In this episode of In Light of the Cross, we reflect on the role of the prophets in the Bible’s scarlet thread and invite the Spirit to speak as we begin. We discuss what a prophet is (God’s mouthpiece, more forth-telling than fortune-telling), how prophets fit alongside priests and kings, and the difference between writing and non-writing prophets like Moses, Elijah, and Elisha.

We also explore how prophets acted as covenant enforcers who warned against idolatry and injustice, while also offering promise of restoration and the coming Messiah. Using Isaiah (42, 61, 65) and Isaiah 53, we see how the cross clarifies prophecies about Christ’s suffering in his first coming and his future kingdom in his second. We close with confession, a call to renewed faithfulness, and the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Welcome and Lenten Focus

00:39 Centering Prayer Pause

01:13 Why Prophets Matter

02:05 What Is a Prophet

03:02 Prophets Priest and King

03:54 Covenant Enforcers and Exile

05:34 Messiah Promise in Isaiah

07:18 Prophecies Fulfilled in Jesus

10:30 Suffering Servant Isaiah 53

11:25 Personal Confession and Prayer

Welcome back to another episode of In Light of the

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Cross, we are seeking to put the

cross in front of our minds every day.

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This lent in season so as

to be transformed by it and

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thoughts, attitudes, and actions.

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And we are grateful to just

be walking through this.

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Biblical story together.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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It's been really helpful to me

even to put some of these things

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together, put a lot of disjointed

thoughts into words and ideas.

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So

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Nathan Beasley: I agree.

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It's been really good.

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It's been really good.

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Today we're gonna be

talking about the prophets

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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And how they fit into that

scarlet thread that we've been

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talking about all through this.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah.

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So let's just begin with a.

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Pausing here and invite the spirit

to speak to us through this.

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So go ahead and settle your mind.

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Settle your scattered senses.

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See if you can pause and

maybe open your hands upward.

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Take some deep breaths and

we'll, we'll pause as we begin

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our reflection this morning.

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So we're talking about

the prophets this morning?

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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Talking about the profits, and that's

a, it's a big topic, Unfortunately,

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we're only gonna spend one day on

it, but we've been thinking maybe

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we should expand this into something

else at some, at some point in time.

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Not these 40 days that we're gonna

be looking at here for Lent, but some

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other time might be good to expand this.

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So if you're interested in

that, you know, let us know.

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Nathan Beasley: So a quick Google

search reveals that, uh, 17 books

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of the Old Testament are called.

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Prophetic books.

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So there were 17 prophets, right?

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Daniel Jepsen: No.

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Nathan Beasley: Oh, okay.

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Daniel Jepsen: No, there were 17

prophets who wrote books, but there

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are different kinds of prophets.

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Nathan Beasley: Why don't you

go ahead and unpack for us

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what, what exactly is a prophet?

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What are some of these guys' names and

uh, just kind of help situate us here.

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Daniel Jepsen: Well, a prophet

basically is someone who

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functions as the mouth of God.

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we often think of prophet as someone who

predicts the future, and their prophecy

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is primarily about predicting the future.

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And it's not.

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It's more simply being the one whom

God speaks through to his people.

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Nathan Beasley: I heard one

seminary professor say that, uh,

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prophets, there are two dimensions.

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There's the foretelling.

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The future telling.

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So you do see some of that

and the fourth telling.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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Nathan Beasley: So the way that

God is speaking a particular word

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in time to a particular group of

people, and to your point, he said

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more of it is the, the latter there.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yes, definitely.

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probably the first person you'd

classify as a prophet would be Moses.

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So he was the one that God

spoke through to his people.

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And then you have other prophets in

the scripture, at various points.

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And you had Elijah and Elijah.

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two of the more well known prophets,

but there were, many prophets and

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some of them are not even named.

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So.

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In the Old Testament, they

had the balance of power.

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It's just like we supposedly

do in our own government.

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instead of, the executive, the

judicial and the legislature.

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They had the prophet and

the priest and the king.

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So the priest was functioning as an

intermediary between God and man.

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he represented God to the people

and the people to God the king.

