In an editorial comment introducing an article entitled “Preaching the Prophets with Honor,” by Elizabeth Achtemeier we read that, “In many churches, the least-preached part of the Bible is the prophetic literature.” While it is undoubtedly true that some pastors and a few denominations seem to want to preach little else, to many Christians the prophetic books remain a mystery as they are frequently passed over by pastors preparing sermons for their congregations. Why is this? Could it be that we do not preach the prophetic books because we do not understand how to do it? Or is it that we are afraid of entering into issues that have caused endless debates? This lecture is aimed at helping us develop some skills that will enable us to understand and preach prophetic literature.
Preliminary concepts
Before we consider the issue of how to preach prophetic material we need to deal with a couple of preliminary concepts about the nature of the prophetic corpus that will help set our minds straight when we try to preach from that body of literature.
First, the prophets were preachers. This extremely simple concept is often ignored. The fact that they were preachers is actually helpful to our cause, as they set an example about what preaching should look like. And since much of what is written in the prophetic books was originally produced to be preached, it should be readily adaptable to a new context.
Second, the prophets mainly spoke to the people of their own age. While prophets often made predictions about the distant future and about other countries, most of what they had to say was directed at the people of their own time and nation. And even when other nations were mentioned, it was usually to inform Israel or Judah what God was going to do to them. Since the prophets spoke to a particular audience, when we preach upon a prophetic text we need first to interpret the text as it would have been understood by its first readers. Only after we understand the original setting should we try to discern what relevance it has for people today. And unless we have an extremely good reason for doing otherwise — such as may be found in further revelation — we should be sure that the meaning we attach to the text for our contemporary audience should be fairly similar to its meaning for its first readers.
As is often said, the prophetic task had a lot more to do with forthtelling than it did with foretelling. We should therefore be careful that we do not reverse that picture as we deal with these books today. Though they are intimately related, biblical prophecy is not equivalent to eschatology. So, even when the OT prophets spoke of future events, they were usually concerned with events which would take place not long after they were spoken. While some waited a generation or so before they were fulfilled, and others were fulfilled when Jesus first came to the earth, only a very few are left to be fulfilled in our time or in our future. Those who preach the prophets must be sure to use great caution whenever they consider passing on the idea that a particular OT prophecy has been or will be fulfilled before our eyes. In most cases such statements have more to say about the ideas of the preacher than of the God who gave the initial revelation.
Third, much of biblical prophecy is made up of poetry. This appears to be the medium used when the prophets delivered their messages to their listeners. And since we do not usually communicate through poetic language, it is an aspect of prophetic literature which makes it more difficult for us to understand and deal with. While we do not have time to consider all aspects of biblical poetry, we should note that one of its chief characteristics is the use of figures of speech and metaphors. This should caution us against attempting to be overly literal in our interpretation, because if we interpret figurative language too literally we may well end up misunderstanding the text and misapplying it to our modern listeners. “Our problem,” as Dan Kent says, “is that it is not always easy to determine whether a passage is to be understood literally or figuratively.” But whether it is easy to do so or not, it is essential that we try to determine how a difficult passage should be understood. And if we find that a passage is meant to be figurative we should try to understand the point of the figure of speech, and preach it accordingly.
Fourth, the prophets did not speak for themselves — they spoke for the Lord. Hundreds of times the prophets proclaimed “Thus says Yahweh,” or “Thus says the Lord Yahweh.” Their message was his message. And in a very real way, their message was a restatement of what God had earlier proclaimed to Israel through Moses. It should be noted that even though the prophets spoke for the Lord, they spoke his words in their own language and with their own phraseology. At the heart of their message was a demand that the people of God remain faithful to the covenant God made with them. This demand was frequently uttered in moral terms, reminiscent of the blessings and curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. At other times they are stated in matrimonial terms as Israel is portrayed as an unfaithful wife prostituting herself with other gods instead of remaining faithful to the One with whom she had been joined by covenantal agreement. But even though they were repeating old material, the prophets were expounding it in a way that would be relevant to a new audience.
Just like other biblical authors, the training and background of the prophet often shone through their work. God not only chose the message, he also chose the man who would bring that message to his people. The message, however, was evidently more important than the messenger. As Fee and Stuart say, “In the prophetical books … we hear from God via the prophets and very little about the prophets themselves.” This reminds us that we know very little about a number of the prophets except for what they left behind in written form.
