What does it mean to be a prophet according to the Bible?

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There’s no one-size-fits-all description for what every prophet is like or what they’re called to do. Here’s how God can use ordinary people to do powerful things, and how to test between true prophets and false prophets.

When you hear the word “prophet,” what comes to mind?

Do you think of a person with some kind of mystical powers that allow them to see the future?

Do you think of someone odd, reclusive, or awkward, only able to carry on conversations about whatever prophecy they’re currently proclaiming?

Maybe your mind goes straight to the Bible, thinking of high-profile prophets like Daniel, John the Baptist, or Elijah.

The word “prophet” probably isn’t one you use very often in regular conversation, but as you read through the Bible, you’ll come across numerous stories of everyday people—rich and poor, young and old, men and women, charismatic and shy—who were called upon by God to serve as prophets.

But what is a prophet, really?

Do they all talk about the future? Do they have to be really good people first? Do they have to be likeable or influential? What’s on the prerequisites list for becoming a prophet?

The actual definition for “prophet” is simple, but serving in that role can mean many different things—it’s not all about proclaiming a prophecy or two in front of a group of people. Just as each human being is unique, each prophet is unique. And their God-led influence has accomplished amazing things throughout history.
 
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Definition of a prophet.

Most dictionaries agree—a prophet is a person who receives a divine message and speaks to other human beings on behalf of a deity.

The Bible’s definition, based on how prophets are described throughout Scripture and what they are tasked to do, isn’t much different than what the dictionaries say. It’s like being God’s spokesperson for a given time and place.

“Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant’” (Jeremiah 1:9-11).

However, the word “prophet” does have connotations that can distract from the original meaning. For example, if you look at a thesaurus, “prophet” often gets lumped in with words like “seer,” “astrologer,” “fortune teller,” “soothsayer,” or even “witch!”

But before this starts to sound too eerie, this is where the Bible’s definition strongly disagrees. In fact, several Bible verses describe how things like sorcery or divination are forbidden. God specifically instructs His people to stay away from such practices and the people involved in them (Zechariah 10:2; Isaiah 8:19-20; Acts 8:9-24).

The definition of “prophet” is simple, but the significance is powerful. Being chosen as a prophet is considered an honour, and it demands courage, diligence, and selflessness—not easy things for imperfect humans to consistently maintain. Fortunately, one of the perks for prophets was God was with them every step of the way, so they didn’t have to rely on their own human strength or confidence.
 

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Who were the prophets of the Bible, and what were they like?

While all prophets in the Bible communicated God’s words to people, their specific roles varied. God used different methods of communicating with the prophets, and the types of prophecies they were to share had different purposes, themes, and conditions.
 

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Most prophets were sent to inspire action or change.

It’s easy to think of prophets as individuals propped up on an elevated step, rock, platform, etc., proclaiming a big, grand message to the crowd. Many prophets, however, had an intended audience of ten, three, or even one. It depended on where the motivation and inspiration were needed most.

Moses was an early Old Testament prophet and leader called by God to save the entire Israelite nation from slavery in Egypt. To start that process, however, he and his brother, Aaron, had to confront one person, the Pharaoh, to convince him to release the Israelites.

Pharaoh refused, so God used Moses to perform miracles (well, plagues), demonstrating that Pharaoh was up against more than a couple of strong-willed humans. Nope, he was messing with God’s people. Yet it still took many confrontations with Moses, as well as several more plagues, to get Pharaoh to relent (Exodus 7-11).

The prophet Jonah was sent to the city-state of Nineveh to warn them of impending destruction if they continued in their wickedness. Fortunately, the whole city listened, and they repented of their sins.

During the time of King David, God sent the prophet Nathan to tell him a parable, effectively convincing King David of his guilt from his recent actions in murder and adultery. The king repented and accepted his consequences (2 Samuel 12).

The prophet Samuel, only a boy at the time, was sent by God to confront the high priest, Eli, about his sons’ sacrilegious actions. Unfortunately, in this case, the recipient of the prophetic message did not follow through on the changes asked of him and his sons. Each of them met untimely deaths (1 Samuel 3-4).

Even with a divinely inspired call to action, the choice to follow God’s way or their own way still belongs to the human being.
 

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There was no prophet “type.” God used all types of people.

Depending on the situations that called for a prophetic voice to cut through the noise, God used different types of people for different amounts of time.

Samuel, mentioned earlier, was used as a prophet throughout his whole life as he served at the temple for his career.

