Prophecy

by F.L. Evans, Romford | Category: The Holy Scriptures | Sept 1966

To appreciate the importance of prophecy in the Old Testament Scriptures, it is wise to consider briefly the character of the prophets of Israel. They were fearless and forthright men. They boldly rebuked vice of all kinds, denounced idolatry and superstition, and exposed the hollowness of ceremonial and ritual divorced from holiness and mercy. Yet they were conscious of their own weakness and sin, and were prepared to confess it. From whence, then, came their boldness? It stemmed from the fact that they had stood in the immediate presence of God and had received their strict instructions direct from Him. The words they spoke were not theirs alone, but God's. "The word of the LORD came" makes it perfectly clear, yet we are not always told how the prophet actually received the message from God. From Moses onwards (Deuteronomy 18.15) until the advent of Christ, God put His words into their mouths. "The Holy Spirit not only 'spake by the prophets', but guided them in the selection of what they recorded." By this means prophecy is God's revelation of His plans to His people.

There were three distinct aspects of the prophets' messages.

(1)They proclaimed a message to their own age, to the men of their own day. As seers (1 Samuel 9.9) and men of God, they were endowed with divine powers of insight and foresight, speaking to men around them primarily by warnings and encouragements concerning the future.

(2)They predicted future events. God commissioned them to predict them as part of the divine will and purpose, the necessary consequences of His holy and righteous character. Some of the predictions were conditional upon the response of His people to His message through His prophet. Others seem to have a double reference, "first to an immediate fulfilment in the prophet's own time, and then to an event far beyond the prophet's own ken". See Isaiah 40.3, and Mark 1.3; also Hosea 11.1 and Matthew 2.15, as examples.

(3)The prophecies contain a message to succeeding generations, even to our own age. They were the medium of God's revelation of His eternal purpose, ageless in their abiding and unique in their content. They reached their climax in their unfolding of God's redemptive purpose in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world.

Therefore it is well for students of Scripture to keep before them this threefold character of prophetic utterance in the Old Testament. Most people continually think of a prophet as one who foretells or predicts, but this is a limited and inadequate picture. True prophecy has been said to be "eternal truth, stated in a form suited to an immediate occasion". The prophets saw God's hand in the current happenings. They perceived His character and purpose revealed in the events of their time and in the flow of history. "Their great task was to lead to true thinking about God and man, to recall their people to sincere worship, and to exalt righteousness in national, civic and individual life." In this way they were playing their part in unfolding the will of God for His people, and at the same time they were delineating the changeless character and the abiding purposes of the eternal God.

Before we proceed to consider the fulfilment of many Old Testament prophecies in the New Testament times, let us stress an important aspect of the Scriptural presentation of prophecy. Kindred facets of truth on the same subject are presented at different times and in varying circumstances, in diverse portions of Scripture. Let us take, for example, the subject of the Lord's coming to the air for His saints. If one were writing an essay or an article on this vital subject, one would probably endeavour to bring together all the facts of revealed truth connected with it. But this is not the Holy Spirit's method as a general rule. His method of teaching is well stated in Isaiah 28.13:

"The word of the LORD was unto them precept upon

precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon

line; here a little, and there a little."

In John 14.1-3, the Lord Jesus is placing special emphasis on the fact that He was about to leave this world to go to the Father. He would return to fetch His disciples, so in the meantime He would prepare a home for them in His Father's house in heaven. The chief object in 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18 would appear to be to comfort and instruct the disciples, who were distressed because some of their number had passed away and thus would not be alive on earth at the Lord's coming. Therefore, Paul stresses the "togetherness" of the living and the dead at the Rapture. But the same apostle, in 1 Corinthians 15, speaks at length on the theme of the resurrection and ties up with it the distinct, instantaneous and necessary bodily change in the believers when the trumpet sounds. From these and other Scriptures it is thus possible to piece together the revealed truths concerning the Lord's coming, but this divine approach is far removed from methods we normally adopt in presenting such a subject.

This method of presentation of prophecy is also well exemplified by the utterances of the Lord Jesus Christ concerning the manner and circumstances of His death. In true keeping with His being a prophet of the LORD God, He proclaimed a message to the Israel of His day. He clearly predicted future events and revealed the eternal purposes of God. Let us look at the perfect way He gradually built up a full picture of the sad details of His rejection. For this purpose, let us confine ourselves to Matthew's Gospel.

After the incident at Ceasarea Philippi, when Simon Peter made his forthright statement that Jesus was "the Christ, the Son of the living God", Matthew says clearly, "From that time began Jesus to shew unto His disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up" (Matthew 16.21). On this occasion the Lord makes four points plain: (1) The place of His suffering was Jerusalem; (2) the elders and chief priests and scribes would cause Him to suffer; (3) He would be killed; (4) He would be raised up on the third day.

