Blog: Max Dawson
October 22, 2015
Yesterday was “Back to the Future” day. The kids at Vincent Middle School (where I taught a Bible lesson yesterday morning) were all excited about it. It was as though something really big was supposed to happen.
Nothing in the news yesterday that would qualify as really big. Joe was out; Ryan was in. That is, Joe Biden nixed the idea of running for the presidency. And Paul Ryan said he might be willing to take the House of Representatives speakership if his conditions are met. Nothing really earth-shaking. I mean, Marty McFly didn’t show up in a DeLorean or anything like that.
Oh, there was that thing on the sports page. The New York Mets won the National League Championship series. The other side of that is that the Chicago Cubs lost. They lost big. They lost all four games that were played. That means the Mets–not the Cubs–will play in the World Series.
The 1989 movie “Back to the Future II” predicted that the Cubbies would take the 2015 World Series. It was a fun thing to think about. I would have liked to have seen the Cubs win it all. After all, they haven’t won the World Series since 1908. But we knew all along that it was only a fun thing as we watched what the Cubs would do. We never believed there was any predictive power in the “Back to the Future” trilogy. We knew it was only fantasy.
Do you want to see something that is not fantasy; something that is not just some kind of “fun thing”? Keep reading.
A FINAL WORD
About 4,000 years ago God spoke to a man named Abraham. He made three promises to him (Genesis 12:1-7; 22:18). The three promises were:
1. That Abraham’s family would become a great nation.
2. That God would give Abraham’s family a wonderful piece of land.
3. That all nations would be blessed by one born from that family–the seed of Abraham.
More than 400 years later God fulfilled part of His promise and prophecy by declaring that Israel was that great nation He had spoken of to Abraham (Deuteronomy 4:1, 7-9).
Just a little later, God gave to that nation the piece of land He had promised to Abraham, the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:5-7; Joshua 21:43-45). By the end of the book of Joshua, the Lord had given to Israel all the land which He had promised to Abraham.
The rest of the Old Testament from the end of Joshua all the way to Malachi is about the people of Israel waiting for the fulfillment of promise #3–the seed promise. It is interesting that the first verse of the New Testament Scripture begins with these words:
“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.”
Jesus Christ is the promised seed, the “Son of Abraham.” Read Galatians 3:16.
Because Jesus is the promised seed, all peoples of the earth can be blessed by Him. The offer of salvation is made to all.
The producers of “Back to the Future” made some guesses about the future. They got a few things right. They got a lot of things wrong (and that was pure disappointment for the Cub fans!). But the producers were only guessing and having a little fun with us.
God did not have to guess about the future. He not only knew the future from Abraham’s time, He planned it and controlled it. And He got everything right. No fails! Listen to Joshua 21:45 regarding the land promise
“Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.”
Believe God. Trust God. Obey God. There is coming a day in the future when you will be glad you did! Not a fantasy. More than fun. Reality.
Blessings,
–MAX