It is important to start by looking at the “big picture” of Old Testament prophecy. It is easy to miss the forest for the trees. It is, in fact, easy to miss the trees themselves in the Old Testament. Some of the most important books of the Old Testament are so massive and complicated that it is hard to see the whole tree at once (e.g., the Torah of Moses [Pentateuch], or the book of Isaiah or Ezekiel). Sometimes all we can see is the trunk or the bark.

     A helpful way to start is by viewing the Old Testament as Jesus and the Jews in his day saw it. By the time of Christ, the Jews were reading all Scripture as a single unit, and each part fit together into the whole. The shape they gave to the Scriptures consisted of a threefold division “the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.” Jesus himself referred to this division “the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms [the first book of the Writings]” (Luke 24:44).

     Not only did the Scriptures have a definite shape, but that shape reflected the sense or meaning that was understood to be at the heart of the Old Testament. Many scholars today recognize that this threefold shape was used in order to show that these Scriptures were to be read as prophecies of the coming Messiah. Jesus himself indicated that in the threefold division, “everything must be fulfilled that is written about me” (Luke 24:44). Though we could say much at this point, suffice it to say that the Old Testament Scriptures have a definite shape and that behind that shape lies an understanding that these texts are fundamentally messianic.

(John H. Sailhamer, Biblical Prophecy (Zondervan Quick-Reference Library), Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1998, 44)