Chapter 38
BIBLE PROPHECY FULFILLED
Some scholars estimate that up to 75% of the Bible is actually predictive prophecy. This makes the subject of Biblical prophecy very important. Prophecy in its broadest sense simply means a message from God. It could either be a message containing direction from the LORD, Holy Spirit inspired worship, or of God revealing future events.
1. Who is the first prophet named directly in the Bible? (Gen. 20:7) Can you recall any prophecies made by this prophet? Note also Jude 14-15, who was obviously a prophet before the first man referred to as a prophet?
____________________________________________________________
THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHET
God usually only used one means of communicating His prophetic word- through His prophet or prophetess. There were times when God spoke either directly to people or in such a way that people indirectly and collectively knew God was speaking. When Israel was gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai, the people heard God speaking directly (Ex. 19:16; Dt. 4:33). After the people had entered the land of Canaan and settled, there was possibly no prophet to be found (Judges 6). The LORD spoke directly to them through the Angel of the LORD (a theophany of Jesus).
It appears to be the LORD's desire to always seek to bring His word through a prophet as an intercessor (Ezek. 22:30). The prophet would either hear, see or feel God's word. Thus, in 1Samuel 9:9, there is a reference to prophets being called seers. This indicated that the word they shared could come by a vision in what appeared to be a trance-like state. Even the prophet Balaam said he would hear from God being in a trance with his eyes wide open (Nu. 24:4, 16). Jeremiah says that the Word of the LORD occasionally came upon him as a feeling. He described it as fire in his bones (Jer. 20:9).
In whatever way God communicated His Word to the prophet, it was God's original intention for the prophet to speak the word of the LORD into a specific circumstance for a specific time. These prophets were usually men, but God also raised up women (Ex. 15:20).
2. During the times when God sent a prophet to His people what else was happening? (Jer. 23:16; Ezk. 13:2)
____________________________________________________________
When an examination is made of prophets, a few things really stand out. Firstly, they were under tremendous responsibility (see Ezk. 3:16-21, Ezekiel risked losing his life if he wasn't faithful in speaking the word of the LORD). Secondly, they often suffered much because of the word of the LORD (see Ps. 105:18-19, Joseph was destined for glory, but via a dungeon experience). Thirdly, when God revealed things to them, they didn't always agree with what God said He was going to do (Moses pleaded several times with the LORD not to destroy Israel although God had said He was going to. Abraham interceded for the cities of Sodom and Gomorah after God told Him that He was going to destroy them. Quite possibly God would not have destroyed those cities if Abraham had asked God not to). Fourthly, the prophets did not always understand their own prophecies (see Dan. 12:8; 1Peter 1:10-12).
THE SOURCE OF PROPHECY
Prophets spoke out of divine inspiration. They did not speak from their own opinion or gifting. It was as the Holy Spirit who gave them the utterance. From this experience a prophet would hear, see or feel a message previously hidden from Him.
3. Note the expressions used of the experience prior to prophecy-
a. Num. 24:2
____________________________________________________________
b. Ezk. 11:5
____________________________________________________________
c. 2Ki. 3:15
____________________________________________________________
d. 1Chron. 12:18
____________________________________________________________
e. Isa. 61:1
____________________________________________________________
f. Joel 2:28
____________________________________________________________
When God used a person to prophesy, they were in total control of their bodies. God did not over-rule their personalities or take away from them their consciousness. Rather, their personalities often through what they were prophesying. This is called plenary prophecy.
THE CENTRAL THEME OF ALL PROPHECIES
Jesus Christ is the centre of all prophecy in the Bible. All predictive prophecies have some connection with the Christ. With the hindsight of knowing about Calvary, we can now discern between the prophecies which spoke about the glories yet also the sufferings of the Messiah. We can use the Cross as a reference point to filter prophecy into two broad categories-
1. Fulfilled (First coming)
2. Unfulfilled (Second Coming).
Obviously, short term predictions usually find their record of fulfilment in the Old Testament accounts. But all Biblical prophecy culminates in the Cross of Jesus- the place that graphically declares that a) this was a man (He bled), b) He was the perfect man (born of a virgin, therefore without sin, and qualified to be the perfect purest sacrifice for mankind's sins), c) He was God incarnate (only the highest price in the universe could redeem man, and God Himself was now going to defeat the strongest sting of sin:death), d) He would rise again from the dead after the Cross (He defeated every form of death's power- physical, spiritual and "eternal"), e) He would ascend triumphant to His Father after defeating the Powers and Principalities of Darkness through the Cross (Col. 2:15). Therefore, no wonder Old Testament predictive prophecy pointed continually to the Cross of the promised Messiah.
ACCURACY OF FULFILLED PROPHECY
4. What would these Scriptures seem to have predicted?
a. Dan. 12:4
____________________________________________________________
c. 2Pt. 3:10-12
____________________________________________________________
b. Job 38:35
____________________________________________________________
d. Mtt. 24:6 5.
____________________________________________________________
What about these prophecies made about Christ?
a. Ps. 41:9 (1000 B.C.)
____________________________________________________________
b. Zech. 13:7 (500 B.C.)
____________________________________________________________
c. Zech. 11:12
____________________________________________________________
d. Isa. 50:6 (700 B.C.)
