Prophetic

Prophetic Office in the Old Testament. “Nothing is more peculiarly characteristic of the religion and history of Israel than the mission of the prophets, and the exercise of their unique gifts. Greece is famous for its poets, philosophers, and artists; Rome for its soldiers, statesmen, and legislators; Israel for its prophets. The prophet was not simply, nor was he chiefly, a seer of the future. He was a messenger of Jehovah, a man inspired by God to see his Lord’s will, and sent forth to declare it. But while the true prophet of God was all this, a multitude of professional prophets existed—people who were trained to exercise prophetic functions, and who practiced them as a profession—exciting themselves with music and wild dances. They were the dervishes of the Jews. Many of these men were not divinely inspired, and some of them were directly opposed to the mind and will of God. It is important to observe the distinction between the two classes of men. Sometimes they are directly opposed to one another—the true prophets denouncing the professional prophets, and the latter persecuting the former. In course of time the professional order of prophets lost every spark of divine inspiration, and every trace of a special mission. Then it became a mere echo of popular cries, and a base organ for the flattery of king and court. The true prophets, on the contrary, were too often ‘ in opposition.’ They were driven to take up a post of antagonism to popular habits and royal wishes. Sometimes, Cassandra-like, they only earned hatred for their faithful warnings. But they always endeavored to keep before the nation the high ideal of its true life. Their avocation was public and largely political. They performed the function in the state which the leader-writer of the modern newspaper, at his best, aims at exercising, i.e.. they were the critics and censors of public policy. At the same time they took note of private morals. This was on the grounds of a theocratic government. God was the true King of Israel, and the prophets constituted his ministry. Austere and sublime, they stood out as the national conscience incarnate, as the voice of God pleading with his people. This lofty vocation was not confined to men. It was seen in women—anticipated by Deborah in a very early age (Judg. iv. 5), and fulfilled also by Huldah at a later date. (2 Kings xxii. 14.)

“The prophets, whose special function it was to interpret from time to time the meaning of Jehovah’s dealings with the nation, may be distributed into five different classes, according to the part they played in the history of the theocracy, each one affirming a principle and taking a step in advance of his predecessor, as well as defining more clearly the ultimate destiny of the nation, and the final purpose of God in its election. These classes may be named after their conspicuous and representative members: that of (1) the Nebiim (i. e., prophets'), (2) Elijah, (3) Amos, (4) Isaiah, and (5) Jeremiah.”—Bag-ster: Bible Helps. See Oehler: Old Testament Theology, trans, by Professor Day (New York, 1883); W. Robertson Smith: The Prophets of Israel (1882); Green: Hoses and the Prophets (1883).