What We Can Learn from the Old Testament Prophets

Let’s be honest. You’re probably thinking: “Why is Lindsey writing about Old Testament Prophets?? I don’t care anything about that!” Well, I’m here to change your perspective.

This week at the Kanakuk Institute, we got to hear from Blake Holmes, who is the Equipping Director at Watermark Community Church in Dallas, TX.

In the past, I’ve 100% been more prone to open up my Bible to Proverbs or Matthew. I mean, who opens up their Bible to Habakkuk or Lamentations? Even though I haven’t, I am definitely going to now. I have come to fall in love with the OT prophets!

At first thought, I concluded that the OT prophets were all about gloom & doom. Instead, the message of the prophets is repentance & compassion. There are 17 prophetical books: 5 major prophets & 12 minor prophets. The difference between major & minor prophets is not significance, but rather length of book. Now don’t worry – I’m not going to go into detail about all 17 books. So keep hearing me out!

There are 7 principles to keep in mind when interpreting the prophets:

1. Context: historical context is key!
2. Roles: the prophets served 2 roles – to forth tell the truth of God’s Word & to foretell what is to come.
3. Covenants: read the prophets against the backdrop of the OT covenants (Israel’s commitment to follow the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, & the Davidic Covenant).
4. Theme: the theme of the prophets is one of repentance over idolatry, social injustice & religious ritualism, & restoration (a future hope through the coming Messiah).
5. Double-Fulfillment: prophecies often have a double-fulfillment, an immediate, & a remote perspective; they emphasized 4 chronological periods – their own day, the captivity & return, the first coming of Christ, & the millennial reign.
6. Oracles: the longer prophetical books are collections of spoken oracles, which are not always presented in their original chronological order.
7. Literal fulfillment: although the prophets often speak in figurative terms, there is no need to spiritualize their meaning; thus, we can anticipate a literal fulfillment.

Today, lots of people turn to fortunetellers & so forth, but the Bible has people who can really predict the future because God helped them. They were called the OT prophets. Everybody can go to fortunetellers, but only God can predict the future.

If you want to know what I’ve learned about each prophet, please get in contact with me. I would LOVE to share my notes with you! But for now, here are some questions for you to wrestle with:

• What do you trust in for security?
• Do you ever feel like you’re the exception to God’s grace? Why? How can you change that view?
• How can you find comfort in the sovereignty of God?
• When have you questioned the Lord’s goodness & sovereignty over evil?
• What is the Lord calling you to reprioritize? In what ways are you prioritizing your comfort over the Lord’s call in your life?
• When are you most tempted to rely on your own strength rather than the Lord’s? What are you currently relying on the Lord to accomplish?

These are all questions that I’m working through right now because of what I’ve learned about the OT prophets. It’s so cool to know that the Old Testament does apply to our lives today. It’s not just for people who lived 2000 years ago. God is faithful. He is faithful even when we remain faithless.

I hope this got your heart stirring!

Loyally,

Lindsey