Seven: Is prophecy easy to understand?
You already know the correct answer to that statement. It
isn’t. And Christians don’t agree on the meaning of many prophecies. However, God
has shown, over and over, that He is able to communicate what is necessary to
people, in Bible times and since then. Even though prophecy seems obscure, if
it’s important that we understand it, God can show us. But it is also true that
not everyone who thinks she understands a prophecy knows the correct
interpretation. There are many unfortunate examples of wrong interpretations
and predictions, such as the one by Harold Camping and his
followers, that the world would come to an end on May 21, 2011, based on
Camping’s interpretation of the Bible. It didn’t, and there were several
obvious flaws
in Camping’s interpretation. Also, he was presumptuous, since Jesus said:
Matthew 24:36 But no one knows of that day and hour, not
even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Camping has acknowledged that he erred in making this
definite prediction. [Note - Camping passed away recently.]
Prophecies relating to the early life of Christ
The New Testament, especially the book of Matthew, which was
apparently written with a Jewish audience in mind, frequently reminds us of Old
Testament prophecies about Christ, and how they were fulfilled by Christ. I’m
going to present and discuss the first four of these, to illustrate why
Christians should be cautious about interpreting prophecy.
The first fulfilled prophecy about Christ, in the New
Testament, is this:
Matthew 1:23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child,
and shall bring
forth a son.
They shall call his name Immanuel”;
which is, being
interpreted, “God with us.”
This is a quotation from Isaiah 7:14. However, here are
additional verses from that chapter:
Isaiah 7:10 Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask a
sign of Yahweh your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.”
12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, neither will I tempt
Yahweh.”
13 He said, “Listen now, house of David. Is it not enough
for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God
also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin
will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15 He shall
eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 16
For before the child knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land
whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken. 17 Yahweh will bring on you, on
your people, and on your father’s house, days that have not come, from the day
that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria. 18 It will happen
in that day that Yahweh will whistle for the fly that is in the uttermost part
of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
Matthew says that Isaiah 7:14 was a fulfilled prophecy about
the birth of Christ, so it must have been. But it would have taken
extraordinary wisdom to find such a prophecy in Isaiah’s original proclamation,
which seems to be a prophecy about God’s judgment on the kingdom of Ahaz. There
are other difficulties. Did Jesus ever have to learn to refuse evil? Was there
a child born in Ahaz’s time, who also fulfilled this prophecy? (My NIV study
bible suggests that a betrothed wife of Isaiah may have been referred to.) It
is unlikely that Ahaz, or even Isaiah, would have taken Isaiah 7:14 to be a
prophecy about the coming of Christ. Matthew, and you and I, can see that it
was, but that’s in hindsight.
An interesting sidelight about this prophecy is that some
scholars have translated the Hebrew word from Isaiah, which the WEB has
rendered as “virgin,” as “young woman.” This includes a recent translation,
the New American Bible, Revised Edition, which has the approval of the U. S.
Catholic Bishops. The Bishops, of course, are not changing their belief that
Mary was a virgin when Christ was conceived, but are convinced that the Hebrew
word did not have to mean “virgin.”
The above is an excerpt from my recently published e-book, Does the Bible Really Say That?, which may be obtained free of charge, or purchased from Amazon
for $0.99, which is the lowest price Amazon lets an author set.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain.
The previous post in this series is here. God willing, the next post in this series will continue a discussion of this topic, prophecy. Thanks for reading.
The previous post in this series is here. God willing, the next post in this series will continue a discussion of this topic, prophecy. Thanks for reading.
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