Fifth, although the material found in the prophetic books had originally been preached orally, it was not necessarily transcribed verbatim. As a result, what we have now is not simply a collection of sermons. Different prophetic books developed in various ways. It is doubtful that more than a few of them were written in one sitting. Most seem to have been written when the prophetic utterances were transcribed at a later date. Frequently they were rearranged as the prophet (or redactor) saw fit. It may thus require some work on our part to discern how the final material should be interpreted and preached.
As we read the prophetic books we will discover that various types of literature were used by the prophets to proclaim and record the message given to him by God. While poetic proclamations were common, we can also identify portions of sermons, prayers, visions, narrative histories and biographical statements. At times these different materials are arranged chronologically, and at other times topically. Occasionally we are at a loss to determine how the various sections came together. But no matter how they were assembled, the fact that the written form of the prophecy differs from the original oral form, serves as a reminder that our preaching of the recorded message will of necessity be different from the original oracles and from the canonical text. Just as the original message was given to the people of the prophet’s time, our message need to suit the needs of our listeners.
Sixth, much of OT prophecy was conditional. God frequently instructed a prophet to inform Israel or Judah about what would happen if they did not repent and turn to him. If they continued to walk in disobedience they would be judged. If they confessed their sins and returned to God they would be forgiven. God’s pronouncements of judgement upon his people were conditional, depending upon their response. The fact is, God did not desire to punish his people but to encourage them to return to him and live in peace and prosperity. It was only when they refused to follow him that judgement was essential.
The conditional aspect of OT prophecy should influence our preaching of this genre. Any time we proclaim God’s blessings on those who obey his will we need to emphasize that it is only for those who obey him. Those who choose to disobey will, like ancient Israel or the nations of the ANE, receive God’s judgement. Many of our applications should therefore reflect this conditional standpoint and serve as moral exhortations for our listeners to live in obedience to God’s will as found in his word.
Preaching the prophets theologically
Our starting point for preaching the prophets is to gain an understanding of the theological purpose of the books. A sermon based on any prophetic book should be guided by an understanding of the theological themes that motivated a biblical author to write. Thus Kaiser says, “If we are to hear the words of the prophets in a way that is both faithful to their original context and of contemporary usefulness to us, we must first determine the basic theme or purpose of each prophetic book from which we wish to preach.” Once we identify the themes that guided their ministry we can highlight them for our listeners so that they can hear the voice of God speaking through the prophets to their original audiences and to us today.
The prophets revealed their theological position as they accused their people of disobeying the Mosaic law and breaking covenant with Yahweh. As already mentioned, the blessings and curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 are a fundamental concern of prophetic literature. However, the prophets were not fixated on the Pentateuch, but also looked to other theological themes that had developed earlier — such as the Davidic covenant — for their ideas.
Discovering the major theological themes of certain books or sections of books can help us focus on what we should preach from a text found there. Dictionaries and other books on biblical theology may help us discover these themes. Our discovery that the major subject of Isaiah 7-39 is trust should therefore influence sermons preached on this section of the book. Similarly, to realize that Ezekiel is structured around the themes of judgement and restoration and that many of its lesser themes are similarly couched in antithetical statements gives us guidelines for preaching the book today.
When preaching we should emphasize the themes that the authors emphasized and make sure that we do not promote any of our own favourite themes to a level which is higher than the book gives to them. For instance, even though the book of Isaiah deals with a number of missiological themes, taking the gospel to the nations is not part of the context of chapter 6. For this reason we should not use the prophet’s response to God in Isa 6:8, “Here am I! Send me,” as a text for encouraging people to become missionaries. Neither should we preach the chapter as though it was intended to be a pattern for congregational worship. As neither of these themes was central in the author’s mind when he wrote the book, we should be wary of adopting them as the main point of a sermon preached on the passage. Similarly, even though the prophets had many negative things to say against Israel’s worship, we should not conclude that they were against worship or sacrifice per se, but that they were against the kind of empty worship, devoid of heart feeling, being performed by their Israelite kin.
We have already mentioned that the prophets looked to earlier revelation for the themes which they preached. In the same way, their themes influenced the biblical writers who followed them. For this reason if we really want to understand prophetic literature we need to see how the NT authors dealt with their material. Many times we find NT writers saying that an OT prophecy was fulfilled in a particular event or series of events. When this happens our interpretation of the original passage may be affected. As it is known that certain OT texts were partially fulfilled at the time of Christ’s first advent but will not be fully fulfilled until the second advent (e.g., Joel 2:28-32), we also need to ask if the whole prophecy has been fulfilled or only parts of it, and how (or if) the time or nature of the fulfillment affects us.
