HGP-05 He Gave Us Prophets - Part 3

I have a friend who told me a story recently. He was married just a few years ago and his wife was cleaning out one of his drawers when she found a letter that came from an old girlfriend. At first she was very upset because she thought the letter was written recently, but my friend was able to prove that the letter was written years ago by the envelope and the date on the envelope. Well, my friend looked at me and he said, “Rich, I don’t know what to tell you, because I don’t know what would have happened if I had not been able to prove when that letter was written.” Unfortunately, many times Christians misunderstand Old Testament prophecy because they are not concerned about when the prophets spoke or when the prophets wrote their books. And if we’re going to study Old Testament prophets responsibly, we must be ready to understand the dates and the times in which they ministered.

We have entitled this lesson “Historical Analysis of Prophecy,” and we’re going to examine how Old Testament history provides an essential context for properly understanding Old Testament prophecy. Our historical analysis will divide into four major periods of prophetic history: first, the early monarchy; second, the period of Assyrian judgment; third, the period of the Babylonian judgment; and then finally, we’re going to look at the restoration period. Let’s take a look first at the period of the early monarchy.

We saw in an earlier lesson that prophecy rose to prominence in Israel when kingship rose to prominence. And so it will help us to begin our historical analysis of prophecy by looking at the early monarchy — the days when Israel first had kings. From the time of Abraham, who lived around 2000 B.C., until the days of Saul, Israel had no human king. But David’s kingdom was established around 1000 B.C., and his kingdom remained intact for several generations. As we explore this period of Israel’s history, we’re going to ask two important questions: what were the major events that took place in this period, and how did these events shape the prophetic ministries?