Prophecy

Isaiah 11: 1-10. Jesse was the father of King David, and this prophesy foretells a perfect future king of the Davidic line which Christians have always naturally attributed to Jesus Christ. Matthew’s gospel opens with a grand genealogy charting the line of succession from Abraham, through Jesse, through David, ending with Jesus in chapter one of his gospel via the male line. Although Joseph it is claimed elsewhere by Matthew and Luke, was not the biological father Jesus was nevertheless “of the house of David”.

Romans 15: 4-13. This is affirmed by St. Paul quoting verses in Isaiah 11, and also Deuteronomy, 2 Samuel and psalm 117, with special reference to Jesus’ universal significance (to the gentiles). Paul’s prayer is that we be a people defined by hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 3: 1-12. Matthew also quotes a prophesy of Isaiah and applies it to John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a “link” between the prophets of old and the coming of Jesus. He was a wild and woolly character and his ministry occurred in the wilderness. This was all meant to evoke the prophets of old and the message was clear. This Jesus may be something “new”, but he is foretold and in the direct path of all that went before in Israel’s history.

A prophecy is either a prediction of the future or a divinely inspired utterance speaking into any given situation and it has a long and important history in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Isaiah is probably the best loved and most deeply mined oracle and in our readings today you have Paul quoting multiple prophetic sources to support his argument and in the gospel reading you have John the Baptist who is presented as an answer to prophesy and one who makes prophetic utterances of his own.

Prophets have had a problematic history of course for no-one can say for sure if a prophesy is true or not. The only sure way of knowing is if the prophecy comes true and when the time gap can be hundreds of years or even thousands of years in the case of end-time prophesy that is not so simple. Tales of false prophets, just saying things they thought people wanted to hear are legion in the old testament as well as people being paid to say certain things.

This is why authority and trust are so important. If we are to trust the prophesies of the Old and New Testaments, we need to trust that the people who have canonised these texts have the authority to do so.

The only thing that all Christians have in common is the Bible. But the reason the Bible consists of the books it does – we trust the authority of the undivided catholic church – which decreed that these books would form our New Testaments and no other readings. They had lots of choice – there were/are hundreds of other documents that could have been chosen.

The Bible didn’t fall from heaven – it is a product of the church and all the prophesies within it carry the seal of approval of the whole undivided church.

That could never happen again, because the universal church is so divided, we long since have been unable to speak with a united voice.

The prophesy that is most important to us during Advent is that all the promises fulfilled in the birth of Jesus will be further fulfilled at the end of time in the final consummation, the final reckoning, the final judgement.

We are promised that one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2: 10-11).

The divine utterance of Paul inspired by Isaiah, canonised by the authority of the universal undivided church, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God is the substance of the hope that inspires every Christian.

This prophecy of a blessed, redeemed, glorified future without pain or suffering, where death is no more in a new heaven and a new earth is the vision of the future that sustains Christians and inspires our present.

And as it says in proverbs “Without a vision, the people perish” (29:18)