An Introduction to the ProphetsThe Grace InstituteGrace Community FellowshipJanuary 22, 1998 |
Contents |
The Hebrew word most often translated as prophet is nabi. The most common defination of this word is spokesman or one who speaks for or on behalf of someone [1]. In Exodus 7:1-2, Aaron is described as Moses's nabi, or his spokesman to Pharoah. We can therefore define a prophet of God as a divinely appointed spokesman of Yahweh. While the literal definition of prophet may include a number of people throughout history, the bible names several people specifically as prophets.
While our definition of prophet highlights the forthtelling aspect of the prophetic message, the true prophet also had a predictive element in the message. This foretelling aspect has been often undermined by stating that any politically astute person would have been able to accurately guess the immediate future of Israel. Those that downplay the predictions of the prophets have yet to explain the detailed accuracy of many of the prophecies. Furthermore, there often seems to be an immediate as well as long-term fulfillment of predictive prophecies. For example Isaiah 7:14 speaks of a virgin being with child. This prophecy had an immediate fullfillment when Isaiah's own wife gave birth. But the long term fulfillment came nearly 600 years later when Jesus was born.
The prophets were from all walks of life and class. They were not pawns of the monarchy, nor were they the agents of the priesthood [2]. The prophets did include some priests, a herdsman, the wealthy and the poor. But what they all did have in common was a calling from God, and a willingness to pursue this calling.
The biblical prophets of Yahweh were all based out of Judah and Israel, and prophesied during the 9th through 5th centuries before Christ.
The early prophets during the goldent age of the prophets, the message was almost always directed at the monarchy. But these messages were never written down for later generations. Yet these early prophets also seemed to perform miracles.
Later prophets recorded their messages in books bearing their names. We have 16 of these books today, and they are the final books of the Old Testament. Their writing included poetry, historical prose, descriptions of visions and direct revelations of God's word (oracles).
God has used prophets to communicate with humanity from the beginning. The earliest recorded prophet was Enoch, who six generations after Adam warned of the coming of the Lord. Noah prophesied about his children. Abraham and the other patriarchs are called prophets, as is Moses. But the role of the prophet in the history of Israel developed primarily with the rise of the monarchy [3].
Israel reached it's greatest military and economic height under the reign of Solomon. Solomon built upon the military success of his father, David, who not only finally ridded Israel of the Canannite tribes, but also extended the kingdom to Edom in the south, Moab and Ammon in the east, and Syria in the north [2 Samuel 8]. Economically, Solomon was the richest king of his day. Solomon's annual receipts were nearly 800,000 oz. of gold [1 Kings 10:14]. I Kings 10 says, "that silver (was) as common as stones in Jerusalem, and... cedars as plentiful as sycamore trees..."
With this wealth, Solomon built the first temple to Yahweh. While the temple was not particularly large (less then 3,700 sq. ft), the ornamental accouterments were unbelievable. Of greater significance than the physical beauty of the temple, was the fact that the glory of Yahweh himself came and filled the temple, signifying God's approval of the nation [1 Kings 8:11].
But this Golden Age of Israel was short lived. Solomon attempted to achieve peace with Egypt by marrying Pharaoh's daughter. He went on to marry 700 wives, many of them foreign, "and his wives turned his heart away" [1 Kings 11:3] from God. Solomon built temples for the gods of his foreign wives. As a result, God told him that upon his death, his son's kingdom would consist of only one tribe of Israel, and the other tribes would follow his servant.
The prophets rose to prominence during this era in Israel's history. The prophets anointed the kings, signifying God's choice for the new monarch. The prophet Samuel anointed Saul and David, while Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon. God also used the prophet Ahijah to proclaim to Jeroboam that he would be receiving Solomon's kingdom. These anointings were not a formality. David, Solomon, and Jeroboam's anointing as king came at a time when the populous was ready to crown a different king.
It was during these first Kings that we see the prophets as the "conscience of the King." God eloquently used Nathan to convict David of his sin with Bathsheba. (Strangely, however, God spoke directly to Solomon on two occasions, including once to convict him of sin.)
While Solomon was the richest King in the history of Israel, that prosperity came at a price. Solomon taxed and worked the people hard. So, upon his death, the people of Israel petitioned the new king, Solomon's son, Rehoboam, for relief. Rehoboam, taking the advice of his peers rather than his father's advisers, told the people "Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions." [1 Kings 12:11]
As a result, the ten tribes of the north rebelled against Rehoboam and installed Jeroboam as king, just as prophesied by Ahijah the prophet. Rehoboam was ready to squelch the rebellion and plunge the nation into Civil War, but the prophet Shemaiah warned that this turn of events was designed by God. Rehoboam responded and returned his troops to Jerusalem. Rehoboam remained the King of the southern tribe of Judah while Jeroboam became king of the northern kingdom, Israel.
