Plowshare and Pruning Hooks
Sue Scarbrough
Mid America Christian University

Prophetic Books/Eschatology
Professor Brent Hinkle
April 15, 2012

Plowshare and Pruning Hooks
Reading Sandy’s “Plowshare and Pruning Hooks for the first week covered exactly what Prophecy is and how it is viewed. When we look at the very first chapter Sandy goes over “What Makes Prophecy Powerful”, he states, and “prophecy is like whitewater, perhaps the most powerful whitewater in Scripture-maybe in all the literature in the world. This is language unmatched in what it beholds and in how it describes the beholden. Words of worship, terror and mercy are unparalleled. Words of beauty, passion and hope are unequalled; words of adoration, condemnation and salvation are unrivaled” (Sandy 2002 p.19).
When I think about prophecy it takes me back to when I was a young child growing up in church and the elders would give the “prophecy” over others in the congregation and would also tell of things that had come to pass and were to come in the future. I remember that if someone had received a “word” and later it did not come to pass that person that gave the prophecy was declared a fraud when the truth is they maybe weren’t letting God lead them and the flesh took over. The Bible states, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God”
(1 John 4: 1-2).
I think what makes prophecy hard to believe is that because as humans we operate on the human level and not on the heavenly level as it shows us they are two complete different worlds, “Humanity’s Dilemma” we have Heaven-God –Future, and the we have the Human Experience-Human Imagination- Human Language”(Sandy 2002 p.26).With this in mind that’s why in my opinion it’s hard for us to really grasp at times that God is trying to communicate with us on a level that he hopes we can have the faith to believe.

I think a lot of times when people receive a prophecy they look at it as a “Metaphor” which at times it could be, but the important thing is to really understand what the prophecy means and I think only the Holy Spirit can reveal that to us. In our text it states that, “metaphoric language is pervasive in the culture of communication as well as in the art. A metaphor is usually picturesque, expressing ideas and visual images. It increases memorability of concepts and wondering. It bonds speakers and hearers and authors and readers together, as the creators of metaphor contemplate how hearers/readers will understand their intent and hearers/ readers reflect on the speakers; meaning and craftsmanship” (Sandy 2002 p.59)
I myself believe that God does communicate with us at times through metaphors, if we look to the scriptures we see, “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink”(John 7:37). This is without a doubt a metaphor. As I was reading the “Language of Love, Language of Wrath”, I was really thought it was broken down good as in “The covenant with God offers two option” “Choose to obey-God will bless abundantly; land, crops, livestock, food, water and offspring”. “Choose to disobey God will punish relentlessly; no homeland, crops destroyed, livestock slaughtered no food, no rain, no descendants, physical illness, mental illnesses, attack by wild animals robbery defeat by enemies, bondage, wives sexually abused ,corpses eaten by animals’ . This all falls under “abundant blessings or relentless judgment” (Sandy 2002 p.85).
When I think about this I think about how God is a good God and doesn’t want to punish his children but he does demand us to be obedient and when we don’t we have to pay the consequences. I think these first four chapters were interesting yet really make you think too, about what I’ve learned all my life about prophecy and how it really wasn’t right.

References
Sandy, D. (2002). Plowshares & pruning hooks: Rethinking the language of biblical prophecy and apocalyptic. Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press.
Bible Gateway passage: 1 John 4 - New International Version. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2015, from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1 John 4&version=ESV
John 7:37 on the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2015, from http://biblehub.com/john/7-37.htm