1. INTRODUCTION
In the Old Testament, prophet tells about "God's prophetic history." They relate the story of the relationship between God and Israel. Beginning with the initial settlement in Canaan, the prophetic books describe a millennium of encounter. God's plan to bless the world through the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lies behind a more immediate intent to bless Israel. Whether faithful or not, God would eventually reveal Himself more fully in a future Messiah. But the immediate concern of the Prophets was with Israel, the basic commitment of the prophetic voice begun from the covenant at Sinai. The prophets were often critical of the monarchy for failing to lead Israel in faithfulness. A prominent theme of the prophet's message was the denunciation of sin among the people. When they spoke of future events, it was in the context of Israel's faithlessness and of God's faithfulness to the covenant. Israel could not trust their institutions to save them; they could trust in God, who controls the future. That future promised both judgment and salvation. Hence, we notice that in the Old Testament, prophets are broken into two sections that are former and latter prophets.
First, the Former Prophets are found in the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, which are narratives, which carry the story of Israel from settlement in Canaan to the Babylonian exile. The idea of "prophet" in the Old Testament does not always include telling the future but here the prophet speaks for God, communicating his intentions and attitudes. It is the prophetic messages for the people to come back to the covenant, issued warnings, and foretold about what to come out of their unfaithfulness to keeping the covenant of God. The Former Prophets are often reference an activity of a prophet.
Second, the Latter Prophets are found in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Book of the Twelve are called the Latter Prophets which are written in both narrative and poetry. We notice these books carry the message of God which he spoke through ancient people where these revelations aimed primarily at bringing Israel back to covenant loyalty by offering encouragement to Israel, pronounced judgment upon evil nations, and presented the picture of what God would do in the future. Like the presentation of Israel's history in the Former Prophets, prophetic pronouncements in the Latter Prophets had theological or deeper meaning. They are to be studied in view of God's purpose and future plans and all the Latter Prophets contain the words of the prophets where the messages can be stretched out over a long period of time for example half a century with Isaiah while Jeremiah looks more like a loose collection of oracles with references to multiple time periods.
2. DEFINITIONS OF "PROPHET."
In the Old Testament a prophets is always considered someone who is divinely inspired to communicate God's will to His people and to disclose the future to them. The prophet admonishes, warns, directs, encourages, intercedes, teaches and counsels. He brings the word of God to the people of God and calls the people to respond. He is a spokesperson for God. I am using more of He than She because the Old Testament has more man playing the role of a prophet than woman. If I am not mistaken Deborah was the only woman prophetess. We must understand that the prophets did not inherit the office nor receive it by human appointment, but were chosen, prepared, and called of God: and the call was often soul-searching (Exodus 3:1-4; 1 Samuel 3:1-20; Jeremiah 1:4-10; Ezekiel. 1:1-3).It is the English word derived from the Greek prophetes, which means one who speaks for another, an interpreter or proclaimer, and one who speaks beforehand, a predictor. In the general Hebrew word for prophet is "nabi", from the verb naba that is "to announce, call a declarer, announcer" with the primary idea of a prophet is a declarer, announcer, one who utters a communication. Two other Hebrew words- ro'eh and hozeh which are used to designate the prophet both have the meaning of "one who sees," and sometimes rendered "seer." All these three words occur in 1 Chronicles 29:29, where they seem to be contrasted with each other: "Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the chronicles of Samuel the seer [ro'eh], in the chronicles of Nathan the prophet [nabi'], and in the chronicles of Gad the seer [hozeh]." We can find that "Hazon" is also a word consistently used for the prophetical vision and is found in Samuel, Chronicles, Psalms, Proverbs, and in most of the Prophets. There seem to be difference in the usage of these words which is often quite debatable on the whole but generally it means the same persons as there are designated to mean the same as the three words above. We also learned that prophets are occasionally called watchmen of God which in Hebrew word is "sopim" found in (Jeremiah 6:17; Ezekiel 3:17; 33:2, 6-7) or "shomer", a watchman (Isaiah 21:11; 62:6).All these Hebrew words are uniformly translated in the LXX by prophetes and in the NASB and NIV by "prophet." In classical Greek prophetes signifies "one who speaks for another," especially "one who speaks for a god" and so prophetes interprets God's will to man. He is the interpreter in another usage of words, all these definition of words change according to time. The use of the word prophetes in its modern sense is postclassical, and is derived from the LXX. In the medieval use of this word "propheteia" or prophecy meant to English language a sense of prediction and later use in the word like "inspiration" in a more closer sense. All these indications in word in a way show us how important a role of prophet in the Old Testament time.
3. CHARACTERISTICS OF PROPHETS
The characteristics of a prophet are their closeness with God. They must have the power of the Holy Spirit. Of course in the Old Testament we do not read anything about the filling of the Holy Spirit but we know they spent a lot of their time with God. Without the Holy Spirit I do not think a prophet can function and just babble their voice without having the spirit of God upon them. We cannot see or read this in Nehemiah 9:30 where "By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets" and also Number 11:29 "I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them." All these indicate the working of God's spirit in them. The prophetic ministry is the highest calling that requires a stringent standard of holiness. Holiness in not merely in how we mingle with people but total obedient to God. We read in 1 Kings 13 tells of a young prophet, who started well, but ended in disaster, because he failed to obey the word that God had spoken to him. When we are obedient we need to be at peace with God too. We notice that almost all prophets in the Old Testament always speak out of their relationship with God and not out of reaction to a situation. They spoke of the truth that is their first loyalty. If he is to have any credibility, truth and integrity must permeate his entire life. We learned that Old Testament prophet does not have pride. We see in almost all occasions God will in every ways establish a deep work of humility in the life of the prophet He intended to speak for Him. Humility is another crucial quality of a prophet. In the Old Testament prophets, they are often portrayed as rude or harsh and uncompromising men. I think they have to do so because they work for God and not for man. In so many years of living in this world, I notice that if we compromise with man than we are not doing the will of man. We will be man-pleaser and at the end no one can please man because one thing will lead to another. We have to say "No" at times because truth is never pleasing to the ears of man. The fear of man is the great enemy of God’s truth. The only antidote for such the fear of man is the fear of God. We read in the Old Testament that prophet shed more tears than priests and kings, because compassion was at the heart of their ministry. God is love, so his truth must always be spoken in love. The harder the message the prophet is speaking the more important that it is spoken with compassion for example, Jeremiah was a compassionate prophet who often wept over the words that the Lord gave him to speak (Jeremiah 8:21-9:1). Since prophet is committed of doing God's purpose they are always confronting opposition with tenacity. They have to be loyal and cannot swerve to the left or the right or be shaken. Their task is often focused where they have to suffer from a compulsion to fulfill God's calling, no matter what it will cost them. That is why Jeremiah understood that he could let nothing stop him from fulfilling his calling. God’s will is always manifested in courage and boldness. There are numerous examples of prophets standing boldly in the face of the political powers. They were often in danger of losing their lives. We can find such story in Ezekiel 3:4-10 when the Lord told Ezekiel as part of his call that he would need great boldness. We learned from all these God promised that He will protect those who serve and obey him and we can find such incidents for example in 2 Kings 6:18-20. All these quality are the characteristics of a prophet of God that we read in the Old Testament as the spokesmen of God.
