We need the Prophets
A reflection from my reading of the prophets in the NKJV
Every year, I try my best to read the prophets. This year, I’m reading the New King James Version of the Bible, and I just finished the prophets. Now, I am moving my way into the Gospels.
Every time I finish reading the prophets, I’m reminded how much we need them.
I often find that we in the modern church—in 21st-century America—don’t really understand or enjoy reading the prophets. Many of us may think they are disconnected, ancient, or not really applicable. Sometimes it just feels too hard to understand what’s going on between the prophecies, the poetic descriptions, and everything we don’t quite grasp about the ancient world.
Yet each year I read them, I’m convinced more and more that we really do need to engage with them.
Reading through the Old Testament is so beneficial. It helps us genuinely understand who Jesus is.
I just started reading through the Gospel of Matthew, and I’m already noticing how often Jesus is engaging with the prophets—how often he’s quoting them...
When we’re unfamiliar with the prophets, we’re really unfamiliar with what Jesus talks about.
So my encouragement today is this: engage the prophets.
It’s not an impossible endeavor. With some good technique and a few helpful tools, engaging the prophets becomes something that once felt overwhelming, into something that helps us see Jesus more fully.
What helps?
First, read the Bible—especially the Old Testament—in the context in which it was written. Don’t insert your own assumptions into the text. Don’t try to predict everything you think is being predicted. Instead, ask:
“What would this have meant to the original hearers?”
“What was it saying in their current cultural and historical moment?”
When those Israelites—hundreds of years before Jesus—heard the prophets speaking, calling them to turn back to God and stop being unfaithful, what would that have meant to them?
Getting a few tools, like online commentaries that explain the general historical context, or simply knowing who the prophet was, when they were speaking, and to whom—they all help.
Those things take the prophets from being a seemingly impossible group of books to read into something that gives us a deeper picture of the story of God.
It’s a story that shows us this: the people of God are almost always unfaithful to Him. And God, in His mercy, puts people in our lives—like the prophets—to draw our attention back to Him. To shake us up. To help us see that our unfaithfulness only hurts us, and that we need to return to God.
We need the prophets.
Without them, we miss a large piece of the puzzle when it comes to seeing who Jesus is and what He truly said.
I’m only in Matthew chapter 18, and I’ve already seen multiple times where Jesus quotes directly from the prophets. If we have only a vague sense of what the prophets said, we miss a huge piece of who Jesus was and what He taught.
So here’s my encouragement:
Over the next few weeks, find a way to begin engaging the prophets.
Read them.
Listen to them.
Study them.
I think they’ll help us see Jesus a little bit better.
13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:
“ ‘ “You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’
Mt 13:13–15.
7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
9 in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
Mt 15:7–9.
7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is he of whom it is written,
“ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way before you.’
Mt 11:7–10.
6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Mt 12:6–8.