Similarly, the prophet Jeremiah was a priest and ended up being used by God as a prophet for most of his life.

Ezra was an Israelite scribe and teacher sent by God—and King Cyrus of Persia, as predicted by the prophet Jeremiah—to bring Israelites out from Babylon, back to Jerusalem, and teach them more about the Scriptures (Ezra 7-10).

Deborah was a judge over Israel, settling the disputes of the people. After God called her as a prophet, her leadership inspired the military leadership of her general, Barak, who refused to go into battle without her (Judges 4).

Before he was a prophet, Moses was a prince of Egypt, then a runaway shepherd, then a slave. Amos and Elisha were farmers (Amos 1:1; 1 Kings 19:15-21).

But the strangest prophet is probably Balaam. He was not an Israelite—in fact, he worked with those who wished Israel harm. Yet he received messages from God and recognized his authority. Though when Balaam started going his own way instead of God’s way, God had to set him back on the right path—by talking through his donkey (Numbers 22).
 

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Some prophets received visions.

God often spoke to His prophets directly (“the Word of the Lord came to [prophet]”), but when He had complex concepts to convey, God often gave His prophets visions. One such vision was given to Joseph in a dream. He was shown how his brothers (who were jealous of him and treated him poorly) would one day bow down before him (Genesis 37:5-11). This happened eventually when he became a prominent official in service to the Pharaoh (Genesis 42).

God also used Joseph to interpret the dreams of others, like he used Daniel later on (Daniel 2:22-49). Joseph was imprisoned at the time (Genesis 40), and God gave him the interpretation of two fellow prisoners’ dreams. Later on, he was given the interpretation for the Pharaoh’s dream about skinny cows devouring fat cows, which signified times of future surplus and of famine so they could plan ahead (Genesis 41).

Ezekiel was called to be a prophet for a rebellious Israel (Ezekiel 2) and received several elaborate visions about the siege of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 4), as well as how Israel would be judged by God if they didn’t return to His ways.

John the Revelator, was shown prophetic symbols in vision so the end of the world could be studied and understood.
 

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Some prophets performed miracles.

Sometimes, to really pack a punch with the message God delivered through His prophets, there were miracles involved. These usually happened with more extreme situations, when it was dangerous for the prophets to proclaim these prophecies.

Several well-known miracles were performed by God through Elijah, most notably during the “showdown” between an animal sacrificed to God, and an animal sacrificed to the idol, Baal. To demonstrate God’s power, Elijah called for God to send fire down from heaven, signifying acceptance of the animal sacrifice. That fire ended up burning up the entire altar along with the slaughtered bull (1 Kings 18:16-19). God also had Elijah raise a widow’s son from the dead! (1 Kings 17:17-24)

Elisha, the protégé of the prophet Elijah, also had miracles to note in his prophetic career, from making an axe head float in water (2 Kings 6:1-7) to curing someone of leprosy (2 Kings 5).
 

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Some prophets did prophesy about the future.

Even though the foretelling of future events is not even the primary function of a prophet, there’s a reason it’s common for people to think this is the defining characteristic of prophets. Several of the most famous prophets of the Bible revealed important aspects of the future to their intended audiences.

Daniel, a Hebrew prophet during the time the entire nation Israel was held captive by Babylon, prophesied directly to several kings of Babylon their reigns were coming to an end (Daniel 2, 5). He proclaimed to everyone in Israel and Babylon that God had very specific plans for Israel—plans that would restore their independence and break them free from oppressive rule.

Daniel also was given prophecies that had to do with the distant future of the earth (Daniel 7-12), similar to John of Patmos, often nicknamed “John the Revelator,” who wrote most of the prophetic words in the book of Revelation.

Another John, famous for preparing others for the future, was John the Baptist. He preached in the wilderness to anyone who would come out to listen, sharing the message of hope that the Messiah was coming soon.

Additionally, this predicting prophet was even predicted himself! The prophet Isaiah wrote about “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord,’” referring to John the Baptist (Isaiah 40:3).
 

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Are there…bad/false prophets?

So far we’ve talked about prophets in a positive light, but the Bible also tells us to be wary of “false prophets.”

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves”
(Matthew 7:15).

Hold on, though. If a prophet is someone playing the part of God’s mouthpiece, what would a false prophet be?

You can probably deduce that false prophets would be acting against prophets of God, wanting people to believe something opposite or irrelevant to the messages God sends through His prophets.

