Think Wink.

In my class on the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel), two observations were made that I think preachers need to home in on when they preach from a prophetic text. First, to understand Isaiah’s prophecy, you must first understand Isaiah. You can substitute any prophet in for Isaiah but the point is the same. Isaiah, or any prophet, is a point of view upon what is recorded for us. We must put ourselves in that context that Isaiah is in. The prophets dealt with the kings of Judah and Israel and so we must become familiar with Kings and Chronicles to understand that setting of the prophet. The prophet has a deep and bottomless relationship with God that moves them to radical action. We must understand that. We must empathize and step in the prophet’s shoes to understand their sermons.

Secondly, prophecy is the divine exegesis of present reality. It is God’s message to a particular experience. Therefore, and I am sure most preachers know this, prophecy is primarily forthtelling and not foretelling. Prophets are speaking forth the word of God. They are primarily predicters of the future but explaining present circumstance. Isaiah wasn’t primarily giving us details of the millennial kingdom but rather trying to speak to the eight century Hebrew kingdoms about what is happening and their results.

I feel this must also apply to Revelation if we call it a prophecy book. This means that we cannot place its events in the 21st century but it must be looked at in light of the first century. Therefore a primarily futuristic approach to the book does not meet the demands of biblical prophecy. To look at the book from a primarily preterist approach keeps the book in its original context of John’s day, no matter if you early date or late date the visions. When preaching prophetic literature, learn as much about that time period in which it is written and aviod putting it some distant generation.

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