Prophetic Scripture

Chapter 10, another one of Stuarts chapters, went into great detail discussing prophetic
scriptures. We learned the difference between and misconceptions about major and minor
prophetic books in the Old Testament. Stuart discusses the nature of prophecy. We also learned
what the role and function of the prophecies were in ancient Israel. One of the final things
discussed by Stuart is how to correctly read and understand the prophets and how to look at them
in the correct context.
One of the first things that Stuart lets us know in Chapter 10 is that More individual
books of the Bible come under the heading of prophecy than under any other heading (Fee &
Stuart, 2003, pg. 181). The sixteen prophetic books were all written between 760 and 460 B.C.
(pg. 181). One of the common misconceptions between the so-called minor and major prophets
is that the major prophets are more important. Stuart quickly helps to dispel this myth, letting us
know that The minor prophets are so-called only because these books are relatively short in
length (pg. 181), continuing on that the term minor comes from centuries past, when in Latin
these books were called prophetes minors (where minor meant shorter, not less
important) (pg. 181). Stuart also points out that the twelve shorter books were formerly
grouped into one lager book in ancient Judaism. Called The Book of the Twelve, or simply
The Twelve (pg. 181), Stuart notes that this grouping as not really been acknowledged until
recently, it is becoming more appreciated because this book would fall right in the middle of the
length of the major prophetic books. Stuart finishes by noting of the minor prophets that
historically there were never considered minor in any way whatsoever (pg. 182).

As Stuart gets into talking about the nature of prophecy, he first notes that the prophetic
books are among the most difficult part of the Bible to interpret or read with understanding (Fee
& Stuart, 2003, pg. 182). Stuart notes that one of the biggest issues with understanding and
interpreting the prophets is that many Christians refer to the prophetic books only for
predictions about the coming of Jesus and/or certain features of the new-covenant age (pg. 182).
By doing this, people are very close minded by thinking that what was prophesized about, in
some cases, nearly 3000 years ago could not have possibly have occurred between then and now
and that events far distant from their own day was the main concern of the prophets (pg. 182).
Prophets, according to Stuart, were predicting the future, but it was normally the more immediate
future of ancient Israel, Judah, and other nations in the region. Another issue with interpreting the
prophets was misinterpreting their function in ancient Israeli society. Their true main function
was to speak for God to their own contemporaries (pg. 182), not just to predict the future. By
not correctly determining their roles in society, modern Christians can very easily misinterpret
what the prophets are saying and try to connect it to their own modern lives. This leads almost
directly into the other problem that Stuart notes, which is that modern Christians have more
issues understanding the Word of God as it was written down then ancient Israelites had when
they were hearing these words in person. Stuart notes that as people far removed from the
religious, historical, and cultural life of ancient Israel, we simply have great trouble putting the
words spoken by the prophets in their proper context (pg. 184). This is to say that because we
live in a totally different time and dont have the same issues going on around us or live within
the same culture as when the words were spoken, it makes it that much more difficult to not try
to modernize the meaning so that we can more easily understand it.

Stuart notes that there are Four things that must be emphasized (Fee & Stuart, 2003, pg.
184) when discussing the function of prophecy in ancient Israel. These are The prophets were
covenant enforcement mediators (pg. 184), The prophets message was not their own, but
Gods (pg. 186), The prophets were Gods direct representatives (pg. 187), and The
prophets message is unoriginal (pg. 187). Since God and Israel had a covenant, the prophets
were used to announce what sanctions or blessings God was going to bestow upon His people
depending on how they acted and if they followed His laws to which they had agreed. As Stuart
notes, Through them (the prophets) God reminds people in the generations after Moses that if
his law is kept, blessings will result; but if not, punishment will ensue (pg. 184). This leads very
well into the prophets being Gods direct representatives as well as the message not being theirs,
but Gods message. The prophets were Gods way of communicating to newer generations of
Israelites on earth by having the prophets deliver His message. As well, the message being
unoriginal is clearly stated here because the prophets are many times relaying the same message
that was passed down during the time of Moses. They just, again, are reminding newer
generations of what can happen and how they are to obey Gods Laws. By remembering these
four things, it makes it easier for us to understand the function of the prophets and prophecies in
ancient Israel.
Stuart discusses five different Forms of Prophetic Utterance (Fee & Stuart, 2003, pg.
194). They are described as ways that the prophets used to compose their prophecies. The five
are The Lawsuit (pg. 194), The Woe (pg. 195), The Promise (pg. 195), The Enactment
Prophecy (pg. 196), and The Messenger Speech (pg. 197). In the Lawsuit, God can be
described as the plaintiff, prosecuting attorney, judge, and bailiff in a court case against the
defendant, Israel (pg. 194). The Lawsuit is used for describing how Israel will be punished for

