Prophets: Soul Catchers - Mysteries of the Bible

Isaiah Jeremiah Amos Ezekiel their names summon images of zealous men on distant hills giving warning the words and deeds of the great prophets are enshrined in 16 books of the Bible who were they and what created the unique phenomenon of prophecy in the ancient land Israel every country had magicians every country had sorcerers every country had diviners and future tellers but only Israel had prophets many of the prophets defy modern comprehension behaving in ways unlike that expected of messengers of God Jeremiah parades with a yoke around his neck and Isaiah walks naked through the streets of Jerusalem for three years we know from the biblical record that prophets engaged in peculiar behavior the Lord said to me son of man eat the scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it Ezekiel 3:3 in a strikingly symbolic act Ezekiel consumes a scroll of the words of God before relaying its message of warning to the people why do these enlightened men and women behave so strangely and most intriguing could they truly have been driven by divine inspiration these are but a few of the mysteries of the Bible the great prophets of old filled the pages of the Bible with sagas of humility fiery passion and even sublime eccentricity their enigmatic stories have prevailed echoing their many names hosea amos miriam daniel deborah jeremiah but despite their indelible impact on the history of ancient israel the bible mentions no prophets during the time of the exodus in approximately 1250 before the Common Era nor during the period when the Hebrews first settled the promised land it is only 200 years later when dwindling faith and paganism distract the people from their holy covenant with God that the prophets first begin to appear their mission is to return the people to God when allegiances are directed toward Israel's Kings during the time of the monarchy Biblical prophecy begins with Samuel more than 1000 years before the birth of Jesus and would span more than five centuries selected by divine calling the prophets would fulfill a crucial political role driven to their task by an intense belief from the covenant between God and Israel the only reason for the survival of Israel was Israel's being loyal to that covenant this loyalty to the Covenant meant that Israel would no longer exist the prophets defy singular definition but it is clear that the passion of their words and the results of their deeds have had a profound impact on humanity one of the interesting phrases that is used for a prophet is that this is the person whose eye is opened it points to the sense that the Prophet is someone who has a different range of experience than normal people a prophet can see possibilities that other people do not see when the creatures moved I heard the sound of their wings like the roar of rushing waters like the voice of the almighty Ezekiel 1:24 despite their extraordinary insight it is believed that the prophets did not choose their roles or destinies they came from widely different sectors of society from the ranks of priests and peasants alike despite their impact on history the Bible is mysteriously silent about the personal lives of the prophets for the vast majority of the prophets we really know very little of their personal situation their personal story and they remain an egg matt 'ok persons the biblical prophets took it upon themselves to confront their leaders directly to criticize and reprimand them for injustice is done some were nearly killed according to the Bible Daniel was thrown into a den of lions and Jonah was plunged into the sea and swallowed by a whale but why these prophets risk their own lives to spread the message of truth compassion and justice remains one of the most enigmatic mysteries of all time the prophets of Israel are a unique phenomenon in world history and they fixed the moral basis for the whole development not only of the Jewish people but of all of Western civilization perhaps without the influence of prophecy there would have been no ethical foundation for the establishment of the world's three great monotheistic religions Judaism Christianity and Islam as derived from the Greek the word profit means someone who acts as a link between the human and divine world's the Bible tells us that there were different types of profits each with their own unique style and voice but all of them shared a common calling what all of the prophets had in common was the belief that somehow the Spirit of God descended upon these people and the people among whom they lived believed that the Spirit of God did come upon people and did move them exactly who were the prophets of the Sacred Scripture these people who often appeared eccentric performed miracles and gazed into the future to find clues we must go back three and a half thousand years to Mount Sinai where God reveals himself to Moses it is here that the Ten Commandments are the laws dictating human behavior are imparted it is also where the covenant between God and His people is established although most scholars do not regard Moses as a traditional prophet he is the one called upon to perform the task of mediating between God and the Israelites Moses is not the first individual in the Hebrew Bible to be called a prophet but he emerges within the tradition as Israel's prophet par excellence the prophet of the prophets the prophet to whom God spoke face-to-face directly rather than through visions or dreams and the Lord said listen to my words if he were your prophet and nothing more I would make myself known in a vision I would speak with him in a dream but my servant Moses is not such a prophet with him I speak face-to-face openly and not in riddles he alone sees the very form of the Lord