1: THE PROPHETIC MINISTRY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
Various approaches have been taken to the Old Testament prophets. They have been the subjects of intense scholarly scrutiny. The rise of liberalism in the nineteenth century in particular witnessed a re-evaluation of their role within Israel and Judah. George Adam Smith praised his tutor, Andrew Davidson, for having taught Smith and his colleagues in New College that the prophets had 'times' -- previously the prophets had been regarded as vague predictors whose predictions ranged over 'illimitable futures', with no real message for the people of their day. On the other hand, Smith detected in Davidson a desire to ground the prophetic narratives directly in the historical circumstances, which gave the prophets birth. The modern view of the prophets as social commentators can be said to have developed in the nineteenth century. Professor S.R. Driver in 1891 stated that
The prophets, one and all, stand in an intimate relation to the history of their times. Whatever be the truth, which they announce, it is never presented by them in an abstract form; it is always brought into some relation with the age in which they live, and adapted to the special circumstances of the persons whom they address. Of course, the principles which the prophets assert are frequently capable of a much wider range of application; their significance is not exhausted when they have done their work in the prophet's own generation; but still his primary interest is in the needs of his own age
(Quoted in Bray, Biblical Interpretation, Past and Present, p312).
This shows us the seriousness with which critical students of Scripture have taken the prophetic narratives of the Old Testament. William Robertson Smith, for example, could say that
Of all the monuments of Israel's history, the most precious by far to the critical student are the Old Testament prophecies, witnessing as they do to the inner life of the noblest and truest Israelites, representing at once the purest religious conceptions and the deepest national feelings which these ages could show.
(WRS 'On the Question of Prophecy', quoted in Bediako, Primal Religion and the Bible, p255)
But even granting the importance of the prophets to critical interpretation of Scripture, the approach of the critical school has been far from satisfactory. Literary criticism has sought to distinguish 'authentic' passages of prophetic literature from 'inauthentic' passages, and textual criticism has sought to highlight the apparent corruptions which have entered the text in its transmission. There has also been an interest in the psychological aspect of prophetic 'ecstasy', and the extent to which the prophets were aware of what they were actually prophesying.
All of these are legitimate fields of study for evangelical students of Scripture. However, for those who accept the unity, authority and finality of Scripture, we must allow our views of Old Testament prophecy to be coloured by the teaching of the New Testament and the nature of the Scriptures.
WHY SHOULD WE STUDY THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS?
Do they not belong to a closed era of revelation? Do they have any relevance for us now at all? To quote from one article downloaded from the Internet -- is Old Testament prophecy "A playground for fanatics or green pastures for disciples?" This article, by David R. Reagan of Lion and Lamb Ministries, suggests six reasons why study of the prophets is important:
1) As validator of Scripture -- there is apologetic value in fulfilled prophecy for presenting the Gospel to unbelievers;
2) As validator of Jesus -- literal fulfilment of prophecy authenticates Christ's deity;
3) As revealer of the future -- there are things which God wants us to know about coming events;
4) As a tool of evangelism -- the apostles, for example, referred to the prophets in the dissemination of the gospel;
5) As a tool of moral teaching -- the prophets' call to repentance and to social action, and their highlighting moral principles, are still valid today;
6) As a generator of Spritual growth -- holy living in obedience to God's word is as important to us today as it was to the prophets long ago.
Possibly the greatest reason for studying the Old Testament prophets is that the church of God is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2), with Jesus Christ himself as the head corner stone. The prophetic ministry of the Old Testament anticipated the apostolic ministry of the New, which lays the foundation for the continued work and witness of the church in every age and generation until Christ comes again. So Peter writes his second epistle (2 Peter 3:1ff) "that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour". The content of both prophetic and apostolic teaching is therefore of great importance for the growth of the church and the preparation of the church for the last days.