In one situation, false priests and prophets were evil enough to pronounce a death sentence on the prophet Jeremiah, just because they didn’t like what the prophecy said about their city! They claimed to still be followers of God, but their interests were their own.

But not all false prophets are this easy to recognize. False prophets have been used by the devil to spread lies, mixing truth with error in order to seem more convincing.

That is why God provided various “tests” for a prophet.

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).

“YOU will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit” (Matthew 7:16-17).

To sum it up, here are ways you can test a prophet to see if they are really speaking for God:

1. Their prophecies should honour God, not themselves or any other human being.

2. Prophecies should always be in line with what has already been written as Scripture.

3. Prophecies should never add anything to Scripture, but only refer back to it for the purpose of reminding or expounding upon it.

4. If they do make predictions, they must come to pass as spoken (Jeremiah 28:9; Deuteronomy 18:22).
Prophecies often point out the sins of the people and tell them how to change

5. What they prophesy must never contradict that Jesus is the Son of God and the Saviour of the earth (1 John 4:1-3).

6. A person’s “fruits” are what they repeatedly do. When working for God, prophets should generally demonstrate a Christ-like character.
 

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Can there still be prophets today?

While the idea can feel a little strange, according to the Bible, prophets can still be called by God anywhere and anytime.

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy” (Acts 2: 17-18).

A prophet today might “look” different than those you read about in the Bible, since society, communication methods, and other factors will come into play. But remember the simple definition: someone who receives a message from God and tells it to the intended audience.

God is just as active today as He was when the Bible was written, and He still longs to communicate with His children in the most effective way possible. So if you do hear of a modern-day prophet, you will know how to test them based on their message and their habits.
 

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The prophetic gift is a sign of the “remnant” near the end of time.

We are told that as the end of time approaches (or the “day of the Lord,” as many Bible verses describe it), this gift will be used all the more to assist the church through difficult times.

Joel 2:28-31 describes an increased activity of this gift the closer we get to the Second Coming of Jesus. The apostle Peter re-emphasizes this passage of Scripture in Acts 2:16-18.

This refers to the remnant of true believers, with whom Satan is furious because no matter how hard he tries, he just can’t snuff out the spiritual fervour of God’s followers. The Holy Spirit bestows the gift of prophecy among this remnant to encourage these followers and hold fast to the “commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).
 

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The authentic gift of prophecy: 5 ways to know.

Testing a Prophet.

How do we know when the prophetic gift is genuine and not a counterfeit? The Bible provides several guidelines for testing the prophetic gift.

1. Dreams and Visions—Numbers 12:6. In Scripture, genuine prophets received prophetic dreams and visions.

2. Agreement With the Bible—Isaiah 8:20. What a prophet claims to have received from God must be in harmony with the rest of God’s Word, because God does not contradict Himself (Psalm 15:4; Malachi 3:6).

3. The Witness to Jesus—1 John 4:1-2. They have to accept all that the Bible teaches about Jesus and point people to Him as Lord and Saviour of mankind.

4. Fulfilled Prophecy—Jeremiah 28:9. The proof of a true prophet lies, in part, in the fulfilment of his/her predictions.

5. The Orchard TestMatthew 7:20. This test is compelling. Does the prophet live a life in harmony with the will of God and are the lives of those touched transformed so that they too live godly lives? No one is without sin, and all fall short of the glory of God however true prophets live godly lives and the fruits of their labour testify of God.

While counterfeit prophets may pass one or two of these tests, a true prophet will pass them all.
 
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Deborah was a judge over Israel, settling the disputes of the people. After God called her as a prophet, her leadership inspired the military leadership of her general, Barak, who refused to go into battle without her (Judges 4).
I love the inclusion of Deborah, a female prophet, on your list. To me, Deborah means that there is room in God's plan for an exceptional female to be a leader, though it may not be the norm.
But the strangest prophet is probably Balaam. He was not an Israelite—in fact, he worked with those who wished Israel harm. Yet he received messages from God and recognized his authority. Though when Balaam started going his own way instead of God’s way, God had to set him back on the right path—by talking through his donkey (Numbers 22).
Balaam's case is strange indeed. While he was not able to curse the Israelites, as Bakak had requested, he did end up paying with his life (Numbers 31) for advising the king on how to get the Israelites to curse themselves!

