While we have accounts of prophecies that have been fulfilled, the real question is whether those Scriptures have been fulfilled in our own lives. We turn to historical evidence to see God’s prophecies come to pass, and we often look to the life of Jesus and to other biblical figures in whom they were fulfilled. Yet we are afraid to claim those prophecies for our own lives, because we have set them apart for Jesus and a few others whom we have placed on a high pedestal. Jesus left His glory to live among us on a par with us in every respect, and He does not ask for an elevated stage.
To understand this argument, consider the prophet who speaks of one anointed by the Spirit of the LORD to bring good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for the captives and comfort all who mourn. We readily take this as a prophecy of Jesus Christ. Yet in its own time, the speaker could have been Isaiah himself, or even King Cyrus, the king whom God anointed to send His people home. Anyone whom God anoints can speak these words. This raises a question we rarely ask: to whom does the word “me” refer here? Without doubt, “me” applies to everyone who reads this verse. In spite of this plain form of speech, we hesitate to read the pronoun “me” as our own, or we are afraid to place ourselves in that context.
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn.
Isaiah 61:1-2 (NIV)
A Word Written for Us
Outside Scripture, whether we are making a pledge or narrating an incident in which we were involved, the word “me” means ourselves. But when we come to the promises of God, we tend to think of them as belonging to someone else: Isaiah, Cyrus or, most readily, Jesus. Paul speaks of Abraham. Abraham is no longer in this world, so what was written about his faith was not written for him alone. It was written for us (Romans 4:22-25). In the same way, the promises of God are written for all who accept them. Yet some use the promises only at certain times, like an injection that is taken not daily but only when the fever is high. Others use them to frighten people and to remind them of God’s anger. When Jesus came to earth, He too read this promise, not in the form of God but as a human being. The scroll of Isaiah was handed to Him; He opened it to the place where this was written, closed it and sat down.
He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:21 (NIV)
Jesus accepted this word for Himself, and that shows us what to do with it. We often ask how we can be like Paul or like David, while becoming like Jesus is beyond our imagination. But God simply says: be like My Son and follow My words. That is why He sent His Son, and yet we reserve certain things for that Son and say, “This is not for us.” Whatever is written in the Holy Scriptures, we should accept for ourselves and not leave for others. It is written for me; it is mine. This word is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path, but it can light our way only when we accept it and own it. Instead, we pick and choose. We read again and again the words that promise a double blessing, and the highlighter is worn out on those pages, while we neglect the rest of the words. Because we are interested in the blessings, we have no time to seek the true word of God.
The work of the Spirit is the continuation of the work of the Word made flesh. On the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, the Spirit came and equipped the disciples to continue the work that Jesus had begun. Every disciple who took up Jesus’ command to be His witness to the ends of the earth took it as his own, and the Messiah who died for our sins and rose to life has kept His Spirit at work for 2,000 years. So when we read, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled”, we must understand that it is fulfilled for me. Some may think, “No one taught us this, so how can it be?” But God’s word is a living word. If it is to live in our body, we have to keep it alive, and we cannot do that by covering it up or putting it in the freezer. If we are living, the word should be living in us.
…to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendour.
Isaiah 61:3 (NIV)
Being Changed into His Likeness
From the beginning, God has wanted to keep His word alive through people like us and, through that word, to lead us to eternal life. Hebrews 1:1-2 tells us that God spoke to our ancestors in many portions and in many ways through the prophets, but now He speaks to us through His Son, the Word through whom the whole universe was made. That Word was seen among us. When Jesus returned to heaven, He commanded us to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8) and gave us the same Spirit to continue His work by fulfilling His promises in our own lives. The problem is that we do not treat this word as ours.
I wrote for them the many things of my law, but they regarded them as something foreign.
Hosea 8:12 (NIV)
God says He has written tens of thousands of things, yet His people regard them as foreign. We speak of “those people” who consider the word strange, but we do not realise that “those people” are us. God is asking us a question in His own way: I have given everything in writing, so when I return, will I find faith on earth (Luke 18:8)? So be faithful to Him and love one another. What have we done with His Word so far?
Instead of calling for revival in our church and our country, we should first examine ourselves: how much has my nature changed to be like Jesus Christ? Philippians 2:5 says that the mind that was in Christ Jesus should be in us also. We have been reading the Holy Scriptures for many years. We pray, we give testimony and we serve. But how much has our nature actually changed to be like Christ’s? This is not a question to ask one another but to ask ourselves: how was I before, and how am I now?
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)
Paul had changed so much that he could write this with full confidence. He accepted the Word for himself and knew that his life had changed. In 2 Corinthians 4:7 he says that God has placed His glory in vessels of clay. And in Philippians 3:7 he says that whatever he once counted as gain, he now counts as loss. We are the opposite. We come to God for benefits and never consider them a loss, though they do great harm to our inner life.
Make Friends by Unrighteous Wealth
I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
Luke 16:9 (NIV)
What does it mean to make friends for ourselves with unrighteous wealth? This verse is not saying, “Earn from anywhere, rob, take bribes, donate something to God, and everything will be fine.”
For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them.
Isaiah 61:8 (NIV)
God, who hates unrighteousness, would never give us such a wrong teaching. In the parable, the steward reduced the debts of others so that he could turn to them for help in the future. Through this parable, God is teaching us to keep away from such conduct and not fall into trouble as he did. One suggestion is that the verse means giving worldly money to those who do not have it, but the meaning goes deeper. With money, whether righteously or unrighteously earned, we can make friends only on this earth, and even that is not certain: some enjoy our resources and then throw us out on the street.
Money that takes us away from God is unrighteous money. Money is a means to sustain ourselves and our families, meeting the needs that arise as our finances grow. But as our finances increase, if we leave God and start trusting in wealth and blessings, we follow God only for the blessing. That is why there are so many gatherings to claim blessings, where God stays in the background and blessings come first. This greed makes us seek God only for worldly gain. In God’s eyes, every such longing for wealth harms us, because it separates us from Him.
When God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, he bought a ticket on a ship going the other way. Where did he get the money for it? In the same way, we spend freely, using the blessings of God to fulfil our own evil desires and not His. We are told to give generously to a church or an institution because God loves a cheerful giver, and that in return peace, goodness and the Holy Spirit will come into our lives. In this way, the money God gave us to raise our children and nurture our families is given away, as if we could buy God. The money of this world can win us friends in this world, but with it we cannot win a single friend in the Kingdom of God.
Who are our friends in the eternal dwellings? If we died today, who would be our friend in heaven? Perhaps we hope that a mentor or a close friend who died some years ago will be our friend and welcome us into His Kingdom. Joseph placed his hope in a man, thinking that he would speak up for him because they had spent time in prison together, but once that man was freed, he forgot Joseph. Those who have been released from this mortal life will not have time to recall our sweet memories, because the sweetness they are enjoying in the presence of their Father will make them forget ours. But Jesus, our elder brother, who loved us and treated us as His friend, never changes His attitude. He says,
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
John 15:15 (NIV)
Jesus is calling us as friends. Has this Scripture is fulfilled in our lives that we have become His frineds. Our friend is Jesus Christ. To be friends with Him, we do not need this worldly money. The more we refuse it, the more we will be friends with Jesus, and the more we keep fellowship with those who “bless” us for money, the further we drift from our friend.
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