Prophets abound in the bible. From Aaron to Deborah to Nathan to Elijah, it seems like almost every major Old Testament story involved at least a prophet of sorts. Today, we use the word “prophet” to describe anyone who can (or claims to be able to) foretell the future. But to understand a prophet that way is far too narrow. The word prophet literally means speaker, or to speak. In the bible, a prophet was anyone who spoke God’s words on His behalf. Prophesying wasn’t just predicting; it was speaking God’s word (which included predictions).  Never think that it was the prophet who was calling the shots - it was God who chose them for the job (many often felt incompetent) and gave them the words to speak. Prophets were basically God’s human mouthpieces.

The prophets are crucial to the biblical story, and God’s plan of redemption. For one thing, the very existence of the prophets was certain proof that God had not forgotten His covenant people. He was still reaching out to them through these spokespeople, calling Israel to return to Him in faithful obedience. Think about it. Far from simply being agents of God’s smiting hand, the prophets were sure signs of God’s love! Even though His people had turned away, God had not.

The Old Testament ends with a collection of the writings of some of the prophets. Based on length, not importance, scholars divide these into the major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel) and the minor prophets (Hosea - Malachi). Reading these 17 books straight can be confusing, unless you understand them within their historical contexts, which really isn’t hard at all.

You’d know by now that the bible was compiled only partially chronologically. The major and minor prophets were all written over the same time period that Kings, Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah covers (which we should still partly be familiar with!). I find this timeline very helpful (note the prophets in pink):

As we know, Israel and Judah were both exiled; Ezekiel, Daniel and the last 3 minor prophets were written during the exile or post-exile, when they had returned to the promised land. As such they take on yet a different purpose and tone, reminding Israel and Judah that even though they had experienced God’s promised punishments, their covenant God was faithful and forgiving, and still desired their love and worship.

Common to all the prophets was the notion that Yahweh wasn’t a local Israelite deity, but the sovereign God of the universe, sovereign over all the nations. This is why the nations feature a lot in the prophets’ writings. For one thing, because the nations were included in the Abrahamic promise (Gen 12:2-3), Israel was constantly reminded of her failure to be a “blessing” to them. (This theme, as we know, is picked up and finds it fulfilment in the New Testament.) At the same time, since the Abrahamic promise included God’s “cursing” those who cursed Israel, the prophets also regularly pronounced God’s judgement on the nations. Indeed, Obadiah and Nahum speak exclusively against the nations (Edom and Assyria, respectively).

Much like the New Testament epistles, these writings were written to address somewhat ad-hoc situations, which is why it’s important to have a sense of the political-social-religious situation into which the prophets were speaking. Broadly speaking, the time of the prophets was a time of significant economic, political and social upheaval, with a high level of unfaithfulness and disregard for the Mosaic law and covenant.

With this in mind, the prophets become very exciting reads! Remember also that most of the prophetic speech takes the form of poetry, so take your time to appreciate the vivid and evocative imagery and metaphors that the prophets used to capture the people’s attentions. These weren’t bizarre rantings of doom-obsessed men; they were the very words of God spoken in specific contexts to specific situations, all to bring His covenant people back to Him in faithfulness and love. Our world today would do well to heed much of the prophets’ advice too.