Know the Historical Setting of the Prophet

If we think that the prophet’s major purpose is to talk about a time far in the future after their own death, then we will not recognize the importance of the time period during which they ministered and prophesied. But we have already observed that their main purpose was to speak to their own contemporaries, calling them to repentance. That highlights the importance for readers today to know something about the time in which they lived and the situations into which they were speaking. We know the time period of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel well, since the books’ superscriptions found in the first few verses of the book inform readers of the time the prophets lived and so do the many historical references in the prophecies themselves. When we survey the three major prophetic books below, we will see that they take great care in order to pinpoint their historical moment and also to speak about the moment God commissioned or called them to their prophetic ministry.

Keep in Mind the Overall Structure and Message of the Prophet

There are really two ways to read any piece of writing: straight through for the first time or with a knowledge of the structure of the book. The original readers would have started reading from the beginning without knowing what follows, and it is OK to read it like that and just pay attention to the message. But one can grow in one’s understanding of the message of any book in or outside the Bible by learning the structure.

That said, the most important thing to know about structure of most of the prophets is that it is hard to see! As Martin Luther long ago pointed out, the prophets had a strange way of talking going from one topic to another, so it is hard to make sense of what they say.

So if you feel like you are somethings confused, you are not alone! But that has more to do with our modern expectations than anything else. So don’t worry about it and read on.

However, that does not mean that the prophetic books have no structure at all. We will comment on the outlines of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel below.

Consider Whether the Prophet Talks about the Future Conditionally or Unconditionally

The main purpose of a prophet was to call his contemporaries to repent from their sins and to avoid the punishment that God would bring on them. For this reason, we have called them covenant lawyers. The people have broken their relationship with God by violating the law of the covenant, and so judgment will come in the form of the curses of the covenant. In the context of Moses leading Israel in a renewal of the covenant they made with God on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19–24), we read a long list of threatened judgments introduced by God saying, “if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you” (Deut. 28:15).

So prophets confront the people with their sin and warn them that if they don’t repent they will suffer these curses. They have been warned after all!

For this reason, much prophecy is conditional. In other words, judgment on the people unless they repent. However, it is also true, if the people definitively reject God’s offer of repentance, that he will have the prophets proclaim unconditional prophecies or announcements of judgment.

Realize that the Prophet’s Words Can Have More than One Fulfillment

Up to this point we have emphasized that the prophets were speaking to their contemporaries and not giving us what we might call prophetic “time capsules” that were only realized in the far distant future.

But if that is true, why do the New Testament authors cite Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel so often and apply their message to Jesus?

The answer is that the words of the prophets often have more than one fulfillment. There might be a type of fulfillment of a prophetic expectation near the time of the prophet, but then a more dramatic and fuller realization of the prophecy that points to Jesus.

Isaiah, for instance, looks forward to the day that “the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious” (11:10). Christian readers of course immediately think of Jesus as that “Root of Jesse,” especially since the verse is quoted in that way in Romans 15:12. But still close reading of the context indicates that there was an earlier fulfillment of this prophecy since the very next verse points to the restoration after the future exile, “In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people” and then goes on to list a number of foreign countries. The fulfillment in Jesus is the ultimate but not the only one.

So the prophets speak of the future close to their own time, but their words often have fulfillment in the more distant future as well, often a fuller fulfillment in Jesus. That Jesus was the one who was ultimately in the prophet’s vision of the future is declared by Peter who said “all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days” (Acts 3:24).