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Recommended: Amos of the bible
“Soul Catchers”
A most interesting film detailing the history and role of the prophet in the Jewish tradition. The first question we must explore is what a prophet is. A prophet by definition is a person who speaks by divine inspiration. Others will say that a prophet is one whose eye is open. A person who can see things that others cannot. In order to understand the prophets and their appearance in history we must first understand the politics of the times.
In the eleventh century BCE Israel is divided into twelve tribes. The prophet Samuel is called upon to bring the people under one ruler or king and lead Israel into a monarchy. However this brings a major split and for the first time we find a military and political leader, the King, along with a spiritual leader, or the prophet. The prophet played the role of moral keeper and would make sure that the King was ruling justly and keeping the Law of God.
Prophets began to travel in packs receiving the presence of God through trace like states. The prophet Elijah emerges out of these traveling prophets around 886 BCE and begins to speak publicly. Elijah had a big problem with the King. The Kings lady was from a pagan religion and had brought about the worship of other Gods. Elijah addresses the King publicly and challenges the other Gods to make fire. They of course can’t match the Big Guy and Elijah triumphs and rides away into the sky leaving behind his robe passing on the power of prophecy. So ends the spoken prophets.
Later around 792 BCE, the writing prophets come about with the powerful speaker Amos. Amos says a bunch of things that no one wants to hear such as the downfall of Israel’s Northern Kingdom and the death of the King. Then he really upsets everyone by saying that Israel will be sent into exile.
About 742 BCE the most known prophet, Isaiah comes on the scene. Now this far out guy walks the streets naked for three years telling the King not to ally with the Assyrians. He also speaks of how Jerusalem will be saved from the Assyrians. The Assyrians don’t invade Jerusalem but the Northern Kingdom is destroyed just as Amos predicted fifty years earlier.
Finally one of the last and least liked of the prophets comes about around 626 BCE and his name is Jeremiah.
Shortly following his encounter with Yahweh, Vorilhon changed his name to Raël, “The Messenger.” The Elohim told him that he is the 40th and final prophet. On August 6, 1945, America dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, representing the apocalypse. In this sense, ‘apocalypse’ refers to humanity’s revelation that, in the age of...
The role of the prophet changes with the society in which he lives. In modern society, a prophet is a visionary, telling people what they can become; in Biblical times, a prophet was the voice of God, telling his people what they had to become to fulfill their covenant with God. In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the prophet is a peaceful lad, Simon. He alone saw that the jungle, which represented freedom and the lack of civilization, was not to be feared but to be understood; he alone knew that the mythical Beast of the island, feared by all the boys, was, in fact, their own inherent savagery. Through these truths Simon represents a Christ figure paralleling Christ's misunderstood message and Christ's death.
Among Jewish peasantry at the time of Jesus were two distinct types of prophets: the action prophets, who "led sizable movements of peasants from the villages of Judea in anticipation of God's new, eschatological act of liberation," and the oracular prophets, who delivered oracles of either judgment or deliverance (185). The former, as illustrated by the case of Theudas, appea...
Even though the prophets were met with hostility and rebuking from the people, due to the evil in peoples hearts, they continued to speak the words of God. The Prophets knew they would face danger because of the words they spoke, but they also knew the words of God had to be heard. The prophets were an important tool in redirecting the people which makes their role in the history of Israel and Judah one of the most important roles.
The book of 1 Samuel, a part of the Old Testament, sparks the dawn of the United Kingdom of Israel by telling of its first king, Saul. Samuel is one of the first talked about pre-literary prophets in the bible perhaps because he anointed the first king of the United Kingdom. He is a prophet by definition because he possessed the ability to converse with the almighty Yahweh. Samuel and Saul are key players to the rise of the kingdom but Saul runs into trouble and disobeys God, which leads him to his own inevitable demise.
Correspondingly, other canonical prophetic books interpret Yahweh’s will during periods of social or political crisis.4 Many minor prophets wrote during one of the three critical periods: the Assyrian Crisis, the Babylonian threat, or the postexilic readjustment.5 During the Babylonian threat of the late-seventh century, Habakkuk served as a link between God and humanity. The Assyrian kingdom, led by Shalmanasar V, forced the people of Judah into harsh conditions through a heartless deportation. In time, political drama spread throughout the region. After 612 B.C.E. when Assyria fell to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Habakkuk wrote his prophetic book, focusing on the agony of humankind’s struggle to progress in such a wicked world. His message of faith and morality transcended the evil within society, ultimately revealing to the Israelites that justice would prevail.