4. THE MODES OF COMMUNICATION
The general introductions to the work of the prophets are the modes of communication. Communication is how the prophet brings forth the word of God to the people. The WORD that I mean here might be a word of prophecy or proclamation. The nature and function of prophecy is critical to understanding the prophets. The most significant aspect of the prophet's task is his call to Israel to covenant loyalty. The prophets held a special place in the history of Israel. They rose to the occasion mostly when there was the need for encouragement or condemnation. They were, in many respects, the conscience of Israel. In what I have learned through the Old Testament text, it has two modes of communication that are through the oracles and apocalypse. These two modes the prophets did this in a variety of ways.
Oracle, it deals with words of salvation, announcements of judgment and a also apocalyptic while apocalypse more of revealing hidden secret. Let we deal with both of these thoroughly one at a time to get the right understanding of two of these modes of communication. Any English dictionaries will define "oracle" as a person who considers being a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinions. It opinions is normally considered to be infallible in authority, usually spiritual in nature. It can also be a prediction of the future, from the God, that is spoken through another object or life-form. These we have learned in history that Old Testament prophets shared with the king and priest the responsibility of pointing the people toward God. The king was expected or demanded to lead in righteousness in his general rule and in acting as chief judge of the land. They called the king's hand when he veered off course in what the way God wanted them to do. The priests too were expected to lead in their priestly functions and in expounding the Torah or the manner to worship God. When the priests failed in their duty, they paid a great price for the fidelity and on occasion, when God gave them a second chance than He called the prophets to address them in order to repent and reform. When the general populace drifted from a single-minded devotion to God, the prophets summoned them to repentance as well. Prophets are to interpret God's acts in nature as warnings and spoke of the consequence of their ill advised behavior. In the Old Testament, even foreign nations could not escape the word of the prophets. They spoke of accountability to God, who was not only the God of the Jews, but the God of all peoples. They were time when prophets may have been moved to speak specific oracles to specific audiences, but they did so in keeping with promised blessings and curses God had previously pronounced. When the Law was given, it contains notation of the result of both faithfulness and unfaithfulness. Therefore to my understanding of oracle is a public and specific proclamation of God through the prophet to the general people or a specific person like the king or priest. They are normally proclamation of warning of what to come if they do not do what God has wanted or required them to do like being unfaithful or disobedience.
The next modes of communication is through "Apocalypse" in Greek "APOKALYPSIS" which literally means the lifting of the veil, it is a term applied to the disclosure to certain privileged persons of something hidden from the mass of humankind. The Greek root corresponds in the Septuagint to the Hebrew “Galah" which means to "reveal". Apocalyptic can only be found in the later part of the Old Testament. Apocalyptic is a term used to identify a literary genre that contains visions interpreted for the seer by a heavenly messenger. It has nothing much to deal with the current situation with the Israelites. God is more freak out with the attitude of the people. The genre is the extension (or replacement) of prophecy by a supra historical presentation starting from contemporary events. The fully developed apocalyptic in the Old Testament is found and limited to Daniel 7-12 and Zechariah 12 and 14.
I notice the intention for apocalypse is divine revelation. God is saying something to humans. And much of what He speaks relates to the future and the guarantee that He holds its destiny. It is the character of divine revelation that gives the apocalypse its unique sense of God's communication. Actually, the apocalypse is not radical in content; it tends to repeat and underscore in a dramatic way what should be common to the faith of God's believers. It has the unique matrix for conveying divine revelation that makes it significant. It has apocalyptic vision often concerns the succession of historical events where both the human and supernatural meet. It has an accuracy to say that the physical reflects the supernatural realm where the future comes into play like the messianic events, ultimate victory for the righteous, resurrection, judgment, and the consummation of the world order. I notice apocalyptic here presents a view of a prototypical heavenly order like revelation of God of how earthly realities are about to succumb to God's sovereign rule. For example, we can read or identified several media of revelation in the book of Daniel. These include the symbolic dream vision found in Daniel chapters 7-8, an explanation for a future generation found in Daniel 9:24-27, an interpretation, such as a dream or the writing on the wall found in Daniel 10-11, appearance of a supernatural being found in Daniel 7:13-14; 10; 12:1, and lastly a revelation brought by an angel. Therefore, apocalypse is reveal proclamation that humans could not challenge the divine purposes of God, likewise the evil cannot prevail:
"A primary tenet is that God will act in keeping with his purposes to disenfranchise the forces of evil in the interest of his own lasting rule. Apocalyptic structure thus includes a revelation by God, given through a mediator, to a seer regarding future events."
Therefore, the apocalyptic sections of Daniel is a prophecy pertaining to God's involvement in future historical events, the role of forces of evil, and the way God will culminate the human sphere. It involves a contemporary events pointing to the futuristic goal. It transcends history and point to a pattern of crisis, judgment, and salvation. It has a more deeper meaning or understanding than the mode or manner of an oracle.
5. THE ROLES OF PROPHETS.
The roles of prophets in the Old Testament time, involves two levels of activity. First, prophet was to speak to individual people like Saul, David, Solomon and many more especially in personal matter and priest which mainly for guidance in correction. Second, there were people called to be prophet to their nation. This type of activity is especially on advice of ruler ship of God's people, interpretation of God's law and warning of judgment. To understanding the role of prophet, it is important to understand the definition of it title or name i.e. "prophet”, characteristic and the mode of communication of the prophet. After knowing or understanding these three facts than it is much easier to understand and point out its role in the ancient narrative or genre of the Old Testament. Prophet knows the heart and mind of the Lord; he speaks or conveys the word of God to His people. He is the mediator between God and man; he is the powerful spokesman of God as well an effective statesman for God's people. There will be many roles that I will list below and it does not mean a prophet is fixed to just one particular role. He may act in several roles according to the situations or circumstances that God wants him to move. Some role is fixed once he is chosen to be a prophet while some evolve situationally.
PRAYING WARRIOR.
