We Have What Prophets Did Not
The prophets of God who wrote about Jesus did not understand what we know. They foretold the life of Christ, but the Holy Spirit did not reveal the details like we have them in the New Testament. Peter wrote, “Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (I Pet. 1:10-11). Though they “inquired and searched carefully,” they never learned what we know about Jesus’ life, sufferings and death. Jesus told His disciples, “For assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it” (Matt. 13:17). Prophets of God had the prophecies of Jesus, but we have the fulfillment of them in the New Testament. We know more about the meaning of Isaiah 53 than Isaiah did when he wrote it!
Old Testament writers and saints had foreshadows and types of better things to come. We have the actual things they represented. We have the corresponding antitypes. Paul said that Mosaic observances like annual feast days, monthly new moon celebrations and weekly sabbaths were “a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ” (Col. 2:17). Animal sacrifices in the law of Moses were “a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things” (Heb. 10:1). God’s people then had the temple. Christians are the temple of God (II Cor. 6:16). Jews had priests and a high priest. Christians are priests and Jesus is our high priest (I Pet. 2:9; Heb. 8:1). The first covenant was good. The New Testament is better (Heb. 7:22; 8:6).
We have an answer to the problem of sin and suffering that people in the Old Testament did not have. When Moses, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk cried out “Why?” to God because of evil and suffering in the world, the Lord answered them directly (Numbers 11; Jeremiah 12:1-7; Habakkuk). How many times have we wished that God would speak to us from heaven when we ask Him why? These men had something we do not: they heard the voice of God directly. But we have something they did not: the cross. The cross is God’s answer to one of the most common complaints of mankind: “It’s not fair.” The injustice of the death of the sinless Son of God on the cross should silence the mouths of all that complain about life being unfair. We have a perspective to this timeless question that even the prophets of old did not have.
What a blessing it is to live in the gospel age!
Kerry
West End church of Christ · August 19, 2026