breaking the covenant with God. The Woe is used to predict doom or destruction. Stuart
describes that there are three elements that uniquely characterize this form: an announcement of
distress (the word woe, for example), the reason for the distress, and a prediction of doom
(pg.195). The Promise, according to Stuart, can be recognized whenever these elements are seen:
reference to the future, mention of radical change, and mention of blessing (pg. 195). The
Promise is just what it sounds like, a promise from God to restore something to Israel, be it life,
health, prosperity, agricultural abundance, respect, (or) safety (pg. 195), because they have
repented and followed the covenant with God. The Enactment Prophecy is described as the
prophet using a visual aid of sorts that God has given them or instructed them to use. The visual
aid is used to help get the message home about what the prophecy is and how it will come to
pass. The final type of utterance mentioned by Stuart, The Messenger Speech, is called the most
common of all the forms in the prophetic books and often occurs alongside of, or as part of, one
of the other prophetic speech forms (pg. 197). It is used and described as the prophet making it
obvious with their words, such as This is what the Lord says or says the Lord or This is
the word of the Lord concerning . . . or the like (pg. 197), that what they are saying has come
directly from God and should be taken as His words.
At the end of Chapter Ten, Stuart gives us three hermeneutical suggestions. They are A
Caution: The Prophet as Foreteller of the Future (Fee & Stuart, 2003, pg. 199), A Concern:
Prophecy and Second Meanings (pg. 201), and A Final Benefit: The Dual Emphasis on
Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy (pg. 204). The caution can very simply be summed up by reminding
ourselves that the prophets were not concerned with events in the far distant future, but they were
concerned with the immediate future of ancient Israel. They were used by God to send messages
to the ancient Israelites and remind them about upholding the covenant with Him. The caution is

used to help remind us that we are not inspired by the Holy Spirit as we interpret the Bible. We
are reading an inspired work. Stuart notes that We, however, are simply not inspired writers of
Scripture (pg. 202). We are what Stuart calls illumined readers (pg. 203). He continues,
stating that Inspiration is the original motivation to record the Scripture in a certain way;
illumination is the insight to understand what the Scriptures authors wrote (pg. 203). We can
only determine the secondary meaning of Scripture by reading what an inspired writer wrote.
We, therefore, should not try to determine a secondary meaning on our own. The final benefit is
to say that God and the prophets want basically the same from us as they did from the ancient
Israelites. We are to uphold the new covenant and if we do this, we will receive blessings.
However, if we do not uphold the new covenant, just like the ancient Israelites, we will face
consequences. This can help to relate the prophecies some to our own lives and make the
readings more personal, even though they were not technically about us, but about the ancient
Israelites.
Stuart gave us some great insight in Chapter Ten. Explaining that the only difference
between the so-called major and minor prophets was the length of the books was something
that not a lot of people would realize just by looking at the titles. Giving us insight into the
different types of utterances of prophecies can help us to understand what each prophets oracle
would entail for the ancient Israelites. Also, understanding that we need to not be looking for the
prophecies to be coming true in our future, but that most have come true can give us some
historical reference for the books. Understanding that the prophets were not concerned with the
far away future but ancient Israels more immediate future is very important for contextual
purposes. And finally, giving us a caution, concern, and benefit helps us to understand even more
the context and to help us to not look too much beyond what was written, even though some of

the messages of the prophets still hold true for us to this day. Hopefully we can all read the
prophetic books with more illumination in the future and will be able to understand that
everything we are reading has already occurred and not look for signs of something to come in
the future.
Work Cited:
Fee, G. D., & Stuart, D. K. (2003). How to read the bible for all its worth. (3rd ed.). Grand
Rapids: Zondervan Publishing Company.