INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY.
1. The scriptural idea of prophecy is widely removed from that of human
foresight and presentiment. It is that of _a revelation made by the Holy
Spirit respecting the future_, always in the interest of God's kingdom.
It is no part of the plan of prophecy to gratify vain curiosity
respecting "the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his
own power." Acts 1:7. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your
God"--this is its key-note. In its form it is carefully adapted to this
great end. Its notices of the future are interwoven with exhortations
and admonitions, encouragements and warnings, promises and threatenings.
These constitute, indeed, the great bulk of the prophetical writings
that have come down to us. The subject of the interpretation of prophecy
may be conveniently considered under the following heads: prophecies
relating to the near future; prophecies relating to the last days; the
question of double sense; the question of literal and figurative
meaning.
I. PROPHECIES RELATING TO THE NEAR FUTURE.
2. The Bible contains many prophecies relating to the comparatively near
future. These are all _specific_ in their character, and have a _single_
exhaustive fulfilment. Examples are: the prediction to Noah of the
approaching deluge, and to Abraham of the bondage of his posterity in a
strange land; the disclosure through Pharaoh's dreams of the coming
famine in Egypt; Joseph's announcement of the future deliverance of
Israel from Egypt; the token given to Moses that God had sent him: "When
thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon
this mountain" (Exod. 3:12); God's threatened judgments upon the house
of Eli with the accompanying sign (1 Sam. 2:34); the warning that David
received by Urim and Thummim of Saul's approach to destroy him (1 Sam.
23:9-12); the prediction that Josiah should defile Jeroboam's altar at
Bethel with men's bones (1 Kings 13:2); etc. Minute events, in
themselves unimportant, sometimes come within the sphere of prophetic
revelation, but always in connection with and subserviency to important
transactions affecting the interests of God's people. Thus when Samuel
anointed Saul as the future king of Israel, he foretold to him the
incidents of his journey homeward (1 Sam. 10:2-7). But this was in order
that Saul might be assured of Samuel's prophetic office, and
consequently of the divine sanction to the transaction. An event in the
immediate future is frequently predicted as a pledge that some prophecy
of more distant fulfilment shall be accomplished. Thus the death of
Eli's two sons in one day was to be a token of the fulfilment of all the
evils threatened against his house. The same end may be accomplished by
a miraculous sign. 1 Kings 13:3; 2 Kings 20:9, 11. Prophecies of the
kind now under consideration are in general very plain and simple, and
their recorded fulfilment is to us a sufficient interpreter of their
meaning.
II. PROPHECIES RELATING TO THE LAST DAYS.
3. In Old Testament usage, "the last days," or "the latter days" ("in
the latter years," Ezek. 38:8) denote not simply the distant future, but
that future as including the kingdom of the Messiah, which extends to
the consummation of all things Gen. 49:1; Numb. 24:14; Deut. 4:30;
31:29; Isa. 2:2; Jer 23:20; 30:24; 48:47; 49:39; Ezek. 38:16; Dan.
10:14; Hos. 3:5; Mic. 4:1. We are not, however, to conceive of these
"last days" as totally separated from the preceding ages. In the plan of
God the history of the world constitutes a whole, all the parts of which
are closely connected. Hence the prophecies relating to the latter days
include, more or less distinctly, the events which precede them, and
prepare the way for them. In such prophecies we are not to look for
exhaustive details. They give, as a rule, only general views relating to
the conflicts of God's people and their final triumph. Where minute
incidents are introduced (Psa. 22:18; 69:21; Zech. 9:9; 11:13) it is
apparently for the purpose of identifying to future generations the
Messiah as their main subject. See below, No. 9.
Prophecies relating to the days of the Messiah are introduced in
other more indefinite ways, thus: "Behold the days come" (Jer.
23:5; 31:31; etc.): "And it shall come to pass afterward" (Joel
2:28); "In that day" (Isa. 4:2, Jer. 30:8; Ezek. 39:11; Amos
9:11, and elsewhere); or they are sufficiently indicated by
their contents, as Isa. chaps. 40-66.
These prophecies naturally fall into two classes: those in which the
_succession of events_ is distinctly indicated, and those which give
only _general views_ of the future, without any clear order of
succession.
4. To the first and smaller class belong especially certain of Daniel's
prophecies. The four great monarchies, for example, that are to bear
rule over the earth are symbolized first by a great image (Dan. chap.
2), then by four beasts rising out of the sea (Dan. chap. 7). Of these
monarchies the fourth, represented by the legs of iron and feet part of
iron and part of clay (Dan. 2:33), and by the fourth beast with his ten
horns (Dan. 7:7), belongs in part to the latter days of the Messiah.
The fourth kingdom, represented by the "legs of iron and feet
part of iron and part of clay," is at the beginning "strong as
iron" (chap. 2:40); afterwards it is "partly strong and partly
broken" (ver. 42); it is, moreover, the last great monarchy that
oppresses the world. All these characters point to the Roman
empire, first in its pagan, afterwards in its papal form. From
the nature of the symbol, the prophet sees the _whole_ image
standing till it is smitten in its feet of iron and clay. This
does not mean that the four monarchies are contemporaneous, but
that they constitute one great system of oppression, in which
the power passes successively down from the head to the feet. It
is in its feet that the stone smites it, for it is in this its
last form that the kingdom set up by the God of heaven shall
encounter and destroy it. The toes, part of iron and part of
clay, well represent the kingdoms that grew up out of the old
Roman empire, with an intermixture of the northern nations.
These could never unite into a compact whole, like the original
pagan empire, yet they constituted a continuation of it in a
divided form.
