Monthly Archives: May 2023

Reading the Prophets

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Article by Bryan Estelle – original source here – https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/how-to-read-the-prophets

The Prophets are difficult to understand. In part, that is because God revealed Himself to them in dreams and visions. Only with Moses did God speak face to face (Num. 12:6–8). The Major Prophets include Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. The Minor Prophets include Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Here are several tips that will help you read and understand the Prophetic Books.

1. Investigate the context.

First, understand as much as possible about the historical occasion, the social setting, and the prophet you are reading. A good study Bible, such as the Reformation Study Bible, can help with this.

2. Recognize the role of the prophets as God’s covenant lawyers.

Second, recognize that the prophets were essentially God’s covenant lawyers. Although they spoke to many parts of the covenant—for example, the preamble and the historical prologue (“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt”), and they often reminded the people of their responsibility to fulfill God’s commands (i.e., “stipulations”),—their primary purpose was to communicate the sanctions of the covenant. In popular parlance today, we tend to view sanctions as only negative (for example, “economic sanctions”). But in Scripture, sanctions can be positive or negative. In other words, blessings for obedience, and curses or punishment for disobedience. Like good lawyers, the prophets compiled their suits against the king and/or the people and preached to them about how they had failed to live up to God’s standards.

3. Learn to be aware of the prophetic idiom.

The prophetic idiom is an important aspect of how the Prophets speak of future realities. Here, the central thesis is that the Prophets, which continually talk about the maintenance of and arrangements of Israel and the tribes, their land, and their temple, are very often describing new covenant realities yet to come. Therefore, the reader should constantly be asking the questions, “Are the contemporary matters surrounding the prophet, what he is really talking about? Or, is he speaking of future realities?” The prophetic idiom, therefore, is that manner of expression by which the prophets of the Old Testament use the typological configuration of the things of Israel in order to portray the Messianic realities of the new covenant age. This is the nature of the prophetic idiom, and if we do not recognize it, then we will misunderstand the Prophets.

This is what Paul knew well, even in his appeal before Agrippa (Acts 26:19–29). Paul appeals to the prophets, that they speak about Christ and Paul’s mission to the gentiles. The language of the prophets, the kind of figurative idiom in which they express themselves, demands (especially for the new covenant believer) separating the external idiom from the reality of the new covenant promises.

In short, in the prophetic idiom, the prophets are often describing the new covenant in the terms of the circumstances of the institutions of the old covenant. The language of prophecy, the imagery the prophets use, the idiom they use in their descriptions, is often used to portray what is going to happen in Christ Jesus and to all of humanity. This becomes important, for example, in the descriptions of exile and scattering, the gathering of the tribes, the return to the land, and the form that the curses take. Although the prophets do not speak with omniscience with regard to the future, they do often speak of the certainty of God’s coming in Jesus Christ, the new covenant, and even to the second advent of our Lord, without distinguishing all the parts from one another. Nevertheless, there is still an integral unity to the various stages about which they speak under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

For example, when Joel speaks about the outpouring of the Spirit and the images of the great and terrible coming day of the Lord, it was not only his original audience to whom he was speaking (Joel 2:28–32). Joel 2 is quoted in Acts at Pentecost (Acts 2:17–21). The same images expressed in Acts 2:28–32 are also evident at Christ’s crucifixion. One could even legitimately argue that Joel’s prophecy finds ultimate expression in the second coming of our Lord. Therefore, although Joel had a single intent, his words find many references (i.e., “landing points”) throughout redemptive history. That is why this passage about the outpouring of the Spirit was one of John Calvin’s favorite passages for explaining how the prophetic idiom works.

4. Hunt for ways in which the New Testament Scriptures cite, allude to, or echo the Prophets.

Fourth, and finally, since Christ told His disciples on the road to Emmaus that all the Scriptures spoke about Him and His ministry (or by extension His body, which is the church), we should always be on the hunt for ways in which the New Testament Scriptures cite, allude to, or echo the Prophets. For example, Peter (having been a witness to the transfiguration) realized that the foundational passage in Deuteronomy 18:15–19, which speaks about Moses as the paradigmatic prophet of all subsequent prophets, found its ultimate homecoming in Christ as the final prophet (see Acts 3:17–26). This interpretation is confirmed further by the writer to the book of Hebrews, who understood that Moses was faithful as a servant over his house (the old covenant) but Christ is faithful as a son over His house; that is, the new covenant. Moreover, God is the builder of the entire house, old and new (Heb. 3:1–6).

All “Very Good”?

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Ken Ham:

Does God call cancer “very good?”

