In the sermon last week, I briefly mentioned some features of prophetic literature that we should keep in mind as we come to a passage like the Olivet Discourse (Mark 13; Matthew 24; Luke 21). I want to briefly explain four features of the prophetic genre of the Bible: (1) Symbols; (2) Types; (3) Multiple Fulfillments; (4) Prophetic Foreshortening.
Symbols
Symbolism is common in the biblical prophets, especially in sections or books characterized as apocalyptic literature. This was a genre known to ancient readers that had certain elements, especially symbolism. No one believes the “beast coming out of the sea” in Revelation 13 is a literal beast with ten horns and seven heads. We understand that this is too fantastical and wild to be a real thing. It symbolizes something, hearkening back to such passages as Daniel 7, which represents four succeeding kingdoms as beasts with various features. Symbolic numbers are also common in the book of Revelation: the 144,000 sealed of the tribes of Israel (Rev 7:1-8), the 1260 days (Rev 11:3; 12:6), and I would suggest, the 1,000 years of Revelation 20:3-7. These numbers should be interpreted with other Scripture passages that shed light on what they might stand for. For example, the 1260 day (or 3.5 year or 42 month) period hearkens back to the time that Antiochus persecuted the Jews. They should also be interpreted with common knowledge about the meaning of certain numbers. For example, 7 is a number representing completion or perfection.
Types
Types are repeated patterns within the places, events, people, and things found in the Bible. A type bears similarities to an “antitype” which fulfills it. Adam is called a “type” of Christ (Rom 5:14). That is, he was after the pattern of Christ in many ways. He was the head of the human race, in covenant with God. Christ is the Head of the New Humanity, who enacts a New Covenant. Adam was charged to obey God and but was tempted by Satan and sinned. Christ was tempted by Satan but never sinned. There are many similarities between Adam and Christ, yet Christ is greater. This tends to be how typology works. The type is similar to the antitype, but there is escalation from type to antitype. The antitype is greater.
Another example of a type in Scripture would be the motif of temple. The Garden of Eden was a mountain temple, where God’s presence dwelt with man. The tabernacle was set up with Edenic imagery and was filled with the glorious, manifest presence of God. Solomon’s temple continued this theme and was filled with God’s glory. When Christ came in the flesh, he was said to “dwell among us” as “God with us” and he called his body a temple. He then filled his people with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the church is then called the temple of God.
I argued in the sermon on Mark 13:14-23 that the idea of the “abomination of desolation” seems to be a type in Scripture. The idea of God’s people surrounded by armies and being desolated is a common theme in Scripture. Think of the Assyrians who conquered Israel. The Babylonians who laid siege to Jerusalem and took the people into exile. Antiochus and his desolating sacrilege. And then Jesus speaks of the Roman siege with the same language from Daniel. This also seems to point forward to the final “rebellion” (2 Thess 2:3; Rev 16:14-16; 19:19; 20:7-9).
Multiple Fulfillments
A prophecy can have multiple fulfillments, or a partial fulfillment long before a complete fulfillment. One example of this is found with the prophecy of Zechariah 12:10: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” John 19:34-37 shows that this was (at least partially) fulfilled at Jesus’ crucifixion: “But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.” But Revelation 1:7 alludes to this passage with regard to the second coming: “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.” Matthew 24:30 also alludes to it: “Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”
Prophetic Foreshortening
“Prophetic foreshortening” is a term for what happens when a prophet is viewing and speaking of events that may be separated by long durations of time, but they are smushed together into the same oracle. Like when a child takes two colours of play-doh and smushes them together so they are now one lump, but you can see different colours in it. The common illustration for this is that it is like when you drive toward a mountain range, and it looks like all the mountains are close together, but once you drive near one, you can see the others are separated from it by far distances. Often the prophets are seeing all kinds of things that go on in “the latter days” and they put them all side by side in their speech, even though these events may be separated in time. An example would be Isaiah’s portrait of the coming Messiah and his kingdom in Isaiah 11:1-9:
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
The coming forth of this “shoot of Jesse” happened when Christ was born. In the Gospels, we see how he was also endowed with the Holy Spirit as Isaiah describes (Matt 3:16; 4:1). We have seen the justice and righteousness of Christ on display already in his earthly life and ministry, but we have not yet witnessed him “kill the wicked” with “the breath of his mouth” and bring full equity for the poor and meek of the earth. We do not yet see the universal, total peace and knowledge of God which Isaiah describes either. People are still hurting and destroying one another on the earth, and many do not know God. These things obviously await a future fulfillment, when Christ comes a second time and judges the world and fills the earth with peace and righteousness. But Isaiah speaks of all these things together. This is prophetic foreshortening. The “Already” and the “Not-Yet” are placed side by side, because they are both future to the prophet. But we look back with extra perspective. We see how far the mountains are apart.
Conclusion
All of these principles should be kept in mind when we are reading prophecy in the Bible. We have to wrestle with the symbols and types of Scripture and what they mean. We have to wrestle with living in a world where God’s plan is still unfolding. We are living in the “Already-Not-Yet.” We cannot yet look back on all of these things with perfect hindsight. But we can see Christ, who has come. And we can believe in him and set our hope on the complete fulfillment of all the promises of God, which are “Yes” in him (2 Cor 1:20).