That the fourth beast again (chap. 7:7-14, 19-28) represents the
same Roman empire appears from the following considerations:
(1.) Both here and in the second chapter a succession of four
great monarchies is represented, of which the first three are
admitted to have been universal. It is altogether reasonable,
therefore, to look for a universal empire in the fourth; but
that empire can be no other than the Roman. (2.) The fourth
beast is represented as the strongest and most terrible of them
all, which cannot apply to any other than the Roman power. (3.)
All its characters agree with those of the Roman empire, and
cannot be made to agree with those of any other power. Those who
understand by the little horn of the fourth beast Antiochus
Epiphanes, must consider the fourth beast as representing the
Syrian monarchy, or perhaps Syria and Egypt. But these belong to
the _third_ beast. They are two of the four divisions into which
his empire was broken, and which have just been represented by
the four heads and four wings of the leopard. (4.) No
persecuting power comes after this beast. Its dominion is
destroyed by that of the Messiah, who takes the kingdom and
holds it for ever. This can apply only to the Roman power as
perpetuated in its papal form in the ten horns, which correspond
to the ten toes of the image. Chap. 2:41-43. All the characters
of the little horn agree with those of the papal power; and
considering the vast influence which this has wielded, and still
wields, over God's church, we should naturally expect that it
would be included in a comprehensive view like this of the
world's history.
The prophecies of the book of Revelation relative to the great
red dragon--pagan Rome (chap. 12), the two beasts that succeeded
to his seat and power (chap. 13), and (what is identical with
these two beasts) the woman riding upon a scarlet-colored beast
(chap. 17), are so intimately related to the fourth kingdom of
Daniel, that whatever view be taken of this kingdom must apply
to them also. In these prophetic symbols we have again all the
characters of pagan Rome as continued in papal Rome. Chap. 32,
No. 4. To the class of prophecies now under consideration belong
also, according to the most probable principle of
interpretation, those of the seven seals, the seven trumpets
included under the last seal, and the seven vials of the last
trumpet (Rev. 6:1 _seq._); for in these the succession of events
is distinctly marked.
The _numbers_ of the books of Daniel and Revelation,
particularly the "time and times and dividing of time"--three
years and a half--during which the little horn is to have
dominion (Dan. 7:25), and (what is equivalent to this number)
the "forty-and-two months" during which the Gentiles are to
tread down the holy city (Rev. 11:2), and the beast that
succeeds to the dragon is to have power (Rev. 13:5); or in days,
the thousand two hundred and threescore days of the two
witnesses (Rev. 11:3), and of the woman's sojourn in the
wilderness (Rev. 12:6), have furnished for centuries matter of
curious speculation and computation, upon the assumption that a
day here represents a year (Chap. 35, No. 9); but hitherto
history has not verified the results as to time which the
students of these prophecies have given. The failure of their
computations might have been anticipated. It seems to be the
plan of God to throw such a vail over even exact dates of
prophecy, that their place in a chronological chart of history
cannot be accurately marked out beforehand. Either the time
_from_ which the reckoning is to proceed, or the symbolism of
the dates, or the place which the whole series holds in relation
to other prophecies, is left in obscurity. The experience of
those who have busied themselves with the computation of these
dates teaches, not that we should wholly withdraw ourselves from
inquiries of this kind, but that to pursue them in a confident
and dogmatic spirit, as if we had been admitted to the
council-chamber of heaven, and had there learned the exact day
and hour on which the papal throne must fall, or our Lord
reappear on earth, is a mark, not of wisdom, but of weakness and
folly.
5. In the _second_ and larger class of prophecies relating to the last
days, the element of time, and especially that of succession in time, is
either wholly wanting, or is indicated in only a vague and general way.
Examples of this class of prophecies are almost innumerable. A
remarkable specimen is found in the fourth chapter of Isaiah,
viewed in connection with the preceding context. The prophet's
position is that of his own day. He writes at a time when heavy
calamities are impending over his countrymen. With these
calamities he begins: "Behold the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth
take away from Judah and Jerusalem the stay and the staff, the
whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, the mighty
man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the
prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the
honorable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer,
and the eloquent orator." Chap. 3:1-3. So he proceeds, in terms
which must apply primarily to the Babylonish captivity, to the
end of the third chapter, which closes with the terrible
denunciation: "Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty
men in war. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she, being
desolate, shall sit upon the ground" (ver. 25, 26). To complete
the picture of desolation, it is added in the beginning of the
fourth chapter: "And in that day seven women shall take hold of
one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own
apparel: only let us be called by thy name to take away our
reproach." The obvious meaning of this last threatening is, that
the mass of the men shall perish in war, so that the surviving
women cannot find husbands. Seven of them, therefore, ask of one
man the privilege of being called each his wife, while they
offer to forego all the usual advantages of that relation. Thus
far the prophet proceeds in a strain of threatening. But now,
with the single formula, "in that day," there is a sudden
transition to promise, and promise of such a character that it
must cover the whole future period of the Messiah's kingdom: "In
that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious,
and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for
them that are escaped of Israel" (chap. 4:2); and so he goes on
to describe the glory of the latter days, when the Lord, having
"purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the
spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning," "will create
upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon her
assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a
flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a
defence" (ver. 4, 5). Here we have, in a certain sense, an
indication of time, but it is wholly indefinite. No date is
given for the fulfilment of the prophecy, nor any exact
chronological order of succession. The prophet began with the
judgments that impended over his countrymen. He ends with the
full glory of the Messiah's reign, without any indication of the
intervening interval of time.
