Seeing the Future in the Past

               

                 Prophecy - the flower coming into full bloom!

I read this a few weeks ago and it has stuck like a little yellow sticky note on my mind. It is about prophecy....

I think it helps us understand how prophesy works....

    "Just a word here about prediction and fulfillment. Think of a perennial flowering plant. The first year's flowers are delightful but meager. It takes some years of maturing for the full flower to bloom. The full flower was present, in embryo, in the first flower.

    There is [in prophecy] continuity and development, but no contradiction. The full flowering was what the first flowering was always intended to be.

     Just so, the kingdom not of this world, the heavenly and eternal city, is what the gift of land and the city [Israel and Jerusalem] were always meant to be.

     In this sense, what we usually call "fulfillment" is really "perfecting" and "maturing" - the ultimate realization of what was always there from the start."

These words are from a fascinating article by Dr. Alec Motyer. The title of the article is The Suffering Servant and Conquering King and I got it from Ligonier Ministries (R. C. Sproul).

We have a luxurious rose vine on the fence in our garden. I remember the nurseryman told me that the first year it would have a few roses, in the second year more and by the fourth or fifth year it would bloom in great profusion and abundance and cover the fence.

It happened just like that.This spring we could hardly see the fence for the mass of lovely pink blossoms that spread over it.

The full flowering was what the first flowering was always intended to be.

I treasure this illustration of prophetic messages, progressive revelation, that God gives us.

To Eve: Someday one of your descendants will put everything back in order.

To Abraham: From you and through you all the world will be blessed.

To Jacob: The scepter will not depart from Judah

To David: The great coming King (from your line) will take the throne and rule forever with justice and righteousness. 

Hints and pictures. All Pointing to Christ.

The sacrifices in Leviticus. The scapegoat. The Passover. The suffering servant. The priestly king.
The full flowering was present, in embryo form, in the first flowering.

Could Isaiah see the full flowering of Messianic prophecy? It appears that way. At least he spoke of it. He talked about a true King in the line of David (chapters 7-12), a suffering Servant of the Lord who would bear sin (chapters 52 and 53) and finally an anointed Conqueror who would bring salvation and vengeance (chapters 60-66).

That means Isaiah saw the full maturing of the first flowering in the atoning sacrifices of Leviticus.

And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1

Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 1 Peter 1

Actually, isn't it true of us, too? Aren't we right now just the first flowering of what we are going to be?

P.S. In thinking again about the Menorah with its painstakingly carved almond branch -- it included buds and full blooms -- ?