Idolatry and Social Injustice and Religious Ritualism, Oh My

In the Old Testament, the Israelites were seen as people who failed to listen to God’s commandments. Despite knowing beforehand that they would be punished for their disobedience, they still continued to commit sin. God tried to deter their misbehavior by promising them many blessings, but it worked to no avail. Due to the insubordination of the Israelites, He made sure that the promises He made to them would be withheld and that they would face consequences.

A prophet speaks exquisitely encouraged words to others. Prophets are willing to give up their life for what they believe in. They bring new ideas to situations, and don’t follow other’s work. They are gifted with the ways of God, and have spiritual insight on certain problems. To be a prophet takes hard work. If you do something so immense, and it helps people around you, doesn’t mean you automatically fall under prophecy. You have to have the full criteria. That is why it’s hard to find a modern day prophet today. Many people in the world today have done something big, but are not viewed as prophetic, because of their power, or personality.

The Hebrews believed that they had a special unique relationship with God; they called themselves “the chosen People”. Prophets played a dominant role in this history. They believe this because they were rescued from Egypt and God wanted them set the examples of righteousness behavior for all to follow. The Prophets are emergence of spiritually inspired people. The profits cared nothing for money or possessions and feared no one and preached without invitations. The prophet said that is was God’s wish to forgive human sins and to renew his relationship with a contrite Israel. The prophets aided in the modeling of the learning that is part of the Western Tradition. They also additional established the Hebrew idea of “moral individuality”. Rejecting parochialism for universalism, the prophets accomplished a profound alertness of human disposition, a conscious commitment to the Law. The prophets said that individuals are responsible for their own actions and this would be the key component to the Western thought.

The prophets are difficult to interpret mainly due to misunderstandings about their function and form (Fee/Stuart p182). Most dictionaries define the word “prophecy”as ‘foretelling or prediction of what is to come. Using the prophets in this way is highly discerning, for less than 2% of OT prophecy is messianic; less than 5% describes the new covenant age and less than 1% concerns future events (Fee/Stuart p182). The prophets usually announced the immediate future of Judah, Israel and the surrounding nations, rather than our future. Those events were forthcoming for them but past for us (Fee/Stuart p182). The primary function of prophets as a spokesperson was to speak for God to their own contemporaries. Of the hundreds of prophets in

First, what must be looked at is who is a prophet and what is a prophet’s message. A prophet is an Israelite called on by God to express in poetic form the vision of God, His kingdom, the messianic age of peace, the work of the Holy Spirit, a new community of people, and the transformation of creation and humanity (VanGemeren 16). One example of a prophet is Amos, where the feeling of prophetic sense of an inner compulsion, “Surly the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:7-8).

Several times in the Bible, the Lord commissions a person to serve as a prophet and a leader for his people. While those who are commissioned are elevated by that choice, those commissions are not always positive. On the contrary, the Lord is frequently responding to something that people have done that He finds disappointing or upsetting. As a result, the commissioning often have an ominous tone to them, even though they reflect the Lord's pleasure with one of his servants. Isiaiah 6 and Jeremiah 1 both demonstrate how a commission was both an honor and a burden for the men who received them in the Bible. They also demonstrate that the prophets were tasked to do difficult things.

The role of the prophet changes with the society in which he lives. In modern society, a prophet is a visionary, telling people what they can become; in Biblical times, a prophet was the voice of God, telling his people what they had to become to fulfill their covenant with God.  In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the prophet is a peaceful lad, Simon.  He alone saw that the jungle, which represented freedom and the lack of civilization, was not to be feared but to be understood; he alone knew that the mythical Beast of the island, feared by all the boys, was, in fact, their own inherent savagery. Through these truths Simon represents a Christ figure paralleling Christ's

To fully understand the meaning behind his sermons and predictions we must first look at what a prophet is and what he holds true.

The group of Prophetic Books are divided into the minor prophets and major prophets. The major prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel are listed first, but not because their messages are more important but that they are longer. The twelve minor prophets are from Hosea through Malachi are writings shorter in length written in shorter in length and follow one by one. The main role for the prophets is to “speak for God” on the issues of the

Prophecy involves a situation in which one or more messages are allegedly communicated by a god. The messages usually involve something that inspires, interpretes, or revolve of a social world and events to eventually come. Prophecy is not limited to one culture. It is a common subject known to all ancient societies around the world, some more than others. This essay will revolve around how prophecy is the main theme in both texts.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the main themes of Isaiah and Jeremiah. The main themes of Isaiah are: (1) Son’s Names as Signs. (2) Servant. (3) Holy One of Israel. (4) Redeemer. (5) Eschatology. The main themes of Jeremiah are: (1) God’s Policy with Nations. (2) New Covenant. (3) False Prophets.

In the textbook's introductory material (Ch. 1 - 4), Hays presents the central focus of the prophets being the covenant and social justice. The covenant is presented within a three-part formula: "I will be your God; You will be my people; I will dwell in your midst" (p. 35). Hays elaborates on the justice aspect on p. 71: "The Prophets and Social Justice Today".

The prophets are some of the most studied individuals in the bible, but often many people overlook the primary mission of the prophets. According to Bratcher “the prophets’ primary task was to call the people

In the last section of the Bible there are two parts. The two parts are the Major and Minor Prophets. The Major prophets are in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. The minor Prophets are in the books of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, these books form that last segment of the Old Testament cannon. The authors of these books were the Hebrew prophets, which makes sense because a Hebrew prophet is a spokesperson for God. The twofold aspect of the prophet's ministry included declaring God's message for people of their day and foretelling God's actions in the future (Hindson). Thus, the prophet was also called a "seer" because he could see future events before

The Old Testament ends with the Minor Prophets. These prophets provided insight on many issues the Jews were facing. All of the prophets had the same ideas of a warning of impending judgment because of the nations’ sinfulness, the coming judgment, a call for repentance, and a promise of future deliverance of God’s grace. Idolatry, social injustice and religious ritualism are three issues that the prophets emphasized on in their teachings and can be inspired in the minds and hearts of believers today. The prophets’ teachings are just as important today as they were in the past. The teachings about God, the way man lived, social issues, and religious rituals are all relevant in the today’s society.