameful act, Nathan carried a message from God to David.
11 Samuel 12:11-14 reads: “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbour, and he shall sleep with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun’.” Furthermore, Nathan said to David: “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child that is born (out of the sinful act) shall die.”
The two things foretold came to pass. First, the child that Uriah’s wife Bathsheba bore to David died (11 Samuel 12:15-22).
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Secondly, Absalom, David’s own son, rebelled against his own father and David had to briefly flee from his son to save his own life. During David’s exiled period, Absalom took that opportunity to sleep with all the wives his father had left behind, in fulfilment of Nathan’s prophecy.
11 Samuel 16:21-22 reads: “Ahith’ophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines, whom he has left to keep the house; and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself a stench to your father, and the hands of all whose are with you will be strengthened.” So they pitched a tent upon the roof for Absalom, and he went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.” Word for word in accuracy, the prophecy had come to pass.
Solomon was the first surviving son of the union between David and Bathsheba. He became the wisest and wealthiest king of that time.
Like his father David, he also had a weakness for women. 1 King 11:3-4 reads: “Solomon had 700 wives, princesses and 300 concubines; and his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.”
Verses 11-12 carries God’s anger and the consequences for Solomon’s actions. He spoke directly to Solomon: “Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away the entire kingdom; but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”
Indeed God’s prophetic words to Solomon came to pass. During the reign of David and Solomon, Israel was a united nation with great wealth.
Most of the land was held in the distinct hands of the 12 tribes born of the patriarch Jacob.
Jeroboam, a servant of Solomon, had initially revolted against the king and fled to Egypt.
After Solomon’s death he returned to conquer Israel. Rehoho’am, Solomon’s son, saved the total annihilation of all the lands of the 12 tribes of Israel by retaining only a portion of it, ie, the land held by the tribe of Judah (1 Kings, chapters 11-15).
To this day, only that land of Judah remains as the bulk of the Israeli land to this day, in fulfilment of God’s own foretold words and as a consequence of the disobedience of King Solomon.
There are many other major prophecies that came to pass in our scriptures, too numerous to mention. One astounding prophecy of God was that of the destruction of both Jerusalem and the “Great Temple of God” that Solomon had built for the Lord.
Despite its massive structures and impenetrable walls, the Jerusalem Temple was considered indestructible. However, God the Father had warned and foretold its total destruction if the people of Israel were to turn aside from serving the Lord. Soon after its completion the Lord our God appeared to Solomon and forewarned (in part): “But if you turn aside from following me, you and your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and the house which I have consecrated for my name (temple) I will cast out of my sight; and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And this house (temple) will become a heap of ruins; everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss; and they will say, ‘why has the Lord thus done this to the land and to this house?” (1 Kings 9:6-9). The people of Israel were on a number of occasions vanquished because they had turned away from God. Whenever they repented, only then would God guide them to reclaim their heritage. Over the past thousands of years the people of Israel periodically lived as exiles and have been scattered all over the world, only to regroup at some intervals, as recorded in history and in the scriptures. Between 500BC – 600BC the city of Jerusalem was torn to pieces, so also was the temple when it was besieged by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. 11 Kings 24: 12-13 reads: And Jehoiachin the King of Judah gave himself up to the King of Babylon, himself and his mother and his servants, and his princes, and his palace officials; and carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the King’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord which Solomon King of Israel had made, as the Lord has foretold (end of quote) 11 Kings 25:9: proceeds to say: “And he burned down the house of the Lord and the King’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.”
Prosper Tingini is the president of the Children of God Missionary Assembly. Registration in progress for those who wish to undertake Bible Studies or train as Ministers of Religion. Contact 0771 260 195 or email: [email protected]
