Old Testament Prophets

Class 1 – Introduction

1. Book for reference – “How to Read the Bible for all it’s Worth” – Fee & Stuart.
2. Who are the prophets?
1. Four “Majors”

                                                               i.      Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel

2. 12 “Minors”

                                                               i.      Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah, Malachi

3. Facts about the Prophets
1. More individual books of the Bible come under the heading “Prophets” than any other heading.
2. Written between 760 and 460 BC.
3. Minor Prophets are “minor” in size only – the term says nothing about their importance or value.
4. There are many other Prophets in the bible who do not have books in our list – ie., Elijah, Elisha, Nathan, Samuel, even Moses.

                                                               i.      The difference between those who “got books” and those who didn’t is the nature or form of their message:

1.      Prophet’s primary function was to speak for God to their contemporaries – they were chosen to speak Oracles (Messages from God).

2.      Other prophets fulfilled very important roles; however we know more about those prophets than we do about their actual words – their books or lives are more historical or even biographical (Jonah, and, to a lesser extent, Daniel).     

A key distinction – in the “Narrative books” we hear about Prophets and very little from prophets. In the prophetic books we hear from God via the prophets and very little about the prophets themselves.

4. What is Prophecy? Who is a Prophet?
1. It is NOT “fortune telling, fore telling or predicting the future”

                                                               i.      Less than 2% of the Prophets deal with Messianic prophecy

                                                             ii.      Less than 5% deals with the “New Covenant”

                                                            iii.      Less than 1% concerns “future telling”.

2. The prophets did on many occasions mention the future – but it was generally the immediate future of Israel, Judah or other nations (as opposed to our future) and was generally in the context of God’s redemptive plan – ie., when God’s people fell away they received God’s curses with promises of future infliction of punishment. When God’s people repented, or when the enemies of Israel overstepped their bounds, God’s Oracles promised deliverance and salvation.
   
   
4. Problems with understanding the Prophets
1. Our own bias – ie., meaning of prophecy
2. Lack of detailed contextual or historical information

                                                               i.      Things crystal clear to a prophet’s audience are, at best, opaque to us.

                                                             ii.      Without proper context it is hard for us to properly apply their message.

3. It is unlikely the prophecies were intended to be written – most communication of the day was oral

                                                               i.      What we have is a collection of spoken oracles that were then consolidated into written works.

1.      Order may not be chronological

2.      Not always easy to know when one oracle stops and another begins.

4. Oracles were typically poetic, complicating translation and interpretation for us.
   
   
5. The Function of Prophecy
1. “Covenant Enforcement Mediators”

                                                               i.      God’s covenant with His people sets expectations for both parties – right behavior (ie., following the rules) by Israel leads to certain protections and benefits. Conversely, failure by Israel leads to punishment.

God does not merely give His law – He also enforces it!

1.      Noetic Covenant – Genesis 9

2.      Abramic Covenant – Genesis 17

                                                             ii.      Most of the announcements by the prophets will be God’s curses because the writings come primarily from a time – ie., 700-500 BC – when Israel is failing to obey God and is therefore heading towards punishment.

                                                            iii.      The period of the 16  prophets was a period characterized by three things:

1.      Unprecedented political, military, economic and social upheaval;

2.      An enormous level of religious unfaithfulness and disregard for original Mosaic covenant

3.      Great shifts in populations and national boundaries.

4.      The north (Amos & Hosea) - Israel (or Ephraim) – fell to Assyria in 722 BC

5.      The south (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk & Zephaniah) – Judah – fell to Babylon in 587

6.      Restoration (Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah & Malachi).

Deuteronomy 4:25-31 – Mosaic pattern for future events

The prophets are speaking to these events – it is necessary to understand therefore the historical context to rightly interpret the message.

2. The prophets message is Gods; NOT their own

                                                               i.      “Thus saith the Lord”.

1.      Generally the pronouncements are in first person; ie., it is God talking to His people.

                                                             ii.      A prophet presuming to take office on his own authority would be a false prophet.

3. The prophets’ message is usually unoriginal – in other words – they do not bring new doctrine but, rather, reminders of the Law as already established through Moses.