The Right Way to Regard Prophecy
Genesis 49:1-2
And Jacob called to his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.


I am profoundly affected by the grandeur of prophecy. God unveils the frescoed wall of the future, not so much that we may count the figures, and measure the robes, and analyze the pigments; but that, gazing upon it, our imaginations may be enkindled, and hope be inspired, to bear us through the dismal barrenness of the present. Prophecy was not addressed to the reason, nor to the statistical faculty, but to the imagination; and I should as soon think of measuring love by the scales of commerce, or of admiring flowers by the rule of feet and inches, or of applying arithmetic to taste and enthusiasm, as calculations and figures to these grand evanishing signals which God waves in the future only to tell the world which way it is to march.

(H. W. Beecher.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.

WEB: Jacob called to his sons, and said: "Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come.




The Prophet; Or, Jacob Blessing His Sons
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