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:

  1. Understand the proper function of prophecy.
  2. Understand the prophet's goal — the particular message he is trying to communicate.
  3. Understand the historical background in which the prophet is speaking or writing.
  4. Understand the limits of their prophesying. The prophet speaks only what God has revealed to him. Thus, he may foresee future events, but not their time sequence or relationships.
    (Hence, confusion existed over the two prophesied aspects of the Messiah, and the prophets didn't know about two messianic comings; cf. 1 Peter 1:10-12.) Pay attention to the order and arrangement of passages and oracles in a prophetic book. These indicate something about the prophet's goals and message. E.g., Isaiah 1-39 presents oracles of judgment, followed by oracles of hope and promise in 40-66.
  5. What does the prophecy say about God? Remember, prophecy is focused primarily on God and His doings, rather than on just the events.
  6. How is the prophecy fulfilled? Fulfillment may be short or long term, and may be simple or complicated.
  7. If necessary, refer to outside help (commentaries, study Bibles, scholars, etc.) for information these various points.
  8. Apply the prophet's message to your own life. Find what principles the prophet teaches, and how to apply them today.


5. Chronology of OT prophets3

The prophets can be grouped in three time periods, and put into chronological order generally as follows:

  1. Prophets of the Neo-Assyrian period
    1. Jonah
    2. Amos
    3. Hosea
    4. Micah
    5. Isaiah
  2. Prophets of the Neo-Babylonian period
    1. Zephaniah
    2. Habakkuk
    3. Jeremiah (includes Lamentations)
    4. Nahum
    5. Ezekiel
    6. Obadiah
  3. Prophets of the Persian period
    1. Daniel (exilic and Persian)
    2. Haggai
    3. Zechariah
    4. Joel
    5. Malachi

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



1 From lecture notes from Dr. Ken Cuffey's course in OT Intro at the Christian Studies Center.
2 Based on lecture notes from Dr. Ken Cuffey's course in OT Intro at the Christian Studies Center.
3 Based on Bullock's Intro to OT Prophets.