Prophet, Prophetess

A prophet or prophetess was a man or woman chosen by God to speak for him and to tell of events in the divine plan.
When Jesus raised the widow’s son from the dead, the onlookers responded by saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” (Luke 7:16; compare Mark 6:15; 8:28). In Jewish thought, the clearest religious happenings found their focus in the call and ministry of a prophet. That was how God communicated his word to his people. In their response to Jesus, the people were in fact more correct than they knew. In him God had visited them. Though Jesus was much more than a prophet, he was in fact the climax of the prophetic order predicted by Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-19).

THE TITLES AND HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS

The main words used to describe such individuals in the Old Testament are “prophet” (see Judges 6:8), “man of God” (see 2 Kings 4:9) and “seer” (see 1 Samuel 9:9; 2 Samuel 24:11).
The word translated “prophet” has the idea “called” as its first emphasis. God takes the initiative. He selects, summons, and sends the prophet (for example, Jeremiah 1:4-5; 7:25; Amos 7:14). “Man of God” speaks of the relationship into which the prophet is brought by his call. He is now “God’s man” and is seen as belonging to him (2 Kings 4:9). “Seer” indicates the new and remarkable powers of insight granted to the prophet. In Hebrew, as in English, the ordinary verb “to see” is used also of understanding (“I see what you mean”). It also speaks of the power to understand the nature and meaning of things (“He sees things very clearly”). In the case of the prophets, their powers of “seeing” were raised far above normal. The Lord inspired them to become vehicles of his message.
The line of great prophets began with Moses. He is recognized as the greatest prophet (Deuteronomy 34:10). All the distinctive marks of a prophet belonged to Moses. He understood his call (Exodus 3:1–4:17; compare Isaiah 6; Jeremiah 1:4-19; Ezekiel 1–3; Hosea 1:2; Amos 7:14-15). He was aware of the importance of historical events as the acts of God in which he confirmed his word (Exodus 3:12; 4:21-23). Moses also showed ethical and social concern (2:11-13), and cared for the helpless (2:17).
Deuteronomy 34:10 not only looks back to the greatness of Moses but also looks forward to the coming of a prophet like Moses. This accords with his own prediction (18:15-19), which anticipates a single, great individual prophet. Moses makes a striking comparison with himself. He says the coming prophet will fill just such a role as Moses filled at Mount Sinai (18:16). On that occasion, Moses acted as the prophetic mediator of the voice of God in a unique sense. At Sinai God shaped the old covenant into its completed form. In expecting a prophet cast in this mold, Moses was looking forward to another mediator, Jesus Christ himself.
The expectation for this great prophet was kept alive as God kept sending prophets to his people. In each case, such a prophet was known to be true by his likeness to Moses. In each case he would be viewed with excitement by genuine believers to see whether he was the great one come at last. In this light we can understand the excitement of the people who saw Jesus raise the dead (Luke 7:16).
The Old Testament mentions the existence of prophetic groups. They were sometimes called “schools.” Elisha clearly had such a group under his instruction (2 Kings 6:1; see “sons of the prophets,” 2:3, 5; Amos 7:14). They were probably “prophets in training” under the care of a master prophet. “Guilds” or “associations” would be better descriptions of the groups in 1 Samuel 10:5-11. Such groups enjoyed an enthusiastic worship of the Lord. They were touched with a marked activity of the Spirit of God. But at the heart of their devotion was “prophecy”—that is, a declaration of the truth about God himself. After this early period, the prophetic groups seem to have lost their significance. A more direct ministry of the word could well lie behind the comment in 1 Samuel 9:9.

INSPIRATION

The Spirit of the Lord lay behind the activities of these prophetic groups and people (1 Samuel 10:6, 10; 19:20, 23). The claim to divine inspiration is plainly registered from time to time (for example, 1 Kings 22:24; Nehemiah 9:30; Hosea 9:7; Joel 2:28-29; Micah 3:8; compare 1 Chronicles 12:18; 2 Chronicles 15:1; 20:14; 2 Chronicles 24:20). The Spirit inspired men and women to speak the very words of God (compare 2 Peter 1:21). Ezekiel records how he was made to eat a scroll. That enabled him to receive the words the Lord had written and speak what the Lord called “my words” (Ezekiel 2:7–4:4). The miracle is stated in a nutshell at the beginning of Amos (Amos 1:1, 3): “The words of Amos...Thus saith the L ORD.” Though the words were truly Amos’s words, the words were also the Lord’s.

