05.02.06 - Prediction and Double-Meaning

(6) Prediction and Double-meaning

It is also necessary to note what is called the “double sense” of prophecy; that while prophecy had a local and historical significance, it had also a religious and universal meaning; that while it had a temporal and rational import, it had also a spiritual and world-wide application: it swelled out into strains of still grander and future relation, and throbbed with meaning and promise that reached forward unto the fulness of time. Hence the local, national, and particular application of a prophetic utterance does not mean its exhaustion or the completion of its meaning, or its only possible or legitimate application, inasmuch as it belongs to other times, incidents, and events yet to come, in which its fulfilment shall be more fully realised. It is, more over, a principle in the interpretation of prediction, that it can only be regarded as fulfilled when the whole body of truth in its fullest complement has attained living realisation. The question is not, therefore, whether any prediction had a local and national meaning and fulfilment, but whether it had not a further and deeper meaning and application; not merely whether the Prophet so intended by its utterance, but whether the Spirit that was in him testified beforehand of this larger and fuller meaning which it included. It is in this larger, far-reaching foresight that the real element of supernatural knowledge and divine revelation consists, and which the fulfilled event alone makes clear and plain. To deny all secondary meaning and application to prediction and to restrict it to its local and temporary meaning would not only rob it of much of its wealth of meaning, but it would be to deprive it of its place and purpose in the revelation of God, and in some instances render it absurd and extravagant. Moreover, from the close relation in which Israel stood to God and His divine purposes for the world of men, and the part which the nation played in the development of the plan of redemption and salvation, and the historic character of Divine revelation, it cannot but be that much that belonged to Israel was ideally religious and spiritual, and much that pertained to their national life and kingdom belonged no less to the kingdom and dominion that was spiritual and universal, and must of necessity have its fullest realisation in the reign and kingdom of Jesus Christ. It is in Him, His reign and kingdom, His Person, work, and mission, all the lines of prophecy meet, and find their legitimate interpretation. And if these be of the very essence and core of the prediction, and that in them the prediction has attained living realisation, it is idle to speak of them as “accidental,” “secondary,” and “accommodating “: they are of the essence of the prediction. The Lord Jesus recognised this double meaning of prophecy, and how the local, national, and temporary led on to the religious, the spiritual, the Divine. He spoke of Himself as “ the Christ,” and of the dignity that belonged to Him as “ the true Anointed of the Lord,” raising Him far above David and Solomon.

He applied to Himself the twofold meaning of humiliation and exaltation, suffering and triumph, and showed how the two images of the glorious Son of God and the Suffering Servant found their fulfilment in Him. “ The two lines of prophecy,” says Orelli, “ one of which speaks of the coming of Yahveh, the other of a future ruler from David’s house, blend in Him. Here type reaches its adequate completion, just as prophecy its full realisation.”

“ Even if David, or any other man of God, in the Passion-psalms spake primarily of his own experiences and feelings, the idea of the suffering King and Servant of God is fully realised in Christ. Take the following example: Ye all shall be offended in Me this night: for it is written, I will smite the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. 1 Even if the oracle of Zechariah, whence the citation was taken by the Saviour, applied originally to a pious shepherd of the prophet’s days, to himself, or a king of His days, it was verified in an incomparably higher degree in Christ. He is the Good Shepherd, who, with full

1 Matthew 26:31 right and consciousness, claims for Himself every thing of this idea found in the Old Testament. And as He can call Himself the fellow of God with in comparably more reason than all other shepherds, so also what is said of the violent end of the best Shepherd, causing such bitter awe to the poor flock, will have its most terrible fulfilment in Him and His disciples.” 1