Prophet is a person who stands before man and God. He speaks of what the people needs as well listen of God has for man. As the mediator in this role, he should spend a lot of his time praying to God. This is one of his first priorities as a prophet once he is appointed. For example, what we learned about Moses in the Old Testament. He stood between the people and God. Many times, he stood in the gap on behalf of the people before an angry God. He intercessed for the people in most of his life where there were time when he brought God's message to the people and Israel did not respond to what God wanted them, we learned that he prayed and moaned over the situation. Because of this role of the prophet, praying is an important task of his work. Prophet knows the heart and mind of God better than anyone and he is the only person to be in the position to know where prayer is most effectual. He watches over the word of God and prays that it will be fulfilled as what Isaiah 62:6 does. Prophets are holy men, men who are surrendered to God's service and who lived in communion with God, they are men of habitual prayer where they retired at times to their isolated place or watch tower to compose their minds and gave themselves up to quiet contemplation, in order to wait for revelation of God (Isaiah. 21:8; Habakkuk. 2:1). For example, Moses withdrew for forty days into the quiet and solitude of Mount Sinai for communion with God, when the pattern of the tabernacle was to be shown him or the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. Spiritually the prophets are always prepared to receive divine communications and that is only through prayer.
RECEIVIER OF GOD'S MESSAGE.
Different people and personalities hear or receive God's message in different ways. Each prophet fined the way that is best for them. In the Old Testament time, the Lord speaks to prophets through visions and dreams, and sometimes face to face Numbers 12-8. In order to receive God's message or to recognize a God’s voice, we must know that particular person very well. Prophets therefore have developed a strong relationship with God through prayer or communication so that they can hear his voice. The key is kneeing or sitting in the presence of the Lord and walking in the Spirit. Through such instances, God than will somehow speak to us and most of all we have to wait on Him to come (Jeremiah 42:7).As a person that prays or communicates with God. It is autonomous to say that he has a key role of waiting and receiving the word of God. When he prays, it does not mean he will get an instantaneous answer so hearing will always require waiting so once he knows the will of God than he will take action of conveying it to the people or nation. He also receives the people or nations plead that needs to be forwarded to God so his task is actually bilateral. One more thing we need to know is that the prophets were taught of the Spirit of God. That is when an audible voice or an angelic messenger occasionally came (1 Samuel 3:4; Daniel 9:21) but this instruction was usually imparted by dreams, visions, and inward suggestions recognized by the prophets as not of themselves. The prophets did not exercise the prophetic power at all times, but when God told them to speak of what God's message had given them.
WATCHMAN
Since a prophet is someone that prays and receives God's message, we can consider him the watchman of God or men of vision who stand in the middle of is or was to come. He sees ahead of what a normal man cannot see and work side by side with God. This role we can find in scriptures like Hosea 9:8 as he was the watchman over Ephraim, Isaiah 62:6 as Isaiah was posted as the watchmen over Jerusalem and in Ezekiel 33:1-11, Ezekiel was called to be a watchman. When we say prophet is seer. What do we understand about such word? The Seer represents the prophetic dimension by means of his ability to observe beforehand and his inclination towards watchfulness. He is the watchman, the protector. The prophet's home is a Mizpah, a watchtower, a place for proper judgment and discernment found in 1 Samuel 7:6. The most important basic attitude and fundamental approach of a seer is expressed in his eagerness to watch and listen, to wait and observe. That is why we consider them a watchman of God.
INITIATISE GOD'S ACTION
As prophet is the watchman over the people and nation, it is because God does not do anything without warning his people first. This is because he cares for the people and nation that He makes covenant with. As a watchman, the prophet also is part of the prophetic role is to initialize God’s pan or activity by providing early warnings like scriptures in Amos 3:7 and incident found in the book of Joel.
FORETELLING THE FUTURE.
In the Old Testament, we notice that the prophet speaks to the present in the light of the future because he knows God's heart and mind than anybody. He can read this like Moses warned Pharaoh of what is coming if he disobeyed God to set His people free, Isaiah warned Hezekiah that he will die, Joel of the holocaust to come and many incidents found in the latter and former books of the prophet. The prophet here we see or read is the seer who has insight into God's purposes for what to come.
HEALER.
Some of the prophets found in the Old Testament do have power to heal. They heal not because of their own might but the gift of healing given from the Lord. He read about this in the wilderness of Moses where the Israelites faced all sort of diseases and how Moses healed them through the aid of God's power. Elijah also moved effectively in this area and followed by Elisha where he healed a boy that was dead in Scripture 2 Kings 4:32-35).
APPOINTING AND ANOINTING LEADERS
As spokesman of God and the role mentioned above, we instantaneously know that prophet is very close with God. In the Old Testament times, God usually used them to appoint and anoint leaders and kings for His people or nation. We read about this when the Israelite wanted a leader and later the kings. Samuel anointed Saul to be king and then David as king when Saul failed to do what God wanted him to do. When Solomon who was the successor of David's throne, a prophet anointed Solomon officially to be king and Solomon did not declare himself a king without such anointing from God through the prophet (1 Kings 1:38-39).In 1 Kings 19:16, we also find Elijah was told by God to anoint Jehu son of Nimshi to be king over Israel.
ADVISING KINGS AND POLITICAL RULERS.
As prophet appoints and anoints kings for the people. They are the most sought person by the kings. They are closed with God so King would seek them for advice over political situation. They provide advice when God wanted to give guidance to a ruler that God wanted to give and prophet is the mediator of this position. We find in many cases that David had the prophets Nathan and Gad in his place, and talked over a wide range of matter (1 Samuel 22:5; 2 Samuel 7:1-4,17). Not only in the incident of David but also Moses when making decision whether to go to war or not and a prophet advise Ahab as he went into battle (1 Kings 20:13-29).
DIRECTION AND GUIDANCE
They are mostly sought for advice especially on matter that deals with spiritual direction and guidance. Prophet will always give direction and vision to people so that people or nation knows that God cares for them. We see in David's case, Prophet Gad provided guidance and showed him how to avoid trouble (1 Samuel 22:5). They do not only direct and guide but admonish, intercede, teach and counsel to whosoever that yearns for Lord in their life. We also learned from Moses life that after his experience of the burning bush, God directed and guided him through the initial steps to bring out God's people from the land of Egypt.
INTERPRETING DREAMS AND VISIONS
Another most important aspect of the prophetic ministry of the Old Testament is interpreting dreams and visions. As we know, prophet spend a lot of their time intercede for the people. God often speaks in dream to His people who seem not to understand and only prophet who is closed to God has the skill to interpret such dreams and visions. We learned these in the story of Joseph and the book of Daniel.
CORRECTION AND ADMONITION.
As God can appoint and anoint a ruler or king. Likewise, he can direct and guide a ruler or king in the areas He thinks best for this people or nation. There are incident when such ruler or king, need to be corrected or admonished because he did not go according to God's way. Prophets co-operate with God in such matter. They do this by announcing his judgment. For example, when Saul did not do according to God's way, Samuel was instructed to correct and admonish him but in failing to do so Saul, the prophet with God's authority has to up root and tear down, destroy and overthrow, before he can begin to plan and build anew. This incident can also be seemed in Jeremiah prophetic ministry in the restoration work of God's nation.