Another striking example is furnished by the eleventh chapter of
Isaiah in connection with the preceding context. The tenth
chapter of Isaiah contains an account of the Assyrian monarch's
progress through the land of Judea, ending with a figurative
account of his overthrow: "Behold the Lord, the Lord of hosts,
shall lop the bough with terror; and the high ones of stature
shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled. And he
shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon
shall fall by a mighty one" (ver. 33, 34). Immediately upon this
prediction, and with reference to the Assyrian bough and the
thickets of Lebanon--Sennacherib with his host--that have been
hewn down, follows a prophecy of the Messiah's advent: "And
there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
branch shall grow out of his roots." Chap. 11:1. The prophet
represents these two events, the overthrow of the Assyrian and
the advent of the Messiah, as so connected that the latter
follows as a natural sequel to the former, passing over in
silence the many intervening centuries. He represents, again,
the Messiah's kingdom as one of continuous victorious progress,
till "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as
the waters cover the sea," without pausing to indicate any
intervening period of darkness and depression.
Still a third pure specimen of this form of prophecy occurs in
the fifty-ninth and sixtieth chapters of Isaiah. The former of
these two chapters is occupied with a description in very dark
lines of the sins of God's covenant people (ver. 1-15), and of
God's interposition in awful majesty to vindicate his own cause
(ver. 16-21). Immediately upon this follows, in the sixtieth
chapter, a vision of the latter-day glory that has no parallel
in the Old Testament for brightness, extending down to the full
establishment of the millennial age. But _when_ shall these
things be? How long shall the present age of iniquity endure?
And when Jehovah appears to save the cause of truth and
righteousness, shall it be by a single interposition or a series
of interpositions? If by the latter, how widely shall they be
separated, and what dark scenes shall intervene? When shall the
promised Redeemer appear, and how long shall his work be in
progress before that blessed consummation contained in the
promise: "Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon
withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light,
and the days of thy mourning shall be ended?" On all these
points which involve the element of time the prophecy maintains
a majestic silence. The closing promise indeed is: "I the Lord
will hasten it in his time;" but with the Lord one day is as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The time for
the consummation of God's plan to rescue this apostate world
from the dominion of Satan--how many slowly revolving centuries
may it include, and what fierce and bloody assaults of the
adversary, compelling God's suffering people to cry out: "O
Lord, how long!"
The whole of the prophecy of Joel belongs to the class now under
consideration. It begins with impending judgments, and closes
with the conflict and triumph of the last times: "Multitudes,
multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is
near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be
darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord
also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem;
and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord shall be
the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of
Israel. So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in
Zion, my holy mountain; then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there
shall no strangers pass through her any more." Chap. 3:14-17.
Many more examples might be adduced from the other prophets, but
the above will be sufficient.
6. But let no one infer, from this absence of dates and of the exact
succession of events, that the view which the prophet gives of the
future is loose and confused. Times and successions belong rather to the
outward machinery of God's providential government. They are, so to
speak, the wheels and bands and shafts which connect the different
movements. But the _perpetual living power_ that dwells in the church is
above all time and succession. In this lies the guarantee of her final
triumph, and with this the prophets are mainly occupied. They take the
deepest view of the progress of God's kingdom, for they unfold to our
view the indestructible divine life and power which animate it
throughout, and which are steadily bearing it onward towards its final
destiny--victory complete and eternal over all the powers of darkness.
If we examine more particularly the manner in which the prophets of the
Old Testament represent the future of the kingdom of heaven, we shall
find that it has its foundation in the _unity_ of the plan of
redemption, the _end_ towards which it is tending, the _indications_ of
that end which are perpetually given in its progress, and the fact that
_the end itself is the chief object of interest_ in prophetic vision.
(1.) The _unity_ of the plan of redemption lies not in its times and
seasons, but in the higher connections of cause and effect, which, under
God's supernatural presence and agency, bind the whole together
laterally, so to speak, as well as backward and forward. It may be
compared to the unity of a web, in which each thread of the warp extends
from its beginning to its end, and each thread of the woof from one
margin to the other; so that every part of the texture is connected with
every other part without respect to nearness or distance. So in the plan
of redemption, events thousands of years apart and taking place in
regions thousands of miles from each other, are as really connected as
if they belonged to the same year and country. And since they are thus
connected in God's plan, it is natural that prophecy should exhibit them
in this connection, passing over, it may be, many centuries in silence;
for it is the _salient points_ of the church's future history, the great
crises in the process of her development, that the spirit of inspiration
will naturally bring to view. Prophecy relating to the last times is not
a _map_, in which the distance from one point to another, with all the
intervening mountains, rivers, and towns, is accurately marked; but
rather a _prospective view_, which exhibits only the great features of
the region that lies before the traveller. He sees far off in the
horizon the goodly mountains rising one behind another, and bathed in
the pure light of heaven, with no ability to discern, much less to
measure, the intervening valleys and plains. Nay more, mountain ranges
that are widely separated may appear to his eye as one and indivisible.
(2.) The plan of redemption has not only complete unity, but _continual
progress towards a high end_. It may be compared to a majestic river,
fed by thousands of perennial springs, that cannot stay a moment in its
course towards the ocean. Its path is not always straight, but it is
always onward. Its current is not always rapid and broken, for it is not
always obstructed. Sometimes, like the Arar described by Cæsar, it winds
through level plains with a current so gentle and noiseless, that the
eye cannot discern its direction. Then it plunges over some Niagara,
roaring, boiling, and foaming, and shaking the very earth with its
mighty cataracts. But it _has_ all the power in the level meadows that
it _manifests_ on the fearful brink of the precipice. To arrest its
current in one place is as impossible as in the other. Resistance cannot
overcome its strength, but only bring it to view. Let any number of
Titans build up ever so high a wall across the level meadow, and the
stream, every particle of which is pressed forward by an inward force,
will quietly rise above their vain rampart, and then it will begin to
thunder. Since then God's kingdom--this river of God that is full of
water--is continually tending towards a high end, and since every event
of his providence contributes something towards its progress, what
wonder if we find in prophecy events separated by many centuries of time
immediately connected as cause and effect? Does the prophet predict the
overthrow of Sennacherib's army, or the coming desolation of Jerusalem
by the Chaldean armies; he connects these calamities immediately with
the advent of Christ, for this is the end towards which they look.
