I’m already warning you, this will be a LONG series of posts. Whenever I hear people talking about prophets or the prophetic, I don’t know what they mean. In my personal experience of the modern church, prophetic words appear to be confused with words of wisdom and knowledge. When I think of prophets or the prophetic, I think of something that God has specified to happen in the future. Even still, that’s quite vague; albeit, more specific than being able to say someone is “kind” when praying for them, and attributing that as “prophetic”… So let’s collate what the Bible has to say about the gift of prophecy, prophesying and of the prophets themselves, in an effort to discern what it is we’re actually describing when we say “prophetic”. This is part 1, and relates to what a prophet actually is (or was). I’ll tag these posts so you can read them coherently as I add to them.
Onwards into the Old Testament for some context – starting with the concept a prophet. The first specific mention of a prophet is of Abraham when God visits Abimelek, king of Gerar in a dream (Genesis 20:6 | NIV). Abimelek is deceived into thinking Sarah is Abraham’s sister (thus not his wife), and eventually sends for her and takes her. Abraham does this to stop Abimelek from inevitably killing him as Sarah’s husband, and taking her as his own wife; Abimelek isn’t God-fearing (Genesis 20:11 | NIV). Abimelek doesn’t know Sarah is actually Abraham’s wife, and God warns him to return her: “now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die”. Abimelek is suitably afraid after his encounter with God, and believes Abraham is who God said he is. He returns Sarah, and asks Abraham to pray for him. “Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again, for the Lord had kept all the women in Abimelek’s household from conceiving because of Abraham’s wife Sarah” (Genesis 20:17-18 | NIV). This first instance of the word “prophet” outlines a particular favour prophets have with God. God grants Abraham’s requests in prayer in this situation, although I’m unsure about whether this is due to Abraham’s status as a prophet, or simply because he’s Abraham. Regardless, the justification God uses when talking to Abimalek about the safe return of Sarah, is because Abraham was a prophet. I think extrapolating anything else from this is quite dangerous (and I concede that I’ve been subjective with what I’ve said already) based on 4 Bible verses, so I won’t.
The second mention of the word “prophet” in the Bible is in the book of Exodus. The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country (Exodus 7:1-2 | NIV). In this use of the word “prophet”, Aaron is named so because he’s speaking on Moses’ behalf. Notice here that God is saying to Moses and Aaron that they’re to demand something of Pharaoh that will happen, rather than explaining something that already exists. Moses is God’s prophet in the same way that Aaron is Moses’ – Moses is relaying the word of God, which Aaron will then relay to Pharaoh. There are many more mentions of Moses being a prophet which I will outline further into this text; this section was simply to explain that prophets are (for want of a better word) mouthpieces of God. Of note in Exodus too, Miriam is defined as a prophet (Exodus 15:20 | NIV), showing that, as well as a mouthpiece for God, prophets aren’t restricted to the male sex.
Excitingly, God Himself gives a description of what His prophets experience. God said, “Listen to my words: “When there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams”” (Numbers 12:6 | NIV). This is in response to Miriam and Aaron speaking out against Moses, with God personally rebuking them after coming down to the Tent of Meeting. God explains that Moses is more than a “normal” prophet, because God speaks with Moses in person rather than through those aforementioned experiences. At this point, my assumption is that regular prophets experience visions and God’s presence in their dreams as a typical means of receiving His word, to then relay to others.
Interestingly, prophets and dream interpreters are different things, according to Deuteronomy 13. This chapter warns against prophets OR “one who foretells by dreams” leading believers astray (Deuteronomy 13:1 | NIV). It is a warning not to believe any prophets or dreamers who attempt to turn the nation away from God, to worship other gods. I can only assume (subjectively, not objectively) that dreamers simply don’t encounter God in their dreams, and that’s the difference between them and prophets (also taking my previous point related to Numbers 12:6 into account). A good example of this is Joseph, in that he predicts Egypt’s 7-year period of abundance, followed by a 7-year period of famine from Pharaoh’s dreams (Genesis 41:25-27 | NIV). Joseph is not mentioned to be a prophet, yet he clearly predicts the future through interpretation of his dreams, and those of others. I would (subjectively, and tentatively) suggest that “dreamers” experience or interpret abstract visions, devoid of God’s presence, whilst the dreams of a prophet will specifically contain His presence.
Deuteronomy 18:14-22 reiterates the earlier point about a prophet speaking on behalf of God. It is a paragraph outlining the futility of sorcery and divination compared to God, and necessity for a prophet in their society. A prophet speaks the words God tells him to, and those things will “take place” and “come true” (Deuteronomy 18:22 | NIV). From this paragraph, it seems that the reason for prophets existing in the first place is because the Israelites were too scared of God to approach or listen to Him directly (parallel ref: Exodus 20:19 | NIV) – a fear that was necessary to prevent them from sinning.
Deuteronomy 34 outlines the death of Moses, and gives insight into how extraordinary he was. Moses was a special case of a prophet in that “the Lord knew him face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10 | NIV). Moses performed the signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt (Deuteronomy 34:11 | NIV) – I’m not sure if this was because he was a prophet, or because he was Moses. Subjectively, the last verse makes me think Moses could perform signs and miracles separate to being a prophet – “for no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel” (Deuteronomy 34:12 | NIV).
And that’s about enough for now. What do you think so far?
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