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 The
first verses of the book of Hebrews inform us that God used the
OT prophets to speak His Will to the fathers, but that now He
reveals Himself to us thru His Son... The purpose of the Hebrew
writer is to show that Jesus Christ is the Prophet of prophets,
and to demonstrate the superiority of Christianity over Judaism.
While most of us recognize that the NT is the standard for sound
faith and practice; and that we should never fall into an
observance of the old Mosaic Law, we often fail to comprehend
and appreciate a great portion of God's inspiration.
A
common misconception of many Bible students is that the prophets
of the OT were primarily predictors (fore-tellers) of future
events, especially those events which centered around the person
and ministry of the Messiah. While it is true that the prophets
did in fact predict many details concerning the Christ, this was
not their principal function. Their chief purpose is found in
Deut. 18:18, where the Lord God tells Moses that "I will
raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto
thee; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak
unto them all that I shall command him." Thus, the prophets
were preachers (forth-tellers) of God, men who proclaimed the
words of Jehovah to His people Israel. They replaced Moses as
the mouth of God.
This
understanding of the prophets should not diminish the
significance of those passages which are clearly Messianic, but
should point out that those references to Christ are included in
the greater context in which the prophets wrote. God made a
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covenant with His chosen people, and
they chose to rebel against Him who had delivered them. By their
action, the covenant made at Sinai was broken.
The
prophets of Israel were the preachers of the covenant, reminding
Israel of the treaty they had made with Jehovah. They predicted
the inevitable doom that would befall them because of their
iniquity. Hosea 4:1 states that "Jehovah has a controversy
with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor
goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land." Micah 6 and
Jer. 2 echo this lawsuit of God. Jehovah will therefore sue
(judge) Israel for breach of contract. The prophets were sent to
announce this near and disastrous future. No Messianic reference
here.
Another
aspect of the prophetic message was to give a Divine
interpretation of that disastrous history, and to announce hope
for future redemption. This chapter in Israel's history did not
happen due to chance. God is in control of human history, and
these terrible judgments occur because they are ordained of God
to punish His rebellious people. The prophets explained why it
all came about.
If
we study the prophets from a proper historical perspective, we
will understand how their messages applied both to ancient
Israel and to the people of God in every time and place. This is
indeed the profit of prophets. Ramon Madrigal (Written for Plain
Talk by one of my journalism students. rft)
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