WARNING OF DANGER
In the Old Testament, the prophetic voice of Israel was primarily the word of judgment upon the people of God. It a warning of impending judgment upon the God's people and the world is secondary (Ezekiel 3:5, 21; Ezekiel 33:7). God prepares his people this way and prophet as watchman, warns the people of such dangers (e.g. 2 Kings 17:13-15; Amos 3:5-7). I use to ask myself why God needs to warn the danger to His people when it is His first place of creating such dangers. I really cannot understand such matter unless I am a prophet in that ancient times but what I know is that God creates danger because we ask for it. We fail in our faithfulness to Him and when danger comes, God wants us to repent before it is too late for us to escape. He wants us back in His blossom and warn us of it but it is our free choice to decide which path we want to pick.
INTERPRETING THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
Prophet is seer so they have the understanding of the times. They have the ability to perceive and discern spiritual things around them. They also have ability to discern the spiritual significance of a situation and give the Lord's perspective on a given situation.
CHALLENGING THE NATION
Prophet is gift in interpreting the signs of the times as well as sign of fore coming danger. All these indicates their primary responsibility of speaking to the people of God as having both direction and correction for a nation, this mean that they have the authority to challenge the nation to stand in the sight of God. We find in many instances of the prophets of the Old Testament confronting kings, and taking an important role in national affairs. Some also addressed their words to foreign nations. Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel each prophesied to the surrounding nations.
WORSHIPPER
When a prophet that understands God, talks or prays to God, intercedes for people and even foreknown of what is going to happen than we know prophet speaks of the glory and wonder of God. It would not be completed if prophet is not worshipper of God without this essential role which automatically inspires such people to worship God of His awesome power. We find in 1 Chronicles 24 lists a number of men who were set aside just everything just to the accompaniment of musical instrument as part of the temple worship for God.
SUFFER.
A prophet is often called to suffering because when they are to receive the word of God, they are to prepare beforehand to suffer first. We read about this when Jeremiah spent many years in captivity before his people went into captivity. Jeremiah was one of Israel's great prophets that announced uncomfortable truth or judgment to the king when those spoke of what the king wishes to hear. His radical obedience to God brought him into tension and conflict with the nations and he suffered terribly as a traitor. We also read about Ezekiel had to lie on his side for three hundreds days to symbolize the judgment to come. All these sufferings made the prophets extremely aware of their human frailty (Jeremiah 20:7-10) so that they could describe it better to the people or nation that is going to confront such situation. It is a prophetic ministry that has to foretaste of the suffering and judgment for the price the people has created upon themselves.
ENCOURAGEMENT.
Many times in the Old Testament the prophet encourages the people to be strong in the Lord. The words of the prophet will build up and strengthen the people to face trial and tribulation. Moses came before the people in Egypt and encouraged them to be strong as the end the Lord will take them out of their captivity. We also learned that when Asa heard the words of prophecy from Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage (2 Chronicles 15:1).
TESTING OF PROPHECY
Prophets are called to speak of God’s word, the proof that a trustworthy prophet is through the fact that his words are effective and fulfilled most of the time. A good example of this was Samuel. There are instances where false prophets come in so another important part of their ministry, they are to see developed by testing prophecy. In Ezekiel there is an interesting Scripture Ezekiel 13:2-3 that we should take note - "Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, 'Hear the word of the LORD!'" Thus says the Lord GOD: "Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!" God says one can actually say they are hearing from the Lord, but it really is their own spirit.
THE MEANING OF HISTORY
We know the first five books of the Old Testament were written by Moses so prophets have a role in explaining the meaning of history by keeping a record because when a culture loses an understanding of its history, it loses its sense of direction so Moses was instructed by God to write such history books.
THEOLOGY
What is theology? Theology is defined as the study of the nature of God and religious truth; rational inquiry into religious questions. Therefore, prophets should be experts on God as it is their part of their role is to pass on theological and biblical insights to the people. A prophet should be good in the knowledge of God and for the people who longs to hear His word. Jeremiah was one of those Old Testament's prophets, the supreme prophet of the human heart.
HISTORIAN
As I was talking about the making of history, it automatically makes us think of prophet as historian. This is true if we are to consider them as historian because many historic books are found in the Old Testament written by prophets who recorded the works of God. Moses is one of the great example follows by prophet Isaiah son of Amoz of the beginning and end of Uzziah's reign, the records of Nathan the prophet and the records of Gad the seer, together with the details of David's reign and power, and the circumstances that surrounded him, Israel and the kingdoms of all the other lands and many more just to name a few.
These ancient prophets at that time entered into great careers as writers of prophecy. Their commitment is in prophetic utterances in summary, or in considerable detail, or as isolated and individual prophecies, to writing. Literary activities and duties devolved upon the prophets, as historians and writers of prophecy of all times.
6. CONCLUSION.
I have begun my writing by first defining the term "prophet", its characteristics and mode of communication of the prophet before thoroughly explained the role prophet plays in Old Testament times. A prophet must be called by God and whatever thing he does must be initiated or rested from Him. It is not a ministry that anyone can or likes to take up. A prophet is basically a spokesman of or for God, a person chosen by God to speak to people on God's behalf and convey a message or teaching. Prophets were role models of holiness, scholarship, and closeness to God, His closeness to uphold God's high standard that requires ethical norm. The primary message of the prophets is the person and character of God. And second message is God’s plan for history. Prophet describes what God is doing for the people of Israel in Old Testament context. They give the long-term plan and proclaim coming events, explaining how they fit into the long-term plan as mentioned in Isaiah 40:15-17. They, the prophet should be obsessed with the kingdom of God as a passion for it to become a reality. That is what we have learned throughout the Old Testament. Beginning of Old Testament prophecy coincided with the rise of leadership than monarchy, and the funny thing the decline of prophetic activity also coincided with the demise of the monarchy. Prophet Samuel was a kingmaker and the last pre-exilic prophet, Jeremiah. Of all these, the greatest of the prophets was Moses. In Moses, we see him as the combination of all the other prophets in the Old Testament. He wrote the whole five Hebrew books of the Old Testament, including the Prophets and the Writings that were written hundreds of years later. All subsequent prophecy was merely an expression of what Moses had done and seen. The whole message found throughout the Old Testament prophet was about calling the people back to proper worship of God. It served two complementary roles in Israel. They spoke for God to the people, calling the people to respond faithfully to Him who had revealed Himself in their history. At the same times, they also spoke for the weak, the oppressed and deprive of a privilege with little hope in shaping their own destiny or future. The function of the prophet as we have learned was not merely the disclosure of what to come but included the exposition and application of the law, the declaration of God's will which entails two elements - the moral or doctrinal and the predictive. All these indicate us why it is so important to know the role that prophet has played in the Old Testament because everything becomes reality is out of what they had done in the Old Testament just like the importance of the Disciples of Christ that initiates the book of the New Testament.
