An audio lesson.
Another look at a subject which unnecessarily befuddles so many people in studying prophecy: the use of time in prophecy.
However, no matter how you look at it, our views of the future do affect our actions in the present!
Once again, the order of discussion in Micah is conversational, NOT chronological. So first is discussed Israel regaining her former glory, then about striking the judge of Israel on the cheek, and THEN is discussed this judge’s birth place.
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Being small among the clans of Judah,
Out of you one will come forth to me that is to be ruler in Israel;
Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”
Mic 5:2 WEB
Ephrathah is the former name of Bethlehem. Judah itself was compared to especially Ephraim, and Bethlehem is cited as being too small to notice among the main clans in Judah, but a special ruler is to come from her. The word for “ruler” here is mashal and it indicates someone having dominion or authority, is the master of something. It can indicate a king, but whether a king or not it indicates the one who is making the decisions
“Therefore he will abandon them until the time that she who is in labor gives birth.
Then the rest of his brothers will return to the children of Israel.”
Mic 5:3 WEB
It seems to be talking about God the Lord abandoning Israel until the one who is in labor with this ruler gives birth, that is until Jesus is born. It seems that “the rest of his brothers will return to the children of Israel.” That is to say that this ruler will once again unite Israel, which would be no small trick, either in ancient or modern times. Also it is not talking about any minor official who is to come, because it says,
“He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of Yahweh,
In the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God:
And they will live, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth.”
Mic 5:4 WEB
And this ruler will be great to the ends of the earth! Jesus did tell his disciples,
“… “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.””
Mtt 28:18 WEB
Clearly this is talking about the Messiah as even the ancients realized.
It is clear that when the wise men from the East arrived, that the unanimous answer of the Jews was that the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem. So they understood this passage as has been pointed out here. But notice the rest of story of this “ruler.” This ruler is one “Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting”!!! What does that mean? What does that say?
It seems to say that this ruler exists before His birth! And it seems to say He was even going and coming from times older than Micah and his prophecy.
He said “Before Abraham was, I am.” Jn 8:58 KJV. And Jn 1:1-2 says in fact that He was with God in the beginning. These things did trip up the Jews, but they should not have! Right?
KJV is the King James Version, 1611.
WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901
But to get to Mic 5:2, and to see how we should have understood from that the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem, first we need to get our bearings in the book of Micah the prophet. First of course would be to see what the prophet says of himself.
“The word of Yahweh that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.”
Mic 1:1
So here we see the grand subject matter of the prophet. Jothham’s reign started around 750 BC and Hezekiah’s reign ended around 686 BC, so we can see the range of years in which included Micah prophesying. You can read of those kings in the books of Kings and Chronicles, and so get some historical background on conditions in those days. This would make Micah and Isaiah contemporaries of each other, and some of the verses in Isaiah chapter two and Micah four overlap each other, but we do not know how this happened.
Crime and idolatry and unfaithfulness to the Lord were rampant in those days, and neither most of the rulers or the people were close to really repenting.
The first three chapters of Micah prophesy the destruction of both the Northern kingdom of Israel and the Southern kingdom of Judah, because of their bloodshed and idolatry and other sins.
In Mich 1:2-4 talks about the coming day of the Lord, when Yahweh will come out of His place and bring an end to this world. Some brush this aside as poetry which is irrelevant to us, but they SHOULD NOT! Almost always, the immediate things of history are related to the ultimate end of all things. Mic says that this things will happen because of their sins, Mic 1:5; and talks as if these things are pertinent to them, and to us. Indeed they are, for “they” and “we” will all be there on that final day when
“28 … for the hour comes, in which all that are in the tombs will hear his voice, 29 and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.”
Jn 5:28-29
These are common patterns in prophecy we should recognize: the present things are related to the coming ultimate things. Sometimes the present things seem very distant from the future things, so such things mystify some, but they shouldn’t
So Micah says Samaria, the capital of Israel will be (future) made a ruin, Mich 1:6-8. That happened during Micah’s day in 722 BC with the Assyrian conquest. Then he says that the same will happen to Judah, Mic 1:9. That didn’t happen until 586 BC, another 136 years later, well after Micah’s time. That was not nearby in human terms, but very close by in historical terms, and almost nothing in the grand time scale of Scripture.
Indeed, all of their things and our things are related to that final end which is coming.
Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901
Clearly there will be radical differences between the world to come and our present universe. It even clearly says things which we cannot imagine. For instance,
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.”
Rev 21:1 KJV
We really cannot imagine this, even though it does speak at times of something “like a sea of glass,” Rev 4:6 WEB. So I have heard all my life, that in the world to come that “time would be no more.” Revelation 10 pictures mighty and beautiful angel standing on the sea and the land, and he,
“… sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, … that there should be time no longer:”
Rev 10:6 KJV
I have even talked in sermons about the Second Coming of Christ as “the end of time,” and it was phrase I used in my everyday thinking about the Second Coming. It did seem to clearly say that in Rev 10:6 in the KJV. And if God said so, well it must be, even if I didn’t understand why? But there were disquieting voices going on within me.What does that mean? Time will be no more?
Of course that happens all the time when we really read and study all of Scripture. Even so I was still trying understand what this meant for this new country to which we were going. No time? I even read some physics articles and some mushy philosophical articles on time. Then I thought: does one thing often happen after another, even in heaven? And I must say, it does seem so in both Testaments when talking about eternity. Well, if one thing happens after another … isn’t that time? At least in some sense! Duh!
(I mean, we don’t have time to take a closer look at everything in Scripture, do we? We only live a few decades). But then I took a jolt. The WEB and the New American Standard and many other translated it along the lines of, “that there will no longer be delay.”
It is like when you and the kids are about the house, and you say, come on kids, we are out of time.” But we don’t mean that literally. Even if we miss our appointment, time still goes on. Then comes the next question.
I think not! On thinking it over, I think they are saying the same thing as these other translations, only in words that perhaps many of us took more literally than we should have.
Misreadings can cause a great deal of unintended confusion, and end up in our day to day traditions, that often lead us astray. Further, none of us are immune to these things. We all start somewhere.
KJV is the King James Version, 1611.
WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901
An audio lesson.
Types and Shadow of future events sometimes confuse, because sometimes the type or symbol only has some of the characteristics of the ultimate fulfillment!
Listen to this audio lesson here, or click on the Audio Player to download as an MP3 file.
An audio lesson.
Seeing by example how prophecy works.
Click on the Audio Player to download as a MP3 file.
Quite often when God wants to tell us about what will happen in the future, He uses people, places or things which have happened in the past as examples of what will happen in the future. The examples are symbolic of what will happen in the future. The examples are sometimes called “types” in Scripture. We might in modern English call them “prototypes.”
“ … For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place.”
1Cor 5:7 WEB.
Of course the first passover lambs were sacrificed in Egypt around 1440 BC. They put the blood of the passover lamb on the door posts of their dwelling, and when angel of death came, he would passover their houses, and not strike them. But the yearly passover lambs were merely symbolic. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment.
“The
next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb
of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Jn 1:29 WEB.
So the symbolic was early and yearly. The ultimate fulfillment was nearly 1500 years into the future.
That is what God said.
“I
will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you; and
I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that
I shall command him.”
Deut 18:18 WEB
A prophet “like you,” that is to say, like Moses. What would that mean? Well he would be a leader of God’s people. He would be a lawgiver and would bring a new law. He would lead God’s people into the promised land (heaven). And we could go on and on. Peter quotes this passage as applying to Jesus Christ in Acts 3:22. There is a great deal more to say about the ways that Moses is symbolic of Jesus Christ.
Notice that the “type” (Moses) was already present when the prophecy was given. Howerver, the fulfillment (Jesus) was about 1500 years into the future.
As was discussed in “The Author of Hebrews Identifies a Type:The Final Rest,” evidently the land of Canaan, the promised land, is symbolic of our final rest in heaven.
Canaan was taken over in the 15 century BC. The Final rest in heaven, is still yet to come.
The original “abomination of desolation” (Dan 11:31) was evidently an idol set up in the temple in Jerusalem in the early 2 century BC in the times of the Greek King Antiochus Epiphanes. The ultimate fulfillment is sometime in the future. So Jesus says,
“15
When, therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was
spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let
the reader understand), 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to
the mountains.”
Mtt 24:15 WEB
Often times there is more than one type of an important person, place, or thing in the future. Moses, Solomon, the passover lamb, and more, are all types of Jesus the Christ.