Im curious what your take is on the story in 1 Kings 13 regarding the man of God who is tricked into disobeying God by another prophet.
1 Kings 13




1 And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.
2 And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.
3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.
4 And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.
5 The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.
6 And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Intreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the Lord, and the king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before.
7 And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.
8 And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place:
9 For so was it charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.
10 So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel.
11 Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father.
12 And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah.

13 And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass: and he rode thereon,
14 And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said, I am.
15 Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread.
16 And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place
:
17 For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.
18 He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him.
19 So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water.
20 And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back:
21 And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee,
22 But camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.
23 And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ass, to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought back.
24 And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase.
25 And, behold, men passed by, and saw the carcase cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcase: and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.
26 And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord: therefore the Lord hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake unto him
.
27 And he spake to his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass. And they saddled him.
28 And he went and found his carcase cast in the way, and the ass and the lion standing by the carcase: the lion had not eaten the carcase, nor torn the ass.
29 And the prophet took up the carcase of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass, and brought it back: and the old prophet came to the city, to mourn and to bury him.
30 And he laid his carcase in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother!
31 And it came to pass, after he had buried him, that he spake to his sons, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones:
32 For the saying which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.
33 After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places.
34 And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.
 

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I love the inclusion of Deborah, a female prophet, on your list. To me, Deborah means that there is room in God's plan for an exceptional female to be a leader, though it may not be the norm.
Me too.
Balaam's case is strange indeed. While he was not able to curse the Israelites, as Bakak had requested, he did end up paying with his life (Numbers 31) for advising the king on how to get the Israelites to curse themselves!
He disobeyed God and all for material gain.

Im curious what your take is on the story in 1 Kings 13 regarding the man of God who is tricked into disobeying God by another prophet.
There are so many lessons to be learnt from the story but the main lesson is about obedience. Obedience is a very important part of our relationship with God. The nameless prophet was given a specific command of prophecy to give to king Jeroboam of Israel the northern kingdom. After giving the prophecy which included the splitting of the false altar and Jeroboam's hand shrivelling up, he should have returned right away to Judah on a different path without taking time to eat or drink in that land of idolatry as God had commanded him.

But unfortunately he chose to sit under a tree in Israel to rest instead of getting to Judah first then resting there. He opened himself up for temptation by resting and not taking God's command seriously. Sadly temptation arrived in the form of the old prophet who lied to the nameless prophet and said, "I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water’ ” (1 Kings 13:18). God does not and never has given conflicting messages. Only Satan does that and the old prophet was acting as his agent by lying and giving a contradicting message to God's prophet. This was the second temptation for God's prophet. The first one was from king Jeroboam which he had rejected. But he believed the old prophet and went back home with him.

There is a part of the story I don't understand. The old prophet who lied and tricked God's prophet from Judah is the same one that rebukes him for disobeying God in verses 21-22. Is it Satan through the old prophet telling God's prophet the truth after he led him to sin?

Anyway the important lesson to remember is that the prophet of God should not have disobeyed the clear command of the Lord. Sadly he was killed by a lion on his way home because of his disobedience.

There are different responses to the death of the prophet of God. Jeroboam continued to follow his evil ways and did not repent even after witnessing a miracle. (The apostasy that he introduced resulted in the destruction of his reign and later of the nation of Israel the northern kingdom. All ten tribes were scattered when the Assyrians attacked and they ceased to exist). But the old prophet believed that God’s word would be fulfilled. He told his sons to put his bones next to the bones of the prophet of God in his tomb when he died. The prophecy made by the prophet of God from Judah was fulfilled by Josiah three hundred years later (2 Kings 23:15-16). As the prophecy foretold, Josiah burned bones on the altar. But Josiah spared (does not burn) the bones of the man of God. And later, Josiah spared the bones of the old prophet who was buried with him (2 Kings 23:17-18).
 
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Why Did God Send Prophets?

Imagine that the first face you ever saw was the face of God. Imagine that the first voice you ever heard was God’s voice. That’s how it was with Adam and Eve. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).

“Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man” (verse 22).

When Adam and Eve opened their eyes, they looked into the lovely face of Jesus, and the first words they heard came from His melodious voice.
Everything was perfect in their beautiful garden home. They enjoyed the company of angels, of each other, and of God Himself.

But once sin entered this world, things went horribly wrong. Instead of delighting to meet with God, our first parents fled in terror, seeking to hide. But of course, one can never hide from God.

Of the many things they lost that day, one of the most painful was the privilege of open, face-to-face communion with God Himself.

God Did Not Abandon Us.