numbers 12 6 all subsequent profits stand in the shadow of Moses but it would not be for another 200 years after the giving of the law at Mount Sinai that the great age of prophecy would begin in the 11th century BCE the first traditional prophet Samuel anoints Israel's initial monarch and sets in motion tensions that would see for centuries between prophet and King but not all the messengers of God would limit themselves to mere words of warning the rise of prophecy in ancient Israel unfolds during the 11th century BCE as the Israelites are engaged in a constant and deadly war with the Philistines there is a time of the Israelites are divided people twelve separate tribes in need of strong leadership they demand a king a man named Samuel is called upon by God to become the first prophet and fulfill a special role he will Shepherd Israel into the age of monarchy samuel said to all the people do you see the man the Lord has chosen then the people shouted long live the king samuel explained to the people the regulations of the kingship he wrote them down on a scroll and put it before the Lord First Samuel 10:25 at this point there is a split in Jewish history where one figure takes on the spiritual leadership and a different figure entirely takes on political military strategic leadership that's the difference between judge and prophet Samuel was the moral authority of the country Samuel was the prophet Samuel was the bringer of the word of God but Saul was the king who led the armies and had to follow orders Samuel responds to the cry of his people and anoint Saul King but as it will be with future Kings Saul's authority will be tempered by the prophets when the time for kingship came according to this tradition in the books of Samuel God said alright there can be a human king but there will also be prophets who will be sent by me to give my word to the king to serve as a corrective to the king if the king should not rule wisely in this earliest period of prophecy during the establishment of the monarchy the Bible tells us that many prophets operated not as individuals but rather in roving groups or bands they frequently receive the Word of God during bursts of ecstasy while in trance-like states as you approach the town you will need a possession of prophets coming down from the high palace with liars tambourines flutes and harps being played before them and they will be prophesying the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power and you will prophesy with them do whatever your hands find to do for God is with you first Samuel 10:5 they worked by building themselves into a frenzy they use musical instruments they danced sometimes the literature has called them whirling dervishes even but the goal was to become in an ecstatic state in which one would have closer access to the presence of God it is from this world of roving bands of conjurer's and performers of miracles that the great prophet elijah emerges as time has advanced so too has the role of the Prophet at first they merely served as private personal advisors but the time soon came when they would make public pronouncements and address the people directly the year is 886 BCE and the Prophet Elijah's critical voice has rallied public opinion against the pagan corruption of King Ahab's Northern Kingdom of Israel they have maintains allegiance to the Hebrew God Yahweh but that commitment is by no means exclusive he and his people also worship the pagan gods Baal and Asherah Elijah the Prophet had a very serious problem with the king of Israel his wife Jezebel was his queen and she was a Phoenician princess and Jezebel had her religion which wasn't his and her religion was the religion of bow and her priests were the priests of Baal and her actions were the actions of a pagan not the actions that are expected of a Jew and Elijah the prophet then found himself with a very powerful enemy so his task was to try to keep the king of Israel honest and to try to keep the King faithful to the laws of Israel rather than under the influence of his wife Jezebel not only builds altars to Baal and Asherah but she is instrumental in the murder of several prophets of the God of Israel filled with rage by the crime Elijah confronts the king you have abandoned the Lord's commands and have followed the bowels now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel and bring the 450 prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table first Kings 1819 here on the summit of Mount Carmel where the Church of Mook Raqqa stands today Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal to see whose God will be the first to send fire down to an altar for a sacrifice the priests failed to summon any flames but God responds to Elijah's challenge and he wins the contest he has defeated the gods of paganism and has all the idol-worshipping priests slain the infuriated Queen Jezebel orders Elijah murdered but he flees for his life into the desert destitute and alone he pleads to God to save him go and stand on the Mount before the Lord for the Lord is about to pass by then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before him but the Lord was not in the wind and after the wind there was an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake came a fire and after the fire came a gentle whisper first Kings 1911 God says to Elisha you expect me to be in winds and earthquakes and fires out of the sky but that's not how I work I work by still small voices by speaking quietly to people's hearts by touching lives and if you really want to be a prophet of God then you're not going to be a miracle worker you're not going to do produce fires and earthquakes and winds when I need you to do is to touch hearts and to shapes those Elijah's time has come in one of the