Old Testament: Prophetic "multi-layering"

For the Advent season in 2007, I prepared some extra little devotional talks for the Adult Sunday School class that I was leading. A few members wanted to talk about prophecies of the Old Testament related to the Incarnation. So, I started doing some research and it was during this research that I encountered, what I labeled the “multi-layering” facet of prophecies. Since then, I have encountered various other labels for this phenomenon. Basically, while reading about the OT prophets, this week, I have encountered this phenomenon again. It really has helped me a great deal in understanding prophetic methods, utilized by many of the major and minor prophets. Basically, it’s the idea that a prophet may write about a specific occurrence, or current/future events with a specific audience or purpose in mind, and then in reality there are one or more meanings or applications for other (later) audiences. It’s a fantastic concept to grasp that by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God places within the writers recordings, interpretations, meanings, and truths that go far beyond what even the writer was aware of at the time. For example, in Hosea 11:1, “..and called my son out of Egypt”. Matthew, writing about Jesus, centuries later writes in Matt. 2:15, “..that it might be fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.” Its mind boggling that Hosea most likely hadn’t a clue that his writings would contain that aspect of the Incarnation of the coming Messiah, but Jesus’ disciple would correctly interpret those writings like he did, centuries later. Obviously, that writing had an initial meaning to the audience back then, but there was a deeper multi-layered meaning embedded in it, that Matthew picked up on, if you will. That is an awesome concept, concerning the writings of prophets and prophecies, in general.

Blessings!
George