The Christ of the Prophets

Abridged Edition

O. Palmer Robertson

• Publisher: P Publishing
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781629954363
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Systematic Theology & Ethics

After examining the origins of prophetism, the prophets' call, and their proclamation and application of law and covenant, Robertson devotes attention to the biblical-theological significance of the exile.

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THE ORIGIN OF PROPHETISM IN ISRAEL

“Of the beginnings of prophecy in Israel we know nothing.”

—Johannes Lindblom, Prophecy in Ancient Israel

“The beginnings of Israelite prophecy remain obscure.”

—Walther Zimmerli, The Law and the Prophets

“[Scripture] does not supply the information which is needed for a solution [regarding the origin of prophetism in Israel].”

—Brevard S. Childs, Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments

“Prophecy in Israel . . . begins in the inexplicable appearance of individual persons who claim to speak Yahweh’s revelatory word. . . . The emergence of [these persons] . . . is indeed an odd, inexplicable, originary happening in Israel. . . . These originary individuals are odd, and cannot be explained by any antecedent.”

—Walter Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament

In this way four leading biblical critics express their united agnostic viewpoint concerning the origins of prophetism in Israel. They simply do not know how the phenomenon arose. For them, its origin is an unsolved mystery. How a two-hundred-year-long stream of individuals who were convinced that God had communicated directly to them could have originated is for them a puzzle without solution.

Yet certain sources continue to be proposed for the origin of prophetism in Israel. Basically they are three: ecstatic behavior, cultic practices, and ancient Near Eastern prophecy.¹ In this regard, the whole concept of seeking the origin of biblical prophecy in naturalistic contexts needs to be placed under the severest scrutiny. Why, in principle, should a foreign origin for Israelite prophecy be more favorable for the development of the phenomenon than an indigenous development?² What in the history or society of Mari or Assyria makes these nations more amenable to the origination of the idea of prophetism than was the nation of Israel? To the contrary, if any credence is given to the biblical testimony regarding the experience of exodus, Sinai, conquest, and kingship in Israel, then every reason existed for prophetism as a movement to arise in Israel. Similar kinds of reasons would be difficult to find in the historical records of other nations.

Prophetic Self-testimony Regarding the Origin of Prophetism

The one further source to be explored that might provide an adequate explanation for the origin of this unique phenomenon in Israel is the testimony of the prophets themselves. In their records may be found a coherent and cogent explanation for the origins of this amazing and unique phenomenon of prophetism in Israel. This source provides needed information concerning the origin of prophetism in the flow of Israel’s history, while also defining the leading aspects of this unique phenomenon.

Prophetism according to scripture finds its remotest origin in the purposeful creation of all things by the one and only God of the universe. Several passages in the writings of the prophets bind together the one God’s creative activity with his word of purpose as revealed through his servants the prophets:

He who
forms the mountains,
creates the wind,
and declares his thoughts to man, . . .
The Covenant LORD, God Almighty is his name. (Amos 4:13*)

And again:

This is what God the Covenant LORD says—
he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, . . .
I, the Covenant LORD, have called you in righteousness. (Isa. 42:5–6)

And yet again:

This is the word of the Covenant LORD concerning Israel. The Covenant LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him, declares: “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling.” (Zech. 12:1–2)

The climax of this binding of the creative purposes of God to prophecy appears in a context of extensive ridicule of the heathen idols that cannot speak (Isa. 44:9–20). In vivid contrast with the muteness of the idolatrous gods, Israel’s God declares even future events before they occur:

This is what the Covenant LORD says,
your Redeemer, and the one who formed you in the womb:
I am the Covenant LORD,
the Maker of all things,
the one who stretched out the heavens by myself alone,
who spread out the earth, even I alone,
who foils the signs of the pretenders,
who makes fools of prognosticators,
who overturns the wise,
and makes their knowledge look foolish,
who brings to pass the word of his servant,
and confirms the anticipations of his messengers. (Isa. 44:24–26*)

This broader context of a purposeful creation and a planned redemption alone provides an adequate explanation for the emergence of prophetism in Israel. For this one and only God, standing in starkest contrast to all other “nothing-gods,” has confirmed his plan through his prophetic spokesmen to his chosen people. Through a series of self-initiated covenantal bonds, revealed and sealed in the processes of human history, God has made known his person, his purpose, and his will for his people, as well as for the nations of the world.

So Israel’s prophets saw themselves as raised up to be the living line of covenantal mediators between God and his people. Their solemn position involved being brought into the counsels of the LORD of the Covenant. Because of this privileged position, the prophet could declare authoritatively both the moral will and the redemptive purpose of the sovereign Lord of creation. In this role, the prophet could announce the consequences of blessing or cursing that would attend the chosen lifestyle of the people. In addition, by divine revelation, the prophet was enabled to anticipate the history of divine judgment and blessing both in its short-term and its long-term eventualities, making known to the people the plans of the Lord by which he would accomplish his redemptive purposes.

The Time of Prophetism’s Origins

So in the divine purposes of creation and redemption the prophetic movement of Israel had its ultimate origin. But when in time and history did prophetism arise within the nation of Israel?

