Handling OT Prophecy

Taken from a longer session on Isaiah given at Schloss Mittersil, Austria, 2007 

To begin our week I want to think widely about Old Testament prophecy. What is Old Testament Prophecy? Why should we read it today? Can we in fact read it today? Is it relevant to us, and if so how? After all it was written a long time ago to very different situations, so in what sense is it applicable to us?

Exercise: 

Who do we mean when we talk about Old Testament prophets? What do we expect them to say and do?

• “former prophets” in Hebrew scriptures – Joshua, judges, 1 +2 Samuel, 1+2 Kings, “latter prophets” Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Minor prophets
• Abraham – the first person so described (Gen 20:7). Abimelech noting that God is with him
• Aaron – said to be the prophet of Moses to Pharoah (Ex.7:1) given because of Moses poor public speaking. Ie he was the spokesperson. Moses was like God to pharaoh and Aaron was the prophet
• Miriam – leads the people in proclaiming the triumph of the Lord (Ex 15:20), described as prophetess
• So far, the prophet is with God, speaking for God and representing him, proclaiming the acts and triumph of God
• Moses – the OT prophet par excellance. Nobody else saw God face to face (Read Deut 34:10). Moses not described as prophet until Deut 18:15-22 (read it). Promising that the prophetic office wouldn’t end with him but would lead to a glorious successor, Moses says that the prophet stands between the people and God to bring the word of God. He spoke the words of God for the people of God, to go hand in hand with the wonders of God
• The next named prophet is Samuel, also acting as judge and kingmaker. Declaring God’s purposes and being an agent of those purposes to bring about God’s rule
• The judge function of the prophets becomes clearer and clearer as the nation, then the two kingdoms, turns its back on God and sides into apostasy. Elijah and Elisha become the representatives of Yahweh in spiritual conflict. Prophet in conflict with false prophet represents God in conflict with idols and false gods. The frequent refrain is “who is God? Who is speaking the true words of God? Who is speaking falsely from God (either deliberately or self-decieved) and therefore is not a prophet compared with who is truly revealing what God says. The prophetic challenge is combined with wonders to demonstrate the reality of God and the need to return to him
• Interestingly the prophets also go to the Gentiles. When the drought comes over the land in 1Kings 17, God sends Elijah to a widow in Zaraphath, works miracles for her food supply and raises her son from the dead. Do you remember that Jesus goes to a gentile village called Nain and raises a boy from the dead? Guess where Nain is? Zaraphath! The only big thing that had ever happened in Nain was Elijah. Moses promised another great prophet and Jesus goes and "does an Elijah" there. What do you think that the people in Nain thought about Jesus? He is the prophet! Israel is turning its back on God and God’s purposes but God is going to show grace to the world.
• So Elijah and Elisha go to the Gentiles. The people of God were meant to be a light to the nations. By this point they are already failing to be so, but the prophets are still being faithful and still demonstrating the purposes of God and the best that the people of God should be
• The writing prophets. Cover the whole period from the accelerating decline of the divided kingdom to the end of the OT period. The vital thing to remember is that the message of each is closely linked with the events that were occurring at the time and the people that were involved. It is God commenting on, directing, opposing, judging. Goldsworthy notes three main features of each:

• Stinging accusation and indictment, often as a woe, a prophetic oracle of judgement. Usually of breaking the covenant
• Warning of consequences, judgement that has already come and judgement that is still to come
• Reminders of God’s covenant faithfulness. He will bring his purposes about whether the people repent and are included or continue in apostasy and are excluded. And it is this sense of God fulfilling his purposes that contains all the positive oracles, the promises of restoration