TRUE AND FALSE PROPHETS

False prophets were to be separated from true prophets by means of three tests. The first test was doctrinal. In Deuteronomy 13 the motive of the false prophet was to draw the people away from the God who had revealed himself in the Exodus (Deuteronomy 13:2, 5-7, 10). Although the word of the false prophet might be supported by apparent signs and wonders (13:1-2), it was to be refused. This was not simply because it introduced novelty (13:2, 6) but because that novelty contradicted the revelation of the Lord at the Exodus (13:5, 10). The first test required that the people of God have knowledge of the truth so that they could recognize error.
The second test was practical and required patience. It is stated in Deuteronomy 18:21-22: the word of the Lord always comes to pass. This requires patience because, as 13:1-2 indicates, a false word may be supported by an apparent spiritual proof. The call of 18:21-22 is a call for patience. If there was any real doubt about whether a prophetic word is true or false, the people had to wait for the turn of events.
The third test was moral, calling for watchful discernment. Jeremiah, of all the prophets, was most distressed in his spirit by the presence of false prophets. He gave the longest and most sustained consideration to the problem (Jeremiah 23:9-40). His answer is striking and challenging. The false prophet will be found out as a man of unholy life (23:11-14). Thus, the message has no note of moral rebuke but rather encourages men in their sin (23:16-22).

THE FUNCTION OF THE PROPHET

It is sometimes said that prophets are not “foretellers” but “forthtellers.” As far as the Old Testament is concerned, however, the prophets are forthtellers—declaring the truth about God—by being foretellers—predicting what God will do. Prediction is not seen as an occasional or an unimportant activity in the Old Testament. It is the way the prophet went about his work. Deuteronomy 18:9-15 explains the function of the prophet in Israel. The surrounding nations are revealed as probing into the future by means of a variety of fortune-telling techniques (18:10-11). These things are forbidden to Israel on the ground of being detestable to the Lord (18:12). Israel’s uniqueness is maintained when the Lord gives Israel a prophet (18:13-15), while the nations look into the future by use of diviners. Elisha (2 Kings 4:27) was surprised when he couldn’t see the future; Amos teaches that the Lord reveals his plans to the prophets (Amos 3:7). But prediction in Israel was totally unlike what other nations had. In no way was it motivated by a mere curiosity about the future.
First, biblical prediction arose out of the needs of the present. In Isaiah 39 faithless Hezekiah undertakes a military arrangement with Babylon for security. That prompts Isaiah to announce the future Babylonian captivity. Isaiah does not snatch the name Babylon out of thin air. It is given to him within the situation in which he was called to minister.
Second, prediction aimed at giving knowledge of the future was to result in moral reformation in the present. The moral calls of the prophets find their explanation in what the Lord is about to do (for example, Isaiah 31:6-7; Amos 5:6).
Third, the predicted course of events was aimed at stabilizing the faith of the true believer in dark times. For example, various passages in Isaiah (Isaiah 9:1-7; 11:1-16; 40:1-3) have the effect of shifting the focus from the immediate tragedy to coming glory.

METHODS OF COMMUNICATION

In foretelling, the prophets were forthtelling. They were proclaiming the wonderful works of God (compare the definition of prophecy in Acts 2:11, 17). For the most part, this proclamation was by direct word of mouth. Prophets and prophetesses were people of the word. Their words were like messengers sent by God (Isaiah 55:11). They had all the divine power of the creative word of Genesis 1:3 (compare Psalm 33:6). Sometimes that word was accompanied by a sign or symbolic action (for example, Jeremiah 13:1-11 ; Jeremiah 19; Ezekiel 4:1-17; 24:15-24 ). Sometimes it was identified intimately with a person (Isaiah 7:3; compare 8:1-4). Such things were like visual aids; the word would be made clearer to those present. But it would seem that the intention of the symbolic action (sometimes called an “acted oracle”) was not so much to make understanding easier. It was intended to give more power and effect to the word as it was sent like a messenger into that situation. This is the conclusion to be drawn from 2 Kings 13:14-19. The extent to which the king displayed the word in action determined the extent to which the word would prove effective in bringing events to pass.
The final collection of the words of the prophets is in the books that have been preserved. Jeremiah 36 may be taken as an object lesson. The prophets took the time and trouble to record their spoken messages in writing. There was stress on careful word-by-word dictation (Jeremiah 36:6, 17-18). But the actual literary form of the messages themselves tells the same tale. What we find in the books of the prophets cannot be the preached form of their words. Rather, it is the studied wording in which they preserved (and filed away) their sermons. It stands to reason that people who were conscious of communicating the very words of God would see to it that those words were not lost. We may take it for granted that the prophets preserved a written record of their ministries. We have no way of knowing whether each of the named prophets was directly responsible for the final form of his book. The careful way in which the books of Isaiah or Amos, for example, are arranged is best suited by assuming that the author was also his own editor.

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