Prophets Priests Kings and Jesus

Please note the following will be the last section of my forthcoming book on the three Bible books of Solomon …

Prior to writing this book, the author wrote Prophets of the Bible, an electronic version of which, alongside many of his other writings, including nearly 2000 blog articles, can be freely downloaded from his website: jrbpublications.com. The book attempted to cover the lives, ministries and times of all the Bible prophets; some well-known, some less known or unnamed and some not commonly regarded as prophets yet spoke or acted prophetically. It also covers the background and context in which prophets operated and issues raised when studying them, including end times prophecy and modern-day prophets, and covers in-depth most of the Bible. Paper copies of Prophets of the Bible (now second edition), alongside this book, is available via the Internet, e.g. Ingram and Amazon.

The author is currently working on a sequel to Prophets of the Bible, to be titled Kings and Priests of the Bible, which he intends to be available around the end of 2021. He will adopt much the same approach as he had with Prophets of the Bible but will minimise the repeating of content to do with context etc., even if relevant to each of prophets, priests and kings. It has been said that at different times in Israel’s history, prophets, priests and kings (as well as the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (to which we might also add Joseph)) played dominant roles, often operating in tandem:

• 500 years – Abraham to the Exodus – Patriarchs
• 500 years – Exodus to Saul – Prophets
• 500 years – Saul to Exile – Kings
• 500 years – Exile to Jesus – Priests

Leadership under any of these offices was not entirely satisfactory, until Jesus came, who combined all these functions, yet who most of Israel rejected, but will return to planet earth as their promised Messiah. As far as this author is concerned, the Bible is principally about God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and His dealings with humankind, begging the question: how do we respond? “We”, it should be added, includes both Jew and Gentile, bearing in mind God has ever sought a people who have a heart for Him alone. As interesting and instructive as the lives of prophets, priests and kings are, the Bible usually only tells us what God considers important, often leaving wide gaps in our knowledge.

If there is a focal point in the Bible narrative, bearing in mind a large portion of the afore-mentioned two books make reference to the Old Testament, when most of the Bible prophets, priests and kings operated, it is Jesus: prophet, priest and king, who stands head and shoulders over all other prophets, priests and kings, that for Christians is also their Lord and Saviour, and who we must keep our eyes fixed on. As for OT and NT; the OT, dominated by prophets, priests and kings, pointed readers toward Jesus’ coming, and the NT was a fulfilment of what the OT, from the outset, was looking forward to.