Understanding the Times (Jon Courson)

Men, women, who understand the times will know what to do.

...People that can look and see, “Hey, this is what's coming down, this is what's going on! This is why there's such confusion in this area culturally. This is why there's these tensions geopolitically. This is why things are happening in our nation presently: because it's all a part of a fulfilling of God's perfect plan revealed in prophecy. We understand the times in which we live.”

Prophecy. One third of the Bible, minimally, is prophetic. People say, “I'm just not into prophecy.” Well, you just knocked out a third of the Bible! The LORD indicted the people of Jerusalem: “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem! If thou wouldst known that this is thy day...! (Luke 19:42)” As He wept over the city, Jesus cried over that city, because they didn't know the day.

What day? The [prophecy] that was fulfilled on that day when Jesus rode into the city on the back of a donkey, prophesied by Daniel (in Daniel, chapter 9) to the day hundreds of years before:

“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks [of years], and threescore and two weeks...” ~Daniel 9:25

...173,880 days. They should have known bible prophecy.

If they would have known their prophecies well, that were given to them, they would have known that this was the day (as Jesus rides in on the donkey) prophesied by Daniel to the day. March 14th, 445 BC: Artaxerxes Longimanus decrees to rebuild Jerusalem, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians. Go 173,880 days from March 14th, 445 BC, what do you come to? April 6th, 32 AD. The day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem. And that's why He wept.

“You should have known that this is the day!” You know that psalm we often sing, “This is the day that the LORD hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it?” It's talking about that day, specifically: the day that Jesus rode into the city. But they didn't understand prophecy, and they rejected Him, and He wept because they were ignorant of the times in which they lived.

I hope the LORD won't be weeping over people like you and me, saying, “You should have understood what was going on! You should have been aware of what was taking place.” Jesus expected His people to know Bible prophecy in His day when He was on the earth as the carpenter from Galilee. Jesus, I believe, expects us in this day to understand the times in which we live.

Jon Courson

Through the Bible

1 Chronicles 12-15

08/14/13