Proclaimer Blog
The New Testament use of the Old (3)
3. Prophetic illustration
Some OT illustrations are more than illustrations for a particular point. We saw yesterday how stories from the life of Elijah and Elisha are used by Jesus to illustrate a point about his own ministry and how that does not change the meaning and significance of the original narrative.
However, there are also stories where the original meaning of the narrative is made clear by a NT use. A great example is found in Luke 11.29-32. There Jesus uses two well known Sunday School stories (the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon and Jonah’s preaching at Nineveh) to make a point about his own ministry.
These are not illustrations as such, but what I call prophetic illustrations. The OT stories have a natural trajectory which takes them in a certain direction and the preacher who does not follow Jesus’ pattern is, I would suggest, being cavalier with the whole Bible. Jesus is not just using the stories to illustrate, he is interpreting the stories in their wider Bible context.