He Gave Us Prophets: Essential Hermeneutical Perspectives

Dear Church Family,

This past Sunday, we began a new series of Sunday school lessons using a video curriculum and discussion format entitled, “He Gave Us Prophets.” The eight lessons in this series are as follows:

1. Essential Hermeneutical Perspectives
2. A Prophet’s Job
3. People of the Covenant
4. Dynamics of the Covenant
5. Historical Analysis of Prophecy
6. Literary Analysis of the Prophets
7. The Purpose of Predictions
8. Unfolding Eschatology

Essential Hermeneutical Perspectives

In our first lesson, we covered some of the aspects of essential hermeneutical perspectives when interpreting the prophetic books of the Bible. “Hermeneutical perspectives” refers to the methods one uses in interpreting and understanding certain works of literature, in this case the Bible.

1. Our Confusion

Our confusion in reading and understanding the prophetic books of the Bible comes from two primary sources: (1) the prophetic books themselves which can seem disjointed and confusing; (2) the different, and sometimes erroneous, teachings about the prophetic books that we receive from various churches and traditions. The result of this confusion is also two-fold: (1) we become victims, tossed about and carried away by every wind of doctrine; (2) we become apathetic with regard to the prophetic books of the Bible and lose interest.

2. The Prophet’s Experience

When thinking about the experiences of the prophets, people often think that they were “out of their minds” and didn’t even understand what they were saying themselves. Or, some think of the experience of the prophets as being one of a mechanical inspiration, God took over their minds and simply dictated what they were to write down. These are mistaken views of the prophets’ experiences. Rather, the Bible describes the inspiration of the prophets as what has come to be called “organic inspiration.” In this understanding, the Holy Spirit inspired the authors of Scripture while working through the individual author’s style and human faculties; yet, the product was God’s word to His people.

3. Original Meaning

As with all of Scripture, when interpreting the prophets we must be careful to not read God’s word atomistically (taking verses or text out of their literary context), and we must also be careful to not read God’s word ahistorically (without taking into account the historical setting in which the text was written). Instead, a proper form of exegesis which will help to protect us from both of these errors is what theologians call the grammatico-historical method of exegesis. This is the form that we will learn and employ in this series of lessons.

4. New Testament Perspective

In order to properly apply the prophet books of the Old Testament to our day, we must understand the New Testament’s approach to prophecy. Jesus affirmed the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures in stating that He did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17). Jesus also taught that He was indeed the fulfillment of all Old Testament Scripture (Luke 24:44; see also 2 Corinthians 1:20). Just so, the writers of the New Testament were not arbitrary in their interpretations and applications of the prophetic books of the Old Testament. Rather, they looked for the original meaning and then, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, explained how the prophetic expectations are fulfilled in the three phases of coming of God’s kingdom: (1) the inauguration of God’s kingdom at Jesus’ first coming (Mark 1:15; Hebrews 2:14-15); (2) the continuation of God’s kingdom in the present age (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 6:10-11); and, (3) the consummation of God’s kingdom at Jesus’ second coming (Revelation 19:11-16).

Conclusion

We concluded our first study with an overview examination of the several parables of Matthew 13 which Jesus used to explain the coming of the kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God. And we took note of two interesting things about these parables. First, all of these parables have three phases or parts to them: inauguration (often symbolized in sowing seed), continuation (often symbolized in growing), and consummation (often symbolized in harvesting or reaping). Second, as you progress through these parables in Matthew 13, the first parables emphasize the initial inauguration phase, followed by an emphasis on the middle growing phase, and the latter parables of Matthew 13 emphasize the final consummation phase of the coming of the kingdom of God.

I hope you will join us on Sunday mornings at 9:15 am as we learn how better to interpret the prophetic books of the Old Testament!

The Lord be with you!
Pastor Peter M. Dietsch