____________________________________________________________
e. Ps. 22:18
____________________________________________________________
f. Isa. 53:7
____________________________________________________________
g. Isa. 69
____________________________________________________________
The accuracy to which the Bible predicts events goes beyond the chances of mere human guess work. From the examination of fulfilled prophecy it is clear that there is an Author/Script Writer to this curious thing we call time and life. In interpreting prophecy, there are a number of popular schools of thought. One is called the Dispensational view. This views God working in different ways at different times. Some dispensationalists usually list about seven dispensations in which they see God working. These generally include -
(i) The dispensation of Innocence- Edenic Covenant.
(ii) The dispensation of Conscience (or works)- Adamic Covenant
(iii) The dispensation of Human Government- Noahic Covenant
(iv) The dispensation of Patriarchs- Abrahamic Covenant
(v) The dispensation of Law- Mosaic Covenant
(vi) The dispensation of Grace- New Covenant
(vii) The dispensation of the Kingdom- The everlasting Covenant.
Adopting this method of interpreting of Scripture will affect how prophecy is viewed. Extreme dispensationalists will so categorise God's dealings with mankind, that they will see multiple salvation methods for man. That is, in each of the dispensations there was a different method of salvation. This thinking is carried through into the times of Christ and causes the words of Christ in Matthew, for example, to only be applicable to the Jews in their dispensation. Therefore, the LORD's prayer is not to be used today, because it was for the Jews of that dispensation . Followed through, they say that the predictions made by Christ in Matthew 24 do not apply to Christians, but to Jews. In this method, stress is layed on a very literal interpretation of Scripture. Another method of interpretation is called the allegorical. This too will affect how Bible prophecy is viewed. It tends to see symbolic meanings behind different expressions in the Bible. The allegorist will often view passages specifically relating to Israel in the Old Testament as applying to the Church today. Therefore, any outstanding prophecies to be fulfilled according to the allegorist, will be fulfilled by the Church- the covenant Israel of God for today. Therefore the allegorist will view the words of Christ to the Jews as applying to the Church today. The danger of allegorism is that some passages which have literal intentions can be lost as they are interpreted into their message for today. For example, the passage by Isaiah that a virgin would conceive a child is not open to allegorical interpretation. This should be taken literally. When viewing Old Testament prophecy, there is often time reference made to current events that have a yet future implication. Perhaps far too many scholars under-estimate the passages forecasting Israel's return from captivity to their own land by placing it in some still-to-be-fulfilled dispensation while overlooking its possible fulfilment at the end of their Babylonian captivity . We must take care not to become too dogmatic about prophecy, whether fulfilled or unfulfilled and keep our eyes on the Cross and how they (prophecies) affect our understanding of Jesus. The strength of Dispensational theology is its emphasis on taking the Bible literally. It's weakness might be that it overlooks different styles of Scripture and views them as one style. The strength of the allegorical method is that it is flexible enough to realise that passages often have greater meanings than what they might on the surface be presenting (eg. Matthew 17:11-13). Its weakness is that literal intentions can be overlooked in place of symbolic interpretations.
DANIEL'S SEVENTY WEEKS
One of the most debated pieces of Prophetic Scriptural literature, is the passage in Daniel 9:24-27. Scholars generally agree that the weeks in this reference refer to seven year periods. Most would still agree that the seventy weeks relate the to first coming of Jesus when it says in verse 25 that it would be 69 (of the 70) weeks before the Messiah would come. This appears to have been literally fulfilled when the decree to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem was given it was 69 x 7 years (i.e. 483 years) exactly when Christ appeared at age 30. The main debate centres on the final week of Daniel's seventy weeks. In verse 26 it says that after the appearance of the Messiah, He shall be cut off (die). The options at this point are basically-
DISPENSATIONAL a) The Messiah is killed before the 70th week. The rest of the passage deals with the Anti-christ. Thus the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. Dispensationalists equate this with the predictions made by Christ in Matthew 24 to be fulfilled at the end of this age.
MID-70TH WEEK b) The Messiah dies after his appearing, but not necessarily immediately after His appearing. Verse 27 still refers to the Messiah who forms a covenant with Israel in the final week (of seven years), and is killed half way into this week. Because of Christ's death, sacrifice and offering have now been done away with, because the real Sacrifice and Offering has paid the last price. This seems plausible because we know that Jesus was indeed killed 31/2 into His ministry (31/2 years after His appearing). The final half of the week is yet to come and is what is referred to as the (Great) Tribulation.
TRADITIONAL c) The same as option b) except for the seventieth week continuing on unbroken. That is, if the rest of the passage was literally fulfilled, why should this part be relegated to some other future time and not logically continuing on from what has already happened? Those who hold this view draw attention to the possible fact that the first martyr (Stephen) was killed 31/2 years after Christ , thus ending the 70th week. It was then a formality for God to do away with the temple in Jerusalem because it was absolutely obsolete. This happened in about A.D. 70, possibly a short time after the Book of Revelation was written, and thus fulfilling Christ's own words in Matthew 24.
Scholars can debate endlessly the proposed sequence of last days events. Truly the point to much of Christ's teaching about the matter is to be ready at any time to meet the Lord. This demands not only a preparation for the believer to meet the Lord should He return during their life-time, but also in case of unexpected death.
6. John the apostle said that the knowledge and hope of meeting Jesus at any moment should cause the believer to do what? (1Jn. 3:2-3)
____________________________________________________________
While much prophecy has been fulfilled, and men may theorise about the interpretation of other Scriptures, we must remember that none of us are viewing events entirely from God's perspective. Indeed this appears to be a trait of most believers who actually witnessed prophecies being fulfilled before and failed to recognise them as such. Therefore rather than getting caught up in all the hype that can surround end-time teaching, let us always be ready to meet our Lord at any time.
Amen.