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

Makeup: Traits That Characterized a Prophet

specialized in the denigration of idolatry, immorality and heathen div ination.There is simply no objective evidence in the Hebrew Scripture to indicate that the prophets borrowed from the heathen. 4 Many Bible references bear this out.My favorite is Isaiah 8:19-20, rep resentative of Scripture's continuing emphasis that the Hebrew prophets did not borrow or learn their prophetic ministries from the heathen: "And when they say to you, 'Consult [for direction] the mediums and the wiz ards who whisper and mutter ["squeak and gibber, " Phillips],' should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn." 5 Another passage that points up the uniqueness of Hebrew prophecy is Jeremiah 23:28-29: "'The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth.What does straw have in common with grain?' declares the LORD.'Is not My word like fire?' declares the LORD, 'and like a hammer which shatters a rock?"' Israel recognized that there were many idols but only one true God who spoke to His people through prophetic revelation.His uncompro mising will would be made known by His prophets.The message did not result from the prophet's own reason or imagination; it was supernatu ral in origin. The prophetic institution in Israel existed to establish the reality of the one true God before the nations, revealing His will to His people and safeguarding them from the divination and abominable practices of Canaan and the other Near Eastern cultures.Religion and prophecy in Israel were unquestionably unique.Notice Moses stressing in Deuteron omy 18 (before Israel entered the Promised Land) that the people of God were not "to imitate the detestable things of those nations" (verse 9). Moses then listed nine things abhorrent to God: februation (the custom of passing one's son and daughter through the fire), 6 divination, witch craft, interpreting omens, sorcery, casting spells, channeling spirit mes sages, spiritism and necromancy. Moses taught that God's people have no need to resort to these devices, for the prophetic voice in Israel would be God's gift of direction and pro tection against destructive heathen practices.In Deuteronomy 18:15, 18, Moses promised that "the LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you ...and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him." These statements find ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ (see Acts 3:22), but they may imply a double reference to Jesus and the prophetic institution/ for both Jesus and the prophets are to mediate between Israel and God. 55 ■