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NOWHERE MAN #8
HEAVEN’S DATING SERVICE
Have you ever spent a night in prison? I confess that by the grace of
God, I’ve never had that experience. I know that some of our listeners
have. And my wonderful friend Don McClure, who is often a guest on this
program, and who heads up the Someone Cares Prison Ministry, was himself
an inmate. But I really cannot relate to that first NIGHT, that initial
experience of lying down on that hard bunk, seeing the moonlight come
through the harsh grating of the bars, and know that for the next ten
or twenty, or LIFETIME, of years, you’re going to be locked up.
Maybe you’ve seen a prison film, a Cool Hand Luke or a Shawshank Redemption
or Green Mile, and just envisioned the loneliness of that cell . . . and
maybe of feeling that nobody in the WORLD bothers anymore. Who knows you’re
there? Who cares? We’ve spent the past week and a half here on the Voice
of Prophecy with the series title, NOWHERE MAN, and boy, in jail you REALLY
feel like a nowhere man. Your name is gone, and in its place, just a number.
Do you remember the famous #24601 that Jean Valjean had? Because nobody
knows your name when you’re in chains. Nobody cares.
Well, I just have to tell you one of the most amazing prison stories that’s
ever dropped into our laps. A Russian Christian, back during the very
height of the Cold War, 1948, was invited by a neighbor to give Bible
studies to her daughter. “She’s very interested in religious values,”
the lady told him. “She has many questions.” So this young believer sat
down and began to teach the Bible to . . . a KGB informant. The whole
thing had been a setup. And they locked him up. Five years in a Soviet
labor camp.
And in the camp Mikhail Kulakov, this young Russian Christian, was there
all alone, without anyone who knew he was even alive in the gulag system.
After the five years were over, the Communists shipped him back east to
a remote area of Siberia: one of the Asian republics. Nobody knew him
there either. No money. Couldn’t speak the language. No European acquaintances.
No place to stay. The police had a job for him, but no home.
So he walked the streets. Finally he spotted at least a European face.
But the stranger didn’t speak Russian, only German. Ironically, German
was a second language Mikhail had picked up . . . guess where? In the
prison! He’d learned it from German P.O.W.’s while serving an earlier
stretch at the end of World War II. And now this German invited Mikhail
to share his one-room apartment with a wife and four kids. For an entire
year he slept on the floor by the door. It wasn’t a prison, but the next
thing to it. And really, the NAME-lessness continued. He didn’t know any
fellow Christians. There were no young people he could meet. Where, for
example, would he ever find a wife way out in Siberia? Nobody knew his
name.
Well, hold on to your fur hat. Let me tell you the rest of the story.
Mikhail eventually stumbled onto a little group of Christians in that
same community. “Welcome!” they told him. “Come on in.” And as the introductions
were being made, he noticed a pretty Russian girl. When she heard his
name, though, she turned white, almost in shock. As it turns out, she
had had a dream one night, many months earlier. “You’re going to meet
a man,” she was told. “He’s going to be your husband one day. And his
name: Mikhail Kulakov.”
And here in front of her — a man. With that exact name: Mikhail Kulakov.
True story. They got married. Stalin died and Mikhail’s Siberian banishment
was dropped. He and Anna Kulakov had six children: three boys and three
girls. All six of them are HUGE participants, active players in the Christian
work in Russia today: preaching, doing TV work for the Lord. I’ve met
the family. I’ve met Mikhail and his wife Anna. And you know, I can’t
get over the fact that while this young Christian was in SIBERIA, a million
miles from anywhere, thinking to himself: “I’m so alone; nobody knows
my name,” God was whispering his name, his EXACT name, to a pretty Russian
girl. Setting up one of the most amazing “power couples” in the Body of
Christ in that great land. Unbelievable!
You know, friend, feeling like nobody knows my name isn’t something I
have to worry too much about. Once in a while, when a listener disagrees
with some of our Bible teachings on this program, and writes in to complain,
I wish a few LESS people knew my name! But I know how some of you, right
here on this Wednesday, feel like there’s just nobody in the world who
knows about YOU. You’re a nameless, faceless, almost PERSON-less little
cog in the machinery. Does anybody care?