(1) New Testament views of Old Testament prophecy
Hebrews 1:1-4 God who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
This passage shows that the prophetic ministry was the means by which God communicated his mind and will to men in the Old Testament period. The prophecy came to men at different times, and it came in different way. It was authoritative, but at no point was the method of revelation definitive, and it was not final. No one could say to any of the Old Testament prophets that theirs was the definitive method of revelation, or that theirs was the final message of revelation. There was always more to be said, and it could be said in various ways. The writer to the Hebrews argues that there is continuity and discontinuity across the Testaments -- the same God has spoken to us in Christ, but now the final word in its definitive form has been delivered.
The importance of the passage is that it shows that what was gradual and continuing in the Old Testament, is now final and definitive in the New. Jesus has come. God has spoken once and for all in Christ, and no new revelation is necessary. Jesus is the last word to a lost world. For this reason, the Bible can describe us as living in 'these last days', and can use this phrase to describe the whole interadvental period -- the period between Jesus' first coming and his second.
There is a sense, therefore, in which the prophets of the Old Testament fulfilled the same function which Christ fulfills now, only the conditions are different. Jesus is the great prophet, whose word is final.
2 Peter 1:21 ...prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Peter's at this point is arguing for the authentication of Scripture. He takes us back to the Mount of Transfiguration, and to the voice which he heard, and the glory he saw. More sure than this, he argues, is the divinely ordained and inspired revelation of the Scriptures, which are the outbreathing of God. What the Bible is to us, the prophets were to the Old Testament church. The prophets never spoke by a word which grew merely out of their own reasoning or their own appraisal of the events of their day. They were holy men who were carried as they spoke by the Holy Spirit. The idea is that they were 'ferried', carried and borne along, so that they moved within the sphere of the Spirit's influence. The important point here is that there were times when they did not so speak. But when they spoke as the mouthpiece of God, they were carried and they spoke with power.
Matthew Henry, in his Introduction to his Commentary on Isaiah, describes the role of the prophets in this way: "Before the sacred canon of the Old Testament began to be written there were prophets, who were instead of Bibles to the Church". The New Testament teaches us to regard the prophets of the Old as being 'instead of Bibles'; they were the means by which God spoke to them, as he speaks to us through the printed word of Scripture.
Luke 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
The interesting thing here is that the two on the road to Emmaus named Jesus as a Prophet (v19). In this passage, therefore, the Prophet handles and expounds the prophets. Jesus gives us here an example of rightly dividing the prophetic works of the Old Testament, and demonstrates that He Himself was the subject of all prophetic inquiry. Jesus is the key to Scripture, as he is the key to human history. 1 Peter 1:10-11 make the same point: "Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating, when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow". In other words, the Spirit of God bore witness through the OT prophets of the coming Saviour, of His suffering and consequent glory, the story of which stands at the heart of the Gospel. What the prophets saw by looking forward, we see by looking back, the faith of the prophets and our faith travelling in different directions, but both focussing on the same object.
James 5:10-11 My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure.
James argues the case for faith to be shown by and accompanied by works. That will mean that the child of God will know opposition and suffering. He calls the prophets as witnesses in defence of his argument. They spoke in the name of the Lord -- which was their calling and the substance of their ministry. And they endured, patiently exercising faith in the God who made them his own mouthpiece in the world.
The New Testament therefore views the prophets as the media of divine revelation in the pre-Christian era. God's Spirit -- the Spirit of Christ -- was in them, and they spoke of things pertaining to their own day, but also of things to come. They remain the foundation of our faith and an example to us in our sufferings.
(2) OLD TESTAMENT VIEWS ON PROPHECY
How does the Old Testament define the phenomenon of prophecy? The first reference to prophecy in the Old Testament is at Genesis 20:7. This is in the context of Abraham and Abimelech: Abraham has deceived Abimelech into thinking that Sarah is Abraham's sister rather than his wife, the result of which was that God closed the wombs of Abimelech's household when he took Sarah. Abimelech pleads with God, who asks him to return Sarah to Abraham because "he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live". Abraham's being identified as a prophet is in the context of his making special intercession for Abimelech, as an intermediary between Abimelech and God.
