FAQS: The Prophets

1. Was every prophet divinely called into service by God?

Unlike the office of the priesthood, which was ancestry-based (you needed to be a descendant of Aaron), the office of the prophet was a divinely appointed call. Well-known prophets, such as Moses, Samuel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, or Isaiah, were called into service through a dream or vision, which we have a written account of in Scripture. The call of the prophet Jeremiah (1:4-19) leaves no room to question Who called him into office.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”   (Jer. 1:5)

However, not every prophet’s divine encounter that called them into office was recorded in Scripture. The lack of a written description of a prophet’s call (and commission) does not make them any less significant. Think of the prophet Nathan, who was a “court prophet” (one who gave counsel to the king) during the days of King David. Nothing is recorded of his divine call into office, yet consider some of his critical pronouncements: he told David that God was going to establish a covenant with him called the Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7); he had to confront David over his sin with Bathsheba (2 Sam.12); as Adonijah conspired to take the kingship, Nathan assisted an aged David in carrying out the plan to make Solomon the next king (1 Kings 1); when King Hezekiah became king and desired to repair the temple for worship, Nathan the prophet had left instructions to follow concerning the Levite musicians; there is even a book named for Nathan (and several other prophets) that is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 29:29. Nathan was an instrumental court prophet during the reigns of David and Solomon. Nathan is a case in point: just because some prophets do not include an extensive account of their call in Scripture does not make their call or commission any less significant.

We can make an analogy here: a Christian who has a dramatic conversion experience is not more significant to God than a Christian whose conversion might be termed as ordinary. To God, every believer who accepts Christ’s gift of salvation is unique and valuable and loved! (God even loves those who reject Him). To God, every believer who accepts Christ’s gift of salvation has a divine calling on their life – the Great Commission (Matt.28:18-20). Whether a Christian’s salvation experience is dramatic or not, all Christians, like the prophets before, are entrusted with the commission to be ambassadors for God, especially to those within our sphere of influence.

2. Who was the first to hold the office of the prophet?

Moses was the first to hold the office of the prophet. Moses is a well-known name in both the Old and New Testaments; only Jesus and David are spoken of more frequently than Moses. Much of the time, our reading and studying of the life of Moses centers around his actions. He leads Israel out of Egypt; he parts the Red Sea; he ascends Mount Sinai to bring down God’s instructions for life (Ten Commandments) and worship (Tabernacle blueprints); he continues to minister to the faithless wilderness generation; he faithfully turns over the leadership of Israel to Joshua because he, too, cannot enter the Promise Land; and he preaches his most famous sermon (i.e. Book of Deuteronomy) in an effort to prevent the new generation from repeating the mistakes of the old generation.  Moses is the chief human figure in Exodus – Deuteronomy. He does so much for the Israelite nation as their leader that we often forget that he is also their God-appointed prophet, called into service through a divine encounter with Yahweh (Exodus 3).

Towards the end of Moses’ prophetic career, God instructs Moses that He wants to establish the office of the prophet (Deut.18:9-22). Not only did God desire the Israelites always to have a prophet in their midst who spoke for Him, but God also knew that a prophetic voice would be desperately needed in the near future. Listen to God’s warning about the land of Canaan, a land whose groups, clans, and tribes were bent on fostering a culture of idolatry.

“When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you...” (Deut.18:9-12)

This is one of the key reasons that God wanted the Israelites to drive out the inhabitants of the land; He was concerned that the Israelites would adopt these idolatrous practices if they lived alongside them in the land. God desired for His people to listen to His divinely appointed prophet(s) and not the false gods of the land; Deuteronomy 18:14-15 makes this point succinctly:

“For these nations, which you will dispossess, listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such for you. “The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear.”

God designed the office of the prophet for the spiritual well-being of His people and to remind the people Who they served. God wanted Israel never to forget that they are His people. Sadly, as a whole, Israel did not drive out the idolatrous inhabitants in Canaan, and only two generations later, the nation entered one of the darkest periods of its history. Yet despite their continual failure, He does not give up on His people. The establishment of the office of the prophet would guarantee that there would always be a voice calling His people back to worship of Yahweh. The office of the prophet reached a culmination with the incarnation of Christ; He was the Prophet (He is also Priest and King). In the New Testament, during his second sermon, Peter connects the office of the prophet and applies it to the person of Jesus.

“…God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you.” (Acts 3:21-22)

The office of the prophet that Moses wrote of in Deuteronomy ceased to exist long ago with the completion of God’s Word – the Bible. Even though we are privileged to possess God’s holy words ... the world, the flesh, and the Devil (1 John 2:15) seem to employ every waking moment powerfully coaxing us to serve their interests. We have God-called pastors who are tasked with calling God’s people back to Himself (more about this later), but more importantly, we have a powerful ally called the Holy Spirit. He indwells every person who puts their faith in Christ, helping and encouraging each one to stay loyal to God.

