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

A Profile of the Ancient Hebrew Prophet

Some 65 named people prophesied in the Old Testament (see appen dixes 1 and 2). This list can be enlarged with an additional 14 unnamed prophets and approximately 22 groups or bands of people who were used prophetically. Great differences existed among this host of people; they were not all star-shaped cookies! Yet with their obvious personal differ ences and modes of expression, the prophets possessed traits revealing a common denominator: In striking contrast to the heathen prophets of that day, these awesome men and women spoke for the true and only almighty God. Israel was no religious or social island. By divine design this little coun try was (and still is) positioned where the great continents of Europe, Africa and Asia come together. Located at the crossroads of world trade caravans, Israel undoubtedly experienced cultural and religious pressures from the neighboring nations. This raises an important question: Was the prophetism of the Hebrew people borrowed from or heavily influenced by the prophetic activity among their heathen neighbors? Fortunately the achievements of archaeology and textual studies dur ing the past two centuries have shed considerable light on the Old Testa ment. An extensive knowledge of the world of Israel's day is now avail able. These new insights not only facilitate the interpretation of the prophetic messages but heighten our recognition of the uniqueness of the Hebrew prophetic institution. As Edward J. Young, scholar of Hebrew Scripture, says: "The mere comparison of these [alleged] 'prophecies' [from the ancient Near East] with those of the Old Testament will at once make it evident that they were separated by a wide gulf. They were different one from another as day is from night. And the reason for this difference is to be found in the fact that in Israel God spoke through His servants the prophets." 1 Some critical scholars believe that all aspects of Israel's prophecy were borrowed from Canaan. Others suggest that Israel observed the phe nomenon of prophecy simply because the rest of the world did. These approaches sometimes depict the early Hebrew prophets as unstable, crude, ecstatic types similar to the prophets of Baal encountered by Eli jah on Mount Carmel.2 The same traits that marked the heathen prophets, say these critics, would also have characterized the Hebrew prophets-traits like divination, self-torture, necromancy and casting spells. 3 A careful study of the Scriptures, however (our only real source of infor mation about the Hebrew prophets), shows that just the opposite was true. Israel actually possessed its prophetic institution before entering Palestine. The Law and the prophets were dead-set against the adoption of the priestly and prophetic practices of Canaan. The Hebrew prophets ■ 54