The "pop" understanding of prophecy is that long ago (and I mean long ago) a group of men sat around predicting future events. These predictions concerned God's promise to send the Messiah (i.e. Jesus) and the list of predictions was very obvious. In fact, when Jesus came, this line of thinking goes, the Jews should have immediately recognized Him and crowned Him as King.
I doubt that many holding this "pop" view have thought through to details much. If pushed on what they thought took place they would probably be prone to saying things like, "I don't know, I guess the prophets just said stuff that God told them about when Jesus comes and the predictions were written in the Bible." Remember, the typical Christian rarely reads the Bible. Those that do frequently focus solely on the New Testament. And when someone reads, their assumptions always impact 'how' they read. I know from personal experience. We tend to skip over or ignore parts that do not fit into our presumptions. We tend to make things fit our preconceived views. We tend to do this often times unaware that we are doing it.
Most of us see the fulfillment of Scripture as being "a prediction finally happening." And if we read backwards we find this in the NT and assume it is true (which it is, that is NOT what I am meditating on here). However, it is rare that anyone back tracks to see the original quotation and see it in full context. That is why we continue to think that it is all about a list of predictions, we really do not look at what it actually says. So, as an advocate of Bible reading I want to do just that!!!
Matthew 2:21-23 "...She [Mary] is to have a son, and you are to name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins." All this happened to fulfill what the Lord has said through the prophet" 'The Virgin shall be with child and give birth to a son and they shall call him Emmanuel," a name which means 'God is with us.'"
The first tip off on how to read this is that the quote claims something that the prior verse negates. His name is Jesus, not Emmanuel. I do not know anyone who is troubled by this, mainly because we "get it." He is called Emmanuel is not a literally called (like a name) but called in the sense of when people explain Who Jesus is, He is God-with-us. (Commonly called incarnation). And His name and its meaning explain how God is with us. As the one who saves. Jesus (Joshua in Hebrew) comes from the root which means YHWH + Saves. (Many biblical names are also words. Much like names today, Joy, Hope, or Bill also have other meanings)
The key question is this. What does fulfill mean? And is 'fulfill' the best English word to translate the Greek?[info can be accessed here for the studious types
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G4137&t=NKJV]
The first meaning of the Greek word pleroo is "to fill up, to fill to overflowing, to render complete, to make complete totally." There is a sense, too, in which it means, therefore, to accomplish and to fill an earlier promise. But we need to see the word as meaning, primarilly, that in Jesus the Story of God reaches its fullness. In Jesus, the story of Israel finds its completion and truest depth of meaning. Who is Jesus? He is God-with-us, but He is also The New Adam, the Perfection (fullness) of Humanity, and the complete person! So when we read the story of Jesus He fulfills the Scriptures because the Scriptures contain the story of God, the plan of God, the "dream" of God for His people. It also contains the story of God's people, the story of the beginning of humanity and the end of humanity. In Jesus those stories find their perfect expression. So Jesus fulfills Scripture.
Lastly (today) the word 'pleroo (= fill up') occurs many times in the NT, 95 total. But Mark uses it 3x (and only the last two refer to filling up/fulfilling SS [Sacred Scripture] and each is a generic reference to the Cross of Jesus). Luke uses it more, ten times, but only three times in the expression filling up/fulfilling SS (two of them from Mark). However, when we come to Matthew it is a different story. (John has 13 uses) Matthew uses the word seventeen (17) times. More importantly, twelve times he has some version of "this fills up/fulfills the SS/prophets." And in one other use, we have the key to reading the word in Matthew. Jesus says (Mt 5:17) "Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill/fillup." Matthew is tipping his hand, and we do well to pay attention.
So if we are open to reading the Scripture from this perspective, we have much to discover. More later!
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