There is also an interesting reference in 1 Samuel 9:9 in these words: "Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God he spoke thus: 'Come, let us go to the seer'; for he who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer". This is a parenthesis regarding Saul, who is going to enquire from Samuel regarding his lost donkeys. There was an early tradition in Israel of identifying an exceptionally gifted man of God with a seer, one with a visionary ability. This was the former designation of prophet. In these instances, prophecy is related both to having God's ear and seeing with God's eye.
The Hebrew word for prophet is nabi', a word whose root meaning remains a matter of controversy. Some early etymologists understood it to be derived from a root meaning 'to bubble up', highlighting the ecstatic nature of prophecy. But they argued over whether it was active or passive -- was the prophet characterised essentially by his speaking out the word of God or by his receiving the revelation from God?
There are four suggested meanings of this word:
1 -- a word meaning 'to announce', hence a prophet is a spokesman, one who announces things in the name of a superior;
2 -- a word meaning 'to bubble up', hence a prophet is one who pours out words;
3 -- a word meaning 'to call', hence a prophet is one called by God;
4 -- a word from an unknown Semitic root, whose usage shows that the prophet was 'an authorised spokesman'. So, it is argued, when God refutes Moses' objection in Exodus 7:1-2, he says "I have made you as God to Pharaoh; and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh...". Here, God specifically appoints Aaron as the spokesperson. There is divine authority for this role, and Aaron finds himself under obligation to fulfil it.
This fact is important. Biblical prophecy is not to be understood from the religious experience of surrounding nations, but from the revelation of God within Israel itself. William Dyrness writes:
"...prophecy in Israel, however much it may resemble its neighbours at this or that point, is a fundamentally different phenomenon. Its controlling features are not these historical or personal factors, but theological factors that stem from Moses as the first and normative prophet".
Themes in Old Testament Theology, p211
Although the classical prophets grew from Samuel's time onwards, it is as a faithful prophet to the Lord, and as God's authorised spokesman that Moses is presented to us in Scripture. Deuteronomy 34:10 says that since Moses "there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face". Not only was Moses the prophet par excellence, but through him God revealed the theology behind the prophetic institution which was to convey God's word to Israel in all the generations of Old Testament history. This is explicitly stated in Hosea 12:13: "By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved". This in turn leads Geerhardus Vos to say: "We can take our point of departure from the history of prophetism in the time of Moses" (Biblical Theology, p216).
There are one or two passages, which clarify this for us:
Numbers 11:24-30 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tabernacle. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him and placed the same upon the seventy elders; and it happened when the Spirit rested upon them that they prophesied, although they never did so again. But two men remained in the camp.....Then Moses said to [Joshua], 'Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them!"
Here, God is dealing with the complaint of the people that there was not sufficient to eat in the wilderness. Moses came with the seventy men (as he had been asked to do in vv16-17 in order to share the burden of leadership). God's spirit came upon them as it was upon Moses and they prophesied. There were two men who remained inside the camp, and had not come out with the others. They also acted the part of prophets. Joshua asks Moses to stop this unauthorised activity, perhaps seeing it as a threat to the authority of Moses. Moses expresses the wish that all God's people were prophets.
This is perhaps a strange wish, given Moses' own concerns for his leadership. There is certainly an acquiescing in God's evident gifting to Eldad and Medad of the prophetic ability. Yet when we realise that the prophet was Israel's Bible the difficulty disappears, for Moses is wishing (and his wish anticipates) a direct revelation from God for all people. It was not the privilege of the church under the Older Covenant that all God's people should prophesy, but it is our privilege now.
