Analyzing Prophecies
• Distinguishing Between Three Temporal Categories o Prophecy
• Genres o Prophecy
The Poetry of Prophecy
• Notice the Parallelism
• Notice the Development o Parallelism
• Deciphering the Imagery
• The Persuasive Power o Prophecy
THE PROPHETIC BOOKS WERE OF GREAT IMPORTANCE to the New Testament church because o the prophecies about the Suffering Servant who died to atone or the sins o many (Isa. 52:13–53:12).1 Many were ascinated with Daniel’s uture apocalyptic visions about a time o great persecution ollowed by the coming o the Son o Man to rule all nations orever (Dan. 7:1–27).2 Although some prophets
re-1. Matt. 8:17; Luke 18:32–33; John 1:29; 10:14; 12:38; Rom. 4:25; 10:16; 15:21; Acts 8:32–33;
1 Cor. 15:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 2:9–11; Heb. 9:28 2. Matt. 23:3–31; Mark 13:3–27.
[24] INTERPRETING THE PROPHETIC BOOKS
erred to God’s plans or the glorious uture kingdom of God, most prophets spent much more time teaching the Israelites about how God wanted them to live their lives in obedience to his instructions in the
Mosaic covenant. The prophets repeated the stories about God’s many acts o power and grace, plus they reminded the people o Israel about the many things God said when he first made a covenant with them at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19–24).3 Many prophets warned that sin would bring about God’s judgment, challenged people to trust God, correct-ed oolish misunderstandings, and condemncorrect-ed the proud and violent.
Frequently, the audience needed to acknowledge their rebellion against God, seek the Lord’s compassion, and repent o their sins in order to receive God’s gracious orgiveness. These prophecies offered a snapshot o the ministry o the prophets and illustrated how they spoke to people who were not walking by aith or loving God with all their heart and
might (Deut. 6:5).
ANALYZING PROPHECIES
Afer a person has examined several different prophecies, several widely shared common eatures naturally become evident. One group
o prophecies will eature narrative stories about a prophet’s dialogue with an audience, while another group o prophecies will include po-etic sermons a prophet gave to the people o Israel. The vocabulary, structure, and content o these poetic prophecies will naturally organize these prophecies into subgroups (different genres) that pronounced words o salvation or words o a prophet crying out with strong lamen-tation. These prophecies will differ in relationship to their literary style (narrative or poetry), their genre (judgment or salvation), and the time o their ulfillment (the present, the uture, or the distant uture). I a person will keep these organizational criteria in mind when reading a prophetic passage, they will help the reader properly understand and interpret the message o each prophecy.
Distinguishing Between Three Temporal Categories o Prophecy Although the prophets did not give separate names to differenti-ate between these three broad temporal cdifferenti-ategories o prophecy, they were conscious that there was a difference between their teachings and
admonitions about God’s plans or: (a) the present or immediate
u-3. A critical view o the prophets and the growth o their books by redactors is ound in Odil H. Steck, The Prophetic Books and Their Theological Witness (St. Louis: Chalice, 2000) while an evangelical perspective is available in J. Daniel Hays, The Message o the Prophets (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010).
THE NATURE OF PROPHETIC LITERATURE [25]
ture; (b) the distant uture eschatological events; and (c) the symbolic apocalyptic prophecies about the dramatic events at the end o this world. In many cases the prophets differentiated between these three
temporal categories, but at times one o these emphases would seam-lessly merge into another without much warning, so there was more o
a gradual interconnection between these categories, rather than a sharp distinction between them.