In Matthew 17.22, we read, "Jesus said unto them, The Son of Man shall be delivered up into the hands of men; and they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall be raised up." In addition to what He had stated previously, the Lord makes it clear that He would be delivered into the hands of men who would kill Him. After the prediction in Matthew 16, "Peter took Him, and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from Thee, Lord: this shall never be unto Thee." But after this second announcement the disciples "were exceeding sorry". Some of the truth of the Master's predictions was obviously dawning upon them. The Son of God had spoken twice.

The beloved Master enlightened them still further, as He was going up to Jerusalem. "He took the twelve disciples apart, and in the way He said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and scribes; and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him unto the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify: and the third day He shall be raised up." The disciples then learned that their Master would suffer the indignity of being accounted worthy of being condemned to death, as an evil-doer, and that the Jewish leaders would hand Him over to the Gentiles. These men would cruelly mock and scourge Him, and the manner of His death would be the Roman crucifixion.

In keeping with the Lord's method of teaching by parables, in Matthew 21, He tells the parable of the householder who departed into another country yet wanted to receive the fruits. As a last resort, he sent his son saying, "They will reverence my son". But the husbandmen took him, and cast him forth out of the vineyard and killed him. After a stern denunciation, "Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the Scriptures, 'The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner: This was from the Lord, And it is marvellous in our eyes'?"

The chief priests and the Pharisees "perceived that He spake of them", but fear of the multitudes restrained them from laying hold of Him, the striking reason being that the multitudes "took Him for a prophet". The Lord Jesus had made it abundantly clear that He would be rejected by the builders of the nation of Israel, but God the Father would make Him the "Head of the corner". Cruel

death and triumphant resurrection would be followed by majestic pre-eminence and divine exaltation.

Thus the detailed account of the death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation of the glorious Saviour is gradually but surely predicted, with very little of the essential description omitted. The divine Artist, with His consummate skill and divine foreknowledge, adds touch after touch to the sad canvas, until the masterpiece is completed, both in general form and precise detail. Well may we marvel and adore, as we consider the incomparable Christ, the peerless Prophet!

Now let us consider the subject of the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies in the New Testament. There are different ways of approaching this subject. Probably the more usual approach is to direct attention to proof-texts in the former and their fulfilment in the latter, but let us adopt a slightly different approach and consider three lines of Old Testament predictions. In this way we can concentrate on the broad picture rather than on the details, but always remembering that the complete picture is composed of multitudinous details dovetailed together. A survey of the broad field of Old Testament history and prophecy in the light thrown back upon it by the Christian revelation, emphasizes the "grandeur of God's redemptive scheme". The golden thread of the Messianic hope provides the key to the understanding of divine revelation. Quite clearly set forth are three distinct and basic characteristics of the Messiah: He was very God; He was truly Man; He was a suffering Saviour.

He was very God. "The government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9.6). Intimately acquainted with the counsels of God through all eternity, He is God, the mighty One, one with the Father from everlasting. He became Immanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7.14). A comparison of Isaiah 40.3 and Matthew 3.3, indicates that He was the Lord, or the Old Testament LORD (Jehovah). Other references point Him out as the eternal Son, eternal King, and eternal Creator.

He was truly Man. The prophecies concerning His birth are strikingly detailed and exact. He was first pointed out to be the seed of the woman (Genesis 3.15), and later the seed-line narrows through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah. Later predictions portray Him as "a shoot out of the stock of Jesse", and God swore unto David, His servant, making a covenant with him,

"Thy Seed will I establish for ever,

And build up thy throne to all generations" (Psalm 89.4). This obviously refers to the Christ who "abideth for ever" and whose kingdom has no end. Though conceived of the Holy Spirit, He was to be born of a virgin (1saiah 7.14), signifying the divine power and the divine purity with which He was to be brought into the world hundreds of years after the promise was made. As

if to make the matter plain beyond all doubt, His very birthplace was selected by God - Bethlehem (Micah 5.2). As Dr Pierson suitably expressed it, "The prophet puts his finger on one obscure village on the map of the world; but he speaks infallibly, for the omniscient God was behind his utterance". This very Child grew up to be a man, eating and drinking, walking and talking, sleeping and waking, weeping and crying, becoming weary and tired, feeling sadness and gladness, experiencing pain and death, as we do. But He remained sinless, holy and pure throughout His entire life He knew no sin!

He was a suffering Saviour. From the Messianic Psalms and Isaiah's prophecy, we receive a very vivid picture of the sufferings of the Christ. He was to be rejected, despised, stricken, smitten, afflicted, wounded, bruised, chastised, sorrowful, scourged, grief-stricken, betrayed, and slaughtered. In His trial He would display a dignified silence; in His forsaking He would cry urgently to His God; in His thirst, He would exclaim, "I thirst"; in His death He would bear the sin of many; in His triumph the Lord's pleasure would prosper. Ml these and other prophecies came true explicitly and exactly! It is therefore evident that they came not by the will of man; but "men spake 'from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit". "The occurrence of such detailed prediction is perfectly 'at home' in the general picture of prophecy as the Bible reveals it." The New Testament confirms and authenticates the Old Testament.

F.L. Evans, Romford | Sept 1966
The Holy Scriptures