Hindsight

God provided prophecy in the Bible so we could understand that Jesus’ fulfillment of prophecy was an enormous pre-arranged set-up by God so we could confidently place our faith in Him.

In the Bible there are more books that fall under the heading, “Prophets,” than any other heading in the Bible.  In the Old Testament there are 4 major (important and longer messages) prophets and 12 minor (important but shorter messages) prophets.  In the New Testament we have the Revelation. 

Webster’s dictionary explains that the word prophecy or prophet is about predicting and foretelling the future.  But a Prophet in the Old Testament was an agent of God who was more concerned with forthtelling already known information about God than foretelling something that had not yet happened. 

For example, when Jonah goes to Ninevah, he acts as a prophet telling the people to repent or God will soon destroy them and their city.  When they repent--God’s relents and Jonah’s foretelling becomes forthtelling.

Here are 3 facts about prophets from the Bible:

#1.  The Prophets were, in a sense, code enforcement officers.  Just as a city has officers that make sure handicap codes are enforced so that the parking slots are in the right place and clearly marked for usage, God gave Israel covenants and laws that they had agreed to live by.  In the same way that we call marriage a covenant, and are to live within that covenantal agreement with our spouses, Israel was to live within its covenantal agreement with God.  Unfortunately, Israel wasn’t very good at it.  So God would often call a Prophet to speak to the people about their lack of compliance, motivation and heart attitude. 

#2.  As God’s representatives, the Prophets were to deliver God’s message, not their own.  The Hebrew word Nabi (prophet) comes from the verb, “to call.”  God drafted the prophets and then drafted the message He wanted shared.  The only prophet I can think of that “volunteered” was Isaiah (Isaiah 6), the rest of the prophets were “voluntold,” or called, by God!

#3.  The Prophet’s messages were repetitive.  God rarely gave prophets new information, more frequently He directed them to repackage what He’d already told his people.  Without demeaning or minimizing the Word of God, think of it as “marketing.”  The prophet Hosea 4:2 says, “There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery.”  In this short verse Hosea has summarized 5 of the 10 Commandments in one word statements, much like Jesus did in Luke 18:20.  So: 3^rd commandment = cursing, 9^th commandment = lying, 6^th commandment = murder, 8^th commandment = stealing, 7^th commandment = adultery.  This is Hosea’s way of saying, “You’ve broken the 10 commandments!”  He wanted to make sure that the ancient message of the 10 commandments was understood in their contemporary community.

But when we look at the New Testament we find the Apostles all appealing to prophecy in order to understand who Jesus is--why?  Because Jesus is God the Son in human flesh Who called the prophets and drafted their messages and is now going to add a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34).  Animal sacrifice was always required between the two parties in order to ratify a covenant.  Jesus Himself eliminated animal sacrifice and was the once for all sacrifice of the New Covenant. So we see the Apostles all appeal to prophecy as the confirmation and credentials of Jesus and His sacrifice. 

Deuteronomy 18:18 says, “I(God) will raise up for them(Israel) a prophet like you(Moses) from among their brothers. I will put my words in His mouth, and He will tell them everything I command Him.”  That’s why Jesus said, “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.” John 12:49-50

Jesus is the agent of God who was concerned with forthtelling already known information for God rather than simply foretelling something that had not yet happened (although He also did that at times as well).  The Apostles were concerned that we understand Jesus was the author and fulfillment of the message of the Prophets.  Jesus fulfillment of prophecy was designed to become a major source of confirmation for our faith in Him.