Prophecies Describing Present Events
The first category included narrative prophecies that recounted an event in the lie o the prophet. An example o this would be a nar rative about a prophet’s call to ministry. These accounts told the readers about God’s past revelation o his word to a prophet, his marvelous ways o
revealing himsel through words, visions, or theophanies, plus God’s immediate plans or the prophet. These accounts included the narrative story o Isaiah’s rare glimpse o the majesty and glory o the Lord o
Hosts, the King, who was high and lifed up on a throne in his temple (Isa. 6:1–8).4 This encounter with God purified the lips o the prophet and explained God’s plan or Isaiah to serve as a prophet who was going to harden the hearts o many. The narrative about the call o Ezekiel pictured a mysterious revelation o God’s glory as well as the chariot, upon which God was riding (Ezek. 1:1–3:27). At this time God filled the prophet with his words on a scroll. He gave Ezekiel words o in-struction about the difficult ministry that he would experience as a watchman charged with warning a rebellious Israelite audience living
in the Babylonian exile. In these accounts God spoke to the prophet, but the prophet did not share his5 message with any audience within the story (though they probably did describe their call experience to some people). These records were important because they assured the prophets’ audience that these chosen servants o God were true proph-ets, called and empowered by God’s Spirit, and commissioned to ex-press a message based on the words o God.
A second kind o narrative prophecy described a prophet delivering God’s word in order to tell people what God did in the past (e.g., deliv-ered them rom Egypt), what God was planning to do in the near uture,
4. All Scripture reerences will come rom the NIV. I another translation is used, it will be noted.
5. Since all cultural and textual evidence indicates that the prophetic books o the Old Testament were written by men, I will use masculine pronouns to reer to them. Nevertheless, there were emale prophets in Israel (Miriam in Ex. 15:20; Deborah in Judg. 4:4; Huldah in 2 Chron. 34:22; and the alse prophet Noadiah in Neh. 6:14), but they did not produce any o the biblical books in the canon. Female Assyrian prophets serving the goddess Ishtar o
Arbela did produce written texts that will be discussed in chapter 3.
[26] INTERPRETING THE PROPHETIC BOOKS
and what action God wanted them to take right now. These stories de-scribed Jonah’s struggle with God’s instructions to preach in Nineveh (Jonah 1, 3–4), Isaiah’s conrontational encounter with King Ahaz (Isa.
7:1–6, 10–17) and King Hezekiah (Isa. 39:1–8), and the many narrative stories about Jeremiah’s interaction with the rebellious kings o his day (Jeremiah 34–40). These texts served as examples o the ailures o a prophet (Jonah), the suffering o a prophet (Jeremiah 36–38), and they included summaries o their preaching that were supposed to transorm the thinking and actions o their audiences (Jeremiah 7). These pro-phetic accounts gave insight into the daily lives o the prophets and the interactions the prophets had with kings, priests, other prophets, and the common people.
A third group o prophecies about the present were poetic in orm, but these prophecies ofen said almost nothing about the preaching situation, the dialogue between the prophet and his audience, or the response o the audience. The temporal setting o the prophet was not described in the poetry o Joel and he did not identiy the people he spoke to when he talked about a devastating locust plague (1:2–12). He did encourage the priests and the elders o Israel to gather the people to the temple to lament (1:13–14) because the Day of the Lord was near (1:15–20), so he hinted at his location in Jerusalem. This persuasive message called or immediate action (using imperative verbs), or it was possible that the Lord might be gracious and compassionate, i the people repented (2:12–14). Likewise Amos warned that the proud and wealthy leaders o Israel would soon go into exile (Amos 6:1–14) and that God did not accept their sacrificial worship or singing (Amos 4:4–
13; 5:21–27). Some prophetic sermons accused the nation o breaking the covenant (Hos. 4:2), o worshipping other gods (4:12, 17), o hav-ing no steadast covenant love (6:6), and o trusthav-ing other nations or political survival rather than God (7:11). But Hosea also reminded his listeners that God’s grace was available or those who would “return to God” (6:1; 14:1–2), or God was willing to heal them and reely love them (14:4). These prophetic instructions challenged these audiences to live godly lives because it was possible to avoid the immediate judgment o God. Most o the time the prophet and his audience did not know when God’s words would be ulfilled, but the urgency o the message and various hints about what was about to happen did indicate that immediate action was needed to avoid a ulfillment in the near uture.