Desolating judgments prepare the way for the King of glory to appear.
After the storm of thunder and hail there follows a serene light, "as
the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without
clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining
after rain." The mind of the inspired bard hastens onward towards the
glorious _end_ of God's judgments, without pausing to give us, what it
is not necessary that we should know, the chronological distance of that
end.
(3.) The progress of God's kingdom gives continual _indications of the
end_ towards which it is tending. The first great interposition of God
in behalf of Israel contained in itself a pledge of all needful help for
the future, and thus of a final triumph in the future; for it was a
manifestation of both God's absolute power to save his people, and his
absolute purpose to save them. The full idea embodied in this
interposition is summed up in the closing words of their triumphal song
on the shore of the Red sea: "_The Lord shall reign for ever and ever_."
What was true of this deliverance was true of every subsequent
deliverance. In each of them separately, and in the whole of them
collectively, lay the promise: "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of
Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One
of Israel. Behold I will make thee [make thee to be] a new sharp
threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and
beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them,
and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter
them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy
One of Israel." Isa. 41:14-16.
The _chastisements_, moreover, which God inflicted on the covenant
people through the temporary ascendency of their enemies, and in other
ways, gave in like manner indications of a final triumph of the cause of
truth and righteousness. However great their severity, they were always
so ordered that God's people were _never destroyed, but always purified_
by their power, and thus the way was prepared for their future
enlargement. This purifying tendency the divinely illumined eye of the
Hebrew prophet clearly discerned. What wonder, then, that he should have
constantly connected with present or impending judgments glorious
promises respecting the future. The destruction of Sennacherib's army by
the destroying angel, and afterwards of Jerusalem itself by the Chaldean
armies--the former event so joyous in its outward form, the latter so
sad--these were both alike to the prophet's vision parts of the
preparation through which God was carrying his people for the future
glory and blessedness of the latter days. He accordingly connected both
with bright visions of the future, without pausing to notice the
intervening centuries, respecting the duration of which he had no
commission to speak.
(4.) _The end itself_ towards which the plan of redemption tends _is the
chief object of interest_ in prophetic representation. To nourish the
faith and hope of the church, to invigorate her in her present struggles
by the assurance of final victory--this, and not the gratification of a
prurient curiosity respecting the exact dates of "times and seasons," is
the main design of prophecy. That it has other subordinate ends need not
be denied. It challenges for itself the attribute of omniscience, and
its fulfilment is, to those who live after it, a proof of the validity
of its claim. But to become absorbed in calculations beforehand
respecting its dates is to elevate the subordinate and circumstantial in
prophecy to the place of the essential. The bright _end_ of the present
conflict with the powers of darkness is what prophetic vision is
continually presenting for our encouragement. To those who love God,
this is the point of chief interest; and accordingly the prophets make
it, not the exact number of years that is to elapse before the final
consummation with the details of their history, the prominent point.
Some great crises in the church's history are indicated so clearly that
they who can discern "the signs of the times" may understand beforehand
that they are near. The general expectation of the Messiah's advent at
the time when he actually appeared had its foundation in a sober
comparison of the prophecies with the existing condition of the covenant
people. The present universal belief among Christians that the time for
the final overthrow of the triple league between Satan, wicked kings,
and wicked priests for the suppression of the gospel is at hand rests,
we doubt not, on the same solid ground. But farther than this we cannot
go. We cannot say that it shall be in such a year of the present
century, or even in the century, in harmony with the true spirit of
prophecy. It is enough for us to know that God "will hasten it in his
time"--that the victory is certain, and that every believer from Abel to
the trump of the archangel shall have his share in it.
III. THE QUESTION OF DOUBLE SENSE.
7. The so-called _double sense_ of Scripture, especially of prophecy,
concerning which there has been so much discussion among biblical
writers, must be distinguished from the double sense of pure allegory,
which all admit. In allegory, the first or literal meaning is only a
cover for the higher spiritual sense, which alone is of importance. That
we may have a true example of double sense, the obvious literal meaning
must have its own proper significance, irrespective of the higher sense
belonging to it, and this higher sense must be intended by the Spirit of
inspiration. The question now to be considered is: Do such examples
occur in Scripture, by whatever term we may choose to designate them?
To avoid logomachy, arising from the use of the same phrase in
different senses, we prefer the expression _literal_ and
_typical sense_.
8. If, as has been shown above (chap. 37, No. 4), examples of _historic
types_ are found in the Old Testament, these contain a twofold sense.
The priesthood of Melchizedek and the transactions between him and
Abraham were true historic realities, having their own proper office and
meaning. Yet the word of inspiration teaches us that the circumstances
connected with Melchizedek's priesthood and his meeting with Abraham
were intended by God to shadow forth the higher priesthood of
Melchizedek's great Antitype. He brought forth bread and wine, the very
symbols that should afterwards represent Christ crucified as our
spiritual food and drink, blessed him that had the promises, and
received at his hand tithes of all (Gen. 14:18-20), thus exercising the
prerogatives of one higher than Abraham, and consequently higher than
all his posterity. Heb. 7:4-10. In the intention of the Holy Ghost, the
higher typical meaning lay in this transaction from the beginning, but
it was not revealed to the apprehension of believers till the Christian
dispensation had begun. So also the rest of the covenant people in the
land of Canaan is represented in the New Testament as typical of the
true heavenly rest. Heb. 4:7-11. Other examples might be adduced, but
these will serve as an illustration of the principle now under
consideration.