"Moses' wish is that all Israelites without a single exception be controlled by the Spirit that has filled him since his calling .. that they would all be the Lord's prophets, filled by Him with a common desire to do the Lord's will and to be His servants, both inside and outside the sanctuary. It is not Moses who is indispensable for Israel, but the Lord's Spirit"
[A. Noordtzij Numbers (Bible Students' Commentary), p104]
Numbers 12:6-8 If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make Myself known to him in a vision, and I speak to him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses; He is faithful in all my house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?
The context here is of a rebellion against Moses; the Lord's defence is that Moses is unique as a prophet of the Lord, and ought to be listened to. But God's speech is important because it highlights the normative prophetic activity. Whereas Moses saw Jehovah's form and heard His words clearly, the subsequent prophets would have the Lord revealed to them in visions and dreams. This prophecy anticipates the prophetic work of Christ who is compared and contrasted in Hebrews 3 with Moses as the servant of Jehovah.
Despite the fact that visions and dreams are considered the normative means of revelation, it is interesting that in Isaiah, Amos and Ezekiel there is more mention of visions than dreams, With Daniel and Zechariah, in the later prophets, we have mention of a dream and night visions. One commentator suggests that "in .. the flowering period of Israel's prophetism the Lord's prophets received their revelations while they were awake, and had no respect for those who appealed to dreams (Jer 23:25ff; Zech 10:2)..." (Noordtzij, op.cit., p109). Moses is exceptional.
Deuteronomy 13:1-5 If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you saying 'Let us go after other gods...' You shall not listen to the words of that prophet... You shall walk after the Lord your God .. that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death.
This passage deals with false or apostate prophets. It was possible for prophets to give signs and wonders with the intention of removing God's people from the path of truth and righteousness. God's people were to listen only to the voice of God. But presumably this raised a difficulty -- how could they know the authentic prophecy? How could they distinguish between true and false prophets? God might permit false prophecy to test them (v3). The real point was the orientation of their worship, whether they gave themselves wholeheartedly to the Lord and not to idols.
Deuteronomy 18:15-22 The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me.....
In a sense, this is the fundamental passage for our understanding of Old Testament prophecy. E.J. Young in his important book My Servants the Prophets argued that the passage is crucial, and that the view of the critical school regarding the Pentateuch undermined the importance of divine revelation through the prophetic line. It covers some themes we have already seen, for example, the unique place of Moses, with whom the Lord spoke face to face. But the passage is itself a prophecy, and highlights other important matters:
1) the continuance of the prophetic office. God promised that he would make provision for the proclamation of His word. The prophecy was probably understood as having reference to the continuance of the line of holy men whom God would raise up from time to time to deliver His word to His people. So O.T. Allis, The Unity of Isaiah, p24: "..it must also have reference in a lesser degree to that long line of prophetic men who came after Moses and were like Moses in this regard, that the Lord raised them up from among their brethren, put His word into their mouths, and commissioned them to declare unto His people all that He commanded them".
2) the raising up of the eschatalogical prophet. This is highlighted in the promise that God would raise up a Prophet, a concept repeated in verses 15 and 18. The capitalisation of the word Prophet in most translations highlights the unique and perhaps even Messianic nature of the prophecy, and the New Testament understands it in this way (cf. the citation in Acts 3:22).
3) the authentication of prophetic revelation. Fulfilment of prophecy was taken to be the authentication of both the prophecy and the prophet. If the matter was fulfilled, it was from God. It may be convenient to say that the prophets were forthtellers rather than foretellers, yet there was clearly to be an element of prediction in the telling forth of God's revelation, and only in retrospect could the verification of the prophet take place.
Summary of Old Testament
The witness of the OT is that God graciously made provision for His people to understand and know His word. The means by which He did this was by the prophets in the exercise of faithful ministry and the discharge of sacred duty.
"Whenever the necessary time arises, then God speaks to his people. And the means by which he speaks is the prophetical institution".