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Functioned as the way God ruled

over his people, or that's the way

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it was supposed to be, obviously.

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Usually it was just the way that King

reigned over and then the prophet is the

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way the God spoke to people directly.

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so that's how the role of the prophet

played into the Old Testament.

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Now, one large distinction to make

here is between the writing prophets

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and the non-writing prophets.

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So we mentioned Elijah and Elijah.

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They were great prophets of God.

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They never wrote a book though,

because that wasn't their purpose.

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Their purpose basically was to be

covenant enforcers, to tell the

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people, look, stop your idolatry.

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Stop your evil ways.

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Stop your immorality.

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Stop your violence, and your greed.

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If you don't, then you are

breaking the covenant with God.

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And if that happens, then you will

go into exile to the foreign lands,

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which is what happens eventually.

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And then the, writing prophets, they also

serve as covenant enforcers, many of them.

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some of them were writing,

before Israel was exiled.

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Most of them are writing either

during or after that time.

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So part of the prophets

are warning the people.

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Give back to God, follow the covenant,

obey what you said you were going

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to obey, or this will be the result.

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And then a lot of the books,

especially some of the major ones

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like Isaiah, are written from an

aspect both before and after that.

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And so there's a word of warning.

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Follow God, or this is gonna be trouble,

but there's also a word of promise.

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God will restore Israel.

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God will restore your good fortunes.

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There is this beautiful kingdom

of the Messiah yet to come.

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God is gonna say, faithful to his part of

the covenant, even though you broke yours.

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and he will bring this about.

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And when you read a book like Isaiah or

some of the other great prophets, you

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have those intermixed and it's like, what?

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What's going on here?

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Percy's predicting, you know,

these dire times for Israel and

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this judgment and that now he's

predicting this glorious restoration,

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and, and that's the dynamic there.

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One has to come before the other.

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Like for Jesus himself, suffering

comes before restoration and glory.

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So as part of that.

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You have, especially in Isaiah,

you see it in the others as well.

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You have this idea that there will be

this kingdom coming, and especially

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prominent in that now is this idea

of the Messiah, the one who will

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be the king over this kingdom.

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And so you have these

wonderful prophecies in Isaiah.

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And again, they have this, this

mixed dynamic though, because some

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of them are talking about his glory.

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And others are talking

about his suffering.

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And if you're reading that before the

cross, if you're reading it without

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the cross, it's very confusing.

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Like, wait, how is he talking about

one person who is gonna be suffering?

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a man acquainted with grief and also

a person sometimes seems like the same

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person who's gonna be this glorious

king, leading this beautiful kingdom.

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So without the cross,

it doesn't make sense.

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But when you see the beauty of God's

play and in the cross, you'll see that

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when Isaiah talked about the suffering

servant in Isaiah 53, he was talking

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about Jesus in his first coming.

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When he talks about the glorious king

and the kingdom he brings, where the

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lion lays down with the lamb and there

is peace and justice and the knowledge

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and the glory of God filled the

earth like the waters filled the sea.

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He's speaking about Christ second coming.

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So the cross really illuminates.

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the major hurdle to understanding what

some of these prophets are talking about.

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Okay.

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So not all of it you already said

is, future prediction, but there

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are certainly some ways in which.

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Certain parts of these do

seem to point to Christ.

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So I'm wondering if you can

give us a couple examples.

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We'll reflect on some passages of

scripture and then move to application.

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Sure.

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Isaiah 42 talks about the servant of the

Lord here is my servant, whom I uphold.

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My chosen one in whom I delight,

I'll put my spirit on him and he

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will bring justice to the nations.

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In faithfulness.

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He'll bring forth justice.

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He'll not falter or discourage till

he establishes justice upon the earth.

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So you have right here the, this idea

of the servant, the servant of God,

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the servant of Yahweh coming and then.

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in chapter

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60 65 of Isaiah CI will create

a new heavens and new earth.

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The former things will not be

remembered, nor will they come to mind.

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Be glad and rejoice forever.

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And what I will create I will

create Jerusalem to be a delight.

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And as people, a joy, never

again will there be in it.

