What is the chief concern of the Old Testament prophets?

In the passage, “All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people” (Isa. 65:2; Rom. 10:21) St. John the Chrysostom finds a description of the Old Testament in general where the Lord has stretched out His arms through the cries of the prophets, declaring His love for them despite their stubbornness and resistance. God is a Father extending His arms to His people, who reject Him as a little child who rejects the embrace of his Father’s love. In these prophetic words (Isa. 65:2), St. Justin Martyr finds a reference to the cross upon which the Lord stretched out His arms and died to embrace all.⁶⁸⁵ In the Liturgy of St. Gregory we pray:

“You, O my Master, have turned for me the punishment to salvation.

As a good Shepherd you have sought after that which had gone astray.

As a true Father, You have labored with me, I, who had fallen.

You have bound me with all the remedies that lead to life.

You are He who sent unto me the prophets for my sake, I, the sick.

685 St. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 97 (ANF 1:247).

You have given me the law as a help.

You are He who ministered salvation to me, when I disobeyed Your law.

As a True Light, You have shone upon the lost, and the ignorant.”

Therefore, the law and the prophets are a means granted by God to humanity as part of our preparation for redemption; for the coming of the Redeemer, the Savior, who grants righteousness, and opens the path to heaven.

St. Augustine says, “‘Thus they thought, and erred; for their wickedness blinded them’ (Wisd. Of Sol. 2:18–21). These words apply also to those who, in spite of all these evidences, in spite of such a series of prophecies, and of their fulfilment, still deny that Christ is foretold in the Scriptures. As often as they repeat this denial, we can produce fresh proofs, with the help of Him who has made such provision against human perversity.”⁶⁸⁶ The events of the life of Christ were not unforetold. Christ Himself asked us to believe in these prophecies and was constantly affirming, even after His resurrection, that all these things were all written about Him in the books.

First, prophecies about the life of the Lord Christ: