In his book "Beginning at Moses", Dr Michael P V Barrett talked about Prophetic Ambiguity. He gave an example of prophetic ambiguity in God's prophecy to Rebekah about the twins in her womb.
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Prophecy reveals much about the future, but it doesn't reveal everything. Realizing this must temper our interpretation of prophetic texts. We must focus on and emphasize the points revealed and resist the temptation to speculate with dogmatism about what God did not choose to reveal. We have to be honest and admit that were it not for this inherent and intentional ambiguity in prophecy, every God-fearer and Bible-believer would confess the same prophetic perspective.
Let me give give another example of a prophecy and its fulfillment that I think illustrates this principle. When the Lord revealed to Isaac and Rebekah that they would have twins, He also said, "The elder shall server the younger" (Genesis 25:23). We know from the historic narrative how that played out in Jacob's receiving the birthright instead of Esau. The English translation makes the prediction explicitly clear; the Hebrew, however, is a bit ambiguous. It could be translated either "The elder shall serve the younger" or "The younger shall serve the elder". The addition of one simple particle could have eliminated the ambiguity, but the Lord chose not to use that particle. I will not be dogmatic about this, but I would suggest that Isaac and Rebekah interpreted that prophecy differently. It seems unlikely to me that Isaac who feared the Lord, would have been so bent on giving the firstborn blessing to Esau in conscious defiance of God's revealed purpose. But God's revealed purpose could not be frustrated even by Isaac's misinterpretation. Divinely inspired prophecy results in certain fulfillment; humanly perceived interpretations do nor share that certainty.
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