truly legendary stories of the Bible he triumphantly departs the world in spectacular fashion he ascends to heaven upon a whirlwind and a chariot of fire as it rises his cloak falls to his successor the prophet Elijah thereby transferring his prophetic power and assuring its continuity with Elijah and Elijah comes an end to the early period of prophecy a time when words and deeds were not committed to writing but a century later in 792 BCE a new period begins this was the age of the so-called writing prophets 16 people who recorded their own lives among them were amos jonah hosea Isaiah and Jeremiah when we returned the story of Amos who would confront the established authorities placing his life in jeopardy he goes on to become one of the greatest prophets of all time you the Bible tells us that the prophets of ancient Israel often challenge the highest authorities in the land despite the fact that many came from humble beginnings what was it that caused these emissaries of God to be recognized and respected and perhaps even more puzzling how were the people able to distinguish true prophets from false prophets if you wonder how are we to recognize a word that the Lord has uttered here is the answer when a word spoken by a prophet in the name of the Lord is not fulfilled and does not come true it is not a word spoken by the Lord Deuteronomy 18 21 people were trying from the book of Deuteronomy onwards to figure out some criteria for distinguishing between - and and false prophet and they never succeeded nevertheless the Golden Age of prophecy continues to rise during the eighth century BCE it comes during a critical period in Israel's history in fact the importance of the Prophet seemed to be fairly proportional to the political events of the day not only in the Kingdom of Judah but throughout the Middle East it is a time of increasing imbalance in society the rich become richer and the poor poorer it is against this backdrop that in 792 BCE the Prophet Amos appears a simple herdsmen from a small village in Judah he is drawn to the Northern Kingdom of Israel by tales of rampant social and moral decay as a proclaimed prophet he calls for change Amos was a very powerful speaker for him it was very clear that to be the people of God this people had to be concerned about social justice that you could not maintain a society devoted to the service of God where there was oppression Zeke good not evil that you may live then the Lord God Almighty will be with you Amos 5:14 there is more to Amos as prophecy than general admonitions against evil behavior his Oracles and visions are filled with divine judgment against those in high and mighty places the priests and kings one priest a messiah sends a message to the king complaining that he cannot bear to hear a Moses words for this is what Amos is saying the king will die by the sword and Israel will surely go into exile away from their native land then a messiah said to Amos get out you seer go back to the land of Judah earn your bread there and do your prophesying there don't prophesy anymore at beth-el because this is the king's sanctuary Amos 1011 and it's at that point that Amos takes off after the priest and he says to him I'm not a visionary I'm not a prophet I never was a prophet I don't do this to make a living but God took me from behind the sheep and said go prophesied of my people Israel and now I'm gonna tell you what's gonna happen to you and he really lets the priest have it and explains that the priest too will end up in exile with the people and that this particular temple is going to be destroyed are you not Israelites did I not bring Israel up from Egypt surely the eyes of the sovereign Lord are on the sinful Kingdom I will destroy it from the face of the earth Amos 9 7 as the Israelites drift away from God Amos gives forth with a frightening vision of the nation's collapse he predicts the downfall of Israel's northern kingdom as the age of prophecy unfolds we find ourselves in the year 742 BCE the place the temple in Jerusalem a man named Isaiah is called by God to prophecies and he has a fateful vision I saw the Lord seated on a throne high and exalted and the skirt of his robe filled the temple Seraphim were in attendance on him one of the Seraphim touched my mouth and said this has touched your lips now your iniquity is removed and your sin is wiped out Isaiah 6:1 that story does more than just tell us how Isaiah became a prophet it also gives us a very powerful understanding of that process and confers a lot of authority on Isaiah as a prophet whose mouth was purified by no less than an angelic being the book of Isaiah is the longest prophetic text in the Bible Isaiah's voice is a perpetual plea for peace and tolerance his prophecies are an enduring legacy that are relevant even today it is from Isaiah that one of the greatest quotations has come down to us through the ages they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation will not take up sword against nation nor will they learn war any more isaiah 2:4 isaiah lived in Jerusalem during one of its most unsettled times the Assyrian superpower is ravaging city after city in northern Israel and is heading south towards the holy city Isaiah's task is to encourage and guide his people during this threatening period there's no parallel for a man like Isaiah Isaiah saw that the Lord would protect Jerusalem if the people would keep the Covenant the Lord would keep his side of the deal and that's what he preached in one of the most bizarre acts in the Bible Isaiah walks naked through the streets of Jerusalem the Lord said to Isaiah strip the sacrum your waist and take off your sandals as my servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years so will the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt