Editor’s Note: Many of us start reading our Bibles in the Old Testament, but this can often feel like a foreign land with its unfamiliar terrain. The current series helps us find wisdom along these ancient paths. After considering Narrative, Psalms, and Proverbs, we now make our final foray into the Prophets.
If anyone needed wisdom, it was the Old Testament prophets who often spoke and acted strangely. Isaiah walked around unclothed and Jeremiah strapped a wooden yoke to his neck. Ezekiel chopped off his hair and scattered it to the wind, while Hosea married a harlot and gave his children peculiar names.
The prophetical books also feature obscure places and surreal visions which modern readers struggle to understand. As a result, they are barely read, hardly preached, and oft-neglected. Yet our Bibles are far too thin if we ignore this vital portion of Scripture. So, let’s learn some basic principles to read, interpret, and apply the prophets.
Read the Prophets
The prophets ministered in ancient Israel (c. 760–460 BC) and spoke on God’s behalf.
Standing on Past Promises
They grounded their message on Yahweh’s covenant with his chosen people: blessings for obedience and judgments for disobedience (Deuteronomy 28–32). They carried forward the familiar imagery of God’s past promises: new creation (Isaiah 65–66), new exodus (Hosea 2:14–15), new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31–34), new David (Micah 5:2), and a new Jerusalem (Isaiah 65:18–25). They also portrayed Messiah as a coming King who would usher in the judgment and salvation promised in the Law (Isaiah 9:6–7). These expositors of the covenant based their preaching on God’s past promises.
Focus on Present Hearers
Their prophecies, though, did not primarily predict the future as they were more often forthtellers (preachers in their own time) than foretellers (prognosticators of a future time). Like doctors informing a patient she has a short time to live, they spoke the future to highlight the importance of living in the present. Therefore, instead of only speculating about the end times, we should examine how each prophet’s message impacted his original hearers. For the purpose of prophecy, like the rest of God’s Word, is to transform lives in the day it is declared (Isaiah 55:10–11).
Limited Knowledge of the Future
The prophets also possessed limited knowledge about future events due to “prophetic telescoping.” To illustrate, our family once had two neighbors named Todd whom we called “near Todd” and “far Todd” to minimize confusion. Similar to a “two-Todd” street, the biblical prophets foretold the future, but could not always distinguish between near and far fulfillment. Based on their perspective, all future events seemed equidistant. So, they simply relayed God’s message without knowing the exact time of each fulfillment (1 Peter 1:10–12).
Readers today have a clearer understanding of these prophecies since we live in the church age between Christ’s first and second comings. We can look back at biblical history, verify what already took place at the incarnation, then identify what remains for Christ to fulfill at his return. Recognizing this prophetic sense of time compels us to worship the Eternal God who sits above human history. Thus, God’s foreknowledge and his faithfulness both uphold our confidence in his Word.
Interpret the Prophets
Once we establish these basic principles for reading prophecy, we can practice the keys of interpretation.
Check the Context
First, check the context. What was happening at the time of writing? Most prophets ministered during unprecedented political, economic, and social upheaval. The people were often unfaithful to Yahweh and needed to obey God’s Word. As we immerse ourselves in the biblical context, we seek to bridge this gap between their world and ours.
Find the Form
Next, find the form of the prophet’s message. Common forms include covenant lawsuits and oracles of either judgment or salvation. The covenant lawsuit, for example, portrays God as prosecuting his case against the defendant, Israel (Micah 6:1–8). With heavens and earth as jury, the court justifies God’s accusation (Isaiah 3:13–14a), calls witnesses for evidence (vv. 14b–16), and declares the final verdict (vv. 17–26). So, we too must examine ourselves as innocent or guilty before the Lord. The effectiveness of this form shows that how we say a thing is just as important as what we say.
Pleasure in the Poetry
Third, the prophets often wrote poetically to make their message memorable (i.e., figures of speech). Antithetic parallelism, for example, juxtaposes contrasting thoughts to sharpen our perspective. In this way, God exposes Israel’s hypocrisy even as they feign repentance.
They do not cry to me from the heart,
but they wail upon their beds (Hosea 7:14a).
Apply the Prophets
Proper reading and interpretation of the prophets eventually leads to proper application in our contemporary world.
Principlize the Particulars
Particulars in literature help to capture “concrete universals” still applicable in the present day. For example, Israel’s foolish alliance with foreign nations (Isaiah 30:1–5) conveys the timeless truth that we must never replace our faith in God with trust in earthly powers (vv. 15–17). The particulars point us to the universal.
Glory in the Gospel
The prophets also teach us to better know Jesus and enjoy him more fully (Colossians 1:15, 19). For although God’s people continually fell short of his perfect holiness, the prophets promised a righteous Savior to be our “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). This Messiah would lead his people out of exile and return them to the promised land. This King, from David’s line, would supersede the faltering kings of Israel. Thus, as the true and greater Son of David (Matthew 1:1), Jesus shepherds us toward that final day when he renews creation (Revelation 21–22).
As we read, interpret, and apply the prophets, they expose our sin, proclaim God’s judgment, and prompt us to repentance. Through the prophets, we praise the One who took our place and bore his Father’s wrath (2 Corinthians 5:21). We discover our sinless King and submit to his authority (Philippians 2:9–11). We claim the promises of salvation in Christ’s new covenant and receive assurance from God’s Spirit that we are heirs (Ephesians 1:3–14). And through the prophets, we rejoice in Christ who gloriously transforms our lives (2 Corinthians 5:17). May God grant us ears to hear and eyes to see this wisdom from the prophets (Matthew 13:16–17).
Photo Credit: Yoal Desurmont