Daily Devotional For December 23, 2025
Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me, “See that you don’t! I am a fellow servant of you and of your brothers the prophets and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God!” And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.” Rev 22:7-10.
Prophets are making a comeback in today’s world. The tabloids are full of them. Perhaps you’ve heard of Nostradamus, the sixteenth century French physician and chef of Jewish heritage. Born to a father forced to convert to Catholicism around 1501, Nostradamus became renowned on account of predictions that seemed to come true a short time after they were made. He laid out his predictions in a thousand four-line poems divided into ‘centuries’ of a hundred each. The most famous of Nostradamus’ dated predictions was his prediction for the year 1999:
The year 1999, seven months,
From the sky will come a great King of terror,
To resuscitate the great king of Angoulmois;
Before, after, Mars will reign by good luck.1
This language is clearly ambiguous. Many looked for its fulfillment in terms of a meteor shower or some other heavenly event. Most of these also anticipated that some significant conflict would break out during the year, if not in the month of July itself. But the date came and went and nothing of the sort was observed.
In the mid-1960s there was another alleged prophet named Jeane Dixon. I made note of two verifiable predictions on her part. One of them was that the unpopular views of Barry Goldwater, who lost the presidential race in 1964, would be vindicated within the next decade. The other was that the scrapping of a miniature missile project would prove to be a huge mistake by the end of the 1970s. Neither of these predictions ever came true as far as I know. The concept of prophets is something we’re used to. The concept of successful prophets is another matter.
The Book of Revelation claims to be a written prophecy (Rev 1:3 and 22:10). Unlike the works of Nostradamus and Jean Dixon, this book bears the clear evidence of God’s hand. As we study those prophecies that are already fulfilled, we learn how to interpret those that haven’t yet come to pass.
Lord, open my eyes to see more clearly the purpose You had in giving these visions to John. May I direct my true worship to You alone.
1 Translation and discussion in Hillel Schwartz, Century’s End: A Cultural History of the Fin de Siècle from the 990s Through the 1990s (New York: Doubleday, 1990).