He Gave Us Prophets: The Prophet’s Job

Dear Church Family,

This past Sunday, we had our second lesson in our Sunday school lessons using a video curriculum and discussion format entitled, “He Gave Us Prophets.” The eight lessons in this series are as follows:

1. Essential Hermeneutical Perspectives
2. A Prophet’s Job
3. People of the Covenant
4. Dynamics of the Covenant
5. Historical Analysis of Prophecy
6. Literary Analysis of the Prophets
7. The Purpose of Predictions
8. Unfolding Eschatology

A Prophet’s Job

In this second lesson, we learned about some of the misnomers regarding the job of Old Testament prophets, some of the major epochs in which prophets served, and how prophets functioned as emissaries of God’s covenant with His people.

1. Job Titles

When we think of prophets primarily as ‘predictors of the future,’ we risk overlooking the many other roles which their various titles convey. The primary terms used in Scripture to speak about prophets are: in the Greek, prophetes (one who predicts or proclaims, e.g., Matthew 1:22; Acts 2:6) and in the Hebrew, nabi (a called person, e.g., Genesis 20:7; Exodus 7:1). Some of the secondary terms used in the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures to speak about prophets include: ebed (servant, official/officer, e.g., 2 Kings 21:10; 24:2), roeh (seer), hozeh (seer, observer, e.g., 1 Samuel 9:9; 24:11; 2 Samuel 15:27; 1 Chronicles 21:9), shomer (watchman, guard, e.g., Isaiah 21:22; Hosea 9:8), malak (messenger, e.g. Isaiah 42:19; Malachi 3:1), and ish elohim (man of/from God, e.g., Deuteronomy 33:1; 1 Samuel 9:6; 2 Kings 8:11).

2. Job Transitions

The roles of prophets varied from informal to formal at different times in the history of Israel:

A. Premonarchy (before 1,000 B.C.)

– Before Israel had a king, there were few prophets who provided in a variety of services to a variety of people.

B. Monarchy (1,000 to 586 B.C.)

– During the time when kings ruled in Israel, there were many prophets – especially writing prophets – who served a more formal royal function; they often spoke and wrote about the danger of corrupt kings.

C. Exile (586 to 538 B.C.)

– After the fall of Samaria (722 B.C.) and the fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.) there were fewer prophets; they spoke about the demise of the kingship in Israel and provided diverse and informal services.

D. Post-Exile (after 538 B.C.)

– After the return of God’s people from exile, there were even fewer prophets; they provided a moral formal service and spoke of the potential for kingship once again for Israel.

3. Job Expectations

It is popular to think of Old Testament prophets as mediums and shamans, or simply as fortunetellers; however, although prophets provided many services, it is best to think of them primarily as emissaries of God’s covenants. Some have thought about the covenant between God and His people in terms of a parity treaty between equals. However, through recent archaeological discoveries, we are able to see that God’s covenants with His people in the Scripture are modeled after typical covenants of the ancient near-east which are known as suzerain-vassal treaties. These treaties were formed between the suzerain (the greater king) and the servant (the lesser king).

Conclusion

In our discussions about the nature of the covenant between God and Israel, we reviewed the outline of the book of Deuteronomy which follows the same typical outline of ancient near-east suzerain-vassal treaties. We’ll return to this outline of Deuteronomy in more detail in future lessons. I hope you will join us on Sunday mornings at 9:15 am as we learn how better to interpret the prophetic books of the Old Testament!

The Lord be with you!
Pastor Peter M. Dietsch