Jesus: The Prophet

I. Introduction

The promised Messiah was to be a wholesale personification of the nation of Israel. This meant that he would be the obedient son and servant to Yahweh that Israel never was because of her idolatry and disobedience. We learned two weeks ago that the idea of Messiah carried the idea of the king, the “Son of Man,” and the “suffering servant.” These three titles correspond to the three officers in ancient Israel: the king, the prophet, and the priest (respectively). Interestingly enough, all three of these officers were “anointed” (the meaning of the Hebrew word we render as messiah) in some way before they were officially installed. These three officers were critical to the rule and preservation of Israel as a covenanted people. Thus, it is not surprising to see Jesus, the Messiah, fulfilling all three of these roles in His own way. Here’s a quote from Richard Pratt:

“The three offices of Christ rose out of Old Testament theocratic structures. Prophets spoke
the Word of God, instructing in righteousness. Priests mediated between the people and God, providing the way for communion with Him. Kings administered justice and led Israel into battle, securing its victory and inheritance. These offices were so vital to the life of Israel that they required special anointings from God. As ‘the Christ’ (‘anointed one’) Jesus fulfilled each of these anointed offices” (He Gave us Stories, 346-47).

II. The Old Testament Prophet

In Old Testament times, a prophet was one who carried a message from God and spoke for God (see Exodus 7:1 & Deuteronomy 18:18). The true prophets of the Old Testament were employed for special service to the Lord. Generally, the prophets were involved in two functions:

A) Receiving the Word of the Lord – this aspect is passive and it often came in dreams, visions, or verbal communication from God. A true prophet never spoke out of his or her own opinion or authority, but only what was communicated by God.

B) Delivering the Word of the Lord – this aspect is active and it often involved telling people what they did not want to hear. The “calling card” of the true prophet was his dictum, “Thus saith the Lord…” This formula signaled to the audience that what followed was not a device of man, but a message from Yahweh Himself. In Jeremiah 14:13, Jeremiah laments the message of the false prophets who give the Israelites a false sense of security and affirmed their sin against God. The Lord’s response is that He neither sent them nor spoke to them. They speak their own opinions, not the word of the Lord. Delivering the word of the Lord involved two types of speech:

1) Forth Telling – This aspect involves the exposure of Israel’s sin and rebellion and the declaration of God’s anger at belittling His law. Often, forth telling involves a call for the people to repent. This was the primary type of speech issued by a true prophet.

2) Foretelling – To heighten the sense of urgency in forth telling, God would often give His prophets a glimpse of future events (judgment, destruction, exile) that awaited a stiff-necked people. While most people think of the idea of prophecy purely in this sense, we must realize that the prophets of the Bible only predicted the future in the context of their forth telling.

When we look at the reaction to the prophecy of the true prophets of the Old Testament, we get a rather bleak picture. Most of them were ostracized and persecuted for their message. Many of them were imprisoned or killed. As the Israelites rushed headlong into disaster, God commissioned His prophets to speak His word, all the while knowing that they would never hear and never obey (see Isaiah 6:8-10). In fact, the people would prefer false prophecy and things that were easy to hear (“smooth things”) over the actual word of the Lord (Isaiah 30:9-14). Yet, the fundamental duty of the prophet was to make known the will of the Lord even amidst this opposition that would in many cases cost him his life.

III. The New Testament Prophet – John the Baptist & Jesus

In the opening days of Jesus’ public ministry in Palestine, he was baptized and heralded by John the Baptist, who is cast as a prophetical figure like Elijah (Matthew 3:1-6). He brings to the Israelites a message of repentance and like the prophets of old, meets an untimely end because of his word. He is seen as the last prophet in the line of the Old Testament ones.

Jesus is seen as a prophet of a completely different order. Yes, he follows the same pattern as the others: he is called and commissioned, he receives a message from God, and he delivers that message in both forth telling and foretelling. One might ask: How is he different? There are a couple of ways to answer this question:

1) He is the Promised Prophet – Moses told the Israelites that the Lord would provide them with a prophet like himself (Deut. 18:15). It is obvious that the early church saw Jesus in precisely these terms (Acts 3:22-23). He also speaks with a unique authority (the defining mark of a true prophet), so much so that he was singled out from the so-called religious authorities of his day (Matt. 7:29).

2) He not only speaks the words of God (John 8:26-28), he is the Word of God (John 1:1) – Perhaps the most defining mark of any true prophet was his commission to speak “the word of the Lord.” This is the precise reason why so many of the prophets were imprisoned, exiled, and executed. As the prophet spoke the word of God into the midst of a fallen and rebellious people, it was met with bitter and hostile opposition, which shows all the more the depravity of humanity. Back then, what the people rejected was not the prophet himself, but the word that he spoke. This Word (we learn in John 1:1) is no one other than the second person of the Trinity. And even more significantly, this very Word became flesh and dwelt among this depraved humanity, only to receive the same punishment. This is what John means by the light shines in the darkness and darkness tries to overcome it, but cannot (John 1:5).