Does God call arthritis “very good?”

Does God call abscesses “very good?”

Does God call tumors “very good?”

Did thorns exist before the fall?

Did animals eat other animals before the fall?

For those Christians who believe in millions of years, then the answers to the above questions are “Yes” to all!

Before I explain this, we first of all need to understand how we should define the word “good.” Let’s consider this passage:

“And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone’” (Mark 10:17–18).

Only God is “good.” This means the attributes of God define what the word “good” means.

From reading through the Scriptures, we learn God is infinite, self-existing, never changes, has no needs, all knowing, all powerful, all loving, everywhere, infinitely wise, unchangingly kind, full of good will, perfect in all he does, compassionate and merciful, perfect in all his ways, infinitely beautiful.

So when God defines anything as “very good,” then it must be exceedingly good. It must mean perfect and beautiful.

In Genesis 1:31 we read, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Now “everything that he had made” includes everything created over the six days in Genesis 1. And as we read in Exodus 20:11, “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

God’s Word makes it clear that everything God created, from the earth, to the plants, stars, animals, and man were all “very good.” They were perfect at the beginning.

Here’s an insurmountable problem for those Christians who believe the fossil record was laid down over millions of years before man.

First, the belief in millions of years came out of naturalism, the religion of atheism. Atheists postulated that fossil layers were laid down over millions of years by natural processes (no supernatural involved), capturing evidence of life as it supposedly evolved.

Secondly, in the fossil record there are many instances documented of disease like cancer, tumors, arthritis, and abscesses in the remains of various creatures. So, if a Christian believes in millions of years, then such diseases existed over millions of years before man existed. Now the Bible tells us as I quoted above that after God made everything including man, he said everything he made was “very good.” Thus, those Christians who believe in millions of years have to admit that this would mean God calls diseases like cancer, tumors, arthritis, and abscesses as “very good.”

There is no way God calls diseases “very good.” Death and disease exist in this fallen world because of sin. Death is described as an “enemy” in 1 Corinthians 15:26. Death is an intrusion! That’s why one day it will be thrown into the lake of fire. Romans 8:22 tells us the whole creation is groaning because of sin. To accuse God of saying diseases like cancer are “very good” and to accuse God of using death as part of the process of creating life, is to attack the very character of God.

Those Christians who believe in millions of years also therefore can’t get around that this means when we look at this world of death, suffering and disease, then God must be responsible for this. But the Bible makes it clear our sin is responsible of this groaning creation. That’s why Jesus came to die on a cross because death was the penalty for sin.

Thirdly, those who believe in millions of years have to then answer the question, “what did sin do to the world?” If all that death, suffering and disease existed before man sinned, then what did sin do? Apparently nothing that we observe in this groaning world is because of sin!!!!

Fourthly, there are two more items.

1. The Scripture teaches plainly that thorns came after the curse because of man’s sin:

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;”(Genesis 3:17–18)

But there are many examples of fossil thorns supposedly formed millions of years ago!

No, you can’t have thorns millions of years before man.

2. The Scripture teaches plainly that animals were vegetarian before the fall.

“And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.”(Genesis 1:30).

But there are many examples of animals having eaten other animals or in the midst of eating another creature in the fossil record supposedly millions of years before man and before man sinned.

No, you can’t have animals eating each other before the fall.

Christians who compromise God’s Word and undermine its authority with the belief in millions of years need to give it up and take God at his Word.

Quotes to Ponder (117)

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“Christ is the one eternal High Priest; therefore, those who vaunt themselves as high priests oppose the honor and power of Christ.” – Ulrich Zwingli, Swiss Reformer

“Bring them to church. Saturate their lives with the Word of God. Even if they lay on the floor. Even if they need 437 goldfish and a sucker to be quiet. Even if you stand in the back swaying back and forth holding them. Even when it’s hard. Even when your row looks like a small hurricane just came through. Bring them to church. Let them see you worship. Let them see you pray. Let them see you running toward the Savior … because if they don’t see and learn these things from you, who are they going to learn them from? The world will teach them it’s not a priority. The world will teach them it’s okay to lay out, not to pick up their Bibles. The world will direct them so far off course, confuse them, and misinform them that just being ‘good’ is enough. The world won’t teach them about Jesus. That’s our job.” – Tom Manuel

“Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth.” – John Wesley

“Whenever the Lord shuts his sacred mouth, [the Christian] also desists from inquiry. The best rule of sobriety is, not only in learning to follow wherever God leads, but also when he makes an end of teaching, to cease also from wishing to be wise.” – John Calvin, Institutes, Book 4. Ch 21. Sec 3

