PROPHECY THE GUIDE TO CHRIST
‘Prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.’
Such is St. Peter’s description of prophecy. He speaks of certain dark spots covering the earth, and scattered over the surface of humanity, upon which a sudden light has burst; just as on a spring day a beam of sunshine will force its way through a reft in the obscuring clouds.
I. This light is prophecy.—What the ‘dark places’ are we need not doubt. The writings of Jew and Gentile alike tell us this. These convince us that men were then living who were like ourselves in every respect, anxious to know the truth, having thoughts and aspirations similar to our own; men who realised to themselves the warfare between the spirit and the flesh, the spiritual and the natural man; who knew as well as we do (though they spoke of it in different language) the keen strife which is carried on within the man between good and evil, and wondered which of the two would be triumphant. These men longed to know the issue of the conflict between right and wrong, and these yearnings are evidence that the ‘dark places’ existed. To these longings we may say, without the least hesitation, ‘Prophecy was as a light that shineth in a dark place.’ All doubts, all difficulties could be resolved by the light which was thrown by the Holy Ghost, ‘Who spake by the prophets.’ Such we may presume to have been the use of prophecy in the dark times that prevailed before the coming of Christ. Prophecy was a light which guided the erring into the truth, and assured the doubters that He Whom they sought was not far from them if haply they might feel ‘after Him and find Him.’
II. And at the time when Christ came, and in the early Apostolic age, when, undoubtedly, this remarkable Epistle of St. Peter was written, prophecy had still its function to fulfil. Otherwise why should St. Peter have added the words ‘whereunto ye do well that ye take heed’? There were at that time both Jews and Christians to whom prophecy was a ‘light.’ There can be no doubt about this; for—
(a) The Jews saw in their dissensions, which marked the concluding years of the existence of Jerusalem, the clearest signs of the decay of Israel, so far as it had existed as a nation.
(b) And to the Christian in the Apostolic age prophecy also had its message.—Of course, inasmuch as the greater part of the earlier Christians were converts from Judaism, the prophecies, whether typical or verbal, were cited by the Apostolic teachers in such a way as to convince them of the identity of the two covenants, the Gospels of the Old and New Testaments respectively. This is evident to any careful reader of the Epistles to the Romans and to the Hebrews.
III. If we turn from the Apostolic age to the writings of Christian teachers in the second century of the Christian era, you will notice that a very striking use of prophecy is made, when the prophetical words of the Old Testament are cited to those who had been brought up from their infancy in the Christian faith. When no controversy existed between Jews and Christians it may be said, as a general rule, that the ‘prophecy’ of the Old Testament is quoted just as any book of the New. ‘Prophecy’ is employed, just as the Gospels or Apostolical writings are, to show the importance of some Christian virtue or some article of Christian faith. Throughout the writings of the so-called Apostolic Fathers there is not a single passage cited from the prophets as evidence of the supernatural character of the Kingdom of Christ. That was taken for granted as a fact, thoroughly accepted by those to whom these early letters were written. In other words, in early Christian times prophecy was not used for controversial purposes, it was employed simply to show people the importance of practical religion.
IV. Prophecy has not even now lost one jot or tittle of its importance.—It continues to be a light which guides men to Christ, and keeps them with Him. And this it does, not only because the predictions contained in prophecy declare that God is the Author of prophecy, but because the prophecies themselves imply the presence of Christ with His prophets. Prediction is indeed evidential, but prophecy is such in a far higher sense. For prediction only teaches us that there is such a supernatural fact as that God has revealed the future to man. It shows us that God did not leave Himself without witness to the truth, either in the land of Balaam the alien, or that of Isaiah the Jew. The power of prediction, like that of miracles, was only incidental to the prophetical office. Prediction was not the essence of prophecy, but only subsidiary to it, as a sign to unbelievers. But to us prophecy is as the light that guides us to Christ, because each page of prophecy, whether predictive or not, argues the presence of Christ with the prophets.
Illustration
‘If the prophecies are to be a light to us, beware lest that light be quenched. St. Paul has an important text which may be applied as a caution to all who study their Bibles with minuteness. “If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?” If a life is spent in mere textual or verbal criticism, what is gained if the Divine words are not realised in the heart? What does a man gain if he succeeds in assigning to the various sections of the Bible dates which will satisfy the opinions of others besides himself, unless those words which he handles so lightly, and perhaps flippantly, have some effect upon his life? The Bible cannot be studied too critically, too minutely, but let every one who ventures on that task remember the two inspired cautions: “If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?” “Ye do well that ye take heed [unto prophecy], as a light that shineth in a dark place.” ’