Read & Understand the Prophets pt.4 Prophecies of the Future!
—(Part 54 of Seeing Jesus in the O.T.)
Andrew Fountain – June 5, 2022
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Calling the Nation Back to the Covenant Agreement
The Shape of Ancient Literature
The Issue of Social Justice
Prophecies against other nations
All prophecy is contingent and provisional
Purpose is to warn people so that that they “turn” from their behaviour
God’s heart is not to carry it out
It grieves God to bring judgement!
Even with the wicked—God’s heart is that they should turn and be saved
It brings him grief to judge them harshly
Loving our Enemies
We are to love our enemies
Jesus tells us that if we do that, we are like God!
While we were his enemies, he loved us enough to send his son to die for us!
Do we love in such a radical way?
Prophecies of the Future
New Exodus
New Messiah
New Creation
Goal
To help us notice themes when we are reading the O.T. prophets
and capture the hope and excitement
of their vision of the future.
Deuteronomy 4
Have a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the middle of fire, as you yourselves have, and lived to tell about it?
Has any god ever tried to deliver a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him.
Jeremiah 16: Exodus from captivity prophesied
“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’
but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.
Isaiah 11 Figurative language
The LORD will divide the gulf of the Egyptian Sea;
he will wave his hand over the River and send a strong wind,
he will turn it into seven dried-up streams,
and enable them to walk across in their sandals.
Isaiah 43
Now, this is what the LORD says,
the one who created you, O Jacob,
and formed you, O Israel:
“Don’t be afraid, for I will protect you.
I call you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I am with you;
when you pass through the streams,
they will not overwhelm you.
Isaiah 43 cont’d
Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
From the east I will bring your descendants;
from the west I will gather you.
I will say to the north, ‘Hand them over!’
and to the south, ‘Don’t hold any back!’
Bring my sons from distant lands,
and my daughters from the remote regions of the earth,
Isaiah 42
“Here is my servant whom I support,
my chosen one in whom I take pleasure.
I have placed my spirit on him;
he will make just decrees for the nations.
He will not cry out or shout;
he will not publicize himself in the streets.
A crushed reed he will not break,
a dim wick he will not extinguish;
he will faithfully make just decrees.
He will not grow dim or be crushed
before establishing justice on the earth;
the coastlands will wait in anticipation for his decrees.”
Prophecies of the Future
New Exodus
New Messiah
New Creation
Isaiah 53
Lots of details
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. Mal 4:5
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Zec 9:9
Lots of details
“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. Zec 12:10
Joel 2 – Pentecost
After all of this I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh:
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your elderly will have revelatory dreams;
your young men and women will see visions.
Even on male and female servants
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
Joel 2 – Pentecost cont’d
I will show wonders both in the sky and on the earth —
blood, fire, and columns of smoke.
The sunlight will be turned to darkness
and the moon to the color of blood,
before the day of the LORD comes —
that great and awesome day!
And it shall come to pass that
everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.
Isaiah 9
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
Prophecies of the Future
New Exodus
New Messiah
New Creation
Isaiah 11
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
Isaiah 11 cont’d
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
The Day of the Lord
Messiah comes and brings justice and judgement
We now know that the coming of Jesus is in two phases
As a humble servant, dying on the cross
As judge of the universe
The fact there is a gap, is GRACE
Isaiah 11 cont’d
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 65
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.
Isaiah 66 —the book closes with:
“For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain.
Prophecies of the Future
New Exodus
New Messiah
New Creation
Two Takeaways:
We are in the middle of the mountain range right now
Don’t worry if some things are not clear, they will be.
Be encouraged and keep your eyes on the end!
The fulfillment was unimaginably greater than you could have figured from the prophecy…
God himself would become a human!
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love him” 1 Cor 2:9