“To me, Calvinism means the placing of the eternal God at the head of all things. I look at everything through its relation to God’s glory. I see God first, and man far down in the list . . . Brethren, if we live in sympathy with God, we delight to hear Him say, ‘I am God, and there is none else.’” – Charles Spurgeon from “An All Round Ministry,” 337

“You may spoil the gospel by disproportion. You have only to attach an exaggerated importance to the secondary things of Christianity, and a diminished importance to the first things and the mischief is done. Once alter the proportion of the parts of truth, truth soon becomes downright error! Do this, either directly, or indirectly, and your religion ceases to be Evangelical.” – J. C. Ryle

“If Christ did so buy them, and lay out the price of His precious blood for them, and then at last deny that He ever knew them, might they not well reply, ‘Ah, Lord! was not Your soul heavy unto death for our sakes? Did You not for us undergo that wrath that made You sweat drops of blood? Did You not bathe Yourself in Your own blood, that our blood might be spared? Did You not sanctify Yourself to be an offering for us as [much] as for any of Your apostles? Was not Your precious blood—by stripes, by sweat, by nails, by thorns, by spear—poured out for us? Did You not remember us when You hung upon the cross? And now do You say, You never knew us? Good Lord, though we be unworthy sinners, yet Your own blood does not deserved to be despised. Why is it that none can lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? Is it not because You die for them [Romans 8]? And did You not do the same for us [according to a universal atonement]? Why, then, are we thus charged, thus rejected? Could not Your blood satisfy Your Father, but we ourselves must be punished? Could not justice content itself with that sacrifice…?’” (291) John Owen – The Death of Death in the Death of Christ

“I preach the doctrines of grace because I believe them to be true; because I see them in the Scriptures; because my experience endears them to me; and because I see the holy result of them in the lives of believers. I confess they are none the less dear to me because the advanced school despises them: their censures are to me a commendation. I confess also that I should never think the better of a doctrine because it was said to be ‘new.; Those truths which have enlightened so many ages appear to me to be ordained to remain throughout eternity. The doctrine which I preach is that of the Puritans: it is the doctrine of Calvin, the doctrine of Augustine, the doctrine of Paul, the doctrine of the Holy Ghost. The Author and Finisher of our faith Himself taught most blessed truth which well agreed with Paul’s declaration, ‘By grace are ye saved.’ The doctrine of grace is the substance of the testimony of Jesus.”

[C. H. Spurgeon, C. H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography, Compiled from His Diary, Letters, and Records, by His Wife and His Private Secretary, 1854–1860, vol. 2 (Chicago; New York; Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1899), 87.]

“An over-popular definition of holiness is ‘set apart.’ Ask a group of Christians to define holiness, and many will say just those two words: ‘set apart.’ A better and more full-orbed Biblical definition is, ‘Set apart to the ownership and service of God.'” – Dan Phillips

A good reminder on justification from Obadiah Sedgwick:

Believers have immunity or freedom from being justified by the Law, from all legal judgments for life. Although you are not free from the Law as a guide for life, you are free from the Law as a Covenant of life. While you are not free from the Law as it reflects the good and holy will of God, you are free from the Law as a means of salvation and justification because you are under the Covenant of grace. The Covenant of grace removes you from the court and bar that pronounces life based on your own good deeds and death based on your own evil deeds; Romans 3:28, “We conclude that a person is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law.” Galatians 3:11, “No one is justified by the Law in the sight of God, for the just shall live by faith.”

As the Law demands perfect and personal righteousness of our own, it won’t justify or give life to you unless it finds that righteousness within you; you don’t live if you aren’t perfectly righteous; absolution is pronounced upon your own perfect innocence, and condemnation is pronounced upon any defect or breach. Truly, in this regard, no living person can or will be justified; therefore, there is comfort in knowing that, being in Christ and in this Covenant of grace, you are justified from all things from which you couldn’t be justified by the Law of Moses; see the Apostle in Acts 13:39. Your life doesn’t depend on your own righteousness now, but on the righteousness of Christ; nor does it rely on your own deeds, but on Christ’s obedience. Luther’s expression is excellent: “Though my works have been very good, it is not those but Christ who justifies me; and though my works have been very bad, the righteousness of Christ can and will justify me; my evil deeds will not condemn me, and my good deeds cannot acquit me; it is Christ, it is Christ, and not the Law that justifies me.”

  • Obadiah Sedgwick, The Bowels of Tender Mercy Sealed in the Everlasting Covenant (London: Printed by Edward Mottershed, for Adoniram Byfield, 1661), 81.