Although the prophets look back on the theological themes developed earlier in the Bible, they develop those themes for a new generation. At the same time they invent and define other themes which were not important in earlier ages. Thus the prophets give us a deeper understanding of the theme of the messiah than we can get elsewhere. They also develop the theme of the day of Yahweh in a way that was not expected by the Israelites who used the term in an earlier age.
Preaching the Prophets Literarily
Ever since Claus Westermann wrote his book, Basic Forms of Prophetic Speech, scholars have tried to identify different types of oracles pronounced by the prophets in order to see how the speech form affects the meaning of the text. Although there are probably some minor types, it is usually agreed that three general categories of prophetic speech exist — reports, speeches, and prayers. Reports are basically narrative texts which explain something that was happening at the time the prophecy was given. They may include such things as the account of the call of a prophet, some biographic or autobiographic accounts of the activities performed by the prophet during his ministry, or the details of other historical events. Various forms of prayer include praise, intercession, and lament.
The greatest proportion of prophetic material is made up of speeches, the third type of prophetic speech. Most of the speeches can be categorized as either oracles of judgement or oracles of salvation. The first of these is the most common. The oracles of judgement are often given in a form that is sometimes known as a covenant lawsuit. In this type of oracle God acts like both judge and prosecuting attorney, questioning his people about their actions and calling them to account. Do they have a defence for the way they have been acting? If not, and if they do not repent, they can be sure of God’s judgement.
Similar to the oracles of judgement are the woe oracles. This sub-genre of prophetic literature is characterized by a proclamation of woe (or announcement of doom) followed by a description of why woe is to come. It appears that this type of oracle is similar to the form used in many ancient funeral laments. Its purpose was to announce the impending death of the nation of Israel.
By identifying the type of speech used by a prophet we are in a better position to know how to interpret and thus preach an individual text. But as Donald Leggett informs us, identifying the different types of speech used by the prophet can also help us identify the macrostructure of the whole book, thus giving us insight into the overall message and balance of what the prophet has to say. This helps us in several ways. First, it allows us to group different kinds of oracles used by the prophet together by type. One of the benefits of this is that it helps us see the thrust of the ministry of the prophet. By identifying the kind of oracles preached by the prophet we can pinpoint the kind of messages that we should be preaching from the book. For instance, if most of the messages recorded in a particular prophet are oracles of judgement, most of our preaching from that book should similarly proclaim judgements upon people who are living in a way that is contrary to God’s will.
Second, by identifying the types of prophetic speech used by a prophet, we may be able to preach through the book at an accelerated pace. What this means is that if the prophet preaches mainly oracles of judgement and oracles of salvation we may be able to preach just one or a few sermons on passages which follow these forms in order to highlight the ministry of the prophet and teach people about the core of his ministry. One benefit can be seen when we consider that preaching too many oracles of judgement in a row could become very monotonous or possibly drive some of our listeners to despair. Another benefit is that by planning to preach examples of each prophetic genre instead of preaching every passage in a book might make us more willing to attempt some of the longer prophetic books which might take years to get through if we tried to preach through them chapter by chapter, verse by verse.
One final benefit of preaching from a prophetic book following the major genres found in it is that it may allow us to present the content of a prophetic book in one or two quick lessons. Many congregations would receive greater benefit from twelve sermons that introduced the basic teaching of each one of the minor prophets than they would from a detailed twelve week study of Habakkuk or Jonah. This is particularly true of young congregations or congregations that have remained biblically illiterate or where the prophets have been neglected. Preaching an overview of the prophetic books should not be the last word on them, but it could serve as an introduction that is followed up at a later date with more detailed exposition of one or more these books.
Applying the Prophets to Modern Audiences
Application is that part of the exegetical process in which we change from investigating “what the text meant” in its original setting to determining “what it means” for people today. This is a particularly important exercise when we deal with prophetic texts since some of them were written to deal with specific issues during the history of Israel and others were written to speak of things that would happen in either the immediate or distant future. If a text was written to a specific audience in ancient Israel we do not want to interpret it to apply it to our modern age as though it was historically disconnected from ancient Israel. Any application for the church today must be directly related to its original meaning and application. Similarly, if a text was written to talk about the distant future — indeed, our future — we do not want to interpret it as though it was only applicable to people who have been dead for more than 2000 years.