Isaiah 22 Isaiah brings his prophetic message to the attention of the King warning him not to join a foreign alliance against the warring Assyrians it is a fateful prediction of things to come for the invasion soon shatters the Northern Kingdom of Israel oh my people who live in Zion do not be afraid of the Assyrians who beat you with a rod and lift up a club against you as Egypt did there is soon my anger against you will end and my wrath will be directed to their destruction Isaiah 1024 although Isiah believes that conditions will get much worse he holds hope for the people and predicts the survival of Jerusalem because Jerusalem is the site of the Holy Temple it will be spared from a Syrian aggression Bell or Oh this is the word of the Lord about the king of Assyria he will not enter this city or shoot an arrow there by the way he came he will go back Isaiah 3733 the Bible tells us that on the evening preceding the planned Assyrian siege of Jerusalem a miracle occurs God sends an angel down to the enemy camp and almost 200 thousand soldiers are fatefully struck down the following morning the Assyrians retreat never to return and Jerusalem is saved the Northern Kingdom of Israel Falls to a Syrian attack just as Amos had predicted 20 years earlier your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword you yourself shall die in an unclean land and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land Amos 717 Israel is destroyed but its holy city of Jerusalem is left intact as Isaiah predicted but too many Isaiah's words seemed to foreshadow an event which would change the course of history a young woman will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste Isaiah 7:14 Isaiah's words would later reverberate in the Bible as Matthew attempts to interpret them in the New Testament in the telling of Jesus birth Matthew writes all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet behold a virgin will conceive and bear a son and he shall be called Immanuel a name which means God is with us Matthew 1:23 the New Testament writers quote Isaiah frequently because they believe that they find in that book information that is helpful to them as they interpret the life and death and resurrection of Jesus whom they call the Christ but the prophet Isaiah and the Book of Isaiah speaks not about Jesus but rather about this future ideal Davidic scholars believe that the Davidic King to which Isaiah refers will be descended from David's royal lineage the monarchs of ancient Israel Isaiah's predictions present a dilemma for the next great prophet Jeremiah a hundred years later this attitude was almost fatal the Jeremiah because he had to fight against the assumption that God would always protect Jerusalem Jeremiah had to struggle against the prophecy of Isaiah unlike the other great prophets Jeremiah never knows what it's like to live as a common man he is called to prophecy even prior to his birth there is never a time when Jeremiah is not under obligation to God he is directed to forego marriage and children and commanded to walk the streets of Jerusalem relentlessly preaching a message of repentance it is a time of great upheaval invading Babylonians pour across the borders of Judah in the South the nation itself is crumbling idol worship is popular and Jeremiah lashes out against idolatry and false prophets Jeremiah is concerned about oppression and corruption and addresses the people in his famous Temple sermon these are the words of the Lord if you do not obey me if you do not live according to the law and listen to the words of my prophets I shall make this City an object of cursing to all nations on earth Jeremiah 26 for such words bring Jeremiah into perpetual conflict with his own family and even with the priesthood of Jerusalem who threatened to kill him imagine if somebody stood up in America in the 1990s and said you are so wicked and so corrupt that your enemies will overthrow you either we would dismiss them as a fool or hate them as a traitor and that's what Jeremiah said and that's exactly the reaction he was either dismissed as a fool or hated as a traitor Jeremiah is undaunted by the threats or even as Babylonian power and conquest grows the people continue to ignore his warnings on more than one occasion he is imprisoned Jeremiah continues to endanger his life by issuing prophecies of the impending doom of Jerusalem this is what the Lord says I am about to hand the city over to the king of Babylon and he will burn it down you will surely be captured and handed over to him Jeremiah 34 - frustrated by Israel's continuing refusal to heed his words Jeremiah complains to God but he is commanded to continue his work he is also told to write down his Oracle's Baruch his scribe writes them in a stroll and reads Jeremiah's warnings to the people in the temple but the King Jehoiakim cuts the scroll into pieces and burns it this King Jehoiakim is incredibly arrogant I think this is the first example of documents shredding because he reckons that if he can burn the book he will get rid of the threat and Jeremiah and Baruch go into hiding because of the the king sends his thugs to arrest him the way the wave frightened governments are always treating poets Jeremiah's enemies multiply as he continues to criticize the people's rejection of the laws of Moses - symbolically indicate their impending fate he wears a wooden yoke in public for shadowing their future captivity by babylon jeremiah begins to be seen as a traitor he is arrested cast into a muddy cistern and left to die though rescued is later carried off to Egypt never to return to his beloved Jerusalem again my heart is faint within me the harvest is past the summer has ended and we are not saved since my people are crushed I