In the Old Testament, prophet tells about "God's prophetic history." They relate the story of the relationship between God and Israel. Beginning with the initial settlement in Canaan, the prophetic books describe a millennium of encounter. God's plan to bless the world through the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lies behind a more immediate intent to bless Israel. Whether faithful or not, God would eventually reveal Himself more fully in a future Messiah. But the immediate concern of the Prophets was with Israel, the basic commitment of the prophetic voice begun from the covenant at Sinai. The prophets were often critical of the monarchy for failing to lead Israel in faithfulness. A prominent theme of the prophet's message was the denunciation of sin among the people. When they spoke of future events, it was in the context of Israel's faithlessness and of God's faithfulness to the covenant. Israel could not trust their institutions to save them; they could trust in God, who controls the future. That future promised both judgment and salvation. Hence, we notice that in the Old Testament, prophets are broken into two sections that are former and latter prophets.
First, the Former Prophets are found in the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, which are narratives, which carry the story of Israel from settlement in Canaan to the Babylonian exile. The idea of "prophet" in the Old Testament does not always include telling the future but here the prophet speaks for God, communicating his intentions and attitudes. It is the prophetic messages for the people to come back to the covenant, issued warnings, and foretold about what to come out of their unfaithfulness to keeping the covenant of God. The Former Prophets are often reference an activity of a prophet.
Second, the Latter Prophets are found in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Book of the Twelve are called the Latter Prophets which are written in both narrative and poetry. We notice these books carry the message of God which he spoke through ancient people where these revelations aimed primarily at bringing Israel back to covenant loyalty by offering encouragement to Israel, pronounced judgment upon evil nations, and presented the picture of what God would do in the future. Like the presentation of Israel's history in the Former Prophets, prophetic pronouncements in the Latter Prophets had theological or deeper meaning. They are to be studied in view of God's purpose and future plans and all the Latter Prophets contain the words of the prophets where the messages can be stretched out over a long period of time for example half a century with Isaiah while Jeremiah looks more like a loose collection of oracles with references to multiple time periods.
2. DEFINITIONS OF "PROPHET."
In the Old Testament a prophets is always considered someone who is divinely inspired to communicate God's will to His people and to disclose the future to them. The prophet admonishes, warns, directs, encourages, intercedes, teaches and counsels. He brings the word of God to the people of God and calls the people to respond. He is a spokesperson for God. I am using more of He than She because the Old Testament has more man playing the role of a prophet than woman. If I am not mistaken Deborah was the only woman prophetess. We must understand that the prophets did not inherit the office nor receive it by human appointment, but were chosen, prepared, and called of God: and the call was often soul-searching (Exodus 3:1-4; 1 Samuel 3:1-20; Jeremiah 1:4-10; Ezekiel. 1:1-3).It is the English word derived from the Greek prophetes, which means one who speaks for another, an interpreter or proclaimer, and one who speaks beforehand, a predictor. In the general Hebrew word for prophet is "nabi", from the verb naba that is "to announce, call a declarer, announcer" with the primary idea of a prophet is a declarer, announcer, one who utters a communication. Two other Hebrew words- ro'eh and hozeh which are used to designate the prophet both have the meaning of "one who sees," and sometimes rendered "seer." All these three words occur in 1 Chronicles 29:29, where they seem to be contrasted with each other: "Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the chronicles of Samuel the seer [ro'eh], in the chronicles of Nathan the prophet [nabi'], and in the chronicles of Gad the seer [hozeh]." We can find that "Hazon" is also a word consistently used for the prophetical vision and is found in Samuel, Chronicles, Psalms, Proverbs, and in most of the Prophets. There seem to be difference in the usage of these words which is often quite debatable on the whole but generally it means the same persons as there are designated to mean the same as the three words above. We also learned that prophets are occasionally called watchmen of God which in Hebrew word is "sopim" found in (Jeremiah 6:17; Ezekiel 3:17; 33:2, 6-7) or "shomer", a watchman (Isaiah 21:11; 62:6).All these Hebrew words are uniformly translated in the LXX by prophetes and in the NASB and NIV by "prophet." In classical Greek prophetes signifies "one who speaks for another," especially "one who speaks for a god" and so prophetes interprets God's will to man. He is the interpreter in another usage of words, all these definition of words change according to time. The use of the word prophetes in its modern sense is postclassical, and is derived from the LXX. In the medieval use of this word "propheteia" or prophecy meant to English language a sense of prediction and later use in the word like "inspiration" in a more closer sense. All these indications in word in a way show us how important a role of prophet in the Old Testament time.
3. CHARACTERISTICS OF PROPHETS
The characteristics of a prophet are their closeness with God. They must have the power of the Holy Spirit. Of course in the Old Testament we do not read anything about the filling of the Holy Spirit but we know they spent a lot of their time with God. Without the Holy Spirit I do not think a prophet can function and just babble their voice without having the spirit of God upon them. We cannot see or read this in Nehemiah 9:30 where "By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets" and also Number 11:29 "I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them." All these indicate the working of God's spirit in them. The prophetic ministry is the highest calling that requires a stringent standard of holiness. Holiness in not merely in how we mingle with people but total obedient to God. We read in 1 Kings 13 tells of a young prophet, who started well, but ended in disaster, because he failed to obey the word that God had spoken to him. When we are obedient we need to be at peace with God too. We notice that almost all prophets in the Old Testament always speak out of their relationship with God and not out of reaction to a situation. They spoke of the truth that is their first loyalty. If he is to have any credibility, truth and integrity must permeate his entire life. We learned that Old Testament prophet does not have pride. We see in almost all occasions God will in every ways establish a deep work of humility in the life of the prophet He intended to speak for Him. Humility is another crucial quality of a prophet. In the Old Testament prophets, they are often portrayed as rude or harsh and uncompromising men. I think they have to do so because they work for God and not for man. In so many years of living in this world, I notice that if we compromise with man than we are not doing the will of man. We will be man-pleaser and at the end no one can please man because one thing will lead to another. We have to say "No" at times because truth is never pleasing to the ears of man. The fear of man is the great enemy of God’s truth. The only antidote for such the fear of man is the fear of God. We read in the Old Testament that prophet shed more tears than priests and kings, because compassion was at the heart of their ministry. God is love, so his truth must always be spoken in love. The harder the message the prophet is speaking the more important that it is spoken with compassion for example, Jeremiah was a compassionate prophet who often wept over the words that the Lord gave him to speak (Jeremiah 8:21-9:1). Since prophet is committed of doing God's purpose they are always confronting opposition with tenacity. They have to be loyal and cannot swerve to the left or the right or be shaken. Their task is often focused where they have to suffer from a compulsion to fulfill God's calling, no matter what it will cost them. That is why Jeremiah understood that he could let nothing stop him from fulfilling his calling. God’s will is always manifested in courage and boldness. There are numerous examples of prophets standing boldly in the face of the political powers. They were often in danger of losing their lives. We can find such story in Ezekiel 3:4-10 when the Lord told Ezekiel as part of his call that he would need great boldness. We learned from all these God promised that He will protect those who serve and obey him and we can find such incidents for example in 2 Kings 6:18-20. All these quality are the characteristics of a prophet of God that we read in the Old Testament as the spokesmen of God.