9. The most striking examples of a literal covering a typical meaning
are furnished by the so-called _Messianic psalms_, a part of which
describe the victories and universal dominion of a mighty King whom
Jehovah himself establishes on Zion to reign there for ever (Psalms 2,
45, 72, 110, etc.); another part, the deep afflictions of a mighty
Sufferer and his subsequent deliverance, which has for its result the
conversion of all nations to the service of Jehovah. Psalms 22, 40, 69,
109, etc. That such psalms as the second and seventy-second, the
twenty-second, fortieth, and sixty-ninth (not to mention others), have a
true reference to Christ's person and work, cannot be denied without
imputing either error or fraud to the writers of the New Testament. Nay
more, our Lord himself said, after his resurrection: "These are the
words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things
must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the
prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me" (Luke 24:44); whence we
learn that it was our Lord's custom to refer to the psalms as containing
prophecies of himself. If the psalms, when legitimately interpreted,
contain no such prophecies, then, when the writers of the New Testament
quoted them as referring to Christ, they either believed that they were
making a true application of them according to the mind of the Holy
Spirit, or they simply accommodated themselves to what they knew to be
the groundless prejudices of the age. Upon the former supposition they
were in error; upon the latter, they were guilty of fraud. Such is the
dishonor which the modern principles of rationalism put upon the word of
God. In the interpretation of these psalms, then, we must assume as a
fundamental truth that they contain a true reference to Christ. The only
question is, whether they contain a lower reference also.
(1.) One class of interpreters understand these psalms simply of Christ;
that is, they assume that the writer speaks wholly in the name of
Christ, without reference to himself or any merely human personage.
There are psalms--the hundred and tenth, for example--that may be very
well explained in this way. The opening words of that psalm--"The Lord
said unto my lord"--seem to exclude David as the subject, and it is
difficult to see in what sense David could speak of himself as made by a
divine oath "a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek" (ver. 4).
But in the attempt to carry this principle consistently through all the
Messianic psalms, one meets with serious difficulties. They contain, at
least some of them, historic allusions of a character so marked and
circumstantial that it is hard to believe that the writer had not in
view his own personal situation. In some of them, moreover, the writer
makes confession to God of his sins. Psa. 40:12; 69:5.
They who apply these psalms exclusively to Christ assume that
these confessions of sin are made in a _vicarious_ way, the
Messiah assuming the character of a sinner because "the Lord
hath laid on him the iniquities of us all." Isa. 53:6. But the
form of these confessions forbids such an interpretation. When
the psalmist says: "Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me;" "O
God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from
thee," we cannot understand such language of any thing else than
personal sinfulness. It is true that the Messiah bore our
iniquities, and that God "made him to be sin for us, who knew no
sin;" but the Saviour nowhere speaks or can speak of "mine
iniquities," "my foolishness," and "my sins."
(2.) According to another class of interpreters, the subject of these
psalms, particularly of those which describe the Messiah as a sufferer,
is an _ideal personage_, namely, the congregation of the righteous
considered not separately from Christ, but in Christ their head; or,
which amounts to the same thing, Christ considered, not in his simple
personality apart from the church, but Christ with his body the church.
The contents of these psalms are then applied, _according to their
nature_, to Christ alone, to believers alone who are his members, or to
Christ in the fullest sense and believers in a subordinate sense. Much
might be said in favor of this view; yet it labors under the difficulty
already indicated, that one cannot well read the psalms in question,
with their marked historic allusions, without the conviction that the
author had in view--not indirectly, but immediately--his own personal
situation.
(3.) There remains a third, and perhaps preferable view, which may be
called the _typical view_, maintained, as is well known, by Melanchthon,
Calvin, and many later expositors. This begins with the well-established
principle that David (in a less eminent degree his successors also on
the throne, so far as they were true to their office) was a
divinely-constituted type of the Messiah, not only in his office as the
earthly head of God's kingdom, but in the events of his history also;
that the psalms in question, whether they describe his victorious might
or his deep suffering at the hand of his enemies, had a true historic
origin; that their first and immediate reference was to the writer's own
situation and the events which befell him; but that, under the guidance
of the Holy Spirit, he was carried beyond himself to describe the office
and history of the Messiah; that consequently these psalms have a lower
fulfilment in David the type (the seventy-second in Solomon), and a
higher in Christ the Antitype.
The second psalm, for example, which describes the vain
conspiracy of the heathen rulers against the Lord's anointed
king, and God's purpose to give him the uttermost ends of the
earth for his possession, may have had its occasion in the
combination of the surrounding heathen nations against David. In
the victorious might with which God endowed him, it had a lower
fulfilment; and this was, so to speak, the first sheaf of the
harvest of victories that was to follow. It was an earnest and
pledge of the complete fulfilment of the psalm in Christ, in
whom alone the promise made to David: "Thine house and thy
kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne
shall be established for ever" (2 Sam. 7:16), could have its
real accomplishment. Luke 1: 32, 33.
The second class of psalms, of which the twenty-second is a
well-known example, may have had, in like manner, a true
historic origin. When the psalmist began with the exclamation:
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" he may have had
immediate reference to his own distressed condition. But since
he was the divinely appointed head of the line of kings which
should end in Christ, and was thus in his office a type of
Christ, God had so ordered the circumstances of his history as
to shadow forth in them the sufferings and final triumph of the
Messiah. Writing under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he was
led, through these circumstances, to say many things which
applied to himself only in a lower and often figurative sense,
but which were appointed to have a complete fulfilment in Christ
his Antitype (Psa. 22:1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 18; 40:6-10; 69:4,
7-9, 21; 109:1-20), and which point to Christ as the chief
subject of the prophecies.