WEB
is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the
original ASV American Standard Version 1901
This prophecy in 2 Samuel 7 has two subjects in mind. The general subject is the building of the“house” of David, the family line of David. David had wanted to build “the house of God,” the temple of God. God told David that He would not allow David to build Him a house, because he had been a man of war, not a man of peace.
Instead, God tells David, that God will build a house of David, a family of David, which will last forever. Then He tells David that his son will “build a house for my name,” 2Sam 7:13.
“12 When your days are fulfilled, and you shall
sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you,
who shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his
kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will
establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his
father, and he shall be my son: if he commit iniquity, I will
chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children
of men; 15 but my loving kindness shall not depart from him, as I
took it from Saul, whom I put away before you. 16 Your house and
your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before you: your throne
shall be established forever.”
2Sam 7:12-16 WEB
The issue is that Scripture says that this prophecy is fulfilled by Solomon (for instance in 1Kgs 8:17-20), but it also says that Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy. Hebrews 1:5 is a quotation from 2Sam 7:14 and applies it to Jesus the Christ!
“
… and
again,
“I will be to him a
Father,
And he will be to me a Son?””
Heb
1:5 WEB
Both Solomon and Jesus are “sons” (descendants) of David. Solomon built a literal temple, a literal house of God. Jesus, beginning in the first century of our age is building spiritual temple, a spiritual house of God, the church.
“But
if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave
thyself in the
house of God,
which is the
church of the
living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. ”
1Tim
3:15 KJV
Well, as a minimum, about 1,000 years. Notice that evidently Solomon is symbolic of Jesus, that is to say, Solomon is a “type” of Jesus. We might say in modern English that Solomon is a “prototype” of Jesus.
Solomon’s kingdom was not “established forever,” 2Sam 7:16. Solomon’s kingdom ended in 586 BC when Jerusalem fell and the city was destroyed.
Jesus was not a disobedient son of His Father, so the part, “if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men;” (2Sam 7:14) does not apply to Jesus at all. The two subjects, Solomon and Jesus are intertwined, with no clear line of division.
It just cannot be done. A full discussion of this prophecy and its fulfillment is in Prophecy Principles.
KJV is the King James Version, 1611
WEB
is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the
original ASV American Standard Version 1901
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.
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.
The first volume is Our Oriental Heritage, and the last volume is The Age of Napoleon.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
In contrast, true atheists are rare in most nations, but common among the Jews. Further, the number of modern Jews who are not really atheists, but who are actually very secular, or even anti-religious in their thinking and outlook, seem to be in the majority among modern Jews. The Jews will on one hand claim to you and me that God was the one who promised Palestine to them, but on the other hand, treat Genesis as a children’s fairy tale if serious discussion of Scripture starts. Still Jeremiah says that,
“At that time, says Yahweh,
will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my
people.”
Jer 31:1 WEB
Over two thousand years have passed and
this has NEVER happened!
Is this a false prophecy?
In truth, this present rejection of God and His Messiah was clearly forecast in many Scriptures, such as Isa 8:14-15. It is even implied in the grand context of Jeremiah himself that this glorious time will come only after much correction and hardship and suffering because of the ongoing sins of the Jews.. We might assume that since so much time has past, that the prophecy is now void. Jesus says something else:
“Scripture Cannot Be Broken,” Jn 10:35 KJV
If you believe the Word of God, then what do you make of Jer 31:1? This means it just has not happened yet! After over 2,000 years? YES! This in fact is dealt with in innumerable Old Testament passages, and several in New Testament, including Roman chapters 9 to 11.
See first that the order in which things are discussed is NOT necessarily the order in which things will happen! It is a conversational order of discussion in much of Bible prophecy. Just like in a human conversation, not everything is in sequential time order. God is having a conversation with your and me about the future.
Secondly it should be seen that it is not a human time perspective in Scripture, but an eternal time perspective. That is the real time scale we are on. Remember “that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” 2Pe 3:8 WEB. So an interruption of two thousand years is as nothing in this perspective, as Yahweh works to save as many men as possible. We do not really know how much more there is to come, even though we are clearly told to be watching.
It is as if God said, Yes one day all the families of Israel will be my people. I will send my Son as a baby. Many will be killed in the attempt to kill Him, and He will bring a New Covenant that will write My law on the hearts of My people. In the end it will be well for the Jews.
Clearly it is easy to make naïve assumptions
about time in prophecy!
WEB
is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the
original ASV American Standard Version 1901