(I originally posted this question in https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/111250/how-to-read-the-17-books-of-prophecy/111269#111269 || but I want to post it here for visibility sake among those who specifically discuss hermeneutics. Please refer to the link however to make sure that you are not answering the question the same way that someone else did. That way you can save time and just add new details from what the previous person said.)
Most Christians and leaders seem to quote inspirational verses out of the prophetic books consistently. The issue is that they are taking lots of verses out of context. Recently, I've been wondering how we correctly read the 17 prophetic books.
These books seem to only be written for
- the people at the time
- descriptions of the Messiah
- descriptions of The New Heaven and New Earth
Outside of this, I have also seen that these prophecies include
- Double References/ Dual Prophecies (Isaiah 14 talking about Satan and a king)
- Insight into God's Creation (Jeremiah 4) [the Book of Job also does this, but that would of course be poetry and not prophecy]
- Showing the character and demonstrations of God
But what exactly does someone do when they want to read through the Book of Ezekiel or any other book? I have oftentimes been led of the Holy Spirit to see new things in the Prophetic Books, but for the most part, if I have to be honest, it seems like the entire Body of Christ just steers away from these books because of the level of confusion that comes from reading them. Why are they in the Bible? What do they do for New Testament Believers? How does it bring us into the full stature of Christ (2 Timothy 3:16-17)? I understand that there is historical evidence for the prophecies and that we can see what makes God angry, but there has got to be more reasoning behind having 17 books written in this style than just those things. What should I be able to pick up from these books that is beyond what my eyes can see?
I cannot find a single answer online, so please know that I did my research before posting here. Thank you.
ADDITION: New question for this specific community: In the same way how would you apply your reading of the Old Testament Laws, Genealogies, and Customs (primarily found in the Torah and portions of the history books)? I just read Numbers 7, and it seemed like it was just a long list of items with a partial amount of significance because of the number "12", but other than that I was not able to learn anything. At least not with my physical eyes