The temple to Yahweh remained in the capital of Judah, Jerusalem. Fearing that pilgrimages to the temple by his subjects would erode his authority, Jeroboam instituted a perversion of Yahwehism. He built his own temples in the north and set up two golden calves as an image of God for them to worship. Many of these temples and sites of worship were in the "high places." The Golden Calf Cult is the first of two major religious perversions that Israel, and to a lesser extent Judah, embraced.
Except for Rehoboam, Judah had kings which followed after God for the next 90 years. In the north, however, things moved from bad to worse. Because of Jeroboam's perversion of true Yahwehism, God stripped away the kingdom from his descendants. Upon Jeroboam's death, the nation followed the rebel Baasha and made him the king. Then for a period of about 5 years the nation was embroiled in a civil war, until finally Omri became victorious. Again it was the prophets who took the role of "King maker," proclaiming God's dissatisfaction with both Jeroboam and Baasha through the words of Ahijah and Jehu.
It was under Omri and his son Ahab that Israel again gained prosperity. Ahab regained control of Moab and defeated Syria in the north, and then made peace with Judah in the south. But it was also Ahab who promoted the second major religious perversion of Israel, Baalism.
And it came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshipped him. [1 Kings 16:31]
Baal was the ancient Canannite god of fertility, and his worship involved sexual rites and temple prostitution. The sexual nature of this cult made it particularly evil in God's sight, for it violated that basic moral and ethic underpinnings of Judaism and attacked the boundaries of familial relationships. [4]
Perhaps because of the extreme evil of Ahab and Baalism, God raised up perhaps the greatest prophet in the history of Israel, Elijah. Through him, God defeated the prophets of Baal in a dramatic show of his power [1 Kings 18]. Along with Elijah, there were a number of other prophets, including Elisha, a group of apprentice prophets who studied with Elijah, and at least 150 others who hid from the wrath of Ahab. Yet, even with these prophets expressing God's warning to the nation Israel, their idolatry was not eliminated.
In fact, the sins of Ahab began infecting the relatively faithful kingdom in the south. As part of Ahab's peace with Judah, he gave his daughter, Athaliah, to Jehoram, the future king of Judah, as his wife. When Jehoram's son became king, he adopted the sins of his maternal grandfather. After his assassination by the new king of Israel, Jehu, his mother, Queen Athaliah, continued the evil legacy. Only through the courage of a young princess, the priests of God, and the army, was Athaliah defeated, the rightful king crowned, and the worship of Yahweh restored to Judah. Israel, however, continued it's evil ways for the next 120 years, with not a single King seeking after God.
The prophets from this period were very involved with the northern Kings, expressing God's dissatisfaction and His judgment. The prophets did not appear to speak much to Judah, nor do we have any evidence that these prophets recorded their words for future generations. Both of these characteristics change in the century with the rise of the literary prophets.
From a global perspective, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were insignificant nations seen merely as pawns between larger nations. Furthermore, the Jewish people began to be influenced much more by these foreign powers surrounding them.
Without a doubt, the most dominant empire of the 7th, 8th, and 9th century before Christ was Assyria. Militarily, Assyria's empire extended from Egypt to Iran. The Assyrians were amazing engineers who built beautiful palaces and amazing temples. Through archeology we have seen their sculptures, painting, and wall reliefs. They had a very sophisticated literary tradition, and an extensive and sophisticated bureaucracy.
Because of these things, we have a tremendous body of historical evidence describing the history and culture of the Assyrians. This evidence is highly complementary of the bible and sheds some fascinating light on the history of Israel and Judah. For example, we have a picture of King Jehu of Israel engraved on a black obelisk showing him paying tribute to the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser III.
During the 8th century, we see God begin to use the prophets in different ways. First, the prophets began writing down their messages from God. Secondly, while the prophets main audience was always Israel and/or Judah, they also began proclaiming God's judgment and call for repentance to other nations.
After the Ahabic dynasty, the nation Israel continued in its idolatry. They continued to worship both the golden calves first established by Jeroboam and Baal. Militarily and politically there was a brief rise in power under the reign of Jeroboam II. But this also was a period of relative weakness in Assyria, where they just endured several epidemics and internal political turmoil. A young Assyrian general named Tiglath-Pilasser III (called Pul in 2 Kings)[5] seized power in the midst of this turmoil, and began reasserting Assyria's domination. From that point until the final destruction of the northern kingdom in 722 BC, the kings of Israel continued to lose power, yielding to the great empire from the north.
