Creation to New Creation: The Prophetic Books



*This course is now available to take by video at your own pace.
The Prophetic Books are based on the preaching of prophetic figures whose primary role was to deliver the word of the LORD to the covenant people during the rise and fall of the kings (from the 9th century to the 5th century B.C.), proclaiming warnings and judgments for unfaithfulness (bad news), and promises of blessing for faithfulness (good news)—not only for God’s covenant people, but in regard to the nations as well.
In this way, the Prophets’ ultimate orientation toward euangelion (i.e., evangelism) fulfills a twofold purpose in the testimony to Christ in God from Creation to New Creation:
- It explains why ancient Israel failed to fulfill the terms of the Abrahamic Covenant among the nations, incurred the judgment of God in front of the nations, forfeited the blessings that would have been theirs to spread to the nations, and ended up in exile from the land of promise within the nations; and
- It declares that the blessings will nonetheless be fulfilled for Israel and the nations, through a certain Davidic Son-King who has been revealing himself all along in this drama, and who one day will step out into the open to set it all to rights, once and for all.
This ‘anointed one’ will embody God’s ideals for Israel as an Israelite. And through his righteous suffering-become-ruling in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as envisioned in the New Covenant by prophets like Jeremiah (Jer 31) and Ezekiel (Eze 36), he will enable God’s people to keep the covenant, with blessing to be poured out on “all the families of the earth” (Gen 12:3), i.e., the nations.
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