Prophets and Prophecy
1. Introduction
misconceptions:
Prophecy = foretelling, future predictions
definition:
Prophecy = forth-telling, i.e., proclaiming and declaring God's word and God's will; includes
proclaiming judgment, call to repentance, hope, encouragement, etc.
purpose:
Prophecy applies covenant conditions from law to contemporary times and conditions; enforces God's
covenant.
scope:
Prophecy is the most common OT genre, written 8th - 5th century B.C.
prophetic ministry:
The prophet is called (sometimes unwilling) to proclaim God's message revealed to prophet by
Holy Spirit; served as "covenant enforcers"; spoke God's message, not their own
means of revelation:
Prophecy occurred under direct supervision of God, at God's command; given by means of
dreams, visions, words, signs, object lessons, inspired sanctified insight, miracles
means of communication:
Often it was preached in sermons as oracles to the people; collected, written down, and arranged into
books
genre and form:
It is often in poetic or semi-poetic style, sometimes in narrative; rich use of literary devices and
forms
difficulties:
It is an unfamiliar genre to us; few textual junctures or transitions; few explanations of passages
2. Covenant relationship between prophecy and Scripture:
The Promise [Abraham] (Gen 12) |
The Law [Moses, 13th cent. B.C.] (Exodus, Deut., etc.) |
The Prophets [8th - 5th cent. B.C.] |
New Testament [Jesus] |
promise & blessing |
curses blessings |
judgment, doom promise, hope | Jesus fulfills the covenant, takes curses upon himself |
covenant made with Abraham, thru which all nations are to be blessed | covenant expanded to whole nation of Israel |
points to future expansion of covenant to Gentiles; enforce covenant and point out people's failure to keep the covenant |
gospel to be carried to whole world; provision made for the covenant's requirements |
3. Fulfillment:
The great majority of OT prophecy was non-predictive. And only 8% of OT prophecy contained long-term predictions, as follows1:
Fulfillment of prophecy may be short term (a few years or decades), or spanning centuries, or long term (end times). Fulfillment may sometimes be complicated, as with the messianic prophecies of the suffering Messiah and the triumphant Messiah (to be fulfilled in two comings). Some prophecies may not be fulfilled by a one-time event, but may take years or even many centuries for their full fulfillment to occur. For example, Peter in Acts 2 quotes a prophecy from Joel 2:28-32; its fulfillment began that day, but its fulfillment still continues and won't be finished until Jesus' second coming (the end of the age). Daniel's vision of the world's kingdoms and God's kingdom (Dan. 2) began its fulfillment in Daniel's lifetime, which continues today until Jesus returns.
Fulfillment of messianic prophecy is not always direct ("literal") fulfillment. The apostolic writers often took messianic prophecy in figurative ways as well. For example, Matthew quotes many OT passages that Jesus fulfilled. Many aspects of Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection were direct fulfillments of OT prophecies that directly predicted those events. But Matthew 4:15 cites Jesus' return from Egypt as fulfillment of Hosea 11:1. But Hosea 11 is about Israel coming out of Egypt during the Exodus, and says nothing about the Messiah. And Matthew 4:17-18 takes Herod's slaughter of the infants as a "fulfillment" of the passage from Jeremiah 31:15 about Rachel weeping, though the Jeremiah passage is not messianic.
Thus, these prophecies are not fulfilled in any direct manner, but in analogical or allegorical ways. The apostles took these OT events or passages as types, which Jesus fulfilled figuratively. They served as analogies or allegories that prefigured the events of Jesus' life. In fact, only 1/3 of New Testament references to Jesus and prophecy are fulfilled directly. The rest are indirect fulfillments.
4. Understanding prophecy:
In order to understand prophetic passages well, observe the following guidelines2:
5. Chronology of OT prophets3
The prophets can be grouped in three time periods, and put into chronological order generally as follows:
Relative chronology
Dates are in B.C. and are approximate.
Israel | united kingdom / Judah | ||
1105 | Samuel born | ||
kingdom divided | 930 | ||
Elijah | 875-848 | ||
Elisha | 848-797 | ||
Jonah | 785-775 | ||
Amos | 760-750 | 740-761 | Isaiah |
Hosea | 750-715 | c. 750-686 | Micah |
fall of northern kingdom to Assyria | 722 | 640-609 | Zephaniah |
626-585 | Jeremiah | ||
c. 600-610 | Habakkuk, Nahum | ||
605-585? | Obadiah | ||
586 | fall of Jerusalem to Babylon | ||
593-571 | Ezekiel | ||
605-530 | Daniel | ||
538 | first group returns to Jerusalem | ||
520 | Haggai | ||
520-480 | Zechariah | ||
458 | second group returns to Jerusalem | ||
5th century? | Joel (?) | ||
440-430 | Malachi | ||
432 | third group returns to Jerusalem |