How then should we apply a prophetic text? We begin by acknowledging that what we have learned about applying other biblical texts is equally valid when applied to prophetic literature. Perhaps the greatest help is to see the way in which the prophets used earlier biblical material for their own expositions of what God was doing. They realized that the earlier material they used was applicable for people who lived long after the age in which it was produced. The Mosaic law was not only for the generation who wandered in the wilderness or for the first generation who entered into the promised land. It was applicable throughout the history of Israel. And since the law was not being kept by the people of Israel during the time of the prophets, judgement was pronounced upon them. The same is true for the nations that surrounded Israel. Even though they had not entered into covenant relationship with Yahweh, he still held them accountable for their sins and pronounced judgement upon them. In the same way, when we interpret prophetic texts we may look for and find applications for the church and for the world.
However, we will not find that every prophetic text is equally applicable to our situation. Due to the historical particularity of the prophetic oracles, we cannot simply look for a modern application without taking the original context into account. For instance, not every point of the prophet’s call in Isaiah 6 is applicable to a modern pastor or preacher. Few people who have been called into ministry have received a vision like Isaiah’s. Probably even fewer preachers have been given such a negative assessment about the way their ministry would be accepted (Isa 6:9-13). We should not think that Isaiah’s experience in his call to ministry should be a pattern that should always be followed. Neither should we (on the basis of this passage) tell new ministers that their preaching of God’s word will receive the same kind of response as did Isaiah’s.
The historic specificity of the text is of great importance at this point. Isaiah 6 was written about the call Isaiah of Jerusalem who lived in Judah during the 8th century BC. We must never forget the historic particularity of any text when applying prophetic Scripture. Just because Isaiah tells the people of Jerusalem to resist forming political alliances with certain countries does not mean that our homelands should resist alliances with those countries (e.g., Egypt) or that we should not form any political alliances at all. Neither should we determine during a time of war that we should capitulate to our enemy because Jeremiah told his people to surrender to Babylon if they wanted God to bless them. Some things found in prophetic literature only apply to the original setting. The question is, how can we determine what applies only to the original setting and what we can apply to our situation today?
Elizabeth Achtemeier provides us with three questions that we can ask of the text in order to see how it applies to us. The first is, “If the oracle is promissory, were its words fulfilled, and if so, when and how?” The first thing we need to do is to discern whether the promise was fulfilled in the history of Israel. Many, if not most, prophecies were fulfilled not long after they were made. But many of these had a second fulfilment in and through the ministry of Jesus Christ. When we find out when the prophecy was fulfilled we then have to discover how it relates to the church, particularly as we are the people of Jesus Christ in whom the prophecy was fulfilled.
Achtemeier’s second question is “What does the prophetic oracle reveal to us about the nature and activity of God?” She is rightly convinced that the main point of the prophetic message is not simply to let us know what happened in or to ancient Israel, but to show us the heart of God. She also emphasizes that we as the church should interpret OT prophecy in the light of Jesus Christ and his work. This does not mean that we read Jesus back into the texts, but that we see that they point forward to him, are fulfilled in him, and have their ultimate meaning in him. For this reason the prophets have as much (or more) to say to us than they did to Israel.
The third question is, “How is our situation as the New Israel in Christ analogous to Israel’s situation before God in the prophetic oracle?” It is at the place where our cultural, historical, and religious context parallels Israel’s that the texts will most apply to our situation. As the church, our relationship with God is analogous to Israel’s relationship with God — we both have relationship with and worship the same God, but do we worship him rightly? The place of the church in the history of redemption is analogous to Israel’s place in the history of redemption — as the people of God we share the same history. And the church and Israel as the covenant people of God share many others things in common. From a negative standpoint, many people of our age resemble the people of Isaiah’s age who had an outward form of godliness without the inner reality. Although they may expect that performing certain rituals is enough for God to accept them, the prophets show us that they will be judged for their actions which are done more for themselves than for God.
So the way to apply prophetic messages is to see how the texts work as a paradigm for our situation. We need to find the things in our age that parallel the things that were happening in the world of ancient Israel when the prophets pronounced their oracles. Where there are clear parallels we can make a sound application. Where the parallels are not clear we cannot make a direct application. If a judgement is said to come to people who act in a certain way in ancient Israel and we have people who do the same things, we can be quite sure that, everything else being similar, the same (or similar) kind of a judgement can be levelled against people today. Similarly, where the ministry of a modern pastor parallels the ministry of an ancient prophet or priest we can expect that they will have the same responsibilities and be evaluated in the same way.
