In order to understand prophecy, it is important to realize how God has spoken. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets” (Hebrews 1:1). God has not spoken in just one way. He has spoken in “many,” or different, ways. God has used a voice and many other ways of communicating.
“Literal” means that the words mean just what they say. For an example of literal prophecy, look at Micah 5:2. It said that the Ruler from God would come from Bethlehem. “Bethlehem” was literal. It was a town in Israel by that name. The way God spoke through Micah was easy to understand. Most of the Bible is written literally, using plain language.
However, God’s prophets used all the forms of speech, just as we do. So sometimes they spoke in pictures, called symbols or figures. Malachi 4:5 is an example of symbolic or figurative prophecy. ““Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.” Jesus did not take this prophecy in its literal sense. He understood that the coming “Elijah” was John the Baptizer, who was like Elijah (Luke 1:17; Matthew 11:14; 17:10-13).
As another example consider Psalm 118:22. “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” Through the New Testament we learn that Psalm 118 was especially about the rejection of the Christ (Luke 20:9-18; Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:7). “Stone,” then, stands for something much more than a piece of rock. It is a picture or symbol for Jesus. This was God’s way of saying that Israel’s builders (the leaders) would reject the stone (Jesus).
The Bible has another kind of symbol called a shadow, or a copy (Heb. 8:5; 9:23; 10:1). These were actual things, people, or events of the Old Testament. God used them to show future events and truths of the New Testament. For example, think about the lambs killed in the old sacrifices. They were real lambs with blood and bones. But they were also like a dim picture or shadow that gives us an idea about the real Lamb of God. That shadow pointed ahead to Jesus – the real sacrifice for sins. John the Baptizer used the shadow of the real thing when he called Jesus “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
God’s prophecies used such pictures for at least two reasons. He wanted both to show and to hide His message. Even seekers of truth have difficulty understanding unseen things of the future, the things of the spirit, the things of God and heaven. So God used physical things, things we can see, as pictures of the unseen things to come. Today we learn both from the pictures in the Old Testament and how they really happened in the New Testament. When John said that Jesus was “the Lamb of God,” those who first heard him could only have guessed what John meant. Only after Jesus died for our sins did they understand the meaning of “the Lamb of God” (1 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Peter 2:21-24; Revelation 5).
While God showed His truth to some people, He also hid it from others. God warned that many would not understand (Isaiah 6:9-10; Matthew 13:10-23). Many did not love God and truth. And so the Jewish leaders were the very ones who crucified Jesus and did what God said long before (Acts 2:23; 3:13-18). Through them God proved His enemies to be wrong.
In the New Testament God clearly showed the things He had once kept secret. He showed this “mystery” through Christ and His apostles. Paul wrote:
“But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7-8).
“When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (Ephesians 3:4-5).
The Holy Spirit shows that Jesus is the message of prophecy and the key for understanding prophecy.