Prophecies about a Future Era
Some prophecies contained themes that point toward the escha-tological introduction o the kingdom of God when God would judge the wicked (Isa. 34:1–15; 63:1–6) and cause his glory to shine
THE NATURE OF PROPHETIC LITERATURE [27]
in Jerusalem (Isa. 60:1–3; Zeph. 3:15). At that time many oreign na-tions will stream to Jerusalem to worship God (Isa. 2:1–4; 60:4–10;
66:18–20), all wars will end (Mic. 4:1–4), the new heavens and the new earth will appear (Isa. 65:17; 66:22), there will be no tears or death (Isa.
25:8), the dead will rise (Isa. 26:19; Dan. 12:1–2), the Messiah rom the seed o David will reign orever (Isa. 9:6–7; Jer. 23:6–7; Ezek. 34:23;
Hos. 3:5),6 God’s people will be back in their land (Amos 9:14–15), the Spirit will be poured out (Isa. 32:15; Ezek. 36:27; Joel 2:28–29), and the land will be ruitul (Amos 9:13–14; Ezek. 34:27). These and many other eschatological promises were sometimes preceded by clauses like
“in that day” (Isa. 2:20) or “in the last day” (Isa. 2:2), but another way to identiying an eschatological prophecy was to compare the theologi-cal themes in a prophecy with other well-known eschatologitheologi-cal themes in other prophetic books.7
Symbolic Apocalyptic Prophecies8
The difference between prophecy and symbolic apocalyptic texts was not always clear because some uture prophecies contained sym-bolic language that was part o a vision. Old Testament apocalyptic prophecies displayed many o the same unusual characteristics as the New Testament book o Revelation. Apocalyptic texts viewed the world as being very wicked and about to be destroyed by God. These
prophecies encouraged the righteous to be aithul to the end in spite o their hopeless situation. These prophecies included mysterious signs and wonders (such as symbolic beasts, horns, metals, or num-bers), many had an interpreting angel to explain the odd symbolism, and they ended with God’s promise that he planned to intervene to rescue the righteous.9 God promised that afer he has destroyed all evil on the Day o the Lord, he would welcome the saints into his kingdom where he would reign orever with the Son o Man (Dan. 7:13–14). This literature tended to arise in times o persecu-tion when things seem hopeless. Some scholars classified the visions o the cataclysmic tottering and splitting o the earth in Isaiah 24,
6. Various messianic texts are interpreted in Phillip E. Satterthwaite, Richard Hess, and Gordon Wenham, eds., The Lord’s Anointed: Interpretation o Old Testament Messianic Texts (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995).
7. Common eschatological themes to look or are: (a) God coming to earth in all his glory to reign; (b) the presence o the Messiah; (c) the end o war; (d) the end o sorrow and death; (e) the coming o the Spirit; and () the restoration o ertility like the Garden o Eden.
8. A uller treatment o apocalyptic literature is ound in Richard Taylor, Interpreting Apocalyptic Literature: An Exegetical Handbook (orthcoming) (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2014).
9. D. Brent Sandy and Martin G. Abegg, “Apocalyptic,” Cracking Old Testament Codes, eds., D.
Brent Sandy and Ronald L. Giese (Nashville: B&H, 1995), 177–196
[28] INTERPRETING THE PROPHETIC BOOKS
the vicious attack o Gog in Ezekiel 38–39, the horns, beasts, and persecution in Daniel 7, and the chariot sent out in all directions in Zechariah 6, as apocalyptic literature. This was because o their unusual images, their pictures o cataclysmic end-time events, and the hope they gave to suffering people. Apocalyptic texts were ofen written in narrative style in Daniel and Zechariah, but the descrip-tion o end times in Isaiah 24 was in poetry. Afer the end o Old Testament prophecy, the Jewish people continued to suffer under the oppressive oreign domination o the Greeks and Romans (300 BC–AD 200), so they continued to produce more apocalyptic lit-erature (e.g., 1–2 Enoch, the Apocalypse o Abraham, Second and Third Baruch, the Apocalypse o Peter, the Shepherd o Hermes, Apocalypse o Thomas, the Ascension o Isaiah) and these texts con-tained many advanced and esoteric apocalyptic characteristics.