My Servants the Prophets, p23
(3) PROPHETIC EXPERIENCE
What did these holy men of God experience as the vehicles of God's revelation? They were the servants of God, and it was God's word that was in their mouths. But what did this mean for them? What was the human aspect of prophecy? By what experences were the prophets called, and set apart for their work? There are four things we can highlight about this.
(1) PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH GOD
God promised to raise up a prophetic line. This he did by singling out individuals whom he intended to set apart for this great work. He put his words in the mouths of his servants the prophets. Each of them came to their task out of a profound experience of God calling them and meeting with them in personal and in critical encounter.
Perhaps the most well-known example of this was Isaiah. His experience is recounted in chapter 6 of his prophecy. King Uzziah lay dead, a potent symbol of God's displeasure. In that year Isaiah saw the living king, Jehovah, Lord of hosts. The vision showed him himself, in all his uncleanness and pollution. God made provision for him, and washed his sins. Then came consecration to the prophetic duty. There was willing response "Here am I, send me".
Part of the interesting aspect of the call was the prediction that a rebellious people would refuse to hear. The prophetic ministry was as much an indictment against the sins of the people, the hardness of their hearts and the crassness of their refusal to listen to God. Yet, even here, there was the hope that God would reach a remnant to whom his word would be greatly blessed.
Or take Jeremiah. Obviously the Lord came to him in his young days, because he pleaded his youth as a reason for not entering upon the prophetic ministry. In Jeremiah 1:4-10 we have a repetition of the formula "I have put words my words in your mouth" (v9). Not only was the prophet provided for Judah, but the prophecy was also provided. Messenger and message were both by divine appointment. The reference to Jeremiah's youth ought to encourage the church to believe that the ministers, preachers and evangelists of tomorrow are already known to the Lord today.
Again Amos recounts his experience of God in 7:14 -- "I was no prophet, Nor was I a son of a prophet, but I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore fruit. Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me, 'Go, Prophesy to My people Israel'". It is to Amos we owe this great quotation: "Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets" (3:7).
These were memorable encounters. And even although prophets are mentioned in Scripture who are not named, and although the biographical details of the prophets are not always given us, there is good reason to argue that their public ministry grew out of a profound private awareness of God's hand upon them and the constraints of His Spirit in their lives. The following quotations summarise this for us:
"It was first of all essential to the prophet that he should have direct personal communications from above, constituting him, in a sense quite special and peculiar, the medium of intercommunion between heaven and earth; and, consequently, that he should possess a state and temper of soul such as might form a proper recipiency for the divine communications"
Patrick Fairbairn The Interpretation of Prophecy, p12
"A Prophet is one that has a great intimacy with Heaven and a great interest there, and consequently a commanding authority upon earth".
Matthew Henry, Introduction to Commentary on Isaiah
(2) PERSONAL REVELATION FROM GOD
The words of God were given to the prophets. We believe that what they communicated they had first received, and the prophet himself "believed that he had been the recipient of an objective revelation" (E.J. Young My Servants, p175). The question is, how was this revelation communicated by God to them?
(1) In particular historical circumstances.
We noted that this a major aspect of the modern, critical view of biblical prophecy is that prophecy is never divorced from the historical circumstances of the prophet. It argues that the prophetic ministry was always circumscribed by the historical situation in which it was exercised. So, for example, George Adam Smith in his commentary on Isaiah will not allow that Isaiah wrote the passages which deal with Cyrus, because Cyrus had not at that point come onto the stage of history. In common with other modern commentators, Smith will not allow predictive prophecy of this kind. Isaiah can examine trends in the present and can evaluate the present in the light of the past and the future in the light of the present, but he cannot predict historical events. Clearly that is unacceptable as an evangelical view of prophecy. God can give predictive insight, and did. His prophets foretold events to come. Nonetheless, it is true that the prophets were given revelation suited to their historical circumstances, even if the content of the revelation cut a channel so deep that the present was lost in the anticipation of the future. Patrick Fairbairn puts it thus:
"History is the occasion of prophecy, but not its measure; for prophecy rises above history, borne aloft by wings, which carry it far beyond the present, and which it derives, not from the past occurrences of which history takes cognisance, but from Him to whom the future and the past are alike known"
The Interpretation of Prophecy, p30
God always addresses the church in her historical situation, in order to raise her eyes above and beyond it, to see herself against the wider picture of his purposes of grace in the world. So we get prophecies dated, either generally like "In the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, king of Judah" (Isaiah 7:1) or specifically, like "two years before the earthquake" (Amos 1:1); we also get situations and occasions mentioned, such as when David desired to build God a house, and Nathan showed him the purposes of the Lord in 2 Samuel 7. While these tell us the occasion on which the prophecy was given, and the situation in which it was rooted, the meaning rises far above them. God raises the vision beyond the immediate present in order that the church can know his thoughts after him, and can learn of things to come.
