『284: Reader Take Note: How to understand prophetic books』のカバーアート

284: Reader Take Note: How to understand prophetic books

284: Reader Take Note: How to understand prophetic books

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 This seems to me to be a good time to talk with you about how to understand the prophetic books of the Bible, as we now are starting to read the Babylonian exile prophet Ezekiel. And starting in a week and extending to the end of the year, our poetry readings will be from the prophet Isaiah, who lived 200 years before Ezekiel. Near the end of the year we’ll read the minor prophets in quick succession. All the books in the prophetic genre are hands-down the most difficult books to understand in the Bible. So I hope I can give basic pointers in this episode that will be helpful to you from now on to the end of the year. I will start with quoting a paragraph from How to Read the Bible for all it’s worth (by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart) that gives one reason people have difficulty with the 16 prophetic books of the OT: We come to these books with false expectations. Speaking about the word ‘prophecy’ they state: For most people this word means what appears as the first definition in most dictionaries: “foretelling or prediction of what is to come.” It often happens, therefore, that many Christians refer to the prophetic books only for predictions about the coming of Jesus and/or certain features of the new-covenant age—as though prediction of events far distant from their own day was the main concern of the prophets. In fact, using the prophets in this way is highly selective. Consider in this connection the following statistics: Less than 2 percent of Old Testament prophecy is messianic. Less than 5 percent specifically describes the new-covenant age [we are currently living in]. Less than 1 percent concerns events yet to come in our time. (p. 166) The prophets did indeed announce the future. But it was usually the immediate future of Israel, Judah, and other nations surrounding them that they announced rather than our future. Rather than thinking of prophets as prediction makers, Fee and Stuart give this very accurate job description of them: The prophets were covenant enforcement mediators. This definition explains a lot! There were hundreds of prophets in the Old Testament, starting with Moses. Many were unnamed. Only 16 were selected to write books for us. Several named prophets wrote historical books that we wish we had. In all cases, the prophets were speaking to the people of their age. So understanding what was happening at the time of the writer is key to understanding the prophetic books. You won’t understand the historical setting without help. This is why I will make several book recommendations at the end of this episode. I was in a village in Papua adjacent to the Orya area and where many Orya people come to shop for things they need. This was at the very beginning of the Covid Pandemic. I stayed overnight with a hospitable pastor there who said, “I’ve heard that this epidemic has something to do with bats. I found this verse. Is God saying this to us? Isaiah 2:20 (NET) At that time men will throw their silver and gold idols, which they made for themselves to worship, into the caves where rodents and bats live, I replied, “Probably that isn’t for us. We should first figure out what was happening in Isaiah’s time, and then see if that message is appropriate for our time also.” The pastor kind of rolled his eyes and held up the palms of his hands, as if to say, “How in the world can I do that?!” I must admit, he would have few resources to call on to find answers. But you have many ways to gain the needed background information: His translation doesn’t have good section headings. Yours probably does. Good section headings really help the reader, and the listeners. That’s why I read the section headings in prophetic books in my podcasts. He wasn’t using a meaning-based translation for reading the prophets. I hope you will! The GNT and NLT convey the meaning as we would say it in normal modern language. Trying to force English to say things like the Hebrew does results in verses that leave the readers scratching their heads. Use some of the extra resources I will recommend at the end to help you to understand the historical context. This will help the prophetic books to come alive for you. I was rather surprised when one of the elders in our church here in Arkansas complained bitterly about the major prophetic books. He said something like, “I’ve been working to penetrate Jeremiah the last couple of months. I hate reading these chapters that say, ‘Woe to you, king of somewhere…’ What am I supposed to find in these books?” I was shocked that an elder— who is an intelligent and well-educated professional— would speak so negatively about any part of God’s Word. I was unprepared to answer him. Let me tell you what I wish I had said to him: First, he was doing none of the three things I just mentioned. He was clearly not coming with the right expectations for what God has for us in the prophetic books. “The prophets were covenant...
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