told Moses to speak to Pharaoh, Moses excused himself on the ground that he was not gifted sufficiently to speak. The Lord then said that Aaron, Moses’ brother, would be given the position of spokesman, for said God, 7 know that he can speak well . . . And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what y e shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God (Exodus 4:14-16). From this passage we may conclude that the message which the prophet gave was not his own, but had been given to him by God. Thus he represented God. This fact is illustrated graphically in the case of Samuel, the first of the writing prophets. In this con nection the whole of 1 Samuel 3 should be read with care. We cite two verses here. And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord (1 Samuel 3:19,20). God controlled his words, and the people recognized the difference between the words of God and the words of a man, thereby establishing in their minds the fact that Samuel was “ a prophet of the Lord.” And the prophet of the Lord, insofar as his message is concerned, is equated with the Lord. God had said to Miriam and Aaron: . . . If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him . . . W ith him will I speak mouth to mouth . . . (Numbers 12:6, 8 ). God had done exactly that with Moses so that the Pen tateuch closes with the remarkable testimony which reads as follows: And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face (D eu teronomy 34:10). The correct etymological meaning of the word prophet is “ a speaker or spokesman of God.” The Bible places the emphasis on the function of speaking for God when setting forth the office of the prophet. The prophets knew they were as the mouth of God (Jeremiah 1:17; 15:19). And every student of prophecy knows that “ all that he [the prophet of God] saith cometh surely to pass” (1 Samuel 9:6). Secondly, the prophet is a mediator. A mediator is a go-between, one who mediates between two parties. Usually we think of the priest as a mediator, one who represents the people before God, in contrast to the prophet who represented God to the people. In the strict est usage of the terms priest and priesthood, this view is correct since the Divine institution of the priesthood culminated in the high priest, it being his divinely or dained duty to represent all of the people. However, there is a sense in which the prophet was a go-between or mediator. Since the prophet is to be like Moses as a representative of God to the people. Someone may raise the question “Why does man need a go-between? Why doesn’t God deal directly with man?” A good question, this! I believe we have the answer, in part at least, in the passage in Deuteronomy. The reason that God will raise up the prophet is man’s obvious need of a mediator, that need growing out of a consciousness and conviction of sin and a deep sense of unworthiness on the part of the people. God said He would raise up a prophet: According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy
PROPHECY (continued) God (Jonah 1:2). God commissioned Jonah to cry against Nineveh, that is, to preach or prophesy against it. Jonah, after a futile attempt to escape his mission, went to that city. We can almost hear God’s prophet as he preached or prophesied: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4). Now Nineveh was not over thrown in forty days for the one reason that the king and his people repented of their wickedness. This was not a predictive prophecy that failed, but rather a pre ceptive prophecy that accomplished its divinely-intended goal. God could find no delight in destroying the lives of the people. He sent His prophet, with precepts which, if obeyed, would change their behavior and avert His judgment. Preceptive prophecy is the forthtelling of what God will do if man refuses to obey His precepts. Thirdly, Bible prophecy was introduced as a predic tive. In contrast to forthtelling, predictive prophecy is foretelling, making known beforehand something that is going to happen. That the prophets did forecast the future, no student of the Scriptures will deny. This pre dictive element is, in part at least, the genius of proph ecy, as well as a test of the prophet’s calling, whether he be of God or not. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him (Deuteronomy 18:21,22). Many fulfilled prophecies of the Bible prove the Divine inspiration of every Scripture in general, and of the predictive prophecies in particular. Most of the ful fillment of the predictions of God’s prophets were far enough removed from the prediction so as to preclude the possibility of mere human insight or prescience. Thus we have in Bible prophecy evidence that the purpose of prophecy is the foretelling of things to come. III. The Office of the Prophet No study of personalities in the Bible is as interesting and exciting as that of the lives of the prophets. The prophet of God is always a man of consecration and compassion and communion with God. He does not live a popular, social life, but rather a solitary life that affords him the needed time to keep in touch with God. He is definitely a man of prayer. He can never be bound by tradition or public opinion; thus he is at all times an uncompromising individualist. The ever-abiding consciousness that his calling is a holy one from God holds him stedfastly to his task. He is a man of alacrity and action, with a realistic and rugged approach to his task which commands attention, and is apt to stir up antipathy and antagonism. His office is twofold. First, the prophet is the mouthpiece of God. We use the word “mouthpiece” here in the correct sense of one who speaks for another. The function of the prophet, then, is to speak, not his own thoughts and words, but the thoughts and words of Another. One of the clearest pictures of the true function of a prophet is recorded in Exodus, chapter seven. And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet (Exodus 7:1). In this passage Aaron is the spokesman, appearing as the mediator between Moses and Pharaoh. The verse illustrates the relation of God to the people as seen in Moses’ relation to Pharaoh. Another passage in Exodus, chapter four, strengthens our thought here. When God
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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