And we should NOT expect them to be.
Scripture often comes in with a great deal of criticism for the perceived lack of chronological order in the discussion of future events. An oriental trait we are told. Much of this very unfair criticism. Actually, very little secular history is rigidly chronological.
Take for instance Will Durant.
Will Durant is a very popular, and very readable, historian of the mid twentieth century. Copies of his series “The Story of Civilization,” extends from pre-Christian times to the story of Napoleon in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Used copies are available all over the place, yet all eleven of the thick large format volumes are still in print.
Will Durant is generally chronological.
The first volume is Our Oriental Heritage, and the last volume is The Age of Napoleon.
But Durant is not strictly chronological.
In between though are many volumes which overlap each other. For instance, volumes like The Renaissance, and The Reformation, and The Age of Reason Begins.
Take for instance Volume V, The Renaissance. It generally covers from 1304 to 1576. But if you look inside, what Durant calls Book II covers “The Florentine Renaissance” from 1378-1534. Then, much as if Florence were not in Italy, Book III covers “Italian Pageant,”1378-1534. Then Book IV covers “The Roman Renaissance, 1378-1521! (But isn’t Rome also in Italy?)
And there are many internal chronological inconsistencies, for instance when he goes into detail about this or that trend in art. Generally chronological? Yes! Strictly chronological? No!
If you look around, most histories are the same way.
The Bible is generally chronological.
It starts with the creation of our present universe, and ends with the yet to come end of this present universe, and the creation of a new universe where sin and death and decay and entropy are not operating principles.
But Scripture is not strictly chronological.
For instance, the books of Kings and Chronicles are different accounts of generally the same period of time. And really the books of the prophets, from Isaiah to Malachi are generally sprinkled in time through out the period of the books of the Kings and Chronicles!
Isaiah is not strictly chronological.
Yes Revelation talks about the end of this present universe. But the end of the universe is also discussed in last part of Isaiah chapter 2. Also it is discussed in middle of Isaiah 13. Then it is discussed in some detail in Isaiah 24.
Isaiah is putting the events of his day, and of our day, into the larger context of where history, and this universe, is headed.
Often we should think of prophecy as a Father’s conversations
with His children about the future.
And if you want to follow the conversation, you have pay attention to the conversation, and note shifts in mood, or subject or time. It is much like a movie where there are no signs which say, “The next day back at the ranch,” we sense, or should sense, the change of time or location.