King Menahem of Israel paid Tiglath-Pilasser 3 million shekels of silver to keep him from attacking the nation around 743 BC [2 Kings 15:19]. Ten years later, however, Pekah of Israel joined forces with Syria and attacked Judah in the south. Ahaz of Judah called on Tiglath-Pilasser to help. The Assyrian army needed little to entice them to wage a campaign against its southern neighbors, and in 732 BC they destroyed the Syrian capital, Damascus, invaded large sections of northern Israel, and carried off the residents to captivity [2 Kings 15:29]. Hoshea, the next king of Israel was forced to pay tribute to Assyria.
God warned Israel through the prophets, Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah, that unless they repented of their idolatry, that Assyria would destroy them [1 Kings 17:7-18]. The message of these prophets came in various forms, and the prophets themselves were of different backgrounds and style. Yet the people did not listen. So, finally in 722, Tiglath-Pilasser's son, Shalmaneser V, after finding out that Hoshea was plotting with Egypt to rebel against him, destroyed the Israeli capital, Samaria, and carried away all the people of Israel into captivity.
While Israel ignored the prophets of God and was destroyed, Judah heeded the words of Isaiah and Micah, and under the leadership of King Hezekiah, experienced a national revival. Hezekiah destroyed the idols which were tripping up the Jews, and trusted Yahweh, "so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him." [2 Kings 18:5]
The most telling example of Hezekiah's trust in God came in 701 BC, when King Sennacherib of Assyria launched an invasion of Palestine. Sennacherib had faced the Egyptian army in a major battle in the plains of Judah and won. With this victory under his belt, Sennacherib headed to Jerusalem to lay siege to the capital city. In this story, told both in 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37-39, Hezekiah does not surrender, but heading the advise of the prophet Isaiah, leads the nation in prayer and fasting. The Assyrian army is stricken by a plague from God and returns to Ninevah.
(It is interesting to note that the siege against Jerusalem is mentioned in Assyrian history, but the defeat from the plague is not. Rather it merely describes the tribute paid by Hezekiah and their subsequent return).
As renown as Hezekiah was for his trust in God, so Manassah, his son was renown for his idolatry and abominations. Under Manassah, Judah's idolatry became so great that God announced that his judgment on this nation was inevitable. Manassah reigned for 55 evil years during which he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood [2 Kings 21:16]. Assyria was at its largest geographically at this time. Under Esarhaddon and his successor Ashurbanipal, the empire expanded into Egypt and Persia. Manassah avoided Assyrian invasion, not by trusting God as his father had, but by paying tribute and by adopting many of the Assyrian gods.
The prophets are strangely silent during Manassah's reign. None of the surviving prophetic books were written during his reign, and there is no evidence from the history books to indicate that the prophets were active.
Manassah's grandson was given the throne by the palace guards when he was 7 years old. Under the King Josiah, and the priest Hilkiah, the temple was repaired, the law rediscovered, and Passover again celebrated. Yet, the revival was too late. The evil of Manassah had sealed Judah's judgment, and the revival under Josiah merely delayed the inevitable. Furthermore, while the national leadership emphasized a return to God, there is evidence that this repentance was not deep rooted in the people.
God began using prophets again during the reign of Josiah. The message of Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and Jeremiah was again for Judah to repent of her evil or face destruction. Destruction, this time, however, not to be at the hands of Assyria, but at the hands of a new power, Babylon.
Upon the death of Ashurbanipal of Assyria in 633, the empire was thrown into civil war as the dead king's twin sons battled for the throne. The first son, Sinshariskin was able to control the eastern part of the kingdom, and set up his capital in Ninevah. His brother, however, took control of the west and settled his capital at Harran.
Because of this weakness, Josiah was able to suspend tribute payments to Assyria. But it was also this weakness that allowed a new power to arise. In 626, Nabopollaser of Chaldea seized power in Babylon, and after allying himself with Persia, was able to destroy Ninevah in 612 and Harran in 610.
Egypt also sensed the change in the balance of power, and launched a campaign to stop the march of the Babylonian army. Josiah foolishly tried to engage the Egyptian army as it passed through Palestine, but was killed in the battle while his son Jehoahaz was taken captive to Egypt. Then, in a dramatic battle which signified the change in the balance of power, Nabopollaser's son, Nebuchadnezzar, defeated the Egyptians at the battle of Carchemish (605). Babylon was the new dominate empire, and would become the agent by which God would bring judgment to an unrepentant Judah.
Josiah's son, Joahaz had been taken captive by Egypt. Paharoah put Jehoiakim on the throne and applied a tribute to the struggling nation. After the battle of Carchemish, which ended Egypt's domination over Judah, Nebuchadnezzar entered Jerusalem, made Jehoiakim a vassal, and took many of the Jewish nobility (including Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego) to Babylon.