4. THE MODES OF COMMUNICATION
The general introductions to the work of the prophets are the modes of communication. Communication is how the prophet brings forth the word of God to the people. The WORD that I mean here might be a word of prophecy or proclamation. The nature and function of prophecy is critical to understanding the prophets. The most significant aspect of the prophet's task is his call to Israel to covenant loyalty. The prophets held a special place in the history of Israel. They rose to the occasion mostly when there was the need for encouragement or condemnation. They were, in many respects, the conscience of Israel. In what I have learned through the Old Testament text, it has two modes of communication that are through the oracles and apocalypse. These two modes the prophets did this in a variety of ways.
Oracle, it deals with words of salvation, announcements of judgment and a also apocalyptic while apocalypse more of revealing hidden secret. Let we deal with both of these thoroughly one at a time to get the right understanding of two of these modes of communication. Any English dictionaries will define "oracle" as a person who considers being a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinions. It opinions is normally considered to be infallible in authority, usually spiritual in nature. It can also be a prediction of the future, from the God, that is spoken through another object or life-form. These we have learned in history that Old Testament prophets shared with the king and priest the responsibility of pointing the people toward God. The king was expected or demanded to lead in righteousness in his general rule and in acting as chief judge of the land. They called the king's hand when he veered off course in what the way God wanted them to do. The priests too were expected to lead in their priestly functions and in expounding the Torah or the manner to worship God. When the priests failed in their duty, they paid a great price for the fidelity and on occasion, when God gave them a second chance than He called the prophets to address them in order to repent and reform. When the general populace drifted from a single-minded devotion to God, the prophets summoned them to repentance as well. Prophets are to interpret God's acts in nature as warnings and spoke of the consequence of their ill advised behavior. In the Old Testament, even foreign nations could not escape the word of the prophets. They spoke of accountability to God, who was not only the God of the Jews, but the God of all peoples. They were time when prophets may have been moved to speak specific oracles to specific audiences, but they did so in keeping with promised blessings and curses God had previously pronounced. When the Law was given, it contains notation of the result of both faithfulness and unfaithfulness. Therefore to my understanding of oracle is a public and specific proclamation of God through the prophet to the general people or a specific person like the king or priest. They are normally proclamation of warning of what to come if they do not do what God has wanted or required them to do like being unfaithful or disobedience.
The next modes of communication is through "Apocalypse" in Greek "APOKALYPSIS" which literally means the lifting of the veil, it is a term applied to the disclosure to certain privileged persons of something hidden from the mass of humankind. The Greek root corresponds in the Septuagint to the Hebrew “Galah" which means to "reveal". Apocalyptic can only be found in the later part of the Old Testament. Apocalyptic is a term used to identify a literary genre that contains visions interpreted for the seer by a heavenly messenger. It has nothing much to deal with the current situation with the Israelites. God is more freak out with the attitude of the people. The genre is the extension (or replacement) of prophecy by a supra historical presentation starting from contemporary events. The fully developed apocalyptic in the Old Testament is found and limited to Daniel 7-12 and Zechariah 12 and 14.
I notice the intention for apocalypse is divine revelation. God is saying something to humans. And much of what He speaks relates to the future and the guarantee that He holds its destiny. It is the character of divine revelation that gives the apocalypse its unique sense of God's communication. Actually, the apocalypse is not radical in content; it tends to repeat and underscore in a dramatic way what should be common to the faith of God's believers. It has the unique matrix for conveying divine revelation that makes it significant. It has apocalyptic vision often concerns the succession of historical events where both the human and supernatural meet. It has an accuracy to say that the physical reflects the supernatural realm where the future comes into play like the messianic events, ultimate victory for the righteous, resurrection, judgment, and the consummation of the world order. I notice apocalyptic here presents a view of a prototypical heavenly order like revelation of God of how earthly realities are about to succumb to God's sovereign rule. For example, we can read or identified several media of revelation in the book of Daniel. These include the symbolic dream vision found in Daniel chapters 7-8, an explanation for a future generation found in Daniel 9:24-27, an interpretation, such as a dream or the writing on the wall found in Daniel 10-11, appearance of a supernatural being found in Daniel 7:13-14; 10; 12:1, and lastly a revelation brought by an angel. Therefore, apocalypse is reveal proclamation that humans could not challenge the divine purposes of God, likewise the evil cannot prevail:
"A primary tenet is that God will act in keeping with his purposes to disenfranchise the forces of evil in the interest of his own lasting rule. Apocalyptic structure thus includes a revelation by God, given through a mediator, to a seer regarding future events."
Therefore, the apocalyptic sections of Daniel is a prophecy pertaining to God's involvement in future historical events, the role of forces of evil, and the way God will culminate the human sphere. It involves a contemporary events pointing to the futuristic goal. It transcends history and point to a pattern of crisis, judgment, and salvation. It has a more deeper meaning or understanding than the mode or manner of an oracle.
5. THE ROLES OF PROPHETS.
The roles of prophets in the Old Testament time, involves two levels of activity. First, prophet was to speak to individual people like Saul, David, Solomon and many more especially in personal matter and priest which mainly for guidance in correction. Second, there were people called to be prophet to their nation. This type of activity is especially on advice of ruler ship of God's people, interpretation of God's law and warning of judgment. To understanding the role of prophet, it is important to understand the definition of it title or name i.e. "prophet”, characteristic and the mode of communication of the prophet. After knowing or understanding these three facts than it is much easier to understand and point out its role in the ancient narrative or genre of the Old Testament. Prophet knows the heart and mind of the Lord; he speaks or conveys the word of God to His people. He is the mediator between God and man; he is the powerful spokesman of God as well an effective statesman for God's people. There will be many roles that I will list below and it does not mean a prophet is fixed to just one particular role. He may act in several roles according to the situations or circumstances that God wants him to move. Some role is fixed once he is chosen to be a prophet while some evolve situationally.
PRAYING WARRIOR.
