Introduction
The Bible described many situations when people got to know God’s words from other people among them. Being chosen individually, prophets were expected to pass God’s message to others. These messages were aimed to communicate God’s will, while the predictions in them happened to be inevitable.
Background and Interpretation
In the Bible, prophets are acknowledged to be mediators of God’s message to people. They are not somebody with supernatural abilities, but ordinary people who God chose to transmit his message. They were of different social origins since God chose prophets by their spiritual qualities. The word “prophet” was first applied to Abraham. However, it is not mentioned that he could foretell the future. Like other characters from the Bible who were proclaimed prophets, patriarchs were considered as people through who God transmitted his messages as well as words of edification, denunciation, and consolation. These prophets are patriarchs of Pentateuch, such as Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Yaakov as well as Moses and his brother Aaron (Boyle 2015, 146-147).
At the times of the prophets’ service, Hebrew people were in moral decay. Thus, the disregard of Mosaic Law was common, and pagan beliefs and mode of life were easily acquired. Therefore, the main aim for the prophets was to return the Hebrew to God who had led them out from Egypt to His Law. The prophets strictly denounced sinners regardless of their position in the society, be it ordinary people, priests, or rules. Denunciation and warnings were also addressed to neighboring folks. Besides, prophets’ denouncing and warning statements are closely connected with Israel and surrounding states (Sanneh 2015, 14).
The Bible describes several ways of passing the prophecy on to a prophet and then to people. The first one is transmitting a message in the course of direct communication with God in a visible appearance, which is called Theophany. The second one is Bath Kol, which is a vocal message from God. Some other ways are visions, dreams, messages sent with an angel, special inspiration by the Holy Spirit on a person’s senses. The prophet, in his turn, transmitted the message to others orally or in writing. In some situations, the messages were transmitted through prophets’ symbolic deeds, which are so-called visual prophecy. For example, Ezekiel organized a symbolic siege of the city, whereas Jeremiah broke a jug. Receipt and transmission of a prophetic message in the Bible are not connected with any ecstatic state of a prophet. Prophets received the message while being conscious. This fact distinguishes biblical prophets from pagan and occult foretellers who entered a special ecstatic state and did not understand what they were saying during this trance (Sanneh 2015, 17).
The Bible considers prophecy as a special revelation from God to a person. In the beginning, the Bible describes a direct communication between God and the first people. Then the Fall is described together with its consequences. Adam and Eve had to hide from God when they heard His voice in Eden after their Fall. The feelings of fear and shame became a serious obstacle to the communication of God with people. After that, God appeared only to a few people who were supposed to become messengers for others. When in some cases God especially exhibited his presence, some people experienced tremors and tried to avoid this communication. For instance, when God proclaimed Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai with His voice, people were scared and addressed to Moses to be a mediator in their communication with God (Boyle 2015, 158-159).
Moses never claimed to be the only mediator between God and people. When Moses was told that there were other prophets in Israel, he was asked to prohibit it. However, Moses replied: “Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them” (Boyle 2015, 159). Apostle Paul evaluates the gift of prophecy in the same way: “Follow after love, yet desire earnestly spiritual (gifts), but rather than ye may prophesy” (Boyle 2015, 159).
The Bible describes several cases when people attempted to avoid the prophecy. King Saul, who had prophesied, did not fulfill God’s direct command wittingly. Due to this, he was rejected as King of Israel. Saul realized it but objected to God’s will. Therefore, he chased David who Prophet Samuel anointed King of Israel instead of Saul. After getting no reply from God Saul broke God’s will one more time by addressing a sorceress, which was prohibited by Moses Law. Finally, Saul died in a battle disgracefully, whereas David became King. Although Rebecca was told that “the older will be the servant of the younger,” her husband Isaac ignored the prophecy and tried to give his blessing to Esau but not to Yaakov, as was predicted. However, the blessing was received by Yaakov, against Isaac’s will. Israelites tried to conquer Canaan, but in vain, after God had announced that they would not see the Promised Land because they had believed to the majority of eavesdroppers sent to Canaan. When Ahab ignored the prophecy from Micah that he would die in a battle, he did not manage to avoid it and died of an accidentally shot arrow (Boyle 2015, 164-166).
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is necessary to point out that God chose prophets individually regardless of their origin because these were spiritual qualities that were of importance. Prophets were supposed to transmit the message which aimed to communicate God’s will. The predictions in the message were inevitable.
List of References
Boyle, Brian. Friendly Guide to the Prophets. Mulgrave, Vic.: Garratt Publishing, 2015.
Sanneh, Lamin. Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2015.