How Were the Conditional Biblical Prophecies Fulfilled in the Bible?

There are two categories of Biblical prophecy. The first are the conditional prophecies. The second are the unconditional prophecies. For a conditional prophecy, the outcome of the prophecy depends on the actions of the person or group the prophecy addresses. For unconditional prophecy, no action from man can prevent or change the outcome. Messianic prophecies, time prophecies, and end-time prophecies fall into this category.

Conditional prophecy serves as a warning to the target audience. It warns of the results of continuing the current path and is how God displays mercy. He warns first, allowing repentance and corrective action.

Let us first consider an example of conditional prophecies where the group the prophecy spoke to met the condition, and the prophecy did not come to fruition because of the actions taken.

When the condition of a conditional prophecy is complied with, the prophecy does not come to fruition, and the result is averted. The person or group the prophecy addressed could make behavioral changes to prevent calamity from striking. The conditional clause of a prophecy may not appear in the text, but Christians infer the conditionality by the outcome changing due to altered behavior.

Jonah serves as an excellent example of conditional prophecy. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell people that the city would fall in 40 days. The king of Nineveh decreed that his people fast, put on sackcloth, and turn from their wicked ways. They repented, and God did not destroy the city. The text does not provide the entire message, yet we can deduce part of it from the words of Jonah in Jonah 3:4. The King of Nineveh believed the impending disaster could be averted and decreed that the people of Nineveh put on sackcloth, fast, and call out to God, presumably in repentance.

God noticed the changed behavior and “relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.” This outcome indicates that the prophecy was conditional. They met the condition, and the prophecy did not come to fruition.

Jonah’s reaction to the conditional prophecy not coming to fruition is surprising. Instead of rejoicing at the repentance of the Assyrians, Jonah was angry and wished to die. He knew God was merciful but did not want mercy for the Ninevites. He said: “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”

Conditional prophecy comes to full or partial fulfillment soon after the person or people it addresses meet the condition of the prophecy. Moses provided the nation of Israel with the principle of conditional prophecy in his address to them shortly before they took the promised land into their possession. Moses proclaimed:

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.”

This proclamation by Moses did not speak to a specific instance of idolatry, but laid the general principle before the nation and would serve as a warning to them in the future. The conditionality of the prophecy is undeniable. The choices the nation of Israel would make would determine whether or not the land was taken away from them and destroyed. It is a general prophecy and does not provide specific details. Later prophecies, when some Israelites did follow other gods, were more specific.

The Fall of Israel and Judah

Shortly after the split of the unified Nation of Israel into the Northern Kingdom, consisting of ten tribes, and the Southern Kingdom, consisting of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell into apostasy. The Prophets Amos and Hosea prophesied that the Northern Kingdom of Judah would go into exile if they did not turn back to God. However, the Northern Kingdom of Israel did not heed these warnings, and starting around 740 BCE, they were sent into exile by the Assyrians. Eventually, in 722 BCE, the capital city of the Northern Kingdom fell, and the remainder of the nation that was fit to travel and useful as slaves went into exile.

The Southern Kingdom of Judah suffered a similar fate. According to the Bible, God used Jeremiah to warn Judah about their fate. He said:

“If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the LORD, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’”

Jeremiah 18:7-11

The Kingdom of Judah had prophets who told the nation that the warnings Jeremiah gave were erroneous and that they had nothing to worry about. God then gave more specific details about what would happen to Judah if they remained disobedient:

“For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon and shall strike them down with the sword. Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.”

-Jeremiah 20:4-6

The Babylonians invaded Babylon and killed thousands of its people. They took the remainder into exile and destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BCE. The treasures of the Temple fell into the hands of the Babylonians, and some of it was later used by Belshazzar during a feast that dignitaries of his kingdom attended (Daniel 5:2).

For Christians and Jews, conditional prophecy is the way in which God warns a person or group of future events that will come about unless and until they repent and turn from their previous path. In a sense, it is an act of mercy to warn, allowing corrective action and avoiding calamity.

Moses presented the nation of Israel with the principle of conditional prophecy before they entered the promised land. He was not addressing a specific instance of idolatry, but his words warned future generations that their actions have consequences.

There are many instances of conditional prophecy where the target audience takes heed of the warning, repents, and takes corrective action. In these instances, the resulting troubles did not come to fruition. Jonah’s prophecy to the city of Nineveh is one such example.

The exile of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah resulted from not taking heed of the conditional prophecies given by various prophets. They took no corrective action, and both kingdoms went into exile. The Northern Kingdom went into exile to Assyria in the 8th century BCE, and the Kingdom of Judah fell when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 568 BCE.