PROPHECY,
PROPHETS
His
servant
first
to
see
and
then
to
speak,
did
in
certaia
cases
inspire
him
also
to
write;
and
thus
words
which
were
intended
in
the
first
instance
for
rebellious
Israel
or
disconsolate
Judah
have
proved
of
perennial
signif-icance
in
the
religious
education
of
the
world.
3.
Functions
and
teaching.
—
One
who
was
essentially
a
'man
of
God'
under
the
conditions
of
life
which
obtained
in
Israel
must
have
had
many
parts
to
play,
many
messages
to
give;
and
many
would
be
the
ways
in
which
he
brought
his
influence
to
bear
upon
the
life
of
his
time.
The
prophetic
office
in
its
essence
Implied
freedom
from
such
routine
duties
as
occupied
(e.g.)
the
priest
and
later
the
scribe.
These
could
easily
be
enumerated,
but
the
work
of
the
prophet,
from
its
very
nature,
cannot
be
defined
by
strict
boundary
lines.
In
the
earliest
times
prophets
were
consulted
on
common
matters
of
daily
lite.
Samuel
was
asked
by
Saul's
servant
how
to
find
the
lost
asses
of
his
master.
Later,
inquiry
was
made
concerning
the
sickness
of
Jeroboam
and
its
probable
issue,
and
Elisha
throughout
his
life
was
sought
for
in
times
of
private
and
domestic
need.
On
another
side
of
their
lives
the
prophets
were
closely
connected
with
literature;
they
compiled
his-torical
records
and
preserved
the
national
chronicles
(see
1
Ch
29^').
The
narrative
portions
of
Isaiah,
Jeremiah,
and
other
prophetical
books
show
that
the
seer
is
a
man
whose
searching
glance
may
run
backwards
as
well
as
forwards.
It
required
a
prophetic
eye
rightly
to
read
the
lessons
of
Israel's
past,
and
to
this
day
the
inspired
historical
books
of
OT
teach
lessons
which
no
mere
annalist
could
have
perceived
or
conveyed
to
others.
The
work
of
other
prophets
lay
in
the
depart-ment
not
of
literature
but
of
action,
and
—
apart
from
Elijah
and
Elisha
—
some
of
the
most
notable
figures
in
the
prophetic
succession
were
distinguished,
not
so
much
for
what
they
taught
as
because
at
the
critical
moment
they
threw
the
weight
of
deservedly
great
infiuence
into
the
right
scale,
and
actually
led
the
people
in
the
right
way.
These,
however,
were
not
the
prophet's
main
functions.
His
chief
work
was
to
serve
as
a
great
moral
and
rehgious
teacher,
especially
in
relation
to
the
duties
of
national
life.
He
was
sent
to
minister
to
his
own
age,
to
teach
his
contemporaries
the
duties
of
the
hour,
how
to
apply
the
highest
religious
principles
to
current
questions
of
political
and
social
lite.
In
the
course
of
the
delivery
of
this
message
he
was
moved
to
utter
predictions,
and
these
formed
so
characteristic
and
important
a
feature
of
the
prophet's
teaching
that
foretelling
the
future
came
to
be
regarded
as
his
chief
work.
This
was
not
strictly
the
case,
since
the
forecasts
of
the
future
arose
out
of
the
delivery
of
the
message
to
the
speaker's
own
age.
But
prediction
must
be
allowed
its
due
place
in
an
estimate
of
Hebrew
prophecy;
a
reaction
against
the
excessive
stress
formerly
laid
upon
this
element
has
unfortunately
led
to
the
opposite
extreme
of
under-estimating
its
importance.
Moral
teaching
was
pre-eminent.
The
prophets
were
not
exponents
of
the
'law'
in
the
technical
sense;
that
belonged
to
the
priest
(Jer
18");
but
the
'word'
which
was
given
to
the
prophet
was
an
immediate
revelation
of
the
will
of
God,
and
was
sometimes
neces-sarily
opposed
to
the
orthodox
and
conventional
religious
teaching
of
men
more
anxious
about
following
precedents
than
discerning
the
highest
duty.
In
Is
1
and
58,
in
Mic
6,
and
Ezk
18
we
have
examples
of
lofty
ethical
teaching
which
might
appear
to
disparage
the
routine
of
religious
service
and
the
traditions
of
religious
doctrine.
It
is
not
sacrifice
in
itself,
however,
that
is
denounced,
but
a
trust
in
formal
service
punctiliously
rendered
to
God,
without
a
corresponding
reformation
of
character.
The
prophet
was
the
messenger
who
recalled
the
people
to
their
highest
allegiance,
who
fearlessly
rebuked
spiritual
unfaithfulness,
and
who
laid
emphasis,
not
on
the
tithing
ot
mint,
anise,
and
cummin,
but
on
those
weightier
matters
of
the
law,
judgment
and
mercy
and
PROPHECY,
PROPHETS
faith.
Of
worship
and
ritual
they
would
have
said,
as
did
the
greater
Prophet
who
followed
them,
'These
ought
ye
to
have
done,
and
not
to
have
left
the
other
undone'
(Mt
232a).