How far the psalmist understood this higher reference of his
words is a question difficult to be determined. With regard to
the sixteenth psalm, the apostle Peter tells us that David,
"being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to
him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he
would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this
before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption" (Acts
2:30, 31); whence we infer that in penning this psalm David was
conscious of its higher application to Christ. The spirit of the
New Testament quotations from the psalms indicates that he had a
deeper insight into the prophetic meaning of his words than many
modern expositors are willing to admit. But however this may be,
the Spirit of inspiration had in view the fulfilment of these
psalms in Christ; and his intention, clearly revealed to us in
the New Testament, is our rule of interpretation.
10. Different from the above literal and typical sense, yet closely
related to it in principle, is that of the _progressive fulfilment_ of
prophecy, which has a wide application in the interpretation of those
prophecies which relate to the last days. By the progressive fulfilment
of prophecy is meant, a fulfilment not exhaustively accomplished at one
particular era or crisis in the church's history, but successively from
age to age; a fulfilment repeated, it may be, many times, and ending
only with the final consummation of the Messiah's kingdom. An undeniable
example of such a prophecy is God's message by Isaiah to the covenant
people: "Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not;
and see ye indeed, but perceive not," etc, with the threatened
desolation that should follow (chap. 6:9-13). This prophecy had a true
fulfilment in the ancient Jewish people before the Babylonish captivity.
For their blindness of mind and hardness of heart, they were given over
to the power of Nebuchadnezzar, who wasted their land, destroyed their
city and temple, and carried the remnant of the people into captivity.
But the same prophecy had, in both its parts, a more awful fulfilment in
the generation of Jews who rejected and crucified our Lord, and were
destroyed with their city and temple by the armies of Rome (Matt. 13:14,
15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; John 12:39-41; Acts 28:25-27; Rom. 11:8); and
its fulfilment is yet in progress. Joel's prophecy of the outpouring of
the Spirit in the last days upon all flesh, with the mighty accompanying
judgments (chap. 2: 28-32), and Amos' prediction of the raising up of
David's fallen tabernacle (chap. 9:11, 12), had both their _initial_
fulfilment in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost
and the triumphs of the gospel that followed. Acts 2:16-21; 15:16, 17.
But the blessings which they promised were not exhausted in the
apostolic age. The church has had rich instalments of them, but richer
still are reserved for the future of millennial glory. A large part of
the prophecies of the Old Testament indicate in their very structure
that they are not to be understood of particular events, but of the
development of God's kingdom from age to age. The reader may take, as a
single example among many others, the prediction of Isaiah and Micah
concerning the establishment of the Lord's house in the last days in the
top of the mountains, the resort of all nations to it, and the universal
peace that shall follow. Isa. 2:2-4; Micah 4:1-4. That particularism
which seeks for the fulfilment of every prophecy in some one specific
event of history must go widely astray in its interpretation of
Scripture.
IV. THE QUESTION OF LITERAL AND FIGURATIVE MEANING.
11. On this question expositors are, as is well known, much divided; one
class adopting, as far as possible, the literal meaning of the prophetic
announcements, the other freely employing the principle of figurative
interpretation. A full discussion of the claims of these two methods of
interpretation, on which so many volumes have been written, would far
exceed the limits of the present work. All that can be done is, to
indicate some well-established principles which may help to guide the
biblical student in the study of prophecy.
12. We begin by calling attention to the _representative use_ which the
Old Testament prophets make of the events of the _past history of
Israel_; that is, to their habit of representing the future under the
imagery of this history. When Israel journeyed from Egypt to Palestine
through the wilderness of Arabia, God dried up the tongue of the
Egyptian sea before the people, guided them miraculously by the cloudy
pillar, fed them with manna, made streams of water to burst forth from
the rock for their refreshment, and finally divided the waters of the
Jordan to give them a passage into the promised land. This primitive
history of Israel furnishes for the prophets who lived in later ages a
rich treasury of images which it would be absurd to interpret in a
literal way.
Thus Isaiah, speaking of the future gathering together of the
outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah from the four
corners of the earth (chap. 11:11, 12), says: "And the Lord
shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and with
his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river [the
Euphrates], and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make
men go over dry shod" (ver. 15). To suppose that the prophet
foretells a literal repetition of the miracles wrought upon the
Red sea and the Jordan is unnecessary and most improbable. The
meaning is, that God shall remove all obstacles which hinder the
return of his people to their own land, as he originally removed
all obstacles which opposed their entrance into it. This is,
indeed, the very idea of the following verse: "And there shall
be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left,
from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came
up out of the land of Egypt."
Again, the prophet foretells that in the latter day glory "the
Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of mount Zion, and
upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining
of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a
defence." Isa. 4:5. Here "the figurative reference is to the
pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire in which the Lord went
before the Israelites in the wilderness, and to the glory which
rested upon the tabernacle." Henderson. God will give to his
church in the latter day that which the pillar of cloud and of
fire signified, his glorious presence and protection. A literal
repetition of the miracle is not to be thought of.
Once more, God promises to his weary people, on their pilgrimage
to Zion, that "in the wilderness shall waters break out, and
streams in the desert" (Isa. 35:6, and often elsewhere), with
obvious allusion to the miraculous supplies of water furnished
to the Israelites in their journey through the Arabian desert to
the land of Canaan. The water here promised is the water of
life, and not literal fountains in the desert. Upon the same
principle are we to interpret the river that flows out from
under the threshold of the temple, and flows down eastward to
the Dead sea, growing broader and deeper in its course, and
imparting life to everything which comes within its influence.
