Imagine teleporting back 300 years into the past. How would you begin to describe jet aircraft, space vehicles, or computers to someone in that era? How could you explain television, telephones, or the vast array of gizmos that run on electricity? Then, consider how a person from the early 1700s would describe all those miraculous technological developments if they were given the foresight to witness them personally.
Now we realize the challenge Daniel and the other prophets faced when told to record their prophetic visions of the future. Words often cannot communicate concepts that exceed finite human understanding or even imagination.
The American astronauts who landed on the Moon recognized the limits of their ability to express the beauty of what they saw. Several remarked that although they were extensively trained in science and engineering, a writer, poet, or artist might have better communicated the wonder they saw with their own eyes.
I do not take away from the adequacy of Godâs Word as recorded by the various prophets and writers He commissioned. But until hindsight offers us complete clarity, âwe see through a glass, darklyâ (1 Corinthians 13:12). So, some of our speculation regarding the specifics of wheeled vehicles (Ezekiel 2), the sky rolling up like a scroll (Revelation 6), and demonic locust hordes (Revelation 9), is just that: speculative…
