390. Prophets and priests played an important role in early Israel, though many of the prophets do not have books named after them. The purpose of these godly men was to serve as messengers from God to the people. The prophets and priests received orders from God and acted upon them.
391. Moses said God would raise up prophets like him in the generations to follow. And God did. Generally keeping a low profile, the prophets did not possess administrative power like the kings. And they had no place in the tabernacle or temple rituals like the priests. They simply spoke the mind of God as it was given to them. Unlike the kingship and the priesthood, the position of prophet could not be passed on to one's descendants. God individually chose each one.
392. Nathan served as a prophet in the time of David and Solomon. It was his responsibility to confront David after David stole a soldier's wife, made her pregnant, and then had the soldier killed in order to cover up his deceitful behavior. When Nathan confronted David for his behavior, David repented, but God took the child born of the woman, Bathsheba, as a punishment. However, the next child David and Bathsheba conceived was Solomon. who would be king.
393. Elijah trusted God completely, so much so that when King Ahab appointed prophets to worship the false god Baal, Elijah told him no more rain would fall. Three years after the drought began, when Israel was literally starving, Elijah had a contest with the Baal prophets to see which deity would answer their prayers-God or the false god Baal. The people were brought to their senses by the sign of a soaked altar bursting into flame, and they came back to God.
394. As one of only two men who never died, Elijah was truly a special prophet of God. Enoch, a man who walked with God, was the other. Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire, but before he was taken he appointed Elisha, his servant, to succeed him.
395. Even though Elijah and Elisha were two of the most prominent prophets in the days of the northern kingdom, no book is named after them. Because of this we can assume that the seventeen books of prophecy in the Bible are just a sampling of all that the prophets spoke.
396. The books of prophecy. This section of the Bible composed of seventeen books beginning with Isaiah and ending with Malachi, closing out the Old Testament. Like the books of poetry, these books don't extend the time line of Israel's history; rather, they fill in the one laid down by the books of history. Apart from Job, most of the books of poetry were associated with the kings of Israel's glory days. By contrast the books of prophecy were associated mainly with the period of Israel's decline and fall.
397. Prophecy in the Old Testament was not so much a telling of the future as it was an urgent statement made on behalf of God to his people. Certain elements of Hebrew prophecy spoke of the future in terms that human behavior could not change, but most of it offered God's people a choice and often stated the harsh consequences if the Israelites chose to disobey.
398. Both the major and minor prophets are organized in historical order. This doesn't mean the minor prophets followed the majors in history, however, they coexisted with them. Hosea, for example, was a contemporary of Isaiah. Since the fall of Jerusalem is dated by historians at 586 B.C., all the books of prophecy- major and minor- can be dated within a century or two of that date.
399. Majors and Minors, part l. The distinction is made by the length of each book. Isaiah, for example, is longer than all twelve of the minor prophets together. Although Lamentations is short, Jeremiah was a major prophet, and the full title is "The Lamentations of Jeremiah."