Ezek. 47:1-12, and compare Psa. 46:4; Joel 3:18; Zech. 14:8.
13. The same representative use is made by the prophets of the
_institutions of the Mosaic economy_. One of their offices was, to
foretell the extension of the true religion over all the earth; the
conversion of all nations to the faith of the covenant people, and their
peaceful subjection to Jehovah who reigned in Zion. _In what form_
should this be done while the theocracy was yet in full force? The
disclosure of God's purpose to abolish this theocracy in the interest of
a simpler and more spiritual dispensation, which should know no
distinction between Jews and Gentiles, would have been a premature act.
It would, so far as we can judge, have led to much error and
misapprehension; and it must have had the effect of disparaging the
existing economy before the world was prepared to receive any thing
better in its place. God, therefore, allowed his prophets to portray the
glories of the latter day, when all nations should come to the knowledge
and obedience of the truth, _under the forms of the Jewish
dispensation_, with its temple, sacrifices, and solemn festivals.
A striking example is the bright portraiture of two contemporary
prophets: "But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain
of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the
mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people [Hebrew
_peoples_, that is, as Isaiah, _all the nations_] shall flow unto it.
And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will
teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall
go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall
judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they
shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into
pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his
vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the
mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it." Micah 4:1-4, compared with
Isa. 2:2-4. The temple at Jerusalem, with its altar and priesthood, was
the central point of the old theocracy. There all the sacrifices were to
be offered, there was the seat of royal authority, and consequently of
public justice, and thither all the males among the people were required
to repair three times a year at the great national festivals. Deut.
16:16. A Jew could conceive of the conversion of all nations only in the
form of their subjecting themselves to the theocracy, and coming up to
Jerusalem for worship and the administration of justice. Accordingly the
Spirit of prophecy here represents the mountain of the Lord's house as
"established in the top of the mountains," a conspicuous object to all
nations, who resort thither for worship, submit themselves to the
authority of the great king who reigns there, and thus have universal
peace and happiness. To insist on the literal interpretation of these
words is contrary to the general analogy of prophecy. It is an attempt
to bring back the outward sensuous form of the kingdom of heaven which
the gospel dispensation has abolished.
There is another celebrated passage in Zechariah (14:16-21) which is
intensely Jewish in its costume. After describing the judgments of God
upon the nations that have fought against Jerusalem, the prophet goes on
to say: "And it shall come to pass that every one that is left of all
the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to
year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of
tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up, of all the
families of the earth, unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of
hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go
not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague,
wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the
feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the
punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of
tabernacles. In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses,
HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like
the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah
shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts; and all they that sacrifice
shall come and take of them and seethe therein: and in that day there
shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts." The
prophet's care to include "all the families of the earth" in this
ordinance is very noticeable. Whatever nation refuses to observe it
shall have no rain. But, recollecting that for Egypt this can be no
punishment, he appoints for that country the plague instead of the
absence of rain. Is it so, then, that in the last days all the families
of the earth are to go up year by year to worship at Jerusalem? If so,
they are to _sacrifice_ also; for the prophecy is a homogeneous whole,
of which, if the beginning is to be understood literally, so is the end
also. The reference is to the _peace-offerings_ of the people, on which,
after certain prescribed portions had been burned on the altar, the
offerer feasted with his friends; and a special provision is made for
the multitude of these sacrifices. "Every pot in Judah and Jerusalem,"
as well as "the pots in the Lord's house," "shall be holiness unto the
Lord of hosts," that it may be used for boiling the flesh of the
peace-offerings, precisely as we find done in the days of Eli. 1 Sam.
2:13-16. But all sacrifices are done away for ever in Christ. Heb.
10:10-18. This part of the prophecy must clearly be understood
figuratively, and therefore the whole. The future reception of the true
religion by all nations is foretold under the symbols of the Mosaic
economy, with its ritual, its yearly feasts, and its central place of
worship. For this principle of interpretation we have the warrant of the
New Testament. Did the law of Moses prescribe a literal priesthood with
literal sacrifices; believers, under the new dispensation, are a
spiritual priesthood, presenting their bodies as "living sacrifices."
Rom. 12:1; 1 Pet. 2:5. Did the Mosaic economy have a central metropolis,
a literal Zion, whither all the tribes went up; believers in Christ have
come to the spiritual "Mount Zion" which this shadowed forth, where the
great Antitype of David reigns, that all nations may resort to him, and
he may teach them his laws.
Upon the same principle, as well as for other very obvious reasons (see
chaps. 42:15-20; 45:1-8; 47:1-12, and the whole of chap. 48), Ezekiel's
minute description of a New Jerusalem, with its territory, its temple,
and its Jewish appointments (chaps. 40-48), is to be understood not
literally but figuratively. This temple has also its Levitical
priesthood, its altar, and its sacrifices (chap. 43:13-27), all which
are done away in Christ. There are other passages kindred to the above
which it is not necessary to consider separately, as they all come under
the same general principle of interpretation.
14. In the classes of prophecies that have been considered, the
principle of figurative interpretation can be maintained upon solid
grounds. But it would be wrong to press it as of universal and exclusive
application. Where no reasons to the contrary exist, the literal
interpretation, as the most natural and obvious, deserves the
preference. To draw the limits between the literal and the figurative in
prophecy is difficult, and in some cases impossible. In this respect it
has pleased the wisdom of God that a vail should rest on some
unfulfilled predictions which his own hand alone has power to remove.
There are two questions, especially, respecting which interpreters have
long been divided, and will probably continue to be divided, till God
himself shall decide them. The first is that of the _literal
restoration_ of the Jews to the promised land; the second, that of _our
Lord's personal reign on earth_ during the promised age of millennial
glory. To enter upon the full discussion of either would require a
volume. We must dismiss both with some brief hints.
