A Year with God

Selection Taken From:
A Year with God by R.P. Nettelhorst

Make this the year you let God's Word "dwell in you richly"---and marvel at the results! Each entry in this 365-day devotional features Scripture verses in which God speaks, accompanied by insights and applications to enhance your understanding. Learn what God says about hope and fear; perseverance and quitting; companionship and isolation; and more! 384 pages, softcover from Nelson, Copyright 2010.

The End from the Beginning

Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels.
Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.
I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.
From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.
Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness.
I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel. - Isaiah 46:8—13 NIV

God's sense of speed bears no resemblance to ours. So we need to have the mind of Christ.

God's people, the Israelites, had been conquered and captured by the Assyrians. Judah would soon follow when the Babylonians conquered them. But that exile would end when God rescued them with the Persians. Persia—modern-day Iran—was to the east of Israel. The "bird of prey" from the east, "a man to fulfill my purpose," was none other than Cyrus the Great. In Isaiah 45:1 God referred to Cyrus as his "anointed," from the Hebrew word messiah. The Jewish captivity in Babylon and Assyria would end because God would use Cyrus to destroy the Babylonian Empire and set his people free. God gave Isaiah the prophecy of Cyrus about a hundred years before it would happen, and yet God said that the fulfillment—the rescue—was going to happen soon.

When Isaiah prophesied, the Babylonians hadn't yet conquered or attacked Jerusalem. The seventy years of captivity were far in the future. Before the Jewish people even needed salvation from the Babylonians, God was already letting them know that he would save them. From a human standpoint, a hundred years doesn't seem to be very soon. We become impatient just waiting a couple of seconds for a Web page to come up or two minutes for our food to heat in a microwave. God's definition of quick is not nearly as rushed as ours.