After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety. – Ezekiel 38:8

Today's Scripture Reading (October 6, 2026): Ezekiel 38

Do you ever wish that you knew what was going to happen in the future? Maybe you would like to pick the winning lottery numbers, or know who will win the big game. Or even just to know what the weather will be like today so you can dress properly. (I don't know about where you live, but around here it seems the weather changes faster than I can keep up with, and sometimes the forecasting leaves a little to be desired.) Sometimes it might be fun to know the future, although knowing the winner of the big football game would take all the fun out of it for me.

Ezekiel 38 starts as a very controversial prophecy. Part of the controversy is that the prophecy doesn't seem to have been fulfilled. In fact, the description contained in Ezekiel's words fits more with today than maybe any time in Israel's history. In the past century, we have watched Israel be gathered back from many nations. Despite the violence, it seems they live in relative safety. At least, Israel's defense is in her hands in a way it hasn't been for over two millennia. So some people have openly wondered if, just maybe, there is a war on the horizon. Okay, it really doesn't take that much imagination.

Prophecy can lead us into the future. But the real problem with it is that until the events actually happen, it is hard to read meaning into them. I don't know what will happen tomorrow. I don't know whether the words of a prophet, now over 2500 years old, are unfulfilled or ready to be fulfilled. I don't know whether the world will end in 2026, as suggested by Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi's book "The Religion of God," or in 2060, as suggested in an unpublished manuscript by Isaac Newton, or sometime in the next century, as predicted by a few prognosticators. I am comfortable that God is in control. Ezekiel 38 ends with the words "they will know that I am the Lord." And that is really the point. Above everything else, we need to know that God is the Lord and that he is really in control.

So, have a great week, no matter what the future may hold!

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 39