Isaiah 46:9-10 “Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,”

God’s pattern of declaring the end from the beginning is to show mankind what His plans are so that they can exercise faith and prayer for it. We see this pattern in the Old Testament over and over in the lives of God’s people.

Abraham, childless in his old age, had been promised that he and his wife Sarah would have a son from their own union, from which would come many descendants. He was told to count the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore, and God said to him, ”so shall your descendants be…” This happened many years before his son Isaac was born, and Abraham and Sarah were very old, but the Creator of the Universe had painted a picture for him, revealing His plan. And Abraham eventually received that son because he continued to believe what God had said to him.

Hebrews 11:17-19 “By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called,’ concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.“

Joseph as a young man, had dreams about his future. He saw his brothers bowing down to him and then he saw his mother and father bowing down to him. After surviving years of contradiction to his dreams while he was in captivity in Egypt, Joseph interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh and became second in command in Egypt, saving everyone from a severe drought, including his own family. His family did indeed bow down to him.

Moses, as a younger man in Egypt, killed an Egyptian man who was beating a Hebrew slave. According to Acts 17, he thought his brethren knew he was there to deliver them from their slavery, but he ended up fleeing into the wilderness for 40 years after the murder. Later he came back under the power and commission of God to perform what God had put in his heart and purposed to do. What resulted was the release of almost three million Hebrews from captivity.

Jeremiah, a young prophet, was told to redeem his cousin’s property, to purchase it in the country where a war was going on. The Jews were being taken into captivity to Babylon for the next 70 years. It was a sign and a prophetic picture that they would not be there forever…and they weren’t.

Daniel, a young prophet in captivity in Babylon, saw the end times of the world in visions. He also saw the time of the seventy-year captivity was almost at an end and began to pray in agreement with the plan. God showed him there was resistance in the spiritual world. In Daniel 10:14, an angel came to tell Daniel what would befall the Jews in the end times.

Isaiah the prophet, foretold many things, some which have come to pass and some are still to come. He said a virgin would conceive. Mary conceived Jesus Christ from the Holy Spirit. Isaiah also saw visions about the visible Kingdom of God being established in the earth.

Like a puzzle one purchases with the completed picture on the box cover, God shows us the finished picture and then, with our cooperation, starts to put the pieces together in our lives to eventually complete the picture.

The prophet Habakkuk was having a difficult time being positive in his day because things looked so utterly hopeless in Israel. He could not reconcile the destruction he was seeing with God’s care for the nation. He set himself to watch and wait to see what God would say to him in Habakkuk 2:2-3. God encouraged him, saying, “Write the vision, (what was to come) make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” God promised him that what he was seeing was temporary and told him to write it down. The prophets wrote things down because it helped keep the promises before their eyes when events contradicted it. It encouraged their faith to know that God had better things in store for them than what they were seeing at the moment. We should do the same, by writing down the promises of God and meditating on them.

The Passion Translation (TPT) of Isaiah 46:9-10 reads this way: “Remember the miracles of long ago. Acknowledge that I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me. I declare from the beginning how it will end and foretell from the start what has not yet happened. I decree that my purpose will stand, and I will fulfill my every plan.”