When we love someone, we want to talk with them and spend time together. Those of us who are parents long to spend time with our children—sharing experiences, teaching and encouraging them, and offering help when needed. We want to give them the gift of being there and communicating together.

If we human beings have such a longing to communicate with those whom we love, how much more does our Father in heaven long to communicate with us? Jesus said, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11).

God did not abandon His people, leaving them to the devil’s devising. Since God could no longer speak face to face with fallen humanity because of the sin barrier, nor teach them as He had previously, He created other ways to communicate His all-important, lifesaving instruction to the world.

The Bible identifies at least nine avenues that God has used to communicate with people: (1) angels; (2) creation (nature); (3) the cloud/pillar of fire; (4) the Urim and Thummim; (5) dreams; 6) voice from heaven; (7) the Holy Spirit guiding individuals; (8) Christ in person; and (9) prophets.

While God has used all these communication methods, the major revelations of the will of God have been given through the prophets, with Jesus being chief among them (Luke 24:19; Matthew 13:57-58). God’s prophets are so important that the Bible assures us, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).
 

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Why Did God Send Prophets?

Why did God send prophets? We find the answer in the Bible: “Because He had compassion on His people” (2 Chronicles 36:15).

The context of this passage is interesting. The kingdom of Judah had lost much and was on the brink of Babylonian captivity and destruction. Following a series of wicked kings, Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, and “all the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more, according to all the abominations of the nations, and defiled the house of the Lord which He had consecrated in Jerusalem” (verse14).

This happened in spite of God sending numerous prophets, including Jeremiah, “who spoke from the mouth of the Lord” (verse12). These prophetic messengers were sent because the Lord “had compassion on His people” (verse 15).

How did God’s people respond? “They mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy” (verse 16).

It is a serious thing to despise the messages God sends through His prophets. In this case it resulted in the death of young men and women, elderly individuals, even those who took refuge in God’s sanctuary. The remaining treasures of the sanctuary were plundered and God’s house was burned. Jerusalem’s walls were broken down and the city destroyed. Those who lived were taken to Babylon as captives.

All of this the Lord had warned them about through His prophets, including Jeremiah, but the people refused to listen (verse 15).

Sadly, God’s prophets, and the messages He sends through them, have often been rejected. Nevertheless, God has persisted in maintaining a prophetic channel of communication to His people—the apple of His eye (Deuteronomy 32:10; Zechariah 2:8).

God Works Through Prophets.

Through the ages God has given vital, lifesaving messages through His prophets. Prophets are ordinary people whom God has chosen to represent Him by receiving His divine messages and delivering them faithfully to His people.

God spoke to His prophets in visions and dreams; and the prophets, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, conveyed what they saw and heard using their own language, “for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).

Prophets have played a vital role throughout human history, illustrating why God has blessed His people by sending prophets. In his book Messenger of the Lord Herbert Douglass gives eight reasons God used prophets “rather than some dramatic attention-getting device such as writing on the clouds or thundering out His will every morning at dawn.” Herbert E. Douglass, Messenger of the Lord: pg 10.

  • Prophets pointed to and prepared the way for Christ’s first advent.
  • As representatives of the Lord, prophets showed people that God valued human beings enough to choose from among them men and women to represent Him.
  • Prophets were a continual reminder of the nearness and availability of God’s instruction.
  • The presence of prophets tested the people about their attitude toward God.
  • Messages through the prophets accomplish the same purposes as personal communication from the Creator.
  • Prophets demonstrate what fellowship with God and the transforming grace of the Holy Spirit can accomplish in human lives.
  • Prophets helped to communicate the plan of salvation, for God has consistently used a combination of the human and the divine as His most effective means for reaching lost humanity.
  • The prophets’ outstanding work is their contribution to the Written Word.
 

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Prophecy Is a Gift.

Clearly, prophets serve as a key communication link between God and human beings. Many of God’s messages of instruction, explanation, warning, reproof, encouragement, and ultimate plans are preserved for us through God’s Written Word, the Bible.

The Bible is a collection of God’s messages for His people and a record of His working among them, written by His prophets over a span of nearly 1,600 years (from Moses to the apostle John) as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

The gift of prophecy is one of the gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12, and God’s Word indicates it will be present at the end of time. In identifying God’s last-day remnant people, we read, “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).

Related to this passage and the concept of God speaking through His prophets, we read the words of the angel to John: “I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10).
 

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Making Sense of Bible Prophecy.

