Let’s take a closer look at the prophet Isaiah to answer this question. From the first chapter of the book of Isaiah, we can surmise that Isaiah was ministering during the time when the Northern Kingdom was taken away into captivity in 722 BC. Scholars know this because Isaiah mentions the kings of Judah that reigned during his ministry. But in Isaiah 44:28, he wrote that Cyrus would be used by God to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple after the captivity. But wait a minute! When Isaiah wrote these words, Jerusalem was standing tall and the temple was actively being used as a place of worship. Jerusalem was not destroyed until 586 BC when they were taken into captivity by the Babylonians, and the Persian King Cyrus’s decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple did not occur until 539 BC! How did Isaiah know about something 200 years in the future?
We find the answer back a few verses starting in Isaiah 44:24. “Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: ‘I am the LORD.’” If you continue reading till the end of the chapter, you discover God is describing Himself in this passage. Each description begins with the word “who.” In verse 28, God describes Himself by saying “who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’: saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’” Isaiah did not write from his own knowledge but from the knowledge of God. Many unbelieving scholars have a hard time accepting that Isaiah wrote these words. They argue that someone else added to the book after Isaiah’s death. But we only have to look at who God is to understand how this is possible.
Isaiah’s ability to prophesy about the future is called predictive prophecy. Sounds like a couple of big words, but they’re not. You and I on this earth can see what is happening today and what has happened in the recent past. That is our limited perspective of time. Anything we know from before our time is gathered from books, lectures, documentaries, word-of-mouth, or other sources because we did not witness the events. Isaiah had the same limited view. Except for historical books, his perspective of events in history was limited to the time that he was alive. But God has an eternal vantage point. He lives on the eternal timeline. He sees all that was in the past, all that is today, and all that will be in the future (Rev. 22:13). When God spoke to the prophets like Isaiah, He was able to share with them about any time in history because He is a witness to all of it. Predictive prophecy is the ability to hear from God and share future events. Isaiah shared events that would happen 200 years in the future because God told him the future.
So, why is it important to understand predictive prophecy? First, it calls us to repentance because the only way to handle the future is to be in right standing with God. Isaiah’s predictive prophecy was warning the Southern Kingdom to repent or God would allow them to be taken into captivity. Secondly, people tend to only see God with human limitations when they are facing struggles. Oh, we as Christians believe that God created the world and sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins, but when it comes to how He is working in our daily lives, we sometimes limit who He is. Have you ever heard, “Why did God allow…?”; “Why doesn’t God…?”; “Where was God when…?” Because we cannot answer these questions, we sometimes become angry and judgmental of God. We may even begin to think we know better. But we forget, God lives on the eternal timeline. He knows what is best because of His view of eternity. He gives us a limited perspective because He wants us to trust Him. I believe when we get to Heaven, we will better understand His ways than we do here. The gift of predictive prophecy by the prophets during biblical times helps us realize that not only can we trust Him with our today, we can trust God with all our tomorrows.