Through Prophets
After the Fall, when God no longer spoke to humanity directly, He communicated with them through men and women whom the Bible calls seers or prophets (1 Sam. 9:9). What do the following texts tells us about these prophets? 2 Sam. 23:2; Jer. 1:5; Hos. 4:1; Amos 7:14, 15; Jonah 1:1–3.
The word prophet (in Hebrew nabi’) means “one called (by God)” or “one who has a vocation (from God).” The prophet is a person who proclaims Divine messages. These may relate to the past, the present, or the future, and may consist of exhortation, instruction, consolation, or prediction.
The English word prophet comes from the Greek prophetes, a combination of the preposition pro, “for,” or “on behalf of,” with the verb phemi, “to speak.” Thus the idea being “to speak for.”
Read Exodus 4:10–17. How does this help us better understand the role of a prophet?
Here Moses objects to God’s call for him to go to Egypt and confront Pharaoh, claiming that he is “slow of speech and of a slow tongue.” (vs. 10). Even after God reminded Moses that He had made man’s mouth and would enable him to speak before Pharaoh, Moses still objected. Then God told Moses that He would send Aaron to go with him. “He shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God” (vs. 16, NKJV). As Moses was to be the spokesperson for God, so Aaron would be the spokesperson for Moses. Thus, a prophet speaks for someone. The prophet may speak to humankind on behalf of God, or vice versa. The primary task of a biblical prophet was not to predict the future but to declare the Divine will. Throughout the history of Israel, the prophets’ main task was to guide God’s people. Particularly during the time of the monarchy, when the kings often “did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord” (2 Kings 13:2), the prophetic institution was the guardian of the theocracy. The prophets upheld the law of God and taught it to the people.
| Notice the humility of Moses and the sense of his own weakness. Why is that a good attitude for anyone, not just a prophet, to have? What dangers do we face if we get a sense of our own self-sufficiency? |
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