What was the Role of the Biblical Prophets?
Believers who seek to understand God’s message for today must recognize the importance of biblical prophecy. It is a role that God filled throughout Israel’s history to bring messages to His people. Prophets were also called to speak against the surrounding nations as well. Their messages were important for the time and context they were given in and were both full of hope and doom for their audiences. The content of the messages came from YHWH and always sought to turn God’s people back to Him. While the theme of prophecy is important, it is also one of the many genres that are left unread/unstudied. This is most likely due to its disruptive nature. Sharp states:
Where we are smug, inattentive, or narcissistic, the prophets will disrupt us. The prophets disrupt the ways in which we justify our heartlessness to each other and our halfheartedness toward God. For the prophets are satisfied only with a deep and complete commitment to knowing God and to serving God's people in the world. The prophets do not bless mediocre efforts and half-serious attempts. Is the prophetic vision daunting? Of course, it is. But it is God's gift to our confused and struggling world. (16)
While understanding their message may be a difficult task at first, studying their writings and the gift of prophecy today are both beneficial and necessary for believers’ lives today. It is also vital to recognize how this gift is used today. Has the prophecy ceased since there is no longer any new revelation, or is God still gifting people this call as a prophet to their generation? Is this calling still needed in the context of the New Testament church? Understanding the gift of prophecy and its application for today are important aspects every believer should consider as they study Scripture and its truth for their lives.
To understand what a prophet is, one should look at the first prophet described in the Old Testament. Enoch and his message were one of coming judgment because of his generation’s wickedness. Genesis 5:21–24 show that Enoch was faithful to God for three hundred years until his death. Jude 1:14–15 says “‘[i]t was also about these men that Enoch, . . . prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came . . . to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him’” (NASB). Since Genesis is the book of beginnings, this can be understood as the context for the rest of those who would be called as prophets. They are ordinary people, called by God to deliver a message to their generation, encouraging the people to return following God with their lives and actions. It is also necessary that the prophets walk with God in their lives. In 1 Kings 13, God calls a prophet to deliver a message. Afterward, the prophet is commanded to take no food or drink or return the way he had come from. However, the prophet listened to the lies of another prophet that claimed the opposite message came from God, and because of that, God put him to death being mauled by a lion. “Now when the prophet who brought him back from the way heard it, he said, ‘It is the man of God, who disobeyed the command of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke to him’” (1 Kings 13:26). The prophets also told what would happen in the future many times as proof for their message. Moses describes that this is the case in Deuteronomy 18. “You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him” (Deut. 18:21–22). The role of the prophet, as described above, was important and to be fulfilled with caution given the importance of the messages being delivered. God gave messages to the prophets to deliver and God was watching that His words were given accurately. Jeremiah 1:12 says “[t]hen the Lord said to me, ‘You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.’” Knowing now what prophecy is, the question must be answered, is this gift still in use today?
As stated above, the prophets often made mention of future events as proof of their message; however, there is no new revelation today. John says in Revelation 22:18, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book.” While the context of this verse is for the words of the book of Revelations, believers should recognize that no one should add to God’s word. However, while the Canon of Scripture is complete, God does still call some believers to be a type of prophet to their generation. “As God’s messengers, the prophets are vehicles of divine revelation both to the great and to commoners” (House 263). Since the main emphasis of prophecy is delivering God’s message, it can be observed that this gift is still used today. God calls some to deliver hard truths to His people who have turned away from His Word. This gift is necessary since many that claim to be saved want their ears to be tickled “and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths” (2 Tim. 4:4). It seems then that prophecy, while necessary, remains an unpopular occupation with its main audience.
The gift of prophecy is beneficial because it shares the truth of God’s Word with those who need to remember their first love. Similarly, the prophets of the Old Testament are also beneficial for believers today because (like all of Scripture) their message has truth for all generations. For example, Obadiah shows how God upholds his covenant with Abraham when the Edomites attack Judah. God was faithful to declare war and judgment for the sins of that nation. Believers can trust that God is careful to watch over and uphold His word at all times. In the same way, that God fulfilled His message to the audiences, believers can have hope in their salvation and the eventual return of Jesus.
Works Cited
House, Paul. Old Testament Theology. InterVarsity Press, 1998.
NASB. New American Standard Version. The Holy Bible. Lockman, 2013.
Sharp, Carolyn J. Old Testament Prophets for Today. Westminster John Knox Press, 2009.
This article was originally written for Assignment 1-1 of Interpreting Isaiah for Teaching taught by Professor Brian Smith (Moody Distance Learning)