(2) In different ways
In general terms, the revelation of God's mind to the prophets was the work of the Spirit of God. Yet some prophets, such as Jeremiah, do not mention the Spirit in any context at all. Often all we read is that 'the word of the Lord came...' Much of the mode of communication is deeply mysterious, and we have to leave it at that. Other times there is clear dictation, such as in Jeremiah 30:2 "Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you".
At other times the visionary element predominates. Even here we cannot know anything of the method of communication, but simply that the prophets saw in vision the mind of God displayed. The more apocalyptic material showed God's purposes in terms of great dramatic visions, such as we have in the book of Ezekiel, with his vision of living creatures and wheels. Daniel has visions of great beasts, which represent the kingdoms of the world. Zechariah's night visions focus on the needs of Jerusalem and God's purposes to understand.
This alerts us to the need for caution in the interpretation of these visions. In his introductory remarks to his commentary on Ezekiel (17th century), William Greenhill says that it is "full of majesty, obscurity and difficulty". The three things go together! Visionary literature and related prophecies have spawned a genre of biblical literature all their own, and while we take the Bible seriously as the source of authority, we need to interpret the more obscure passages in the light of the clearer passages.
There is a helpful discussion on this in Leland Ryken's work How to Read the Bible as Literature (1984). He defines such visionary material as
"picture settings, characters and events that differ from ordinary reality. This is not to say that the things described in visionary literature did not happen in past history or will not happen in future history. But it does mean that the things as pictured by the writer at the time of writing exist in the imagination, not in empirical reality" (p165)
This means that
"visionary literature transforms the known world or the present state of things into a situation that at the time of writing is as yet only imagined...the motifs of transformation and renewal are prominent in visionary literature and they lead to this principle of interpretation: in visionary literature be ready for the reversal of ordinary reality... The scene is cosmic, not localized." (p166-7).
This leads to what Ryken calls a 'kaleidoscopic' view of reality. God analyses, predicts, foresees events in history, and sometimes explains them in terms of universal drama. The particular is explained by means of the cosmic.
In all of this there is the recurrent emphasis on the God who acts in history with a view to its transformation and the salvation of the church.
(3) Beyond the ability of the prophet to understand
Another point to be emphasised is that the communication of God's will to the mind of the prophet means that the prophets prophesied far more than they knew. Although the future is sometimes spoken of as having taken place [the so-called prophetic perfect; cf. Numbers24:17 -- a star is come out of Jacob -- predicting that the Messiah would come from Jacob's line; Jeremiah 50:2 -- "Babylon is taken.." - predicting that Babylon would fall], the future fulfillment of prophecy lies beyond even the prophets' furthest horizons.
Prof. John L. Mackay has a good discussion on this in the December 1984 and January 1985 edition of The Monthly Record in an article entitled "Did the Prophets Prophesy more than they knew?". He argues thus:
"As regards time, and also it would seem as regards the integration of the various prophecies given to them into a coherent whole, the prophets remained in ignorance. Prophecy was not, and was never intended to be, history written before the event, and to that extent the prophets did prophesy better than they knew. There were aspects of the divine message given to them through the Holy Spirit that they were able to record accurately, but which they did not themselves clearly and fully understand" (December 1984, p261).
