Hermeneutics - Lesson 18

Well, the next biblical literary genre that I want to look at is prophecy. So far, we have looked at narrative and we have looked at the Law, and it was important to look at the Law before we look at prophecy, and I hope to make that clear in terms of why that is the case. 

About one-fifth of the Bible is prophetic material. Of course, you might be thinking, “Isn’t all the Bible prophetic?” Yes, it is. All the Bible is prophetic, in one sense. But one-fifth of it is the literary genre of prophecy. And when I’m talking about prophecy here, I’m really thinking about the Major Prophets of the Old Testament and the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. 

We often think prophecy is prediction of the future and I want to disabuse you of that notion. It is not only prediction of the future. Prophecy is not mostly prediction of the future. Prophecy is almost never prediction of the future. But there are some places where prophecy is prediction of the future. And so, keeping that in mind, that most of prophecy is not prediction of the future, I want to give you three reasons why prediction of the future might be important. 

The first reason is this: God tells us the future to vindicate his exclusive claims to deity. When God tells us what is going to happen then that proves that he is God. And we know that’s the case because he says so and he would at times challenge the idols of the Old Testament through his prophets to do likewise. 

So for example, in Isaiah chapter 41:21-23 [recte and 28-29], we read, 

“‘Set forth your case,’ says the Lord; ‘bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob. Let them bring them, and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come. Tell us what is to come hereafter that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed or terrified. But when I look, there is no one; among these there is no counselor who, when I ask, gives an answer. Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind.’” 

So in this passage, God, through the prophet, is chiding the idols, the false gods. And what’s the basis of his argument? Only God can tell the future. If you were truly a god, you would be able to predict the future. But you can’t, so, you are not. So that’s number one. 

Number two: to show us a future reality that has already invaded the present. If you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are a new creature, according to 2 Corinthians 5:17, and you have received the power of the age to come. We are, as it were, as New Covenant followers of Jesus, we are situated with our feet in two worlds simultaneously. On the one hand, we live in this present evil age, but on the other hand we are dwellers of the kingdom that is to come. And so, in that very difficult warning passage of Hebrews 6:4-5, we do read this, 

“It is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come.” 

How do we know what this age to come will be like? There is prediction of it in prophecy. 

We have received of the Holy Spirit who is the promise of future power that was prophesied in Ezekiel 36:26, when he said, 

“I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” 

God has performed a work now in you that will be consummated in the future and prediction of the future tells us what that will be like. 

And then third: prediction of the future is important in biblical prophecy to show us a future reality that will shape and direct our present course of life. In knowing the future, if we know the future, we can adjust the values and shape of our lives now as we move toward the future. That is, after all, our destiny. 

One of the habits of highly successful people is to start with the end in mind. And the point there is, “Where do I want to be? I should move in that direction now.” Well, from a Christian perspective, we would say, not just where do I want to be but, “Where am I most certainly going to be? Why would I go in a different direction now?” Just move into your destiny. Rise and fulfill your destiny, that’s what Zeus told Perseus in Clash of the Titans, that wonderfully theological movie. 

So, 2 Peter 3 reads this way. Verse 11, 

“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people are you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” 

Your destiny is to dwell not on this old creation, but in the new creation, the new heavens and the new earth. So, move in that direction now. Live in a manner that enables you to dwell well where you will always be. Basically, if this is what life will be like then, our life now should be moving in that direction. 

Okay, that’s why prediction of the future is important to. Let me reiterate, prediction of the future is not what the majority of biblical prophecy is. Maybe you came from a tradition where you went to church and there would be prophecy conferences and the prophecy conference would be all about the end times. Well, I guess that’s true to some degree, but when we’re thinking about biblical literary genre, that’s more eschatology, not prophecy—not prophecy. And when I’m thinking about prophecy again, I’m thinking about the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament, from Isaiah to Malachi. 

Axiom #17: Prophecy is direct discourse from God to man mediated through the prophet. That’s my definition of what prophecy is. And I think that works well in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. So, prophecy in the Old Testament, it’s what it is in the New Testament. By wording it that way, what I’m suggesting is that we don’t change the definition of prophecy when we go from Old Testament to New Testament. 

So, what did the prophet do? The prophet spoke to the people the word of God. It was direct discourse. To disobey or disbelieve the prophet was the same as disobeying or disbelieving God because the prophet was literally speaking the word of God yet it is mediated through the prophet. That is, Isaiah sounded like Isaiah and Jeremiah sounded like Jeremiah. Does this sound like inspiration? It should, because all of the biblical authors, as inspired authors, are prophets. 

The prophet was one in the Old Testament especially, someone who was called by God. And the major stress then is on the involvement of God and the revelatory nature of the prophet’s message. It’s God who is speaking to the people. These are not wise men, necessarily. These are not people with cool religious insight. These are people who are speaking like the mouthpiece of God. Yet just like inspiration, it’s mediated through their personalities and through their thought process. 

Axiom #18. This is hugely important if you want to understand the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets. The prophet was more of a forth-teller than a foreteller. The prophet was more of a forth-teller than a foreteller. A foreteller would be someone who predicted the future. That happens occasionally, but again, not very often. More often than not, the prophet is a forth-teller, someone who is revealing things of God, but not necessarily things of the future. 

