THE absence of greater clearness in the prophets is due to God's purpose to give light enough to guide the willing, to leave darkness enough to confound the willfully blind. Hence the prophecy is not dependent for its interpretation on the prophet; nay, he was often ignorant of the full meaning of his own word (2 Peter 1:20, 21). Moreover, if the form of the prophecies had been direct declaration, the fulfilment would have been liable to frustration. If also the time had been more distinctly marked, believers would have been less in a state of continued expectancy. The prophecies were designedly made up of many parts (polumeros, Heb. 12:1); fragmentary and figurative, the temporary and local fulfilment often foreshadowing the Messianic fulfilment. The obscurity in some parts of prophecies of which other parts have been plainly fulfilled is designed to exercise our faith, the obscure parts yet waiting their exhaustive fulfilment; for example, prophecies combining the first coming and the second coming of Christ, the parts concerning the latter of course yet require patient and prayerful investigation. Moreover, many prophecies, besides their references to events of the times of the sacred writer, look forward to ulterior fulfilments in Messiah and His kingdom; "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Rev. 19:10).—Fausset's Bible Cyclopedia, page 585.