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An infant who lives but a few days,

or an old man who dies, who does

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not live out his years, the wolf in

the lamb will feed together and the

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lion will eat straw like the ox and

the dust will be the serpent's food.

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They will neither harm nor

destroy on all my Holy Mountain.

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And then just one more, and this

is one that's important because

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Jesus quotes it applying to himself.

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So you have this figure in Isaiah,

and it's not Isaiah, so you're

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like this talking about where

it says in chapter 61 of Isaiah.

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The spirit of the sovereign Lord

is on me ' he has anointed me to

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proclaim good news to the poor.

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He has sent me to bind up the broken

hearted, to proclaim freedom for

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the captives, and to release from

darkness for the prisoners to proclaim

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the year of the Lord's favor and

the day of vengeance of our God.

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Now what's interesting

is Jesus quotes that.

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When he begins his, his earthly ministry,

you'll see this in Luke chapter four.

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as he just begins his ministry,

he comes to the synagogue.

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He opens a scroll and he begins reading

this, but he stops where it says to

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proclaim the, year of the Lord's favor,

so he doesn't read the last part in

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the day of the vengeance of our God,

because that part isn't happening yet.

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It's the year of the Lord's favor that

he brings through Jesus at his first

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coming, and there will be judgment, and

that will come in his second coming.

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So right there, Jesus is saying, in Luke

four, This day the scripture is fulfilled

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in your presence talking about himself.

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So he's saying that these

prophecies are applying to him.

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And of course they all do.

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some apply to him in his

first coming and some when he

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establishes this glorious kingdom.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah.

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It seems like a, a, a beautiful and

hopeful thing that there will be peace

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in Jerusalem and there won't be any

babies that live just a few days, and

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old men will live out their years and

the wolf will lie down with the lamb.

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Like those are things that.

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Clearly have not come to fulfillment yet.

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Daniel Jepsen: Right.

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Nathan Beasley: And then when you see

other New Testament passages picking up

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on what, the, uh, fullness of time will

look like, there will be no more pain

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and no more sorrow and no more tears.

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We have something glorious to look

forward to, and we know that because these

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prophecies pointed to Jesus the first

time, they'll be good for the second time.

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Daniel Jepsen: Exactly.

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Exactly.

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When Jesus came the first time, he

came as a suffering servant In Isaiah

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53 so beautifully talks about this.

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He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering and familiar with pain.

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like one from whom

people hide their faces.

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He was despised and we held him in

low esteem, but surely he took up

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our pain and bore our sufferings.

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He was pierce for our transgressions

and crushed for our inequities.

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The punishment that brought us peace was

on him, and by his wounds, we are healed.

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That was fulfilled at the cross.

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The glory of the Messiah is seen

in his willingness to do that,

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not just in the glory of the

kingdom like we would normally see.

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It's first of all seen here, and

then the fruition of that, the

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fulfillment of that comes later.

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Nathan Beasley: That's beautiful.

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Thank you so much for

that exploration there.

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You said at the beginning that the

prophets were covenant enforcers.

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They would call people to faithfulness

and they would bring hope by pointing

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to the future realities, which

are ultimately filled in Christ

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first coming in and second coming.

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I'm struck by that, and I think

a good response for us here as we

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apply this passage would be, A call

to, again, covenantal faithfulness.

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Early on we looked at how sin isn't

just a breaking of a command, but

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it's a rupturing of a relationship

and it's siding with the enemy.

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And so I wanna give space to pause

here, and I'm asking the question.

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As you think back over your past 24

48 hours, where have you not been

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faithful to the instruction of the Lord?

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Why don't you bring that before

God in confession and in a desire

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to walk in faithfulness, and then

listen for a second and hear if God

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is giving you a word about how to

respond in faithfulness to him today.

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Let's conclude here by yielding

the rest of our day by praying this

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prayer that Jesus taught us to pray.

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Our father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

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Your kingdom come, your will be

done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us today our daily bread and

forgive us our debts as we also

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have for forgiven our debtors.

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And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.

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Amen.

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Daniel Jepsen: Amen.