Prophet, Prophecy, Prophesy (Part 3)

Written By Donna

(This “Blog Post” - or what began as one - turned into 20 pages in a Word document, so I broke it down into 4 blog posts that I am sharing over the 4 weeks so as not to overwhelm you with too much information all at once.  This is part 3.)

Prophet, Prophecy, and Prophesy

There are five major prophets in the Bible and twelve minor prophets.  Two of the five major prophet books are from the same prophet, Jeremiah.  These are the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations. 

The twelve minor prophets were originally compiled on one scroll in the Hebrew Bible. Something I learned recently is that the only difference between a major prophet and minor prophet is the length of the text, not the importance of their messages.  

Let’s start with comparing the definition of the words prophet, prophecy, and prophesy.  

Prophet = a spokesperson for deity (someone who speaks on behalf of God) 

Prophecy = noun.  Prediction or a message from God.  Pronounced “prof-i-see”. When you think “c” think of the concept.  A prophecy is a concept the prophet shares. 

Prophesy = verb.  The act of making a prediction or sharing a message from God.  Pronounced “prof-i-sigh”.  When you think “s” think speak or say.  It is the action of speaking or saying the message you hear from God. 

Prophets in the Bible

The (5) major prophets (books) are:

  • Isaiah: focuses on God’s holiness, predicts the Babylonian exile and prophesies about the coming of the Messiah….Jesus

  • Jeremiah: warns of the impending destruction of Jerusalem and exile to Babylon.  He also speaks about the promise of a new covenant. 

  • Ezekiel: has visions with messages of both judgment and future restoration of the exiled Israelites. 

  • Lamentations: also written by Jeremiah is a really sad poetic account of the fall of Israel into exile.

  • Daniel: had prophetic visions regarding Babylon, future kingdoms and the coming Messiah

The (12) minor prophets are:

  • Hosea: God uses this prophet’s personal marriage to illustrate God’s faithfulness and unfailing love for His unfaithful people of Israel. 

  • Joel: called the nation to repentance prophesying about the events of the “Day of the LORD”

  • Amos: called judgment on Israel and surrounding nations because of social injustice and religious hypocrisy

  • Obadiah: called judgement on the nation of Edom because they mistreated Judah

  • Jonah: was a reluctant prophet sent to Nineveh to tell them to repent highlighting God’s mercy and compassion.  (They listened, repented and were saved…but later Nahum warned, they didn’t listen and they were destroyed.)

  • Micah: rebuked the leaders for injustice and also prophesies that Jesus will be born in Bethlehem

  • Nahum: calls God’s impending judgment against the wicked and violent city of Nineveh. (Sequal: They listened, repented and were saved when Jonah prophesied…but later Nahum warned, they didn’t listen and they were destroyed.)

  • Habakkuk: a conversation between Habakkuk and God wrestling with the problems of suffering, injustice and wickedness seeming to win. 

  • Zephaniah: warned of the coming “Day of the LORD,” severe judgement and future restoration

  • Haggai: calls the returned exiles to prioritize rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem

  • Zechariah: Encourages them to finish building the temple.  Multiple apocalyptic (related to the destruction or end of the world) and Messianic (related to the coming Messiah) visions. 

  • Malachi: The last book of the Old Testament called the people to faithfulness and prophesied about a messenger who would come to prepare the way for the LORD and about the “Day of the LORD.”

The “Day of the LORD”

Multiple prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Zechariah, and Malachi) prophesied about the “Day of the LORD,” so what does that mean?

In the Old Testament, the “Day of the LORD” is a time of divine judgment on the wicked, the humbling of prideful humans and ultimately a time of spiritual restoration. 

Isaiah 2:12, 13:6, 13:9, 34:8
Jeremiah 46:10
Ezekiel 13:5, 30:3
Joel 1:15, 2:1, 2:11, 2:31, 3:14
Amos 5:18, 5:20
Obadiah 1:15
Zephaniah 1:7, 1:14
Zechariah 14:1
Malachi 4:5

In the New Testament, “Day of the LORD” refers to the second coming of Jesus Christ, the final judgement, and the renewal of creation. 

1 Thessalonians 5:2
2 Thessalonians 2:2
1 Corinthians 5:5
2 Corinthians 1:14
2 Peter 3:10
Acts 2:20
Revelation 1:10

“God gave me this difficulty”

Maybe now I can share what I wanted to share without tears. 

…..Nope.  Even saying that, my eyes are tearing up.  My heart BURNS when I read prophecy in Scripture.  I can’t even talk about it without tears forming in my eyes because I KNOW it’s still God’s heart for His people, so my heart BURNS for the Church, the “Big-C church,” ALL those who call Jesus Christ their LORD, to wake up and walk in holiness as He has called us to.  

I have wrestled and continue to wrestle with what MANY people casually say without reservation, that “God gave me this illness, hardship, difficulty, or even addiction to teach me.”  My heart cries LOUDLY, “No!  God does not put illness, hardship, difficulty, or addiction on us…not even to teach us.”  

John 10:10 says it’s the ENEMY who steals, kills, and destroys.  Jesus came to give us abundant life. 

James 1:17 says that every GOOD and PERFECT gift comes from God. 

It makes sense to my brain that anything NOT GOOD is NOT from God, so this morning reading in Jeremiah, I bumped into this concept again.  

The book of Jeremiah is this conversation between God and the prophet Jeremiah where God is calling out what the Israelites are doing wrong and letting Jeremiah know what will happen if they don’t repent.  He tells Jeremiah what to do and what to say to warn the people.  

I’m only in chapter eight even though I’ve been in Jeremiah for months off and on because I can’t read very much at a time.  Every time I read, it grieves my heart.  (Tears are starting up again.) As you read, think about how many of these apply to our society.  

For my final blog post in this series, I will share a detailed Bible study layout of what I found in these eight chapters.  For this post, I’ll summarize.  In next week’s post, I’ll share my detailed Bible study notes. 

1) The sin of the Israelites

  • They forsook God, went far from Him

  • They were no longer holy.  They rebelled against God. They refused to repent or return to God. 

  • They followed idols and played the harlot with other Gods, defiling God’s land with wickedness. They would burn incense to idols. 

  • Those who handled the law didn’t know God.  The rulers transgressed God. 

  • The prophets: Prophesied by Baal, walked after things that didn’t profit

  • His people changed their glory for what didn’t profit, forsook the fountains of Living Water, made broken cisterns that could hold no water. 

  • The fear of God was not in them. 

  • They killed God’s prophets and offered babies to god’s like Molech. 

  • They spoke and did evil as they were able. They perverted (bent, twisted, distorted) their ways.

  • They didn’t turn to God with their WHOLE hearts. They were not ashamed of their wrong-doing. They would steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely.  They didn’t listen or obey.  

  • They were deceitful and faithless with God

  • They were foolish.  They were dull-hearted (senseless, stupid, devoid of spiritual understanding.  Spiritually numb, complacent, and lacking ability to grasp divine truth. 

  • They set traps for men, and didn’t care for the orphans or the needy.  They oppressed people.  They were violent. 

  • They stiffened their necks and did worse than their fathers. 

  • They chose death over life

2) Here’s what the LORD said would happen (or did happen) as a result:

  • Your own wickedness will correct you. 

  • God will bring charges against you and against your children’s children. 

  • The LORD has rejected your trusted allies and you won’t prosper by them. 

  • Drought.  God will make your land desolate and lay cities to waste, without inhabitants. The whole land will be desolate. 

  • The hearts of the leaders and prophets will fail. Even leaders will give up hope. 

  • God will not relent or turn back from it.  Every city will be forsaken.  Everyone will be torn to pieces.  

  • God will put His words in the mouth of the prophet and it will devour the people. God will punish all who are circumcised by the hand of the uncircumcised. 

  • He will set foreign nations against the Israelites and they will take everything from them. 

  • All the people will grow weary living in anguish and fear.  

  • God’s anger and fury will be poured out on them.  It will burn and not be quenched.  The dead will be scattered on the face of the earth. 

3) Who is responsible for those consequences.  Was it God who brought trouble on them?

  • “You brought this on yourself forsaking the LORD your God.”

  • “Your own wickedness will correct you.  It is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and the fear of Me is not in you.”

  • You said, ