4. Revelation and Inspiration Defined: "The word 'revelation' stands for the act of God in making truth known to men, and then, in a secondary sense, for the truth itself, which is thus made known. Inspiration is the name of the special divine influence under which the writers of the Bible worked. We speak of the 'revelation' of God in the Bible, and of the 'inspiration' of the writers of the Bible. In order to understand the questions which have been raised on these two subjects it is important that we should discriminate between them in thought, but in fact they are closely connected. It is the association of the two that gives its supreme value to the Bible. This is recognized as a book of unique character, because, as we have seen, it is an inspired record of divine revelation." (Teacher's Bible Helps, Bagster's Bible, p. 2.) The whole article, comprising several pages, should be studied. Also the article, "Prophets," in the Seventy's Bible Dictionary.
LESSON XIII.
THE PROPHETIC BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
| ANALYSIS. | REFERENCES. |
| I. The book of Isaiah.
1. Historic Period of Isaiah. 2. General Outline of His Prophecies. 3. His Prophecies of the Messiah. 4. Select Readings from Isaiah. | Isaiah I-LXVI. Notes 1, 2. Seventy's Bible Dictionary, Art. "Isaiah," Bible Treasury Ditto. Other Bible Helps and Dictionaries, under same title. "Messianic Prophecies," Chap. IX: 6, 7; XLIX: 1-13; LIII: 1-12; LXI: 1-3. |
| II. The Book of Jeremiah.
1. Historic Period. 2. General Nature of His Warnings to Israel. 3. Prophecies yet to be fulfilled--especially on the restoration of Israel. | Select Readings--Fall of Lucifer, Chap. XIV: 12-29. The Apostasy, XXIV: 1-6. Book of Mormon, XXIX: 1-24. The Gathering of Israel, XI: 10-16. Bible Dictionaries and Helps as above, Art. "Jeremiah, Book of," etc. Warnings: Jeremiah XIV: 1-22, and XV: 1-3. (Read as if is in one chapter), XVII and XVIII; also XXI and XXII. Prophecies (in course of fulfillment and those yet future). Chap. III: 12-19; XVI: 14-16; XXXIII: 1-14. |
SPECIAL TEXT: "And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers; and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left."—ISAIAH.
NOTES.
1. Isaiah, (i. e., the Lord is Salvation), son of Amoz, a prophet in Jerusalem during 40 years, (B. C. 740-701.) He had great religious and political influence during the reign of Hezekiah, whose chief adviser he was. Tradition states that he was "sawn asunder" during the reign of Manasseh; for that reason he is often represented in art, holding a saw." (Cambridge Bible, p. 82.)
2. Character of Isaiah's Prophet Writings: "In Isaiah we see prophetic authorship reaching its culminating point. Everything conspired to raise him to an elevation to which no prophet either before or after could as a writer attain. Among the other prophets, each of the more important ones is distinguished by some one particular excellence, and some one peculiar talent: in Isaiah, all kinds of talent and all beauties of prophetic discourse meet together so as mutually to temper and qualify each other; it is not so much any single feature that distinguishes him as the symmetry and perfection of the whole. * * * * He is not the especially lyrical prophet, or the especially elegiacal prophet, or the especially oratorical and hortatory prophet, as we should describe a Joel, a Hosea, a Micah, with whom there is a greater prevalence of some particular color; but, just as the subject requires, he has readily at command every several kind of style and every several change of delineation; and it is precisely this that, in point of language, establishes his greatness, as well as in general forms one of his most towering points of excellence." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, pp. 1162-3.)
3. Isaiah as a Messianic Prophet: The following are the outlines of Messianic prophecies in the book of Isaiah: A scion of David, springing from his family, after it has fallen into a very low estate, but being also of divine nature, shall, at first, in lowliness, but as a prophet filled with the Spirit of God, proclaim the divine doctrine, develope the law in truth, and render it the animating principle of national life; he shall, as high priest, by his vicarious suffering and his death, remove the guilt of his nation, and that of other nations, and finally rule as a mighty king, not only over the covenant people, but over all nations of the earth who will subject themselves to his peaceful sceptre, not by violent compulsion, but induced by love and gratitude. He will make both the moral and the physical consequences of sin to cease; the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, and all enmity, hatred, and destruction shall be removed even from the brute creation. This is the survey of the Messianic preaching by Isaiah, of which he constantly renders prominent those portions which were most calculated to impress the people under the then existing circumstances. * * * * Jesus Sirach (xlviii: 22-5) bestows splendid praise upon Isaiah, and both Philo and Josephus speak of him with great veneration. He attained the highest degree of authority after the times of the New Testament had proved the most important part of his prophecies, namely, the Messianic, to be divine. Christ and the Apostles quote no prophecies so frequently as those of Isaiah, in order to prove that he who had appeared was one and the same with him who had been promised. The fathers of the Church abound in praises of Isaiah. (Kitto's Biblical Literature, pp. 49-50.)
4. The First Nephi on Isaiah as the Messianic Prophet. "And now I, Nephi, write more of the words of Isaiah, for my soul delighteth in his words. For I will liken (apply) his words unto my people, and I will send them forth unto all my children, for he verily saw my Redeemer, even as I have seen him. And my brother Jacob also has seen him as I have seen him: wherefore I will send their words forth unto my children, to prove unto them that my words are true.. Wherefore, by the words of three, God hath said, I will establish my word." (II Nephi ii: 13.)