We like to have confidence in what we believe. That confidence is not always the best indicator of what is true. Apart from knowing that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, so much of our faith needs to have a place for wonder and mystery to exist, not another hardened list of things we think should happen.

As I read Isaiah 14, I saw an image. It was an image of people who had outlined our future in great detail. These individuals were walking toward a horizon of revelation carrying scrolls filled with their decisions and determinations about the future.

As these people stood on the doorway to the future, they confidently held high their scrolls of decisions and declarations. They were empowered by the camps of people they created within the Church who followed their interpretations.

Then, in the image, I saw the Lord make Himself known in regard to what will happen to the nations and the timetable of Heaven regarding the future. As that revelation unfolded, the arms of those holding their scrolls went limp as they began to realize what they determined to be true, absolute, and unchanging did not match up with what the Lord had planned.

To this, the Lord said, “It will all happen as I have planned. It will be as I have decided” (Isaiah 14:24). While the Scripture in Isaiah 14 addressed Israel’s conflict with the Assyrians, the principle holds true for us today. Only God’s plans will endure, not what we so confidently determined to be true.

We can too easily become confident in our understanding of what will transpire in the future. We can become so confident in what we believe that we no longer need to trust the Lord. We think we have it all figured out. In those moments, we will shift our confidence in God and place it in the scrolls we are holding.

All that God is revealing to His Church requires a large dose of wonder and mystery. These are important elements to have in our theology and in the eschatology we develop. Without them, we will continue to hold high our scrolls of human opinion and not be willing to drop them in an act of humility before the Lord.

A humbling is coming to the Church. This humbling will not take place in those who continue to hold high their scrolls before God and His people in a demonstration of defensive pride. It will take place in those who realized their interpretation of the future did not contain the important elements of wonder and mystery.