Whenever a prophet foretold the future, that was usually to strengthen and assist his forth-telling. The prophet’s major role as a forth-teller was that of a messenger sent from God to call the people back to the covenant. They had a ministry that was more rebuking than it was encouragement. That’s what I mean by forth-telling. 

The prophet received and communicated revelation from God and they were not social revolutionaries. They were not progressives. They decried societal sins but it was always as a means to an end to get people back to the covenant, calling them back to the day when they ratified the covenant, when they wanted to be the people of God, when they wanted to obey him. They’re more conservative than they are progressive. They were more for reformation than for innovation. They wanted to preserve the tradition that was manifest in the covenants. And so, as such, the Torah and the covenants are central to the Prophet. 

It’s almost as if—and this is not the case—but it’s almost as if the prophet didn’t need to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. It’s almost as if the prophet could have had the Torah, the Mosaic Covenant open in front of them and seen this is what we’re supposed to do, and then open up a newspaper of the day and see, “Oh, this is what we’re actually doing.” And then go back to the Torah and say, “Oh, this is what God said would happen if we didn’t keep the covenant.” And then turn around to the people and say, “You are not obeying the covenant and this is what is going to happen.” 

Now the prophet was inspired by God, but that’s basically the message. “This is what we said we would do. This is what we’re doing. This is what God said he would do to us if we don’t obey. We’ve got to obey or this is going to happen.” That’s the basic prophet message. And therefore, the Torah and the covenants are central. 

Deuteronomy 28, as I mentioned earlier, a hugely important chapter in the Bible because it tells us what God will do to bless the people of Israel for their obedience and what God will do to curse the people for their disobedience. 

And so, listen to the words of Amos 4 and compare that to Deuteronomy 28, 

“‘Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, “Bring that we may drink!” The Lord God has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks. And you shall go out through the breaches, each one straight ahead; and you shall be cast into Harmon,’ declares the Lord.” 

That’s almost verbatim from Deuteronomy 28, the curses that will come upon Israel for their disobedience. How inspired did Amos have to be to come up with that? 

Now, again, full disclosure, he was totally inspired. That was the Holy Spirit speaking through him. But I’m just trying to impress upon you how the prophets acted more like prosecuting attorneys than as progressives who are trying to build a better place. 

Fee and Stuart who have written some really good books on how to interpret the Bible. They say there’s six general categories of blessings that we find in the Old Testament: life, health, prosperity, agricultural abundance, respect, and safety. Then there are ten types of punishment that we find in the Old Testament, and they’re all in Deuteronomy 28. And these are great because they illiterate: death, disease, drought, dearth, danger, destruction, defeat, deportation, destitution, and disgrace. They go on to say that these are the categories in which the prophets worked. It’s the grist of the prophetic mill. 

What’s the nature of the prophetic message? Well, I’ve been telling you. The basic misunderstanding of the Major Prophets and Minor Prophets is that we usually think that it’s all about prediction of the future. But most of the Major and Minor Prophets is not prediction of the future. Less than 2% of the Major prophets and Minor Prophets is messianic. Less than 5% relates to the New Covenant age. And if you’re looking to the Major Prophets and Minor Prophets to find prediction of something that is future still for us, good luck. Because less than 1% of it concerns events that are still future to us. 

And maybe that’s why so many people are confused about the Major and Minor Prophets. They open it up expecting to find prediction of the future, whereas most of it is not. Most of the future prophecies that we find in the prophets are related to the immediate future concerning Israel. Even these prophecies were part of the larger message of the prophets and their major purpose is always to call the nation of Israel back to God. And they use prediction of the future as a threat and a warning. This is what’s going to happen. 

So, Axiom # 19: The key to understanding the prophetic genre, the Major Prophets and Minor Prophets, is understanding the covenants, particularly the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, and the New Covenants. And then Deuteronomy 28, which are the promises of blessing for obedience, cursing for disobedience. Deuteronomy chapter 30, where there is written into the Old Covenant provision for God to do something new. He says in Deuteronomy 30 that when all of these curses have come upon you…” not if, but when. “When all these curses come upon you and you find yourself with the mother of all curses listed in Deuteronomy 28, which is exile, this is what you do – you repent and turn to the Lord. And when you do that, God will gather you back, he will restore you, he will bring an end to exile.” And then a couple verses later, he says, “And then one day, God will circumcise your hearts.” 

Unfortunately for Israel at that point, they haven’t even gone into the Promised Land yet. They haven’t experienced any of the blessing. They haven’t experienced any of the cursing. They haven’t gone into exile. They haven’t come back yet. And so, this promise of a circumcision of the heart is way off in the future for them. But I would argue that there, codified into the Old Covenant, is provision for a newer and better covenant. Because the problem with the Old Covenant was never the Law of God. The problem with the Old Covenant, was the party that God made that covenant with. 

And so, God, in order to make a covenant that his people can keep, he has to change his people. And that’s the promise of Deuteronomy 30. 

And then another key biblical text for understanding the prophets is Jeremiah 18. But we’ll talk about that in a moment.