Questoin:

I’m studying the book of Isaiah. When you look at the historical background of Isaiah, there are non-Messianic prophecies that were fulfilled, as the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions of Israel and Judah. Could you please write about these?

Response:

I have written some about prophecies in the Old Testament fulfilled before New Testament times already in my book Reasons for Belief (www.ipibooks.com). Also, we have a class offered through the Apologetics Research Society Program titled “The use of Prophecy in Christian Apologetics.” You can find info about the class by clicking the button at the web site for the Apologetics Certificate.  In addition, I am willing to respond to a specific question. Is there one prophecy in particular you want me to talk about? I am including some notes on the topic from a class I taught in the past. I hope this can get you started.

John Oakes

1 Kings 20:28 I will deliver this vast army into your hands 1 Kings 20:29-30

1 Kings 20:36 A lion will kill you 1 Kings 20:36

1 Kings 21:19 Ahab’s blood will be licked fulfilled 1 Kings 22:37

1 Kings 21:23 Dogs will devour Jezebel 2 Kings 9:32-37

1 Kings 22:1-28 esp 28 Ahab will be killed 1 Kings 22:31-36

2 Kings 7:1-2 By tomorrow a seah of flour will sell for a sheckel 2 Kings 7:17-20

2 Kings 19:5-7 He will hear a certain report, go home and cut down. 2 Kings 19:37

Isaiah 37:33-35 and 2 Kings19:32-34 I will defend this city Is 37:36-37 and 2 Kings 19:35-36

Isaiah 38:4-6 I will add 15 years to your life and save this city

Jer 27:1-11 I will hand you over to Nebuchadnezzar. You will serve the king 2 Kings 25:1-7

Jeremiah 28:1-17 Jeremiah and Hananiah Hananiah the false prophet dies.

Jeremiah 32:6-8 42-44 Jeremiah buys a field. Once more fields will be bought in this land. I will restore their fortunes.

Daniel 4:24-27 (to Nebuchadnezzar) You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like cattle…Seven times will pass for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes.

Daniel 4:28-37 All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar….

(from Eusebius) Greek historian Abydenus: Nebuchadnezzar the king “was possessed by some god or other.” and that immediately after, he disappeared for some time.

5. Medium term prophecies in OT: fulfilled during the OT times

Genesis 17:6-8 (also Genesis 12:2-3,7 Genesis 15:4-5)

a. Father of many nations (Arabs [Ishmael], Edom [Esau], Israel)

b. A covenant.

c. I will give Canaan as an inheritance

Genesis 49 (whole thing) esp. 49:10-11

Deuteronomy 28 esp. 36-37 49-57 64 68

Joshua 6:26 He who rebuilds Jericho will do so at the cost of his firstborn and his youngest son. 1 Kings 16:34

Isaiah 39:3-7 and 2 Kings 20:16-18 Babylon will conquer Judah and take eunuch to Babylon

Jeremiah 29:8-14 70 years

Also Jeremiah 25:8-14 banishment for 70 years

Note: Daniel knew about both the warning and the encouragement Daniel 9:2

Isaiah 44:28-45:7 45:13 Cyrus is my shepherd. He will say of Jerusalem, “Let its foundations be laid.”

Fulfilled in 2 Chron 36:23 (and in the Cyrus Cyllinder, by the way)

Amos 5:7 I will take you into exile beyond Damascus

6. OT prophecies fulfilled “Between the Testaments”

Tyre. Ezekiel 26: 3-5,14 a place to spread fishing nets

Nebuchadnezzar will destroy mainland Tyre 26:8

Many nations against Tyre 26:3

It will be a bare rock; flat like top of a rock 26:4 Alexander

Fishermen’s nets will be spread there 26:5

They will throw stones and timber into the water 26:12

Never be rebuilt 26:14

Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the mainland city but left the island portion untouched

Alexander: built the causeway 332 BC

Secular historian Philip Myers in his history textbook:

“Alexander the Great reduced it [Tyre] to ruins. She recovered in a measure from this blow, but never regained the place she had previously held in the world. The larger part of the site of the once great city is no bare as the top of a rock—a place where the fishermen that still frequent the spot spread their nets to dry.

Now, the original site is not occupied as a city.