New Testament Prophets (1) - Old Testament

Recent events have led to discussion about the role of prophets in the New Testament age. Some writers have suggested that the role of the OT prophets ended with the cross. They suggest that the New Testament prophets are limited to encouragement and exhortation. This view turns prophets into Good News Guys

Many church leaders fear the prophetic. They are happy for prophetic people to give personal words to people during church services, but want the leadership of the church to be immune from any prophetic challenge. This has truncated an important ministry and weakened the church. The quality of the prophets is critical for building the church on a solid foundation (Eph 2:20).
Old Testament Prophets

To sort this issue, we must clarify the role of the OT prophets. The common view is they were old men with beards, who went around speaking doom and gloom, but his is a misleading caricature.

The main role of the prophets is to speak for God. In Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit had not been poured out on God’s people, so only a few people operated under the anointing of the Spirit. Most people could not hear the Holy Spirit speaking, so they needed someone to tell them what God was saying. The prophets spoke about all aspects of life. Moses was a prophet, because he gave Israel the law (Deut 34:10). Samuel told Saul where to find his donkeys (1 Sam 9:8). Nathan challenged David, when he covered up his sin (1 Sam 12:1).

The dominant aspect of this role was to watch over the covenant. Whenever, Israel broke the covenant, the prophets would challenge them and warn of the consequence. Israel broke the covenant over and over again. This is why the prophets seemed to be full of doom and gloom. Israel was mostly in disobedience, and the prophets spent most of their time spelling warning of the consequence of this disobedience. They could not be nice, because the prognosis for Israel was usually bad.

A minor role of the more mature prophets was to speak to the nations around Israel. God raises them up and brings them down to accomplish his purposes. Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel all prophesied to nations like Egypt and Babylon. They did not speak to these nations in terms of the covenant, because they were not under it. However, because these nations were created by God, they are accountable to him. The prophets warned that if they slipped too far into evil, God would have to bring them down. However, speaking to the other nations was a minor part of the prophet’s role.

Christians often assume that words of the OT prophets were perfect and had to be obeyed without question. This is not true. The scriptures contain the prophet’s best words. They were preserved, because the community assessed these words to be true and reliable. Those that were a mixture or wrong were forgotten quickly, so we do not have access to them. The OT prophets could make mistakes. Samuel was wrong in some of the things he did. Elisha got things wrong too. One prophet deliberately lied (1 Kings 13:18). Obedience to prophecy was not mandatory. Every word had to be tested, although this was harder, for those without the anointing of the Spirit.