Today's Scripture Reading (September 10, 2026): Jeremiah 44 & 45
The future is unexpected. Even predictions and
prophecies that come true are often fulfilled in unexpected ways. The future is
a mystery, and that is what makes trying to unwind the prophecies of the Bible,
or any other prophecies, such a hard task. Those who think they see prophecies
unwinding before their eyes throughout history have, most of the time, been
deluding themselves.
When I was growing up, I remember predictions
that Henry Kissinger was the Antichrist; that Kissinger fulfilled biblical
prophecy. The argument was strong and multifaceted. I know that for many people
in the 1970's, it must have seemed so obvious. The prediction has been
persistent. Henry Kissinger died in 2023 after living 100 years, and at no
point did the evidence of Kissinger's life support the prophetic allegations
that some wanted to lay at his feet. Yet, every once in a while, I still run
into somebody who has bought into the expectation. It is a hard task to
convince these prophetic believers that they might have been wrong; that the
way that they saw the future was not how the future turned out. Even now, some
want to make excuses for their belief, and they still proclaim that, somehow, Henry
Kissinger really was the Antichrist.
Jeremiah speaks of the fall of Judah and the
subsequent fall of Egypt. Egypt's fall was predicted because the people of
Judah had fled to Egypt, a place that Jeremiah had said they should not go. So,
as Jeremiah draws his prophecy to a close, one of his final prophecies concerns
the death of Hophra, the Pharaoh of Egypt. It would be really easy to read this
prophecy and assume that Hophra died valiantly at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.
But Jeremiah doesn't actually say that. He says Hophra will be delivered into the
hands of his enemy, just as Zedekiah of Judah was handed over to Nebuchadnezzar
of Babylon.
History records Hophra under a different name:
Apries. Apries was Pharaoh of Egypt during this tense moment in world history. Unfortunately,
Apries was a man out of his time. While Egypt needed a warrior to survive in a
world dominated by the Babylonian Empire and with the dawn of the Greek Empire
on the horizon, Apries was more of a builder; his great intellect was geared
more toward producing great buildings than fighting great wars. Apries' attempt
to help Judah was ill-considered. Apries was not only unable to come to the aid
of his northern neighbor, but in the process he lost the confidence of his
army, resulting in mass defections. Later, Apries attempted to come to the aid
of his Libyan neighbors against the Greeks. But Apries fared no better in Libya
than he did in Judah. It was at this moment that Egypt turned to a successful
general of the army for help, a man who had led the Egyptian army to success in
Nubia during the reign of Apries father; the general's name was Amasis. And in
570 B.C.E., Amasis declared himself Pharaoh in the place of Apries.
It turns out that Jeremiah was speaking of
Amasis as the enemy of Hophra, not Nebuchadnezzar. In fact, Amasis killed
Apries (Hophra) in battle when Apries attempted to regain his kingdom. As
unexpected as this might have seemed when Jeremiah wrote the prophecy, Apries
died with the Babylonian army fighting at his side. Nebuchadnezzar, instead of
being the enemy who would kill Apries, was the ally attempting to help him
regain his throne at the time of his death.
The future often seems to work that way. Even
when it is expected, it is unexpected. Confining our future to our expectations
limits the way we allow God to move. God's moves are usually unexpected and always
undeserved.
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 24
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