Lesson 7 Prophets Men of God and for Men.

1. Prophets exercised their ministries not in a uniform manner but in different ways. There are those to whom no prophetic books are assigned (Elijah) but whose actions manifested in a powerful way Gods message to the people. They may be categorized as preaching prophets. Four prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel) are considered great and twelve others as minor on the basis of the volume of writings ascribed to them (Isaiah has 66 chapters and Haggai 2 chapters). The great and the Minor Prophets may be called literary prophets. Whatever might have been the length of the books assigned to them all prophets were men filled with God, ardent promoters of acceptance of the will of God by the people. When asked what he is doing on Mount Horeb, prophet Elijah answered, I am burning with zealous love for the Lord (1 Kings 19:10). 2. On the other hand if Prophets were men filled with God, they were at the same time intrinsically people oriented. It was a powerful God experience described in the call narratives of Moses and Jeremiah or a call vision of Isaiah that initiated their prophetic mission. The initial God experience was bound up invariably with a mission to be on the side of the people. Abraham was called to be a blessing to the nations (Gen 12:2). Moses mission was a liberative action for the people in captivity in Egypt. Jeremiah was appointed the prophet to the nations (Jer 1:5) the similarity between the people oriented call of the prophets with a call of the first Disciples of Christ making them fishers of men is
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striking. Paul was the chosen instrument to bring Gods name before the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). 3. In the prophecies in Isaiah the people of God are initiated to the God experience in its diverse forms in the Thrice Holy Praise of God (holy holy holy) by the Seraphim in Isaiah 6:3, though neglected in the latter books of the OT, was profusely taken up in the Christian Liturgy particularly in the West Syrian Liturgy as a perfect form of praising the Lord. The Servant of God presented as the future saviour, the covenant to the people of God, and the light to the nation (42:6) was fulfilled in the in-gathering of the Jews and the Gentiles by the Christ event. The future redeemer presented in the several sections as the apocalyptic Davidic warrior who would re-establish the lost glory of the Davidic kingdom is presented in the Deutro-Isaiah as the suffering servant of God (52:13 53:13) who would act in the power of the anointing by the Spirit of the Lord (Isaiah 61:1). 4. The call narrative of prophet Jeremiah (1:4-10) and the subsequent mission he accomplishes is a paradigm of how God strengthens his messengers with his own word; do not say I am but a lad (1:7) now I have put my words in

your mouth (1:9). This was repeated in the case of changing Saul who was a
persecutor of Gods church into Paul who became the Apostle of Jesus Christ par excellence. God may make use of the people who appears unequal to the task by strengthening them, supporting them and by being with them. What counts is the readiness to change ones life style and adopt the value system that God demands. 5. Prophets were Gods spokesmen for their contemporaries. After the return from Babylonian captivity prophecy went in sharp decline and nothing
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was heard about them in the post-exilic books. So the question arises was the

prophecy terminated in latter Jewish period? However it reappears as John the

Baptist was accepted as a prophet by all (Lk1:76). Jesus willingly accepted the title of prophet (Jn 7:40). After the example of Christ, the head of the church, prophecy should continue in the church. It is significant that after placing apostleship as the first ministry in the church, Paul assigns the second place to prophecy (1 Cor 12:1-28). He exhorts the Thessalonians not to despise the

messages of the prophets (1 Thes 5:20). Even today God raises men and women
filled with the prophetic spirit and energy for making the will of God manifest to their contemporaries by their messages and above all by their actions.

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