Four years later, Jehoiakim rebelled against Babylon and sought Egypt's defense. He died in 597, and his son, Jehoiachin reigned for 3 months before Nebuchadnezzar retook Jerusalem, deporting young Jehoiachin and placing Zedekiah on the throne as his vassal.
Zedekiah reigned for 11 years, until he too rebelled against Babylon, looking to Egypt for help. Egypt never came to help, and this time Nebuchadnezzer destroyed Jerusalem, including the temple and hauling off the rest of the Jews to Babylon (586 BC).
Through all of these events, Jeremiah was God's primary voice warning the people of Judah to repent. Jeremiah, like the prophets before him, was very active in the politics of the day, and continually told the later kings that Babylon had been divinely appointed as Judah's punishment, and as such, the kings should not rebel against Babylon nor join forces with Egypt. Because the kings ignored Jeremiah's advice, the destruction of Jerusalem was perhaps greater than would have otherwise been necessary.
Nabopolassar died in 605 shortly after the battle of Charchemish, leaving his son Nebuchadnezzar as the King of the new empire. The Babylonian empire stretched from Egypt to Persia. Through his high taxes and tributes he established incredible building projects in Babylonia and made it the largest most advanced city in the world. After Nebuchadnezzar's death, Evil-Merodach reigned for about 2 years, followed by brief reigns by Neriglissar and Labashi-Marduck.
Daniel is the most famous prophet during this time. Daniel ministered to Nebuchadnezzar, and even spoke God's word to the great king himself on more than one occasion. While Daniel proclaimed God's word to the Babylonians, Ezekiel was a prophet living in Babylon who spoke to the Jewish captives.
The next King of Babylon was Nabonidus, who seized power in 556 BC. Nabonidus recognized that Babylonia was exposed to attack by the increasingly powerful Persians due to its geography. He therefore moved his court to Taima in Northern Arabia and established his son Belshazzar as his viceroy in Babylonia. This set many of the priestly class against Nabonidus, who secretly promised Cyrus, King of Persia, that they would surrender Babylon without a fight if they received certain privileges in return. Cyrus defeated Nabonidus in a battle north of the city, and then marched into Babylon without a fight.
The Persians and the Medes united their kingdoms in 550 BC. After the defeat of Babylon, the new Medo-Persian empire everything from Iran to present-day Turkey to Egypt in the south. The Persians were unsuccessful in their invasion of Greece, being rebuffed at Marathon.
The prophets not only had forewarned Judah of the captivity to Babylon, but had also foretold of the restoration of Judah. Nearly all the prophets told of a time when God would gather the nation back and they would no longer worship idols. Jeremiah was specific about the return, stating that it would come after 70 years [Jermeiah 25:12].
In 538 BC, King Cyrus of Persia gave permission for the Jews to return to their homeland. A group of 49,897 people returned to Judah, led by Zerubbabel. Under his leadership they began rebuilding the temple. But life in Judah was not easy. Jerusalem had no walls, and the returning exiles had little to protect them from those who had settled in Judah while they were gone. As a result, the construction on the temple was halted. Furthermore, several of the Jews began to intermarry with the non-Jewish settlers.
God sent the last wave of prophets to this remnant to encourage them to continue to build the temple and to rebuke them for intermarriage. The people heeded the words of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, and the temple was finally completed in 536 BC.
60 years later, a priest named Ezra returned to Judah from Babylon. Ezra also dealt with the sin of marriage to foreigners, and also took it upon himself to instruct the returning Jews of their heritage and law. Ezra is believed to have written the books of I & II Chronicles, to have edited the book of Psalms, and to have first assembled the books into the collection known today as the Old Testament.
The last recorded prophet was Malachi, who also dealt with the intermarriage problem and with the sincerity of the peoples sacrifice. While there were prophets recorded in the scriptures having come after Malachi, he was the last prophet for which we have a written record of his words. Thus ended God's use of prophets for the purpose of communicating his word. Perhaps because in 400 years God's Word would become flesh and dwell among us [John 1], prophets ceased to be necessary. But the prophets were successful in elminating idolatry from the nation, as the worship of foreign gods would never again take place in Judah.
Footnotes
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The Grace Institute is a three year course of study offered at Grace Community Fellowship taking a deeper look at the scriptures, doctrine, and ministry. These notes are from the Winter 1998 semester class, Survey of Old Testament Prophets. This class was taught by Ken Carson, and elder at Grace Community Fellowship. Back to The Grace Institute Home Page. |