3. Are prophets called by other names?

The name, “Man of God” appears early in the biblical narrative, used for men like Moses (Deut.33:1), Samuel (1 Sam.9:6), and Elijah (2 Kgs.1:9). It was a name used to emphasize the moral character and holy calling of a prophet; 2 Kings 4:9 describes the prophet Elisha as the “holy man of God.”

Two Hebrew words, both with a verbal root meaning “to see,” are used to translate the name “Seer.” Although 1 Samuel 9:9 and 1 Chronicles 29:29 indicate that the offices of the prophet and seer were synonymous, the designation as “seer” was commonly used by the people in relation to how a prophet received revelation. A prophet would receive divine revelation from God through the medium of a dream, a vision, or a supernatural illumination.

“Servant of the Lord” is an atypical name for a prophet. Moses, Joshua and David (who were not prophets), and Jesus are called “servants of the Lord.” It is a name used to describe a prophet’s holy and close relationship to God (1 Kgs.14:18). God frequently speaks of the prophets as “my servants the prophets” (2 Kgs.9:7, 17:13; Ezk.38:17; Zec.1:6). The prophet Jeremiah used the phrase more than any other prophet; Israel did not listen to “my servants the prophets” (Jer.7:25, 26:5, 29:19, 35:15, 44:4), therefore, judgment is coming by means of the Babylonians.

The name, “Messenger of the Lord,” fine-tunes the task of the servant of the Lord. In the most basic sense, a prophet was a messenger who received a message from God and delivered it. Haggai (Hag.1:3) and John the Baptist (Mal.3:1) are both called messengers of the Lord. Furthermore, the uniqueness of the name “messenger” lies in its dual application to supernatural beings, particularly angels (though not all supernatural beings function as angelic messengers). Messenger (Hebrew: mal’āk) can be used to denote both human and supernatural messengers. Humanly speaking, prophets are generally referred to as messengers of the Lord (2 Chr.36:15-16; Isa.44:26), but in the unseen realm, some supernatural beings (i.e. angels) are tasked with delivering messages to humanity. Most of the time, these messengers are not named in the Scripture text, but occasionally we find that some have proper names, such as Gabriel, who delivered messages to Daniel (Dan.8:15, 9:21), Joseph (Lk.1:19), and Mary (Lk. 1:26).

4. Did all prophets write Bible books?

In the English Bible, the Old Testament is commonly divided into five sections: the Pentateuch, the Historical Books, the Wisdom/Poetry, the Major Prophets, and the Minor Prophets. The last two sections, Major and Minor Prophets, commonly referred to as “writing prophets,” comprise 25.6% of the Old Testament. Many Christians at least know the names of the writing prophets, especially if they memorized all the Bible books in a catchy song. However, there are other prophets whose messages were not officially compiled into a Bible book, such as Elijah and Elisha. We have a narrative of their ministries in 1 and 2 Kings, but they did not collect their writings into an official Bible book. Other prophets collected their writings into a book, but that book has been lost to history (or has it?). Earlier, Nathan the prophet was noted for the influence he had as a court prophet during the reign of King David. Nathan, along with Gad and Samuel, collected their material into books according to 1 Chronicles 29:29. Others that could be added to this list are Ahijah the Shilonite and Iddo the seer (2 Chr.9:29), and Shemaiah the prophet (2 Chr.12:15). 2 Chronicles 33:19 informs the reader that during the reign of King Manasseh, he had a group of seers, “…and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel…”.

If you’ve read thus far, then you might be asking the question…what happened to those other books? Have they been lost to history?  Did you notice any repetition in the above paragraph? (Hint: Bible book). Altogether, the Chronicler (a.k.a. the fancy name for the author of 1 and 2 Chronicles) identified more than 30 sources that were used in writing 1 and 2 Chronicles. Most of these sources were official annals, genealogical records, and prophetic records.¹ So, technically speaking, nearly all the prophets had their writings collected into Bible books, just not in the fashion that most would expect. It is incredible to realize that even the obscure prophets, some of whom were only named once, had their writings collected and included in the canon of Scripture, preserved through the ages for Christians to read and learn from in the 21st century.

