By Edwin utz

Why does God give His people information about the future?  From the beginning God has told us what is to come.  Sometimes the events are close at hand, sometimes at a distance.  It is possible that He could tell us nothing, only imploring us to trust Him.  Isaiah, however, gives us clues about God’s intentions in predicting the future:

1.  God draws a distinction between Himself and the idol-gods of the day.  God mocks the idols to explain the purpose of history or declare what is to come “so that we may know that you are gods” (Isa. 41:23). God was predicting the future before the idols of Isaiah’s day: “
   I declared and saved and proclaimed when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and I am God” (Isaiah 43:12). 

He knows the idolatrous heart will want to attribute both good and bad events when they happen to the power of an idol.  Only God, however, can predict those events before they happen: “I declared /the former things/ to you from of old,  before they came to pass I announced them to you lest you should say ‘my idol did them’ my carved image and my metal image commanded them” (Isaiah 48:7).

• God uses prophecy to break down our stubbornness.  “The former things I declared of old, they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them and they came to pass, because I know that you are obstinate and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass” (Isa. 48:4-5).  Prediction followed by unexpected and sudden fulfillment is designed to bring an end to pride and self-sufficiency.
• Prophecy underscores the providence of God over human affairs in all of history.  In the eighth century before Christ, God predicted through Isaiah a Persian king who would succeed Babylon.  He would be a ‘bird of prey’ and ‘a man of my counsel from a far country” (Isa. 46:10-11).  Isaiah predicts his name would be Cyrus (Isaiah 45:1).  “I have spoken and I will bring it to pass, I have purposed and I will do it” (Isa. 46:11).  God points to predictions that have already been fulfilled and then makes new ones:  Behold, the former things have come to pass and new things I declare before they spring forth I tell you of them” (Isa. 42:9).
• Prophecy and Fulfillment display God’s character.  “Who told this long ago?  Who declared it of old?  Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no god besides me.  A righteous God and a Savior, there is none besides me” (Isa. 45:21).  As we study providence, we see in history the outworking of God’s power, His righteousness and His saving mercy.  He has been with His people from the beginning and will be with them to the end.  “Who has gathered and done this, calling the generations from the beginning?  I the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am
  He”  (Isa. 41:4)

Through prophecy, then we see God’s control over history, His benevolent ends and purposes, and His intimate care for His people.  Isaiah teaches us that.  Jesus models it for us.  As Jesus considers the betrayal of Judas, he tells His disciples, “I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am He” (John 13:19).  See how prophecy and fulfillment inspire faith:  David predicts the betrayer (Psalm 41:9), Jesus predicts a soon fulfillment of that promise in Judas Iscariot, and then John records its fulfillment.  Even on the cross, God is fulfilling His purposes through prophecy.