Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

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MISSION: WHAT WAS

A PROPHET?

The LORD sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel. . . . " Judges 6:8

WONDERFUL STORIES ABOUT STRANGE and mystical people called "prophets" appear throughout the ancient Hebrew Scriptures. One amazing episode involves Ahab, king of Israel, and a rough-hewn prophet called simply Elijah the Tishbite. The account will prepare our minds for a definitive discussion of what a prophet in Israel was and did. King Ahab and Jezebel, his queen, apparently had a summer palace in Jezreel-a favorite place of retreat. Today's landscape affords no adequate idea of the bountiful beauty of the area that existed in those ancient times. Alfred Edersheim, noted Bible historian, describes the scene: Then the mountains of Gilboa were richly wooded, and sweet springs brought freshness to the air and luxurious beauty to the vegetation ofJezreel, even as they carried fertility down into the great plain beneath, which in the summer light shimmered and trembled like a sea of golden corn. At the northern declivity of Gilboa, where it descends, steep and rocky, on a knoll