Well, just keep this Soviet story in mind. When Mikhail was out there
in the furthest, most desolate reaches of the vast Soviet empire, where
NOBODY knew him, not only did God know he was there . . . but his heavenly
Father was actively whispering Mikhail’s name in just the right ear.
There’s a marvelous story in the Bible, kind of a parallel to this one.
We all know how the Children of Israel, after centuries of self-rule,
were allowed by God to be taken captive by the armies of Babylon. Do you
remember the story of Nebuchadnezzar? And of Daniel and the lions’ den,
etc? The three Hebrews in the fiery furnace? You can read a lot of this
in the book of Daniel, of course. Part of the story is also told at the
very end of II Chronicles and the first part of Ezra. Right there in Ezra
chapter one, though, we read how, after the kingdom of Persia stepped
in and defeated BABYLON — which meant that Persia now also ruled over
the captive children of Israel — a king named Cyrus decided to allow some
of the Israelites to return to Jerusalem. This Cyrus had been so impressed
by the godly nature of Daniel that he decided to do this as a goodwill
gesture. The New International Version text notes accurately points out
how most conquering monarchs usually attacked the religions or the cult
gods of the tribes they conquered, but here was a man who respected the
religion of a hero like Daniel.
Interestingly, you can read in the prophetic writings of Isaiah, chapter
45, about King Cyrus doing this. Here’s verse one, and then we’ll skip
down to verse 13:
“This is what the Lord says to His appointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip
kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not
be shut.” Now verse 13: “I will raise up Cyrus in My righteousness: I
will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild My city and set My exiles
free.”
So here’s a Bible prophet predicting that Cyrus will
do this . . . and then, sure enough, Cyrus does it. That’s a wonderful
story — but listen, you don’t know the half of it. Here’s a little “B.C.”
math for us to think about, so get out your calculators. And remember,
we’re counting DOWN. The kingdom of Medo-Persia began in the year 539
B.C. when Cyrus’ armies defeated Belshazzar and Babylon. Remember the
story of the handwriting on the wall? Again, that’s in 539 B.C. And very
shortly after this, perhaps in 538 B.C., Cyrus made the decision to grant
this return to Jerusalem. History tells us that he ruled, by the way,
until 530 B.C.
So what’s the remarkable thing here? Well, look in your study Bible if
you have one, and notice when the prophetic book of Isaiah was written.
Isaiah began his ministry in about 740 B.C., and probably wrote the bulk
of this Old Testament book around 701 B.C. We’re told that he lived until
approximately 681 B.C., and perhaps wrote the last parts of this prophetic
book around those final years, including the verses we just read in chapter
45.
Do you get the significance of this? If he wrote about Cyrus in 681 B.C.
— the latest it could have been — Cyrus himself didn’t come onto the scene
until 539 . . . almost 150 years later! More than a century before he
was even BORN, the Word of God spells out BY NAME who he is, and what
he’s going to do for the people of God. Cyrus is mentioned in the Bible
by name — “I will raise up Cyrus in My righteousness” — a century and
a half before he even shows up.
I remember as a boy reading the old classic entitled The Bible Story by
the late Arthur Maxwell. Some of you remember “Uncle Arthur” and those
beautiful blue books. And he describes a scene that might well have happened,
where Daniel says to his king: “Your Majesty, did you know that the Scriptures
mention you?” And Cyrus says: “They do? No way. Show me where.” What an
incredible thing to read in the sacred Word of God where the King of the
universe says: “King Cyrus is My chosen man” — and you realize it was
written a century before you even arrived at the maternity ward. In her
classic commentary book, Prophets and Kings, E. G. White observes:
“As the king saw the words foretelling, more than a
hundred years before his birth . . . his heart was profoundly moved, and
he determined to fulfill his divinely appointed mission.”
Listen, friend. Don’t EVER think that God doesn’t know
YOUR name. Or that He doesn’t have a plan for you. By the way, when you
read about that plan . . . it’s not a bad idea to go out and do it.
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