Other conservatives might argue that this appeal to divine intention undercuts historical and grammatical exegesis. Indeed, it raises crucial questions of biblical interpretation for evangelicals. A useful discussion on this and other related issues can be found in Moises Silva (ed) Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation. Silva, writing on the challenge of hermeneutics for today's church writes:
"Without ignoring the historical situation of the original hearers, God was certainly stretching their horizons, that is, awakening them to the fact that the prophecies ultimately transcended their limited perspectives" (p80).
We must be content to leave it there, thankful for the greater light we have now with the coming of Jesus Christ. But the corollary of this is that we can make full use of the Old Testament prophetic material, because it is of a piece with the New. The Old Testament may be a room dimly lit, but it is fully furnished with all the materials of salvation. Dispensationalism compartmentalises the Bible and makes the Old Testament largely irrelevant. But the fact that biblical theology, under the superintendence of the covenant principle, sees God's revelation as organic, means that we can interpret individual prophecies in the light of the whole. The prophets may have not understood the revelation (perhaps we may still have difficulty with it!), but there is meaning for us even in the most obscure material of Old Testament prophecy.
(4) Always with a Messianic interest
Christ is the meaning of the Bible. He is behind every word of Old Testament prophecy. We owe the unfolding revelation of God's salvation to the work of the Spirit through the prophets. There are prophecies which are explicitly messianic. In interpreting Psalm 16, Peter says "let me speak to you of the patriarch David ... being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ..." (Acts 2:29-31).
Isaiah was given great prophetic insight into the coming and the work of the Messiah, whose obedience to Jehovah would be the salvation of the world. Zechariah also spoke in detail concerning events only referred to by him, e.g. the entry into Jerusalem, the amount for which Jesus was betrayed etc.
One of the most interesting messianic prophecies is given to Daniel in Babylon, in Daniel 9:24, where Messiah's work is spelled out. He will finish the transgression, make an end of sins, make reconciliation for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, and SEAL UP VISION AND PROPHECY. There is, therefore, the anticipation that the final prophetic word is ultimately to be uttered.
Even where Old Testament prophecy does not focus explicitly on Christ, he is its meaning and key. All that is taking place under the old covenant is anticipatory of his advent. The image I like is that of the Old Testament being pregnant with Christ. Jesus makes himself felt as he is carried in the womb of OT prophecy, until in the fulness of time he comes into the world. The Spirit of Jesus in the prophets (cf. 1 Peter 1:11) anticipates the comign of Jesus, the Prophet, as God's final and definitive revelation to men.
(5) Within a covenant context
Geerhardus Vos, in his Biblical Theology, makes the connection between the prophets and the covenant. He says: "According to the prophets, a close and unique bond exists between Jehovah and Israel" (p276). They speak as men aware of that unique covenantal relationship, who are calling Israel to the God of the covenant. It is to Ezekiel that we owe the beautiful phrase "the bond of the covenant" (20:37), and the promise of the covenant of peace to be enjoyed by God's people for evermore (37:23ff). This marriage bond is at the forefront of prophetic revelation, and it throws into clear relief the nature of Israel's sin as the rupture of that relationship. I have discussed this in my recent work The Doctrine of Sin, where I have summarised Vos's arguments that sin is viewed by the prophets in a covenant context, in terms of religious and cultic sin as well as social sin. I summarise as follows: "In Vos's view, therefore, the prophets are witnesses to the covenant between God and Israel, a covenant which is suspended in the sins of the covenant people, but which, as the prophets eloquently declare, is never ultimately broken because of the supremacy of grace" (p42).
