What was the Purpose of the Prophets and Other Questions

A forum on prophetical matters, designed to increase our interest and knowledge of the sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do well to take heed In our hearts until the daystar arise. Contributions, In a variety of formats as brief as those hereunder, are invited from interested readers, perhaps offering alternative interpretations. Simple questions are also invited.
(Views expressed are not necessarily those of the Editorial committee.)

  • What was the purpose of God In providing the prophets?

God had redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt and had called her to nationhood and service. He had given her the law which did two things for her: committed her to a life of obedience, and at the same time, reminded her of her dependence on His forgiveness and mercy. But she showed, in her history, that she was ever falling down on her calling and her promises. She needed desperately to be recalled over and again to the whole point of her existence. This was the purpose of the. prophets.

  • Why did the prophets deny the divine auth­ority behind the sacrifices of the law (e.g. Isaiah 1:11; Jeremiah 7:21; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:25; Micah 6:6-8, etc.)?

They didn’t, though at first sight they may seem to. Actually God’s holy law was meant to be an effective moral force in moulding the lives of indi­viduals and society. But Israel had become slack and forsook His ways; and often the cause was due to a reversal of right priorities. The sacrifices were provisions for lapses into disobedience, and never substitutes for the life of obedience but ritual ordin­ances to keep God happy or appeased. Yet this is how they came to be seen and practised. So the prophets raised their protest, to recall the people from false priorities; to insist on God’s prerequisite that His people obey His moral laws and keep His standard of excellence. The sacrifice could be no substitute for this requirement.

  • How could Israel be expected to tell the true prophets from the false?

The same way that we today can tell the difference between the true religion and the false; though all be put forward as the truth. Only that which accords with Scripture can be taken as God’s truth. Deuteronomy 13 shows that the false prophet is the one who calls people away after “other gods” and speaks “rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt . . . to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk”. In other words, Moses’ truth in the Pentateuch was the yardstick by which people’s opinions and utterances were to be measured. Jeremiah applies this (23:9-22) in both his personal life (vv.9-15) and in his public ministry (vv. 16-22). The false prophet has variant moral standards and encourages his hearers to follow suit. Therefore, Jeremiah concludes, this man cannot have “stood in the council of the Lord” (vv. 18,22).

The true prophet was in close fellowship with God; he consulted with Him (see 1 Kings 22:19­22) and knew His mind.

  • What does the word prophet mean?

There are three words used principally in the O.T. to describe the prophet; and each occurs in 1 Chron. 29:29. The word translated “prophet” sig­nifies “called (by God)”, with the consequent task of proclaiming the message of God to men. He may sometimes “foretell”, but always he “forth-tells”. The call is not an invitation but an appointment: cf. Amos 7:15 who was “taken” to be a prophet to God’s people. The two other Hebrew words are each translated “seer”, meaning “one who sees”: and suggest that God’s spirit inspires them to “see”: both into the affairs of men and into the mind of God. Used synonymously throughout the 0.T., the three words yet indicate the two sides of the prophetic experience. He is a “seer”, indicatnig the change God’s power makes in the man whom He “takes” for the work (see 2 Peter 1:21); he is a “prophet”, indicating a revelation of God’s mind and will to, and through, him (see 2 Timothy 3:16).

The prophets, then, were essentially men whom God chose from many different walks of life, including the priesthood, to bring close to Him­self. But unlike that of the priesthood, the calling was not hereditary.