Genres o Prophecy
The prophecies in each o the three temporal categories were or-ganized according to the genre o literature the prophets chose to adopt in expressing each o these messages.10 Hebrews 1:1 said that God spoke “through the prophets at many times and in various ways” and these “ways” were what scholars called “genres.” In the
book o Psalms, a hymn and a lament were distinguishable genres because each one had a common pattern o distinctive vocabulary, a unique structure, and a different purpose.11 Even today most news-papers have included the genres o obituaries, want ads, actual news, editorial opinions, and comics. Each o these genres has its own char-acteristics, vocabulary, structure, and purpose. I a oreigner would read our newspaper, they would need to understand something about these different genres, lest they misread the slanted ideas o the opin-ion page and think the author has presented pure unbiased acts. In a similar manner, a modern person would need to know that Old Testament prophecies were divided into different genres based on cultural patterns that were common in their ancient Near Eastern literary context. A prophet could choose to express what he
want-10. Two o the pioneers o the orm-critical study o different genres o prophecy were Herman Gunkel, “The Israelite Prophecy rom the Time o Amos,” Twentieth Century Theology in the Making , ed., J. Pelikan, (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), 48–75, and Claus Westermann, Basic Forms o Prophetic Speech (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1967). The approach o orm criticism is explained in Edgar V. McKnight, What Is Form Criticism? (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1969) and Marvin A. Sweeney and Ehud Ben Zvi, eds., The Changing Face o Form Criticism or the Twenty-First Century (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003).
11. Mark D. Futato, Interpreting the Psalms: An Exegetical Handbook (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007), 139–73 describes the distinctive characteristics o six different categories/genres o psalms.
THE NATURE OF PROPHETIC LITERATURE [29]
ed to say by using the characteristics and conventions o any genre.
He was ree to make small adjustment to the basic orm in order to effectively communicate God’s message in a culturally understand-able way. Since the audience who was living in that culture knew the characteristics o various genres o communication, the prophets were able to express God’s words through amiliar genres that the
audience understood.
The orm critical study o the prophetic books identified several genres based on the common structure, vocabulary, setting, and pur-pose o each different genre. When comparing the characteristic o
di-erent examples o each genre, it became apparent that the prophets had the reedom to alter the way they wrote each different type o oracle in order to emphasize a point or to make their presentation more appli-cable to the situation o the audience.
Judgment Speech
The prophetic judgment speech (or oracle o condemnation) proba-bly developed rom the cultural context o: (a) kings sending a messen-ger to deliver a threatening decree to a person who ailed to ollow the king’s instructions; or (b) rom a court setting where accusations were made and punishments were handed down by a judge. The prophetic judgment speech was considered to be a message rom God (“Thus says the Lord”) that reported a sinul act or attitude that was contrary to God’s will. The prophets used these messages to instruct people about God’s view o their sinul behavior, to warn people o impending doom, and to motivate them to turn rom their wickedness so that they would not experience God’s judgment. The judgment speech contained two main parts: (a) accusations o sinulness against God or others; and (b) a threat o some disaster or punishment rom God.12 The accusation drew attention to the ailures o the people and explained why disaster was coming. The threat described a negative event (e.g., military
de-eat, loss o land, exile, amine, no rain, or a curse on crops) that would happen in the near uture. These speeches typically used stereotypical vocabulary, a airly regular structure, as well as subtle variations. The
prophets were ree to adjust the characteristics o the judgment speech within certain limits by adding, omitting, or creatively altering the tra-ditional parts o the judgment speech. These characteristics were illus-trated in Micah 3:9–12.