It might be assumed that the prophetic movement had its origin in Israel about the time of the great eighth-century prophets such as Isaiah and Micah, Hosea and Amos. In many ways this period represents the high-water mark in the history of prophetism in Israel. But both Hosea and Amos of the eighth century attest to the activity of prophets before their time (Amos 2:11–12; Hos. 6:5; 9:7–8; 12:10, 13). So alternatively it could be proposed that prophetism in Israel originated with the earlier ministries of Elijah and Elisha, or even with the ministry of Samuel at the time of the establishment of the monarchy. But the notation explaining the situation regarding prophetic revelations during Samuel’s boyhood to the effect that “the word of the Covenant LORD was rare; there were not many visions” presumes that a prophetic ministry had been in place for some time prior to the days of Samuel (1 Sam. 3:1).

According to scripture’s self-testimony, prophetism’s origins go back much further than the time of the monarchy in the history of God’s redemptive activity among Israel. The words of the prophet Hosea indicate the actual origin of prophetism in Israel: “By a prophet the Covenant LORD brought Israel from Egypt. And by a prophet he was kept” (Hos. 12:13 NASB). In this passage, “prophet” is chosen as the term that would best characterize the ministry of Moses. He was not “king” in Israel, though he exercised extensive powers in the nation. Though from a priestly family, he did not function primarily as a priest. He was a prophet, communicating God’s revelatory word to his people.

Prior to the days of Moses, God had communicated directly with the head of individual families by vision, dream, or theophany. Hosea speaks of this more ancient mode of divine revelation in the same passage:

[Jacob] struggled with the angel and overcame him;
he wept and begged for his favor.
He found him at Bethel
talked with him there—
the Covenant LORD, God Almighty,
the Covenant LORD is his name of renown! (Hos. 12:4–5)

The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all received these kinds of personal revelations. Rather than having another person bring to them the word of God, the Lord himself appeared to them in a variety of ways.

But in Moses’ day, a massive populace involving six hundred thousand heads of families constituted the nation. How could God make known his will to this numerous nation? Would he cause the same dream, vision, or theophany to occur simultaneously to six hundred thousand heads of families?

No. God shall speak to the whole of the nation through a single human instrumentality, to be known as “prophet.” Rather than addressing all the people individually, the Lord shall communicate his will through this single designated person. Not normally by a supernatural manifestation of the divine nature, nor by the instrumentality of an angelic being, but by another person, a brother among brothers, God will communicate his message.

Scripture attests not only that it was by the prophet Moses that the Lord accomplished the great saving event of bringing his people out of Egypt. In addition, it affirms that the formal establishment of the ongoing office of prophet occurred in connection with the events at Sinai. At that time, the people themselves requested a mediator. ³ Because they were terrified at the manifestations of God’s presence on the mountain, they asked Moses to go up and meet the Lord on their behalf. This request of the people became the occasion for the establishment of the office of prophet in Israel. As the event is later reported:

A prophet from your midst, from among your brothers, like [Moses] the Covenant LORD your God will raise up for you. You must listen to him. [It will be] exactly according to all you asked of the Covenant LORD your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Don’t make me hear the voice of the Covenant LORD my God again, and don’t make me see this awesome fire again, or I will die.” (Deut. 18:15–16*)

According to the testimony of scripture, this request of the people at the time of the assembly at Sinai explains the origin of the office of prophet in Israel. The people were terrified at the manifestation of the presence of God. So the Lord appointed a prophetic mediator to separate the people from the awesome occurrences associated with the revelation of his will. As a consequence, the prophet in scripture takes on the role of gracious mediator. He stands between God and the people to deliver the word of the Lord. At the same time, the humanly fragile character of the prophet makes him much more subject to rejection and abuse by the people than the Lord himself in all his splendor would have been. No one dared abuse God at Sinai, when the glories of the deity were manifested with such awesomeness. But the gentleness of God’s grace now makes his personal spokesman subject to their victimizing. Yet even by this position of vulnerability the appointed prophet of the Lord embodies the principal message of God in his gracious covenant. Sinners at their worst, abusing the high privilege of receiving a word from the Lord, may still be redeemed from their self-destructive ways because of the long-suffering of the Lord as displayed in the abuses endured by his servants the prophets.

Insights Regarding the Nature of Prophetism Derived from Its Origins

Several insights into the nature of prophecy may be derived from this biblical testimony concerning the origin of prophetism:

1. The awesomeness of the role being fulfilled by the bearers of this office deserves special notice. The person of the prophet substitutes for the presence of Almighty God himself. This small, single voice replaces all the fearsome signs that accompanied the theophany at Sinai. The smoking, shaking mountain, animated by intense fire and blasting trumpet, now finds its equivalent in the gentle voice of a brother speaking among brothers.

2. The origin of the truly prophetic word must not be sought in the subjective experience of the prophet. Even in cases in which the word of the Lord is transmitted to the prophet through an internal experience, the word itself originates with God and substitutes for his presence.

The independence of the prophetic word from the person of the prophet is underscored in that contrary to the offices of priest and king in Israel, the office of prophet was not transmitted by natural generation. The son of the king or of the priest normally would succeed his father in their respective offices. But no example in scripture even suggests that the son of the prophet ever succeeded his father. Only by the direct calling and commissioning of the Lord could a person enter legitimately into the office of prophet. Even then, the prophet had to wait on God to reveal his word to him. He could not by his own initiative create a legitimate word of prophecy, even though he might earnestly ask t...