5. Did all prophets predict the future?

The short answer is no; not every biblical prophet predicted future events. In fact, as one reads the breadth of the prophets in Scripture, it becomes clear that the foremost role of the prophet was not predicting the future but preaching and reminding the people of their responsibility to obey the law. Sometimes, interwoven in a prophet’s message, there might be a prediction of the future. Furthermore, care must be taken to explain what type of future the prophet is predicting; in other words, the prophet’s lifetime, centuries after his lifetime, or the end-times future. Some Scriptural examples will help with comprehension. The prophet Elijah declares that there will be a season of no rain in Israel (1 Kgs. 17:1; 18:1), and then three years later God tells Elijah, the drought is over, and I am going to send rain. Elijah predicted a future even in his lifetime; he did not predict a distant, end-of-the-world event. In the New Testament, the Apostle John’s visions (Rev. 4-22) are of distant, end-time events. The prophet Daniel predicted events that would occur in his lifetime, in the next few centuries beyond his lifetime, and distant, end-time events. What can be confusing is trying to interpret the type of future the prophet’s message entails, but do not be disheartened; the Holy Spirit, who indwells every Christian, can illuminate our understanding of the Scriptures. Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 that a Christian’s understanding of both the complex and straightforward truths of Scripture is bound up with the active work of the Holy Spirit; it is the Spirit of God who alone comprehends the thoughts of God (1 Cor. 2:11).
 
6. What was the main role(s) of a prophet?

The prophet has two main roles: preacher and a watchman. As a preacher (and teacher), he was tasked with calling the people to obedience to the Law. This is the essence of why God established the office of the prophet for the nation of Israel. Whether a prophet is rebuking, reminding, encouraging, persuading, or reasoning with the people, all of it was done to procure a response of obedience to the already revealed Law – the one that Moses received on Mt. Sinai (Exo. 19-31). Today, in a similar vein, a pastor preaches and teaches from the already revealed Word of God; he is to, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Tim.4:2). Pastors today, like the biblical prophets of old, are tasked with calling the people back to the obedience of God’s Word.

The second role of the prophet was to be a watchman. From a purely physical perspective, a watchman was tasked with warning the people of impending danger, usually intruders or military threats (2 Kgs.9:17). The Bible also mentions watchtowers that were constructed (Isa. 5:1-2) so that the watchmen could rise above the landscape and warn of potential threats. From a spiritual perspective, prophets were tasked with warning the people of spiritual dangers. During Ezekiel’s divine call from God as a prophet to Israel, God says, “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me” (Ezk.3:17; 33:7). As watchmen, the prophets were “to sound the alarm and warn of the approaching spiritual peril.”² Both the pastor and the prophet are divinely called to be watchmen, to sound the alarm when they see danger on the horizon.

7. Why did the prophets refer to the land so much in their messages?

The land that God gave to Israel (the Promised Land) means more to Israel than the Western world will ever understand. “The land of Israel was God’s switchboard to communicate His truth to a lost world…their obedience to the Lord while they lived in the land would produce spiritual fruit among the nations (Deut.4:5-8).”³  Israel was never commanded to leave the land; they were to live in accordance with the laws God gave them, which would draw the nations of the world to come and see the God they served. This is precisely why God gave specific rules and regulations for the upkeep and maintenance of the physical land. The condition of the land was a visible sign of Israel’s spiritual condition. Obedience to God’s laws brought prosperity and blessing from God’s hand, but disobedience brought discipline that often came in the form of drought, famine, or even plagues.⁴ The prophets continually warned the people that judgment was forthcoming if they did not obey God’s laws. Sadly, Israel does not listen to the generations of prophetic voices.

“And the LORD God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, till there was no remedy.”
(2 Chr.36:15-16)

For generations, the prophets preached the same sermons, time and again, but the people continued to showcase their idolatrous hearts. The long-suffering and compassion of God had reached a limit; discipline was imminent. God used the nation of Babylon to take Israel into exile. Removal from the land was the ultimate consequence of her failure to obey God’s laws. Ironically, the length of time Israel remained in exile was intrinsically tied to the land itself. Second Chronicles 36:21 explains, “… until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years” (2 Chr.36:21).” Israel had violated the law of the Sabbatical Year (Lev.25:1-7; 26:34-35, 43) “which decrees that every seven years the entire land must lie fallow to observe a Sabbath for Yahweh free from agricultural exploitation.”⁵ The land was supposed to rest every seven years, but Israel failed to do this; therefore, removing her from the land allowed the land to receive the rest that it was designed to receive under God’s laws.

Why did the prophets refer to the land so much in their messages? Because the very identity of Israel is inseparably linked to the land of Israel.

^{1 Howard, Introduction to the Old Testament Historical Books, 238-42.
2 Freeman, An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophets, 50.
3 Katulka, Israel Always, 27.
4 Benware, Survey of the Old Testament (rev.ed), 193.
5 Albertz, Israel in Exile: The History and Literature of the Sixth Century B.C.E., 13.}