• In addition there are a large number of unnamed prophets. In Judges 6 the people cry out for rescue from Midian and God sends a prophet to say “I told you not to worship other God’s but you didn’t listen.” The prophet revealing that the oppression by Midian is really the work of God. We can think of others like the school of the prophets that seemed to be operating from Samuel at least through to Elisha.
• And there are named prophets who have a significant ministry, even if we only meet them briefly, such as Nathan and Gad. Nathan is a good example of how the prophetic word relates to specific situations. God used him to confront David after the incident with Bathsheba, to call him to repentance. And unlike most times when the prophet does that for Israel, he does repent. But it wouldn’t make any sense to apply the prophecy directly to us today without reflecting on the immediate situation that it was addressing. Remember that when we get to Isaiah, because the events are not quite as easy to track, but they are vital for understanding.
• And we might want to say that John the Baptist is the last Old Testament prophet. Jesus says in Matthew 11:10 that is was a prophet and more, the heralding messenger who prepares the way for the Lord. And then, fascinatingly he says that John is the greatest person born to that point because he was the herald, the Elijah to come. The law and the prophets prophecied until John. But now the least in the Kingdom is greater because the one to whom he pointed, the son of man, has now come.

The Conscience of King and Nation 

Goldsworthy has a nice phrase. He says that the prophets were “the conscience of king and nation.” Let me try to summarise some of what these godly consciences do in the life of king and nation:

They were common. The prophetic ministry was well understood. People knew who they were, what they did and why they did it. There was no mistaking the prophet speaking the words of God. If people didn’t obey it wasn’t because they didn’t know a word came from God

They highlighted events of particular significance in the sweep of salvation history and brought God’s word to bear, often battling the forces of apostasy. This means that they show what God thinks is significant. The things they comment on might not be obviously humanly significant. Eg. In Deut 7:7-8 Moses says “God didn’t set his affections on Israel and choose them because they were significant." Humanly speaking they were very insignificant. But God chose and that makes them significant. Or take the incarnation. A baby being born to a peasant girl in a stable is not humanly speaking very significant. From a God’s eye view it ranks as one of the most significant events of all time. But we are reliant on God to reveal that. Whether it seems a big thing or not is irrelevant. What is relevant is how an event relates to God’s saving purposes

Related to this the prophets highlight people, events and behaviour particularly connected to God’s plans to save and judge. They reveal how God evaluates and responds to events (either before or after they happen) in order to bring about his purposes. They are at a definite point on the timeline of God’s story and they comment on that time, bringing the word of the Lord.

Therefore when we come to teach OT prophets our points of application must, in some way, relate to the particular historical settings of the original prophecy. Without that process there is no guarantee that our applications are controlled by original meaning and therefore can be random, driven by intuition or personal preference alone. “What is a prophecy for in its original setting?” is our primary interpretive question. And also our primary difficulty, because it isn’t always easy to immediately see where a prophecy comes in God’s sweep. Background is crucial because it tells us whether we have the same relationship to the prophetic message as the original hearers did

Called Back to the Covenant 

The prophets almost always call people back to the covenant that God made with them at Sinai. In other words back to the revelation of God through the chief prophet, Moses, of how God is going to exercise his covenant rule over his people. And in doing so they often reflect on the last part of the covenant which is promises of blessings for those who obey and curses for those who disobey. Deut 27-30. Read Deut 28:1-2; 15; 30:15-18

This says what happens if you obey, what happens if you disobey. It was really very clear with no room for mistakes.

The prophet therefore interprets events in their day in the light of the covenant. Is this thing obedience to the covenant or disobedience? Will it lead to blessings or curses? Are the people living in redemption or rebellion? They mediate the covenant, proclaiming from God grace for those who obey and judgement for those who don’t. There is always that combination of grace and judgement. And at points where the nation is on the up in godliness there is more grace than judgement, and when it is in decline it is the opposite

As the nation slips further into apostasy and idolatry and the kingdom disintegrates after Solomon’s apostasy, the balance changes. In the first half of Isaiah there is a lot of judgement and hints of grace. By the time we get to Isaiah the balance has moved from judgement and grace to mostly “God WILL bring final judgement and salvation in ways that show the triumph of his righteousness, DESPITE the rebellion of his people.”

Looking Back, Looking Forwards 

Therefore when the prophets reveal what God will do in the future, those future prophecies are closely linked with what God has done in the past, especially through Abraham, Moses and David. If you like, a lot of their preaching is pattern preaching. They say “this is our God, this is how he acted, this was the covenant he made with us, therefore this is how he will act in the future in response to obedience or disobedience.” Sometimes those future predictions are very specific, but they always relate to God’s large purposes in history to save, to judge, to bring in the kingdom, to vindicate his name, to redeem a people and to display his glory.