15. The original promise to Abraham included the grant of the land of
Canaan to him and his seed "for an everlasting possession." Gen. 12:7;
13:15; 15:18; 17:8; 26:3; 28:13. It is expressed in the plainest terms,
the boundaries of the promised territory are defined, and the nations
inhabiting it enumerated (Gen. 15:18-21); in a word, every thing
indicates the literal as the true interpretation. The remarkable words
of the Saviour: "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall
be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden
down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled"
(Luke 21:24), have had a literal fulfilment in the awful judgments which
they foretell; and it seems reasonable to believe that the promise
implied in the last clause, "_until the times of the Gentiles be
fulfilled_" shall have a literal fulfilment also in their repossession
of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. The wonderful preservation of the Jewish
nation through so many centuries of dispersion points in the same
direction. All these things, taken in connection with the numerous and
very explicit prophecies of their captivity and dispersion for their
sins, and their subsequent restoration upon repentance (Lev. chap. 26;
Deut. chaps, 28-30: 1 Kings 8:46-50; Isa. chaps. 6, 11, 66; Jer. chaps.
30, 31; Ezek. chaps. 36-39; Hosea 1:10, 11; Joel. chap. 3; Amos chap. 9;
Micah 7:8-20; Zeph. 3:8-20), seem to warrant the expectation of a
literal fulfilment hereafter of the promise made to Abraham that his
seed should inherit the land of Canaan for ever.
16. That Christ will come again in glory to raise the dead, change the
living, and judge all nations, is a fundamental article of the Christian
faith. But the doctrine "that the fleshly and sublunary state is not to
terminate with the coming of Christ, but to be then set up in a new
form; when, with his glorified saints, the Redeemer will reign in person
on the throne of David at Jerusalem for a thousand years, over a world
of men yet in the flesh, eating and drinking, planting and building,
marrying and giving in marriage, under this mysterious sway" (Brown on
the Second Advent, who correctly states the fundamental principle of the
system), cannot lay claim to an irrefragable basis of scriptural
teaching. The arguments relied on by its advocates are drawn in part
from the very passages that have been considered above (Micah 4:1-4;
Zech. 14:16-21). How little support the theory derives from these
passages, when fairly interpreted, we have seen. Nor is it favored by
the references to our Lord's second coming in the gospels and epistles,
for they clearly connect it with the final consummation of all things.
Our Saviour says: "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the
graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done
good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto
the resurrection of damnation." John 5:28, 29. He plainly represents
these two resurrections as simultaneous; nor is there in the record of
his words any hint of a partial resurrection ages before the reign of
death in this world shall close. The resurrection "_at the last trump_"
to which the apostle Paul refers (1 Cor. chap. 15; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 2
Thess. 1:7-10) is universal. It expressly includes all the dead in
Christ and the change of all Christ's living disciples. If nothing is
said of the resurrection of the wicked, it is because the apostle has in
mind only the "resurrection of life," and has no occasion to speak of
the simultaneous "resurrection of damnation" which the Saviour himself
connects with it. This resurrection at the last trump is also the
annihilation of the reign of death; for when it happens, "then shall be
brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in
victory." 1 Cor. 15:54. But "the last enemy that shall be destroyed is
death," and "then cometh the end." 1 Cor. 15:24-26.
The Saviour teaches, moreover, that his personal presence on earth is
inconsistent with the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. "It is expedient
for you that I go away; for if I go not away the Comforter will not come
unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." John 16:7. It is
expedient, doubtless, because the dispensation of the Spirit is better
adapted to our present state of flesh and blood than his personal
presence could be. This dispensation of the Spirit must, from the nature
of the case, be continued in its full force throughout the millennial
era, when the generations of men will succeed each other as at present.
But the New Testament knows nothing of the dispensation of the Holy
Spirit existing contemporaneously with Christ's personal reign on earth.
Its constant doctrine is that the salvation of men is effected by
_Christ's intercession in heaven_ conjointly with _the gift of the Holy
Spirit on earth_.
The passage mainly relied upon by the advocates of this theory is the
twentieth chapter of the book of Revelation, which speaks of the first
and second resurrection. But the _first_ resurrection there described
cannot be identical with the resurrection described by Paul at our
Lord's advent. The resurrection described by Paul includes in express
terms _all_ the righteous, whereas this first resurrection of the
Apocalypse is restricted to a certain class, namely, the martyrs and
confessors for Christ's sake (ver. 4), while the rest of the dead live
not till the thousand years are over (ver. 5). Then there is a general
resurrection (ver. 11-15), which, from its very terms, includes _the
righteous and the wicked_; for among the books then opened is "the book
of life." The risen dead are "judged every man according to his works,"
and all whose names are not found in the book of life are cast into the
lake of fire. At the same time death and hell (Hades), personified as
two enemies of the human race, are cast into the lake of fire, and thus
"death, the last enemy, is destroyed," and "death is swallowed up in
victory." 1 Cor. 15:26, 54. _This_ is the resurrection which takes place
upon our Lord's advent at the last trump, not a thousand years after his
advent; the resurrection and judgment, when the wicked "shall go away
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." We
venture not to interpret the meaning of the first resurrection,
believing that it is one of the mysteries which God alone will reveal in
its fulfilment. But whether it should be taken literally or
figuratively, after the analogy of the resurrection of the two witnesses
(chap. 11:11), it does not seem reasonable to build upon this obscure
and difficult passage a doctrine respecting our Lord's pre-millennial
advent and personal reign on earth which is so decidedly at variance
with the general tenor of Scripture.