These
moral
teachings
covered
a
very
wide
field.
The
prophets
called
evils
by
plain
names
and
denounced
them
in
uncompromising
terms,
however
high
the
places
in
which
they
were
found.
Habits
of
luxury
and
self-indulgence
in
the
upper
classes;
intemperance
and
tendencies
to
excess
of
all
kinds;
the
oppression
of
the
poor,
the
usurpations
of
landowners,
the
extravagance
of
women
in
dress
—
these
are
only
a
few
specimens
of
class-sins
which
they
frankly
exposed
and
fearlessly
denounced.
In
this
sense
the
prophets
strove
to
recall
the
best
features
of
Israel's
past.
The
tone
of
remonstrance
adopted
shows
that
for
the
most
part
the
people
were
familiar
with
the
principles
laid
down.
The
prophets
were
not
innovatora;
they
spoke
as
men
whose
words
were
likely
to
find
an
echo
in
the
consciences
of
their
hearers.
But
reformera
they
undoubtedly
were
in
the
sense
that
they
'
spared
not
the
hoary
head
of
inveterate
abuse,'
and
they
prevented
many
of
the
evils
which
an
undisturbed
conservatism
induces.
They
belonged
to
the
party
ot
progress
in
the
best
sense
of
the
term,
and
their
work
was
especially
to
break
up
the
tallow
ground
of
habit
that
had
become
hard
and
set
and
unfit
to
receive
the
seed
of
fresh
spiritual
teaching.
Moral
reformation,
they
taught,
vfaa
a
necessary
condition
for
the
acquisition
of
spiritual
knowledge,
and
the
enjoy-ment
of
spiritual
privilege.
'
Wash
you,
make
you
clean
'
was
the
burden
of
their
message;
tne
arm
ot
Jehovah
is
not
shortened,
nor
Hia
ear
heavy,
but
your
sins
have
sepa-rated
between
you
and
your
God.
Deal
bread
to
the
hungry
and
let
the
oppressed
go
free,
then
shall
thy
light
break
forth
as
the
morning
.
.
.
and
thine
obscurity
shall
be
as
the
noonday
.
.
.
and
thou
shalt
be
like
a
watered
garden,
and
like
a
spring
ot
water
whose
waters
fail
not.'
This
moral
teaching
was
brought
to
bear
especially
upon
national
life.
Israel
was
a
church-nation,
one
in
which
the
community
counted
for
much
more
than
the
individual,
and
the
prophet's
chief
function
was
to
promote
national
righteousness.
He
represented
the
highest
civic
consciousness.
He
might,
and
did,
rebuke
private
individuals
and
point
out
personal
faults,
though
this
was
chiefly
in
the
case
of
kings
like
David,
Jeroboam,
or
Ahab,
or
State
ofhcials
like
Shebna
in
Is
22.
Whole
classes
might
go
astray,
the
prophets
themselves
be
un-faithful
to
their
calling,
and
then
an
individual
prophet
was
sent
to
recall
all
alike
to
their
duty,
himself
the
sole
representative
of
Jehovah
in
a
degenerate
nation.
For
a
time
the
political
influence
ot
the
prophets
was
great,
while
their
power
was
at
its
zenith,
but
this
period
did
not
last
very
long.
Isaiah
and
Micah,
Amos
and
Hosea,
illustrate
the
way
in
which,
both
in
the
Southern
and
in
the
Northern
Kingdom,
the
prophets
intervened
in
questions
of
wars
and
alliances
and
treaties
—
the
foreign
policy
of
their
times.
They
took
their
part
in
domestic
policy
no
less,
sometimes
standing
between
the
sovereigns
and
their
subjects
—
teachers
and
examples
of
patriotism
in
the
best
sense
of
the
word.
Whilst
the
false
prophets
practically
asserted
the
maxim
'My
country,
right
or
wrong,'
the
true
prophet
enforced
the
lesson
that
'There
is
no
wisdom
nor
understandingnor
counsel
against
the
Lord,
'
and
that
unflinching
loyalty
to
Him
is
the
only
secret
of
national
stability
and
success.
Sometimes
they
urged
bold
defiance
of
enemies,
as
in
the
invasion
of
Sennacherib
(2
K
19);
sometimes
they
recommended
a
policy
ot
neutrality
as
between
Egypt
and
Assyria
(Is
30)
;
whilst,
as
already
pointed
out,
it
was
sometimes
the
duty
of
a
Jeremiah
to
preach
submission
to
the
power
ot
Babylon,
even
though
that
course
might
be
represented
as
pusil-lanimous
truckling
to
superior
force.
In
thus
directing
the
national
policy,
the
prophet
might
be
commissioned
to
announce
the
success
or
failure
of
certain
projects,
and
to
foretell
the
consequences
ot
a
given
course
ot
action.
But
if
the
prophecies
be
closely
examined,
it
will
be
seen
that
the
forecasts
were
for
the
most
part
conditional
—
'If
thou
wilt
hear
and
obey,
thou
shalt
eat
the
good
of
the
land;
it
not,
thou
shalt
be
devoured