Prophet is a person who stands before man and God. He speaks of what the people needs as well listen of God has for man. As the mediator in this role, he should spend a lot of his time praying to God. This is one of his first priorities as a prophet once he is appointed. For example, what we learned about Moses in the Old Testament. He stood between the people and God. Many times, he stood in the gap on behalf of the people before an angry God. He intercessed for the people in most of his life where there were time when he brought God's message to the people and Israel did not respond to what God wanted them, we learned that he prayed and moaned over the situation. Because of this role of the prophet, praying is an important task of his work. Prophet knows the heart and mind of God better than anyone and he is the only person to be in the position to know where prayer is most effectual. He watches over the word of God and prays that it will be fulfilled as what Isaiah 62:6 does. Prophets are holy men, men who are surrendered to God's service and who lived in communion with God, they are men of habitual prayer where they retired at times to their isolated place or watch tower to compose their minds and gave themselves up to quiet contemplation, in order to wait for revelation of God (Isaiah. 21:8; Habakkuk. 2:1). For example, Moses withdrew for forty days into the quiet and solitude of Mount Sinai for communion with God, when the pattern of the tabernacle was to be shown him or the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. Spiritually the prophets are always prepared to receive divine communications and that is only through prayer.
RECEIVIER OF GOD'S MESSAGE.
Different people and personalities hear or receive God's message in different ways. Each prophet fined the way that is best for them. In the Old Testament time, the Lord speaks to prophets through visions and dreams, and sometimes face to face Numbers 12-8. In order to receive God's message or to recognize a God’s voice, we must know that particular person very well. Prophets therefore have developed a strong relationship with God through prayer or communication so that they can hear his voice. The key is kneeing or sitting in the presence of the Lord and walking in the Spirit. Through such instances, God than will somehow speak to us and most of all we have to wait on Him to come (Jeremiah 42:7).As a person that prays or communicates with God. It is autonomous to say that he has a key role of waiting and receiving the word of God. When he prays, it does not mean he will get an instantaneous answer so hearing will always require waiting so once he knows the will of God than he will take action of conveying it to the people or nation. He also receives the people or nations plead that needs to be forwarded to God so his task is actually bilateral. One more thing we need to know is that the prophets were taught of the Spirit of God. That is when an audible voice or an angelic messenger occasionally came (1 Samuel 3:4; Daniel 9:21) but this instruction was usually imparted by dreams, visions, and inward suggestions recognized by the prophets as not of themselves. The prophets did not exercise the prophetic power at all times, but when God told them to speak of what God's message had given them.
WATCHMAN
Since a prophet is someone that prays and receives God's message, we can consider him the watchman of God or men of vision who stand in the middle of is or was to come. He sees ahead of what a normal man cannot see and work side by side with God. This role we can find in scriptures like Hosea 9:8 as he was the watchman over Ephraim, Isaiah 62:6 as Isaiah was posted as the watchmen over Jerusalem and in Ezekiel 33:1-11, Ezekiel was called to be a watchman. When we say prophet is seer. What do we understand about such word? The Seer represents the prophetic dimension by means of his ability to observe beforehand and his inclination towards watchfulness. He is the watchman, the protector. The prophet's home is a Mizpah, a watchtower, a place for proper judgment and discernment found in 1 Samuel 7:6. The most important basic attitude and fundamental approach of a seer is expressed in his eagerness to watch and listen, to wait and observe. That is why we consider them a watchman of God.
INITIATISE GOD'S ACTION
As prophet is the watchman over the people and nation, it is because God does not do anything without warning his people first. This is because he cares for the people and nation that He makes covenant with. As a watchman, the prophet also is part of the prophetic role is to initialize God’s pan or activity by providing early warnings like scriptures in Amos 3:7 and incident found in the book of Joel.
FORETELLING THE FUTURE.
In the Old Testament, we notice that the prophet speaks to the present in the light of the future because he knows God's heart and mind than anybody. He can read this like Moses warned Pharaoh of what is coming if he disobeyed God to set His people free, Isaiah warned Hezekiah that he will die, Joel of the holocaust to come and many incidents found in the latter and former books of the prophet. The prophet here we see or read is the seer who has insight into God's purposes for what to come.
HEALER.
Some of the prophets found in the Old Testament do have power to heal. They heal not because of their own might but the gift of healing given from the Lord. He read about this in the wilderness of Moses where the Israelites faced all sort of diseases and how Moses healed them through the aid of God's power. Elijah also moved effectively in this area and followed by Elisha where he healed a boy that was dead in Scripture 2 Kings 4:32-35).
APPOINTING AND ANOINTING LEADERS
As spokesman of God and the role mentioned above, we instantaneously know that prophet is very close with God. In the Old Testament times, God usually used them to appoint and anoint leaders and kings for His people or nation. We read about this when the Israelite wanted a leader and later the kings. Samuel anointed Saul to be king and then David as king when Saul failed to do what God wanted him to do. When Solomon who was the successor of David's throne, a prophet anointed Solomon officially to be king and Solomon did not declare himself a king without such anointing from God through the prophet (1 Kings 1:38-39).In 1 Kings 19:16, we also find Elijah was told by God to anoint Jehu son of Nimshi to be king over Israel.
ADVISING KINGS AND POLITICAL RULERS.
As prophet appoints and anoints kings for the people. They are the most sought person by the kings. They are closed with God so King would seek them for advice over political situation. They provide advice when God wanted to give guidance to a ruler that God wanted to give and prophet is the mediator of this position. We find in many cases that David had the prophets Nathan and Gad in his place, and talked over a wide range of matter (1 Samuel 22:5; 2 Samuel 7:1-4,17). Not only in the incident of David but also Moses when making decision whether to go to war or not and a prophet advise Ahab as he went into battle (1 Kings 20:13-29).
DIRECTION AND GUIDANCE
They are mostly sought for advice especially on matter that deals with spiritual direction and guidance. Prophet will always give direction and vision to people so that people or nation knows that God cares for them. We see in David's case, Prophet Gad provided guidance and showed him how to avoid trouble (1 Samuel 22:5). They do not only direct and guide but admonish, intercede, teach and counsel to whosoever that yearns for Lord in their life. We also learned from Moses life that after his experience of the burning bush, God directed and guided him through the initial steps to bring out God's people from the land of Egypt.
INTERPRETING DREAMS AND VISIONS
Another most important aspect of the prophetic ministry of the Old Testament is interpreting dreams and visions. As we know, prophet spend a lot of their time intercede for the people. God often speaks in dream to His people who seem not to understand and only prophet who is closed to God has the skill to interpret such dreams and visions. We learned these in the story of Joseph and the book of Daniel.
CORRECTION AND ADMONITION.
As God can appoint and anoint a ruler or king. Likewise, he can direct and guide a ruler or king in the areas He thinks best for this people or nation. There are incident when such ruler or king, need to be corrected or admonished because he did not go according to God's way. Prophets co-operate with God in such matter. They do this by announcing his judgment. For example, when Saul did not do according to God's way, Samuel was instructed to correct and admonish him but in failing to do so Saul, the prophet with God's authority has to up root and tear down, destroy and overthrow, before he can begin to plan and build anew. This incident can also be seemed in Jeremiah prophetic ministry in the restoration work of God's nation.
