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Is prophecy a thing of the past? [2]

The Recognition of Joseph by his Brothers, by Peter von Cornelius 

In the New Covenant, there are many instances in which Yeshua and His earthly ministry were confirmed by visions and dreams.

Here are a few:

·       When Yosef (Jospeh) heard that Miriam (Mary) was pregnant, he decided to quietly divorce her.  God intervened, however, by sending an angel in a dream telling him that this pregnancy was of God.

·       After His birth, God used dreams two other times to direct Yosef: once to warn him to take young Yeshua and Miriam to Egypt because Herod was seeking to kill Him, and another time to tell him that it was safe to return to Israel.

·       An angel appeared to the priest Zacharias in an open vision to tell him that his prayers had been answered and that his wife Elizabeth would have a son, Yohannan the Immerser (John the Baptist), the forerunner of Yeshua.  (Luke 1:5–23)

·       Pilate’s wife told him that she had a dream that Yeshua was innocentand that Pilate should have nothing to do with the case.  (Matthew 27:19)

·       On the road to Damascus, Paul had an open vision of Yeshua, which led to his acceptance of the Messiah of Israel.  (Acts 9:1–19)

·       Peter had a vision in which God told him not to call unclean those who He had made clean.  This vision prepared Peter to visit Cornelius who himself had an angelic visitation in which he was told where to find Peter so that he could hear the Good News and be saved.  (Acts 10:9–15)

·       Paul had several visions that directed him in his ministry to the Gentiles.

·       While imprisoned on the Island of Patmos, John received a vision which is recorded throughout the Book of Revelation.

The Message of Pilate's Wife, by James Tissot

Although God has given us His word in the Bible to guide us, He can and does still communicate with His people through dreams and visions.

Dreams and visions are different from one another in the following ways:

·       People seeing visions are cognizant of their thoughts, while people who see in predictive dreams are not, as they are not awake.

·       Those who receive a vision or a message about things to come realize they are being shown the future.  In a dream, however, the dreamer experiences these events as if they were real and present.

·       Visions tend to reveal what will definitely occur while things revealed in a dream might not be set in stone.  Dreams can be indeterminate and open to change through the exercise of free will.

The Talmud teaches that throughout the generations, there were twice as many prophets as Israelites who left Egypt.  But Jewish tradition holds that the Bible specifically mentions 48 Hebrew prophets and seven Hebrew prophetesses to Israel who had dreams and visions.  These prophets include Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, Sarah, Miriam, and Esther.

Balaam and the Angel, by Gustav Jaeger

Judaism also recognizes that Gentiles, such as Balaam in Numbers 22, can function as prophets, but they are not as elevated as Hebrew prophets. (Judaism 101)

The Hebrew prophets were considered to be wise and of strong character, yet they came from varying backgrounds:

·       Abraham, a man called out by God from the pagan land of Ur, fathered a nation of people who would be called God's Chosen People.

·       Moses, a Levite, was raised in Pharaoh’s palace and received a princely Egyptian education.

·       David was a shepherd and psalmist who rose to the rank of warrior and king. 

·       Ezekiel and Jeremiah were priests. 

·       Amos was a shepherd and tree keeper (Amos 7:14).

·       Elisha ploughed fields (1 Kings 19:19–21).

·       Daniel held high government office in Babylon (Daniel 2:48) (although the rabbis do not consider Daniel a prophet). 

These men qualified as prophets not because of their social or economic status, but because of their unwavering love for and obedience to God.

Daniel in the Lion's Den, by Henry Ossawa Tanner

Daniel: The Prophet Who Is Not a Prophet

Although the rabbis do not believe that Daniel is a prophet, this God-fearing man received a significant visitation while in Babylonian captivity.  In a dream, after much prayer, the Angel Gabriel foretold when the Messiah would be put to death. (Daniel 9:26, Flood here is a metaphor for sudden destruction) The Angel Gabriel also revealed to Daniel the seven-year covenant that the “man of lawlessness” (known as anti-Christ) would make with Israel before the end comes.  (Daniel 9:27, the referent of the Hebrew word כְּנַף (kÿnaf, “wing”) is unclear here. The LXX and Theodotion have “the temple.” Some English versions (e.g., NAB, NIV) take this to mean “a wing of the temple,” but this is not clear.)The Talmud teaches that dreams without interpretation are like “an unread letter,” and during Daniel's time, King Nebuchadnezzar became quite disturbed by his own unread letter, especially after the court's wise men could not interpret it. But Daniel and his companions prayed for the interpretation and in a vision at night, Daniel was given its meaning: the king’s dream foretold the major kingdoms of the world until the end of days.  (Daniel 2)

  

The Tanakh comprises three sections: Torah (the five books of Moses),

Nevi'im (Prophets), and the Ketuvim (Writings).

Yet, even with such significant revelations, the book of Daniel is placed in theKetuvim (Writings) section of the Hebrew Bible, rather than the Nevi’im (Prophets), the section in which the prophets are divided into major and minor prophets, depending on the quantity of their writings. It isn’t that Daniel is not revered or respected.  In fact, some rabbinic scholars say that Daniel is actually more esteemed than the prophets, like sages are, because he not only received revelation, but he interpreted and understood it. Daniel is not classified as a prophet because rabbis say his visions were not meant for the people of his day, but were meant for future generations. We are, perhaps, that future generation, and teachers of Bible prophecy today state that one cannot be a true student of prophecy without studying Daniel.

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish teen walks past a store featuring paintings

of Jewish rabbis and sages.

Do Jews Believe Prophets Are for Today?

Although the Talmud teaches that the Age of the Prophets came to a close in the first generation of the Second Temple Era, the great 12th century Talmudic scholar and philosopher Maimonides included as one of his 13 basic principles of faith the belief that God still communicates with mankind through prophecy. Maimonides believed that in each generation prophecy comes to the holy and wisetzaddikim (righteous ones) who are worthy of receiving and understanding it. That prophecy is believed to be received through Ruach HaKodesh (literally, the spirit of holiness or the Holy Spirit), a term that in Judaism refers to the divine aspect of prophecy and wisdom. Prophets today are judged by the requirements placed on Old Covenant prophets: their prophecies must come to pass and they cannot conflict with the Torah (law).  For believers in Yeshua, the New Covenant Scriptures and the Tanakh must be considered in determining the legitimacy of a prophecy.  As well, it must glorify and honor Yeshua.  (2 Timothy 3:16; Revelation 19:10) Those who follow Yeshua are given the Ruach HaKodesh as a sign or seal of their eternal relationship with God.  The Ruach empowers Believers, giving them one or more spiritual gifts, which can include word of wisdom, word of knowledge, gift of healing, and gift of service, among others.  (1 Corinthians 12:7–11, 28; Romans 12:6-8) Of all the gifts Paul identified, he singled out prophecy, wishing that everyone would have this gift.  (1 Corinthians 14:5) Perhaps this is on the horizon. Joel 2:28 reveals that after the Jewish People have returned to their land, the Ruach will be poured out, with young men seeing visions and old men having (prophetic) dreams, and sons and daughters prophesying. So, as the Last Days come nearer to the return of Yeshua, we should expect an increase in God’s presence through His Ruach HaKodesh and manifestations of His gifts, especially the gift of prophecy through dreams and visions.

Please pray to bring the Messianic Prophecy Bible to the Jewish People so that they can read from a Jewish Bible that spotlights how Yeshua (Jesus) fulfilled the Messianic prophecies.