“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arise in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19).
A “more sure word of prophecy” is literally “the word of prophecy confirmed,” that is, they had seen Christ in the glory, and that confirmed the prophetic word. And, he says, ye do well to take heed unto it, “as unto a light that shineth in a dark place,” which shows what all around us is going on to.
The importance of giving heed to the prophetic word bears two characters, not only as regarding things to come, but we find also there is such a thing as the daystar arising in your hearts. Now Peter had seen the glory, and this was not the result of statements of prophecy. The first thing that we must do is to look at the day itself, to fix our eyes on the glory itself; this at once reaches all prophecy and fixes it on the heart. Peter had beheld the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ in the glory, and that was the thing that occupied his heart. The power of prophecy is the laying bare of the things that are carrying on according to the course of this world and takes them into judgment. If I know the judgment is coming and that the tares are to be burned, I shall not have anything to do with the tares. We find our Lord referring to Isaiah’s vision of the glory in John 12. When Isaiah had seen the glory, evil was brought out, and he exclaimed, “Woe is me! for . . . I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). And when the unbelief and hardness of heart in the Jews is spoken of, we read in John 12:41, “These things said Esaias, when he saw His glory, and spake of Him.” The effect of beholding the glory is to bring us to a consciousness of our position, and thus we should bring the glory of Christ to bear on our circumstances.
The grand moral importance of giving heed to the prophetic word is in separating us from this present evil world. Prophecy is a light which God holds up to the saints, that they may not only see the things which are, but see them as God sees them. Prophecy teaches us that God will judge the world in power, and it is for us now, knowing this, to judge morally what God will judge judicially.
The spirit in which we should come to the prophetic word, I should say, is in order to be better taught about the Lord Himself, than by speaking much about it. Judgment cannot be the subject for my affections to rest upon.
But there is one thing connected with the coming of Christ, and this present evil world, which may give me joy, and that is the stream of love and mercy flowing in to stop the tide of misery and wretchedness that exists.
J. N. Darby