You might say that in OT prophecy there is a looking back in order to look forward:

Jesus Deliberately Fulfilling Prophecy 

Have you ever noticed Jesus in John 1-7 fulfilling all that?

• In John 1 he is the new creation – in the beginning was the word

He is the new tabernacle or temple – the word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us

He is the new Moses with the greater revelation. Through Moses came the Law, through Christ came grace and truth

He is the new lamb of God, the new Passover, who takes away the sin of the world

He is the new way to God. He tells Nathanael “you will see heaven opened and angels ascending and descending on the son of Man” – ie he is the new Bethel as in Jacob’s dream, the house of God and gate of heaven

And then it starts to get really interesting:

• John 2, the turning of water into wine. Jesus fulfils the old requirement of ceremonial washing water and replaces it with the best wine of the kingdom. He clears the temple, declaring I will demolish it and replace it

• John 3, he says “the prophetic promise of a new covenant and new heart in Ez.36 are in me”. The way you get clean and right with God is the new covenant

• John 4 he is greater than Jacob who gave the well. He gives living water to Samaritans

• John 5 the lame are healed on the Sabbath and he says “I am equal with God, I am greater than the Sabbath, life now comes from hearing my word and Moses wrote about me when he was talking about the great prophet.”

• John 6 at the time of the Passover Jesus feeds people in the desert. At the time f the crossing of the Red Sea he walks on water, proclaiming his name “I am”. He tells them that Moses didn’t give the real manna, that he is the true bread from heaven. And still they don’t get it. How obvious does it have to be?

• John 7 is the real humdinger. All the prophetic expectation, he claims to fulfil. And finally the people ask “is this the Christ?” And he divides people into those who believe and those who don’t. Covenant obedience or covenant curses come to their great conclusion in how people respond to Jesus. John 3:36 – those who believe have life, those who don’t are already judged. The great promise for those who hear and follow is the giving of the Holy Spirit in fulfilment of Ezekiel 36 and elsewhere.
  

In Christ it is Always More! 

So the prophets are looking forward to what God is going to do in Christ, and it is always MORE. More glory to come, more judgement to come. The nation may be in decline due to sin, but God’s promises don’t fail. He will have a glorious people redeemed from sin. They take what God has said and done in his acts and in the Sinai covenant and project it into the future as the pattern of the coming glorious, everlasting reality. They are asking “what is the endpoint of all that God is doing here?”

When we come to think about application we will think about three things:

• What is God doing at the time of Isaiah?
• What is God’s comment on his acts and on the situation then?
• What is the trajectory Isaiah sees from his contemporary situation to how God will act ion the future?

Spokesmen for Their Time, Signposts for the Future 

The prophets are God’s spokesmen for their time. They verbalise and apply the things of God for the sake of building the kingdom. But more than that, they are pointers, shadows, illustrations, signposts and promises of what God is going to do in Jesus. He is the substance and sum of all their prophetic expectation.

Lets finish with 3 new testament controls on how we interpret the prophets:

• 2 Cor 1:20 says “for no matter how many promises God as made, they are yes in Christ. And so through him the amen is spoken by us to the glory of God. So when we are reading them we are meant to be saying yes and amen to God in Christ, because that brings glory to God
• Acts 3:17-26. God raised prophets, and promised the prophet for the blessing of the world and to turn us from wicked ways. When we are reading it should make us turn our hearts in repentance and faith to him and empower us for world missions
• Romans 3:21. A righteousness from God is revealed, apart from law, but to which the law and the prophets testify. As we read the woeful story of apostasy of God’s people and God’s promises of salvation and judgement, we should rejoice that it tells us about God sending a redeemer who is our salvation, our righteousness and our wisdom from God. Rejoice in his grace and delight ourselves in the Lord

Exercise:

Reading: Deut.26:16-30:20

What should these chapters lead us to expect to hear from later prophets as they bring the word of God to his people?

Quickly read John 1-7 (or Matthew 1-4). Note down anything you find abut Jesus being the fulfilment of Old Testament prophetic expectations