WARNING OF DANGER
In the Old Testament, the prophetic voice of Israel was primarily the word of judgment upon the people of God. It a warning of impending judgment upon the God's people and the world is secondary (Ezekiel 3:5, 21; Ezekiel 33:7). God prepares his people this way and prophet as watchman, warns the people of such dangers (e.g. 2 Kings 17:13-15; Amos 3:5-7). I use to ask myself why God needs to warn the danger to His people when it is His first place of creating such dangers. I really cannot understand such matter unless I am a prophet in that ancient times but what I know is that God creates danger because we ask for it. We fail in our faithfulness to Him and when danger comes, God wants us to repent before it is too late for us to escape. He wants us back in His blossom and warn us of it but it is our free choice to decide which path we want to pick.
INTERPRETING THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
Prophet is seer so they have the understanding of the times. They have the ability to perceive and discern spiritual things around them. They also have ability to discern the spiritual significance of a situation and give the Lord's perspective on a given situation.
CHALLENGING THE NATION
Prophet is gift in interpreting the signs of the times as well as sign of fore coming danger. All these indicates their primary responsibility of speaking to the people of God as having both direction and correction for a nation, this mean that they have the authority to challenge the nation to stand in the sight of God. We find in many instances of the prophets of the Old Testament confronting kings, and taking an important role in national affairs. Some also addressed their words to foreign nations. Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel each prophesied to the surrounding nations.
WORSHIPPER
When a prophet that understands God, talks or prays to God, intercedes for people and even foreknown of what is going to happen than we know prophet speaks of the glory and wonder of God. It would not be completed if prophet is not worshipper of God without this essential role which automatically inspires such people to worship God of His awesome power. We find in 1 Chronicles 24 lists a number of men who were set aside just everything just to the accompaniment of musical instrument as part of the temple worship for God.
SUFFER.
A prophet is often called to suffering because when they are to receive the word of God, they are to prepare beforehand to suffer first. We read about this when Jeremiah spent many years in captivity before his people went into captivity. Jeremiah was one of Israel's great prophets that announced uncomfortable truth or judgment to the king when those spoke of what the king wishes to hear. His radical obedience to God brought him into tension and conflict with the nations and he suffered terribly as a traitor. We also read about Ezekiel had to lie on his side for three hundreds days to symbolize the judgment to come. All these sufferings made the prophets extremely aware of their human frailty (Jeremiah 20:7-10) so that they could describe it better to the people or nation that is going to confront such situation. It is a prophetic ministry that has to foretaste of the suffering and judgment for the price the people has created upon themselves.
ENCOURAGEMENT.
Many times in the Old Testament the prophet encourages the people to be strong in the Lord. The words of the prophet will build up and strengthen the people to face trial and tribulation. Moses came before the people in Egypt and encouraged them to be strong as the end the Lord will take them out of their captivity. We also learned that when Asa heard the words of prophecy from Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage (2 Chronicles 15:1).
TESTING OF PROPHECY
Prophets are called to speak of God’s word, the proof that a trustworthy prophet is through the fact that his words are effective and fulfilled most of the time. A good example of this was Samuel. There are instances where false prophets come in so another important part of their ministry, they are to see developed by testing prophecy. In Ezekiel there is an interesting Scripture Ezekiel 13:2-3 that we should take note - "Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, 'Hear the word of the LORD!'" Thus says the Lord GOD: "Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!" God says one can actually say they are hearing from the Lord, but it really is their own spirit.
THE MEANING OF HISTORY
We know the first five books of the Old Testament were written by Moses so prophets have a role in explaining the meaning of history by keeping a record because when a culture loses an understanding of its history, it loses its sense of direction so Moses was instructed by God to write such history books.
THEOLOGY
What is theology? Theology is defined as the study of the nature of God and religious truth; rational inquiry into religious questions. Therefore, prophets should be experts on God as it is their part of their role is to pass on theological and biblical insights to the people. A prophet should be good in the knowledge of God and for the people who longs to hear His word. Jeremiah was one of those Old Testament's prophets, the supreme prophet of the human heart.
HISTORIAN
As I was talking about the making of history, it automatically makes us think of prophet as historian. This is true if we are to consider them as historian because many historic books are found in the Old Testament written by prophets who recorded the works of God. Moses is one of the great example follows by prophet Isaiah son of Amoz of the beginning and end of Uzziah's reign, the records of Nathan the prophet and the records of Gad the seer, together with the details of David's reign and power, and the circumstances that surrounded him, Israel and the kingdoms of all the other lands and many more just to name a few.
These ancient prophets at that time entered into great careers as writers of prophecy. Their commitment is in prophetic utterances in summary, or in considerable detail, or as isolated and individual prophecies, to writing. Literary activities and duties devolved upon the prophets, as historians and writers of prophecy of all times.
6. CONCLUSION.
I have begun my writing by first defining the term "prophet", its characteristics and mode of communication of the prophet before thoroughly explained the role prophet plays in Old Testament times. A prophet must be called by God and whatever thing he does must be initiated or rested from Him. It is not a ministry that anyone can or likes to take up. A prophet is basically a spokesman of or for God, a person chosen by God to speak to people on God's behalf and convey a message or teaching. Prophets were role models of holiness, scholarship, and closeness to God, His closeness to uphold God's high standard that requires ethical norm. The primary message of the prophets is the person and character of God. And second message is God’s plan for history. Prophet describes what God is doing for the people of Israel in Old Testament context. They give the long-term plan and proclaim coming events, explaining how they fit into the long-term plan as mentioned in Isaiah 40:15-17. They, the prophet should be obsessed with the kingdom of God as a passion for it to become a reality. That is what we have learned throughout the Old Testament. Beginning of Old Testament prophecy coincided with the rise of leadership than monarchy, and the funny thing the decline of prophetic activity also coincided with the demise of the monarchy. Prophet Samuel was a kingmaker and the last pre-exilic prophet, Jeremiah. Of all these, the greatest of the prophets was Moses. In Moses, we see him as the combination of all the other prophets in the Old Testament. He wrote the whole five Hebrew books of the Old Testament, including the Prophets and the Writings that were written hundreds of years later. All subsequent prophecy was merely an expression of what Moses had done and seen. The whole message found throughout the Old Testament prophet was about calling the people back to proper worship of God. It served two complementary roles in Israel. They spoke for God to the people, calling the people to respond faithfully to Him who had revealed Himself in their history. At the same times, they also spoke for the weak, the oppressed and deprive of a privilege with little hope in shaping their own destiny or future. The function of the prophet as we have learned was not merely the disclosure of what to come but included the exposition and application of the law, the declaration of God's will which entails two elements - the moral or doctrinal and the predictive. All these indicate us why it is so important to know the role that prophet has played in the Old Testament because everything becomes reality is out of what they had done in the Old Testament just like the importance of the Disciples of Christ that initiates the book of the New Testament.
*List of bibliographies are not included.
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