BIBLICAL BRIEFS 38
Regarding this, Jesus clearly states in Matt. 11:13 – “For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.” John the Baptist was the last ánd the spiritually most influential person of the old covenant (Matt. 11:11). For this reason, he was to be beheaded (Matt. 14:10) in order for Jesus to prototypically become the true Head of the Body (Col. 1:18). In other words, the law and the prophets prophesied ónly up to John the Baptist. Luk. 16:16 states this more explicitly: “The law and the Prophets were prophesying until the time of John. Since then, the good news about the kingdom of God has been proclaimed …” The Scripture that spells this out, is the events on the Mount of Transfiguration when Moses (= representative of the law) and Elijah (= representative of the prophets) manifested as part of the cloud of witnesses. Peter’s quick reaction to this was to build three “huts” where they could stay (in other words, to set up temporary tabernacles), but God overshadowed all three of them with His presence in the cloud, wherewith Moses and Elijah disappeared, and said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well- pleased; listen to Him.” Thus: the voice of the law and the voice of the prophets are no longer the voices that show the way, just Jesus’s voice is showing the way – listen to Him. The letter to the Jewish Christians, Hebrews (1: 1), spells it out to them as follows: “God, who gave to our forefathers many different glimpses of the truth in the words of the prophets, has now, at the end of the present age, given us the truth in the Son.” Rev. 19: 9-10 clarifies this furthermore: “Testimony to Jesus is the spirit which underlies Prophecy.” The entire Old Testament prophecies only testify to Jesus the Christ. Many people abuse Old Testament prophecies to predict, for example, the future of Israel or certain world events, but it is indisputably nót how the Bible presents it.
Dr. Tom Gouws