am crushed I mourn and horror grips me Jeremiah 8:18 Jeremiah is often considered to be the most pessimistic of the prophets but also one of the most emotional and courageous with Jeremiah the connection between prophecy and politics came to an end it's true that his prophecy was correct it's true that Jerusalem was destroyed but he himself suffered from the fatal flaw of never being able to prove to everybody satisfaction that his was the true prophecy and all the people who are predicting that Jerusalem would would stay forever were in fact false prophets and this inability to get an objective proof of the validity of prophecy turned out to be fatal to the whole enterprise there was prophecy after Jeremiah but it was not political anymore the last of the great prophets Ezekiel was yet to come his vision would not only be non-political but unlike any other prophet of his time the place is Babylon 700 miles to the east of Jerusalem the Year 593 BCE Ezekiel a priest exiled along with other Jews from ancient Israel is called to prophecy he is the last of the great prophets but the first without the benefit of Temple or homeland Ezekiel's message of comfort to the deported Jews emanates from some of the strangest prophecies recorded in the Bible his visions are punctuated by trances apocalyptic dreams and seemingly bizarre deeds when the Spirit of God first descends upon him he is told to eat a scroll you can eat paper but this is a strange thing and it's meant to be that symbolic act that dramatic gesture that touch of madness by which Ezekiel shows that the Word of God is within him he has ingested it he has eaten it so that when he speaks it is the word of God that comes forth and a spirit entered into me and he said unto me son of man I send thee to the children of Israel to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me Ezequiel two three Ezekiel's uniqueness as a prophet is seen at the very outset of his book which describes a famous vision a vision with a distinctly alien and mysterious quality to it as I looked at the living creatures I saw wheels on the ground one beside each of the four the wheels Sparkle white topaz when the living creatures moved the wheels moved beside them when the creatures rose from the ground the wheels rose together with them for the spirit of the creatures was in the wheels ezekiel 1:15 some people have speculated that this vision was the first sighting of a flying saucer it wasn't too long ago that a contemporary author wrote a book in which he makes the claim that what ezekiel actually was seeing in his chariot vision was a flying saucer but ezekiel witnessed a visit to this world by people from another world so just as Jewish mystics of old poured over Ezekiel's chariot vision to discern its mysteries so also contemporary writers read the opening chapters of Ezekiel and interpret it according to their own ideas about this planet and its relationship to other planets as with all prophets Ezekiel's career is rooted in the historical context of the time in which he lived when he began prophesying Jerusalem had not yet met its fate he witnesses the destruction of the temple and the exile of the Jews from their homeland to Babylon I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land the land I gave your forefathers you will be my people I will be your God ezekiel 36:24 Ezekiel is a prophet not of doom but of hope he foretells the return of the Jews to their promised land a foretelling that eventually comes to pass he also enlightens his people with a new idea that would affect all following generations it would have special relevance for the so called diaspora those Jews who would one day be scattered throughout the world one of the contributions of Ezekiel is to show that the God of Israel had appeared in the Diaspora and if he appeared there he can be worshipped there that was a tremendous point because from then on the God of Israel can be worshipped anyway Ezekiel's prophecy is a major turning point for ancient Israel it comes at a time when the Israelites are being scattered from the Holy Land to the ends of the earth it is a significant period in the history of prophecy when priestly visionaries lead the way to creating modern Judaism as it is known today a time of the Israelites developed a new identity and became known as Jews as the people lose their promised land prophecy diminishes turning a concern for government and monarchy into messages aimed at personal matters from daily living and worship to rebuilding community life gradually prophecy itself begins to wane eventually it disappears completely we don't know why prophecy ended just like we don't know why it started the fact is that by the time of Alexander the Great in the 300s before the Common Era there was a general consensus among the people that prophecy was dead that God was not speaking through people anymore that this was not the way that the Jewish religion would evolve God has now through prophets said everything God needs to say to humanity the issue now is not a new message the issue is will you pay attention to the messages that have been spoken and so what you need now are not prophets but reminders and that's what sages and rabbis and teachers are supposed to be people who say you know you may have forgotten but this is the message and here it is in the words of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Moses cease to do evil learn to do good seek justice believe the oppressed defend the orphan plead the widow Isaiah 117 you

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Keywords: Prophets, Soul, Catchers, mysteries, of, the, bible

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Length: 46min 14sec (2774 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 13 2011