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Seriously? Wouldn’t we all want to know what’s in store for us personally, financially, nationally?
Yes, seriously! In fact nothing much has changed in this day and age of information technology when there are many people who still consult fortune tellers, horoscopes and the like. Some do it for fun, curiosity, testing the ‘fates’ perhaps, while others consult before making a decision . . . yes, seriously!
For example, this is from a WELLNESS site with the title:
“What do horoscopes have to do with wellness?”
Horoscopes Can Actually Provide Uncanny Perspective, and Valuable Insight into Decisions and Life Situations.
How?
As humans, we can receive messages in many different ways from many different sources. We’re often inspired by other people, songs, books, movies and ideas. Horoscopes are also intended to provide insightful, inspirational and cautionary perspectives without compromising your common sense.
Horoscopes are derived methodically through the study of astrological movements related to time, space, birth and the human condition. While some astrologers are known for their uncanny accuracy in their insight and predictions, many others are known for their influence over people who mindlessly fail to think for themselves. Make sure you use your own heart, intuition and intellect in making important decisions in your life. Nobody can do that for you.
However you get it, seeking any extra degree of insight in situations, changes and opportunities can be productive at times. Does it work for you? Millions of people seem to recognize more of the natural coincidences occurring daily in their lives through astrologically inspired messages going back thousands of years.
OK, so be it? Not so fast.
Superstition abounds where ignorance of the One True God and His Word abounds. Because if they were simply aware that there is a God to begin with, Who has spoken against such superficial and wrong beliefs, perhaps they would simply heed His mouthpiece, the prophet Isaiah 8:20:
To the law and to the testimony!
if they speak not according to this word,
surely there is no morning for them.
But then, who bothers to read the “Old” testament in the Christian 2-part bible? It’s “old” and said to be “obsolete” if not superseded by the “new”, don’t bother with it except when Christian pastors/teachers need specific texts taken out of context to use in proving that Jesus Christ was foretold here there and everywhere in the prequel.
Just look at this short list if you google the topic of ‘OT foretold what NT fulfilled’:
Researches related to Jesus in the old testament
And even when the OT is referred to for “prooftexting”, the Christian translations of the Hebrew Scriptures are hardly recognizable to the very people whose scriptures it was borrowed from. We have posts where we show comparisons of such prooftexts, please check our SITEMAP if you’re curious.
Horoscopes aside, every month is designated as commemorative month for awareness of whatever, ranging from serious to silly, ad nauseum, devised by people with nothing better to do, or are just having harmless fun, unintentionally irritating skeptics. This is the stuff in the entertainment pages of newspapers, space fillers, but unfortunately consulted by the superstitious. Hey, live and let live, right?
But honestly, why waste precious time indulging in man-sourced “truth” and human speculations about the future when truly, there is no one who can look into the future and know what is in store for us? Admittedly there are experts who observe the weather, economic climate, political situation, etc. who prognosticate their best guess and yes, sometimes they’re right and sometimes not. The point? Back to Isaiah 8:20:
To the law and to the testimony!
if they speak not according to this word,
surely there is no morning for them.
Let us focus on the here and now and what the Creator and Life-Giver has taught regarding how to make life better for us individually and in community. It is all in the Torah — health tips, dietary prescriptions, relational advice in every possible human situation (marriage, family, work, community, etc.). Other-centeredness is the key phrase where there is a minimum of two people present . . . if each one of us considers the other’s welfare, whether our spouse, children, parent, employee, boss, friend, the other drivers in traffic, pedestrians, etc. etc. . . . the other always in the spirit of reciprocity, wouldn’t this be a better world?
Is Torah life impossible to live as Christians are taught to believe? Well, if you believe that everyone born is separated from God and damned for hell, unable to change from inherited original sin, you are already programmed for failure! “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t because of my nature, my condition, I can’t. ” If so, why would the God of Wisdom Who designed humans in His Image bother to issue instructions, precepts, commandments, laws? Why would 2nd-generation Cain be warned by the Creator he could avoid “sin” crouching at the door?
Read Ezekiel 18 to clear up your mind about “inherited sin” . . . we are responsible only for the sin we commit, not the sin of our parents. Yes, there are consequences for us but the consequence is not inherited sin. Would human parents impose rules impossible for their children to live by? Why insult God the Creator, Revelator and Law-Giver with such unfair sense of justice punishing innocent generations for the disobedience of the first parents? That is not the God of the Hebrew Scriptures, certainly not the God Who revealed Himself and His guidelines for living on Sinai.
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So what was the original topic of this post, “want to know the future?” According to the Eternal God who is present in the present, our present, the ideal world of the future depends on how we live in His Present, in our present. The Torah is the key to humanity’s future but alas, who’s listening, who really cares, who’s bothering to read and study what Torah is all about?
Thankfully, for one, the custodians, the Torah-observant among YHWH’s servant-son Israel. Thankfully, for another, there are awakened Gentiles Sinaites among them, we who have returned to the Hebrew Scriptures for reasons we have already stated in our Statement of Faith and Journey. We recognize and acknowledge the value of YHWH’s Sinai Revelation, the Torah, instructions for all humanity, Jew and Gentile, on how to live in community.
The future is predictable in a Torah-observant world, a utopia on earth which is prophesied by the Hebrew prophets, mouthpieces of the God Who inhabits the future.
The simplest expression of Torah faith came ironically from the lips of a man who was never read Torah but is evidence that Torah is indeed written in the minds and hearts of humankind as is stated in Jeremiah 31:33-34:
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God, and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another,
‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.”
While that is a promise to Israel about Israel, the point of each individual born with an innate sense, common sense, some knowledge of right and wrong, is inherent in all humankind. It is observable in many individuals who were never even exposed to Torah.
That man who never read Torah but lived Torah was my father who, at the end of his life, said: “My religion is to be good and to do good.” Such is a simple declaration of Torah living—
- to ‘be good’ is to simply live righteously, benefitting one’s self—
- and to ‘do good’ is to live right benefitting others.
The future is assured by the promise in Deuteronomy 28 for blessings for obedience. The blessing might not be evident and instant or even within the lifetime of the Torah-obedient, but good begets good and other people are blessed by the good life of even one individual. As in the case of my father’s legacy, I am among thousands of beneficiaries of the blessings for the future he never lived long enough to see. May the Just God of Jews and Gentiles bless the likes of my father who never heard of Torah but nevertheless lived it.
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