About Jesus Steve Sweetman
The Old Testament Law Is Prophetic
Now we come to the more controversial parts of our discussion about the Old Testament. It’s obvious that the writings of Isaiah and Jeremiah are prophetic in nature, but did you know that the Law of Moses is just as prophetic as the Book of Isaiah? Jesus confirms this in Matt. 5:17 and 18 when He says, "do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you, until Heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of the pen, by any means will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished".
Jesus associates the Law with the Prophets as if they were similar by placing them side by side in this sentence. They’re similar in the sense that they are both prophetic writings. I say this because Jesus says that He has come to "fulfill" both of them. The word "fulfill" is a prophetic word, which means the Law is to be fulfilled just as the prophetic books are to be fulfilled. In fact Jesus Himself is the fulfillment of the Law.
Jesus then says that not the smallest letter or a stroke of a pen will be abolished from the Law until "everything is accomplished". Once again, the word "accomplished" is a prophetic type word. The Law must remain in tact until all of its prophecies have been accomplished.
The prophecies of the Law aren’t in the form of "thus says the Lord" as they are in the prophetic books. They’re in the form of types and shadows which we spoke of in the last chapter. The fulfilling of the shadows found in the Law into their realities is the fulfillment of prophecy.
So according to Jesus the Law is more than a list of rules, but is indeed prophetic in nature. Let me suggest that as a person is more important than his shadow as noted in the last chapter, so the prophetic nature of the Law and its fulfilled realities is more important than its collection of rules and shadowy imagery.
Now that we’ve established that the Law is prophetic, we need to know when it was, or when it is, or when it will be fulfilled? We need to know the answer to this question because we need to know when the Law is abolished. Knowing when the Law is abolished and just what that means will shape our theology and our way of lives as a Christian.