WHAT’S THE SOURCE OF BIBLE PROPHECIES? What’s their purpose? And how are we to understand and relate to them?

Prophecy is pervasive through the Old Testament, from beginning to end. As soon as Adam and Eve disobeyed and were expelled from the Garden of Eden, God gave them the promise of a Saviour (Genesis 3:15). Later God warned Noah about a flood that would impact the entire world (Genesis 6). Several major prophecies were given to Abraham, the physical and spiritual father of Israel—the Egyptian sojourn of his descendants, for example. The other end of the Old Testament contains the words of prophets such as Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

A brief look at the New Testament shows that prophecy is common here, too. This section of the Bible begins with prophecies of the births of John the Baptist and Jesus. And John, who announced the Messiah’s coming, was considered by Jesus the greatest of prophets. Jesus Himself concluded His ministry with the great prophetic sermon on Mount Olivet (Matthew 24). Paul recorded his prophetic experiences in his first letter to the Corinthians and his second letter to the Thessalonians. The most obvious example of prophecy in the New Testament, of course, is the book of Revelation.

How did these prophecies come about? Did these people simply decide they were prophets?

The answer is no. Prophets did not work themselves up into an ecstatic state and then “break into prophecy.” Rather, they served at God’s will, not vice versa—as is illustrated by Baalam’s story (Numbers 22-24). Thus the first point that can be made about the origin of prophecy, as 2 Peter 1:21 puts it, is that “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
 

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How Are Ancient Prophecies Relevant to Us?

The words of the prophets cover a continuum through time. The first frame of reference for their messages is their own day. Their indictment of the people’s sins generally come under this category. A good example of this is in Amos 2:6-16, where the prophet castigates the people for current evils. Such a prophecy was not meant for the future, except perhaps as a general warning of the results of that type of behavior. This aspect of the prophetic ministry—speaking for God to a current situation—is sometimes called forthtelling.

However, the prophet could also speak to issues in the intermediate or distant future, an activity sometimes referred to as foretelling. The length of time that the Jews would be captives in Babylon—70 years, according to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:12), is an example of prophecy dealing with the intermediate future. As God gave His prophets inspired views or words about the future, He spread out before them events ranging from those in the immediate future to those far in the distance—even into eternity.

If the biblical prophets predicted only events that were to occur in the immediate future, they might be suspected of being simply better guessers than their contemporaries, as some humanistic scholars believe. However, God extended their view to events well beyond the scope of speculation. The prophecies about the nations found in Daniel 2 and 7 present a fascinating example of predictions ranging over many centuries. From a human point of view, Daniel seems to have chosen the least likely alternative for the destiny of the Persian Empire in which he lived; but from a divine point of view he was conveying exactly what God foreknew.
 

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Did Bible Prophecy Fail?

As we read the Old Testament, we run up against certain prophetic predictions that, especially in recent times, have led to questions. They have the form of eschatological prophecies—prophecies relating to “the last things.” Did they find fulfillment? Or were the prophets mistaken?

The common element in these prophecies is that they begin with the prophet’s circumstances (commonly the Babylonian exile), then look beyond immediate events into the future. In that future, the prophets were shown what ancient Israel could have become. They saw God’s people returning to their glorified land. They saw Jerusalem as an exalted city—the world capital, in fact, into which people from all nations would stream, seeking a knowledge of the true God. The exaltation of this land and the entire world was to continue until it would become, in effect, a new earth.

These prophecies about ancient Israel were never literally fulfilled, however. Why? The humanistic answer is that the prophets were not really recipients of divine foreknowledge and had simply guessed wrong. A completely opposite answer, characteristic of some evangelical interpreters (known as dispensationalists), is that, since these prophecies were inspired by God, they must take place—in the literal, present country of Israel.

The Biblical approach is one in the middle of the first two. The evangelicals rightly state that the “failed” prophecies were given by God and are true. The humanists are right too to state that the prophecies will not be literally fulfilled in Israel.

How do we reconcile these two points of view? By considering these prophecies conditional. Biblically the prophecies have to be put in categories of promises—promises of what could have been if God’s chosen people had cooperated fully with His plan for them. Unfortunately, they did not. We see the final frustration of God’s plan in the New Testament. Here God’s own people reject the Messiah: “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him" (John 1:11). While these prophecies will yet be fulfilled in reference to spiritual Israel, the Christian church (Galatians 3:15-29), they no longer apply to a literal Israel in the Middle East.
 
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