12. Westermann, Basic Forms o Prophetic Speech, distinguishes between judgment speeches to individuals (pp. 129–168) and judgment speeches against the nation (pp. 169–189). The later show more development and sometimes the judgment precedes the accusation (e.g., Jer.
2:26–28).
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and distort all that is right;
who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with wickedness.
Her leaders judge or a bribe, her priests teach or a price,
and her prophets tell ortunes or money.
Yet they look or the LORD’s support and say,
‘Is not the LORD among us?
No disaster will come upon us.’
3. Threat o judgment:
3:12 Thereore (
Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap o rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.
In an earlier judgment speech against the alse prophets in 3:5–8, Micah varied his language by beginning with the introductory mes-senger speech ormula, “This is what the LORD says,” omitting the call to listen, including a series o accusations in 3:5, and end-ing with “thereore” plus an announcement o comend-ing judgment in 3:6–7. Micah added a unique eature in 3:8 that was not a reg-ular part o a judgments speech when he explained the principles that were important in his prophetic ministry. This contrasted his lie and purpose with that o the alse prophets. When an Israelite heard a prophet give a judgment speech, they knew (a) who was speaking to them, (b) what the problems were, and (c) what would happen as a consequence o past ailures. A careul examination o
the accusation will reveal something about the social, political, and spiritual condition o the audience, while the judgment section was designed to warn people about what will happen in the coming months and years. When king Hezekiah heard the prophecy by the prophet in Mic. 3:1–12, he eared the LORD and sought his avor, so God did not bring this terrible disaster on Jerusalem at that time (Jer. 26:17–19). This outcome would suggest that some judgment speeches were actually conditional predictions o judgment that would not happen i the people would turn rom their evil ways (Jer.
18:5–8; Jonah 3:4–10).
) you leaders o Jacob,
) because o you,
THE NATURE OF PROPHETIC LITERATURE [31]
Covenant Lawsuit
Another way the prophets communicated God’s strong displeasure with the Israelites’ sinul behavior was to call them to court to ace God’s judgment or ailing to maintain their covenant relationship with God.13 Much like the marriage relationship between a man and a wom-an, the Mosaic covenant required the Israelites to maintain a aithul covenant relationship characterized by loving God with all their heart (Deut. 6:5), serving him, earing him, and walking in his ways (Deut.
10:12). When a wie ailed to maintain her marriage covenant relation-ship with her husband, he could take her to court to seek justice, so the prophet Micah pictured God calling his covenant partner Judah to court to answer or her unaithul acts toward God (Mic. 6:1–16). At an earlier time the prophet Hosea portrayed God as conronting Israel with a covenant lawsuit in 4:1–6:3 (also 11:11–14:8).
1. Introduction o lawsuit:
(missing in Hosea, but in Mic. 6:1 “the mountains. . .and hills”) 3. Summary accusations:
4:1e There is no aithulness, no love,
no acknowledgement o God in the land.
4. Specific accusations:
4:2–3 They break the Ten Commandments.
4–10 The priests do not teach the law.
11–14 They worship pagan gods.
15–19 They are stubborn.
5. Deendant’s speech:
(missing in Hosea, but present in Mic. 6:6–7) 6. Announcement o Punishment:
5:1–7 The leaders are responsible.
8–14 God will bring destruction through war.
13. James Limburg, “The Root
291–303; George W. Ramsey, “Speech Forms in Hebrew Law and Prophetic Oracles,”
JBL 96 (1977): 45–58.
) the word o the LORD
and the Prophetic Lawsuit Speeches,” JBL 88 (1969):
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7. Possibility o hope: (in 5:15–6:6, but missing in Mic. 6) 5:15 God will wait or them to seek him.
6:1–3 Some will seek God.
4–6 God was rustrated with their inconsistent relationship.
Like any other orm o speech, a prophet could alter aspects o the
Like any other orm o speech, a prophet could alter aspects o the