How to Read the Old Testament

I think it's healthy not just to read the Bible as types and figures, but equally as history. Because there is a historical basis for our faith.

And it can also affect our eschatology. 

The Prophets gave many promises to Israel and to the Levites. Messianic prophecies often occurred in that context.

I'm saying there had to be a fulfilment of those promises on the ground in Israel first and foremost, before we apply the Prophecies any other way.  No matter how valid those other ways of applying it may be!

(It's true - many entities in the Old Testament were intended only as temporary types and shadows of greater, heavenly things which Christ later accomplished for us.

And it's true - many of the prophesied Promises were spiritually and personally experienced only by believing Jews.

It's true - Gentile believers also share in the experience, in one new body. That had always been God's intention since before Israel even became a nation. 

Therefore when we read a Prophecy which was about Levites or about Israel for example, we can legitimately claim for ourselves all of the spiritual and eternal blessings foreshadowed and Promised - since Christ fulfilled it all, and we are in Him, grafted into God. 

All of that is more than valid.) 

--> But to see the present day Church as the only direct fulfilment such Prophecies and Promises had isn't the full picture. Not quite a front-on angle on the picture.

There had to first and foremost be a direct historical fulfilment on the ground in Israel. 

To be unaware that there was such a fulfilment is to be unaware of the rug that's under our feet.

That doesn't matter too much I suppose - until you start looking for the rug up in the air somewhere. 

Messianic Prophecies were very often spoken in the context of a prophecy which was stating promises about Israel or Levites.

To think such passages are fulfilled only in the experience of the modern day or future Church is a bit too ethereal, too nebulous, too fluid an approach to Bible Prophecy. 

If spiritualising sacred Prophecy like that was the only way to authenticate prophecy as fulfilled by Christianity, then very few sincere Jews could have believed in the first century. Such an approach to sacred prophecy would to them have seemed like building air castles.

In order to demonstrate God's faithfulness to Israel and to the fathers, there first and foremost had to be a fulfilment of sacred Prophecy on the ground in Israel - involving real flesh-and-blood Levites, around the real stone Temple, where real burnt offerings were offered, since that was what was described in the prophecies.

Yes there'd been pockets of Gentiles over the centuries who had become Jews. 

Nevertheless Messiah had to come in those precise circumstances - to the real physical city of Jerusalem, precisely as promised - in order for prophecy to be fulfilled.

The Lord whom Israel sought had to come to His Temple, while Levites were still offering.

The Son of Man had to shed real blood on a real wooden cross. 

The event had to coincide with the actual Passover dates.

The fulfilment of Prophecies about Israel had to be witnessed in earthly Jerusalem and first witnessed by Jews. 

Even though all of them would not believe, still the Promises regarding the coming salvation of Israel had to be fulfilled literally on the ground in their sight, in physical Israel first, just as prophesied. 

And only after that - only after that was fulfilled - would the promised salvation then be extended to include the Gentiles, which the Prophets also foresaw.

The Prophets foresaw both phases: to Israel first, and then also to the Gentiles.

When they said Israel, they meant Israel; and when they meant Gentiles, they said Gentiles. But they mentioned both.

They foresaw that not all Jews would believe. The fact that not all believed didn't mean prophecy hadn't been fulfilled literally. It didn't mean the fulfilment must be spiritualised or future.

It meant the prophecy was being fulfilled precisely - because the prophets foresaw that not all would believe.

The fulfilment of the promises to Israel, and the outcome that not all believed, both were to happen concurrently, according to the prophets.

John warned of this. So did the Lord. And the Apostles.

And that's exactly what transpired. The promise was fulfilled for Israel - not all believed though - then Gentiles believed and also became included. 

All precisely as and where prophesied. With no failure. No unforeseen delay. No postponement. No changing of identities. All literally as described.

If there wasn't first a fulfilment of what was spoken about Israel, then our hopes about what was said about Gentiles also lacks its foundation.

The Apostles asserted adamantly that there'd been a literal fulfilment of Prophecy for Israel and in Israel. And they proved it by literal events. Events which happened there and then, for Israel and in Israel. 

That fact - that view of prophecy - that it had been literally and physically fulfilled on time and on location - was the whole basis of their Gospel.

And then they extended that good announcement to Gentiles.

So the Gentiles' faith was based not on a spiritualised or futurist view of Prophecy having been presented to them. 

Rather, their faith was based on the solid, irrefutable, historical, physical fact that God had fulfilled His Promises concerning Israel, and that God was now embracing them too, which was also prophesied.

That was the message which the Holy Spirit confirmed with signs and wonders! Prophecy was fulfilled - Jesus is both Lord and Messiah (Christ).

If Messianic promise regarding Israel had not been literally physically fulfilled first, then the Gentiles' newfound faith was not unique among other religions. 

It's important to understand Prophecy like this because if we regard such Prophecies only figuratively/spiritually, or if we regard them as future, it weakens our physical, historical basis for asserting that Jesus of Nazareth is the Saviour, or makes it seem like there should come a return to Levitical worship in future.

And how does it apply to eschatology?

It applies to eschatology because if a Prophecy about Israel was about Israel and has already been fulfilled, then to be still expecting its direct fulfilment in the millennium - whether figuratively or literally - whether pre-/ or post-Advent - pre-/ or post-Mill - would be like looking for the rug in the air instead of under our feet.

Not that applications can't still be made from fulfilled prophecy. But they've got to be made appropriately, not with fantasy.

Rightly dividing the Word, Paul advised.

Dividing between old covenant and new.

Between fulfilled and unfulfilled.

Between a prophecy's direct historical fulfilment and its myriad practical applications.

Between prediction and type.

Between symbol and prose.

At the time when prophecy was spoken and written then fulfilled, there was a difference between Israel and the nations of the Gentiles - and the distinction between the two, in the prophets' Scriptures, was literal and deliberate.

God fulfilled His promises to Israel. The believers received it. Then Gentiles were included in the spiritual experience of it. 

Now we can apply that fact in an informed way.

That's not the same as just blanket spiritualising the Prophecies and relegating them to the future. 

Yes God made a new identity - the Church. Yes we inherit the promised spiritual blessings.

But there was first and foremost the direct fulfilment, precisely as spoken, in Israel.

God demonstrated His faithfulness. That display is the foundation of the Church.

So with that rug nicely under our feet, we can all now carry on partaking of the real thing - the substance - the heavenly - together, without distinction. As God always planned.

Since a lot of popular millennial views (including Post-Millennialism) seem to be based on those Israel prophecies, how we approach the prophecies does impact on our eschatological forecast. 

We ought to read the Prophets today not to see what must yet happen, as if it hasn't already happened, by changing identities in the prophecies - but we read it rather to inform our faith of what is now potentially ours based on what God has already faithfully enacted. 

It's like getting the user-manual of your device, and learning what Apps are already pre-installed, and using them - rather than thinking the App is still loading. 

I think it's good to re-read the Bible squarely facing the fact that Prophecy and Promise was fulfilled as written in Israel - and then let that fact position us now, let that inform our future where it can.

Obviously the second-coming, resurrection, final judgment and eternal state are still future, as the New Testament explains. The blessed hope.

But the rest they saw as fulfilled in their generation.

If it wasn't, they didn't have a Gospel to preach.

I just thought this might shed some light on certain Scriptures which are popularly assumed to be unfulfilled and awaiting future fulfilment as part of a millennium under whatever model.