The pericope of that I choose for this reflection paper is Isaiah 11:1-9. The preceding literature unit of this pericope focuses on the topic how God uses Assyria for His redemptive purpose. In Isaiah 10:5, Isaiah explains the role of Assyria in God’s plan. Assyria is the rod of God’s anger. He uses it to punish Israel and Judah because they are two godless nations but full of idols (Isaiah 10:6,11). After God’s angers are poured out on two countries, the heart of Assyria becomes boastful. God turns His anger on His rod and punishes Assyria. In Isaiah 10:12-19, Assyria is depicted as a mighty forest and the judgment of God is portrayed as an axe will swing and chop down this mighty forest. Assyria will be destroyed and reduced to a very small number that a child can count (Isaiah 10:19). After the section about the destruction of Assyria, the text turns to the proclamation of the return of the remnant of Israel. The focal point of the text zooms out in the last verse of Isaiah chapter 10 to bring forth the final scene in which the remnant of Israel will return to their land while in the background Assyria is destroyed. The once mighty forest is no more.
Ezekiel meaning the strength of God, is one of the four greater prophets in the Old Testament. Ezekiel was the son of a priest named Buzi. Not much is known about Ezekiel’s childhood; much more is know after the age of twenty-five. Ezekiel was taken captive in the captivity of Jehoiachin, about eleven years before the destruction of Jerusalem. He was one of the many members of a community of Jewish people who settled on the banks of the Chebar, a river of Babylon. Ezekiel began prophesying in 595 B.C, and finished prophesying in 573 B.C. Ezekiel prophesied for a period that lasted about twenty-two years. Ezekiel was a married man but little else is known about his family life, he also had a house in his place of exile. His wife died a sudden death during the siege of Jerusalem. He lived among the top of his companions in exile, and their elders consulted with him on all matters.
In 63 B.C. Roman power spread to Judea, the Jewish homeland. At the time King Herod was the ruler of Judea, he accepted Roman rule and angered many Jews by doing so. After the death of Herod many Jews revolted against Roman rule for 10 years. At this time there were two main factions of Jews, one group, the Zealots wanted to rid Judea of Roman influence. The other group was waiting for a messiah as scripture had prophetized. The Messiah, or Savior would restore the kingdom to the Jews.
Studies of The Old Testament make it evident that kingship is the ruling principle of leadership for a kingdom. There were no presidents with a democracy like The United States has today or communists making everyone equal. There was simply one king, specifically a male, his subordinates, and the kingdom he governed over. Hebrew culture was no different. This is seen through the great kings of the Bible, one of the most well known of them being King YHWH also called Yahweh. Kingship played a vital role in the progression and development of the kingdom of Israel throughout history from the time they first were freed by the mercy of Yahweh. The presentation of ancient Hebrew culture from kingship in the Old Testament reveals the tradition in
d. Who else is called a prophet or prophetess in the Pentateuch (use concordance or biblegateway.org)?
The prophet Isaiah lived during a very troublesome era during the years 742-701B.C.E. He preached during the reigns of four kings of Judah: Uzziah (783-742), Jotham (742-735), Ahaz (735-715), and Hezekiah (715-687). Judah faced many challenges and crises throughout those years primarily at the hands of the Assyrian Empire. Isaih interpreted the events as part of the Lord's will, and he encourages the people to trust in the Lord rather than relying on political alliances.
Before we are going to talk deeply about how God communicates to human being, we need to distinguish some terms that relating with the works of the prophets
Smith, James E. The Major Prophet. Joplin, MO: College Press, 1992. Print. The. Old Testament Survey Series -.
Let us start with this statement: I believe that new preachers and new people to the Christian Faith try hard to avoid the Old Testament. If they do, they only look at one section and struggle to connect all the pieces together. One of the issues that makes people uncomfortable is the prophets. First, there is a definite volume of them, and then they are divided into “major” and “minor.” I think at the core of our hearts, we are trying to understand the difference among the different biblical prophets.