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God’s Prophets

by Chris Simmons

What is a prophet? It’s been appropriately stated that God’s true prophets were both “foretellers” (that is, they spoke in a predictive manner of people and events yet to come) and “forthtellers” (that is, they simply were messengers of God to a certain group or people or nation).

We need to remember Exodus 7:1-2 where we have a biblical definition of God’s prophets as “forthtellers”, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land.” Their job was to simply speak the words that God had given them to speak. It was vitally important that they deliver all of God’s revelation to the intended audience. We read in Jeremiah 26:2, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, who have come to worship in the Lord’s house, all the words that I have commanded you to speak to them. Do not omit a word!’” Isaiah was told simply “don’t hold back” (Isaiah 58:1). The challenge to the prophets was to speak all God had commanded when often they didn’t want to hear it and would punish the messenger who faithfully did so (Ezekiel 3:4-7; Jeremiah 26:8ff). That is true of gospel preaching today in that sound preaching must address the “whole purpose (counsel, ASV) of God” (Acts 20:27) and it must be proclaimed even when it’s not desired as Paul urged Timothy to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires” (II Timothy 4:2-3). The prophets of old and those who preach today bear a responsibility to uphold the (whole) truth as God has revealed it.

When we consider the work of God’s prophets to foretell what was to come in the future, the detail with which God’s prophets spoke is truly impressive. For instance, not only did Jeremiah speak of a time when the Jews would return from Babylonian captivity, he spoke of the exact number of years in which they would be in captivity (Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10) and they spoke of the King (Cyrus) who would provide for their return to the land of promise (Isaiah 44:28-45:1). What’s so remarkable about Isaiah’s prophecy is that when he spoke of Cyrus being God’s “anointed” to provide for their return back to Jerusalem, Cyrus didn’t exist – he hadn’t been born yet, as it was perhaps 150 years before the event would take place. Just as God had revealed to Isaiah and Jeremiah, so it happened – exactly. Another example is found in Ezekiel chapter 26 where the prophet speaks God’s words concerning the city of Tyre in which it was said that Nebuchadnezzar would bring the first of many nations to destroy the city, that the city would be made like a bare rock on which fishermen would spread their fishing nets over it, that the debris of the city would be thrown into the sea and the city would never be rebuilt again. History documents the fact that all of these specific and detailed prophecies about Tyre indeed came to pass. These are the tests of a true prophet and this is evidence of a divinely inspired message. True and false prophets are simply to be distinguished by whether or not the prophecies come true. Deuteronomy 18:21-22, “And you may say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”

Perhaps most important of any prophecies are those referred to as Messianic prophecies. These are prophecies that look forward to fulfillment by Jesus Christ, the Messiah (the anointed One). These prophets spoke of God’s spiritual blessings that would come through the Messiah yet they spoke of that which, looking hundreds of years ahead, they did not understand. Peter wrote in I Peter 1:10-12, “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven – things into which angels long to look.” We need to be awed by the fact that we have over three hundred specific and detailed prophecies designed to provide the irrefutable credentials of God’s promised Messiah. Jesus appealed to His fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies repeatedly (Matthew 5:17; Luke 24:44; John 5:39-47; Matthew 26:56; Luke 4:20-21 and many others). Likewise, the apostles and inspired writers of the New Testament also appealed to the fulfillment of prophecy in their preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Acts 3:18; 10:43; 13:29; 17:2-3; I Corinthians 15:3-4; Romans 1:2 and, again, many others).

Perhaps one of the most important of these Messianic prophecies is the one found in II Samuel 7:12-16, “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” It’s so important because Peter cites the fulfillment of the reign of Christ upon His throne in Acts 2:30-33 on the day of Pentecost when the kingdom (the kingdom prophesied in Daniel 2:44) was established, “And so, because he was a prophet, and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants upon his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay. This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.” So many of the Old Testament prophecies looked forward to the events of Acts chapter 2 for which we are eternally blessed.

Isaiah 48:3-7, I declared the former things long ago and they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them. Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead bronze, therefore I declared them to you long ago, before they took place I proclaimed them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, and my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’ You have heard; look at all this. And you, will you not declare it? I proclaim to you new things from this time, even hidden things which you have not known. They are created now and not long ago; and before today you have not heard them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’”

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