O. Palmer Robertson puts it thus:
"The prophets spoke must frequently of a return to the land of promise, of a restoration of acceptable worship, of a renewal of a regal messianic line. Specifically, one unifying motif having to do with these restoration expectations involved the anticipation of a new covenant relationship."
The Christ of the Covenants, p272
This, at last, is the witness of the Old Testament prophets to Christ.
(3) PERSONAL SERVICE FOR GOD
How did the prophets communicate this message to others? By means of:
(a) a spoken oracle
The word was delivered. Sometimes it was a message of comfort, sometimes of rebuke. Always it was delivered faithfully. Often it was at a price. Jonah at first shrank from it, and tried to run away. Micaiah the son of Imla, in 1 Kings 22, was imprisoned for his faithfulness to God, as was Jeremiah and Daniel. Who knows what some of the other prophets suffered. Hebrews 11 speaks of Samuel and the prophets among the list of those who received great things from God, and did great things for him, and of whom the world was not worthy.
In his dejection, Jeremiah says this: "Your words were found and I ate them, and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart" (15:16). In personal life the revelation which was for others was for the prophet also. He heard, and then said "Hear the word of the Lord". For this they paid a price. Jesus mourns that Jerusalem killed the prophets and stoned those who were sent to her.
(b) an acted oracle
There were actions of prophetic symbolism. Hosea's marriage is one, although evangelical commentators are divided over whether or not he did in fact marry an adulterous woman. Jeremiah was asked to buy a field as a symbol that land would soon be possessed once again. Ezekiel had to cook food (4:1-13) as a symbol of the siege which is holding the city. Isaiah walked naked and barefoot (Isa 20)
There is an anticipation here of the day when the two streams of speech and action will converge on the Christ, the Word made flesh. In Him, God reveals himself through both word and deed. He is the Word made flesh, who dwelt among us. There is a spoken oracle and an acted oracle. Everything Jesus says is a revelation from God, and everything he does is a revelation from God. We must listen to him, and we must watch him. And as we do so, we hear the voice of God speaking to our minds and consciences.
(4) GOD'S VIEW OF PROPHECY
What, then, we might ask finally, is God's attitude to the Old Testament prophets?
First, they were his COVENANT SPOKESMEN. All that God communicated to the Old Testament church he did because of the particular relationship which existed, and still exists, between himself and that church. There is a relationship established in God's covenant of grace by which God says to his church: "I will be your God, and you will be my people". The prophets were called and set apart as the spokesmen of God in the interests of his people. His words were in their mouths, and the purpose of his word was to enlighten, direct, chasten, rebuke, comfort and strengthen his own people.
Second, they were his COVENANT SERVANTS; in Jeremiah 7:25, for example, God explicitly declares this -- "Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them..." Those who delivered God's word, calling for obedience and response, were themselves under obligation to deliver that word just as it was communicated to them.
Third, the prophets were COVENANT PROSECUTORS. There were times when they delivered God's case against His people; see, for example 2 Kings 17:13 -- "the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of his prophets, namely every seer .. and they rejected his statutes and his covenant.", and Jeremiah 44:4 -- "I have sent to you all my servants the prophets rising early and sending them saying, Oh do not this abominable thing that I hate! But they did not listen". That was the prosecution, the lawsuit that God had against his people. Yet the very Old Testament prophecy itself made provision for the remedy of grace that was God's covenant love and faithfulness. The Word of rebuke also came with the love of God to his own, as still it must.
PREACHING THE PROPHETS
The prophetic word which our generation needs to hear is the same covenantal message of blessing upon the penitent and cursing upon the impenitent. An absurd literalism or an unwarranted allegorising is a mishandling of the prophetic tracts of Scripture. The unity of the Bible is a covenantal unity, and its centre is Jesus Christ. We are still called to preach the covenant message of Scripture, the Christ-centred and Christ-glorifying word, that the world needs to hear. That prophetic word is the Gospel which is committed to our care, and which is relevant for all of life, even as the twenty-first century dawns.
