Interpretation of Prophecy
By Eliza H. Morton
The "Perspective" of the Prophets — Significance of the Preface to the Ten Commandments
A WOMAN who had been reading some of the articles in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, recently made this remark: "I do not understand why certain writers for this paper apply some of the prophecies of the Old Testament to conditions near the end of time, or immediately after the coming of Christ, when the connections seem to show that these prophecies had their fulfilment in the judgments which God sent upon ancient kingdoms." The Laws of Prophetic Interpretation
Great laws underlie the interpretation of prophecy, which, when understood, throw much light upon future events. Horne, in his "Compendium to the Study of the Bible," says concerning the prophets: "They were like watchmen upon an elevated station, who looked into the distance and proclaimed what they saw. The foreground would be distinct, but objects afar would be dimmer and blended in a degree together. This is called the 'perspective' character of prophecy; and it was scarcely possible, in consequence, to distinguish, before the accomplishment, which of the events predicted was near and which more remote." A Double and Even Threefold Meaning
Thus some prophecies have a double and even a threefold meaning. For example, in Hosea 11:1 is the following prophecy: "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt." This prophecy states a historical fact recorded in Ex. 4:22, 23, as well as an event which was then in the future, even the flight into Egypt of Joseph and Mary with Jesus. "And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called My son." Matt. 2:15. It also refers to other conditions. Christians are the Israel of God in this dispensation. "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." Gal. 3:7. God is now calling Israel out of this wicked world of which Egypt was a type. Jude 4, 5; Rev. 11:8. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." 2 Cor. 6:17. The preface to the Ten Commandments, "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (Ex. 20:2), has more than a local application to the Jews, and gives the reason why Christians should keep those commandments. Ancient and Modern Connected
The prophets, in describing the judgments which were to come upon ancient Israel, Babylon, and other nations, because of their transgressions, and which came according to the word of the Lord, interwove with those descriptions allusions to remote events connected with the close of earth's drama, even the great day of the Lord. This is very apparent in Zephaniah 1, where God's severe judgments against Judah are closely associated with the time when all living things will be utterly consumed from the earth (verses 2, 3) in the day of God's wrath (verse 15), the time when the earth shall be returned to its original chaotic state (Jer. 4:23, 24), and remain thus for a thousand years (Rev. 20:3). The Lord's great prophecy in Matthew 24 associates the destruction of Jerusalem with the end of the world. Verses 15-19, 31. This "double sense" in which many prophecies must be taken is a beautiful pledge that God will fulfil future events just as minutely as He has fulfilled those in the past, and is an evidence of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures.