Details, Details – Today’s Family Devotion

Details, Details

Bible Reading: 2 Peter 1:16-21

It was the Holy Spirit who moved the prophets to speak from God.   2 Peter 1:21

As Cody’s family finished their dinner at the Golden Wok restaurant, a waitress passed out fortune cookies. Cody was excited about the cookie, but he was blown away by the small slip of paper inside. “You will experience great victory,” it read.

“Mom, Dad, look at this,” he said, showing his parents the message. “This must be talking about my baseball tournament this weekend. We’re going to win!”

Cody’s dad chuckled. “Son,” he said, “of course we hope you’ll win the tournament. But if you do, it certainly won’t be because of this fortune cookie.”

“What do you mean?” Cody asked.

“The fortunes they write are just fuzzy messages that could be true for almost anyone at any time. You can’t stake your life on a fortune cookie.”

“I’ll tell you what you can take seriously,” Cody’s mother added. “The prophecies recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible were written hundreds of years before Jesus was born. They’re the real deal.”

Cody was interested. “Like what?”

“Like Jesus being born in Bethlehem,” she said. “Micah predicted that. And Zechariah predicted that the Messiah would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey.”

Cody’s dad joined in. “And that he would be betrayed by a friend for thirty pieces of silver. And that his hands and feet would be pierced. The predictions by God’s prophets all came true with 100 percent accuracy.”

Cody’s parents are right. Biblical prophecy makes one of the strongest arguments for the truth of God’s Word. Consider this: Jesus Christ fulfilled all the prophecies about the Messiah that were recorded in the Old Testament. The chances of one man fulfilling forty-eight major prophecies, according to Peter Stoner in Science Speaks, is 1 in 10 to the 157th power. That’s the number 10 followed by 157 zeroes. We can’t even imagine a probability that small!

That tells us two important things about the reliability of the Bible. First, as Peter wrote, the Old Testament writers who predicted the Messiah weren’t speaking on their own but were inspired by God. Second, because Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the Messiah, we can trust that he was who he said he was—the Son of God.

God didn’t want there to be any doubt in your mind that his Word is true, so he gave undeniable proof through historical evidence and biblical prophecy. Why? Because he loves you and wants you to trust him.

TALK: How are biblical prophecies different from fortune cookies and horoscopes?

PRAY: Praise God for giving you his true and reliable Word.

ACT: Do you rely on false sources of information about the future, like horoscopes?  Make a habit of going to God’s dependable Word instead!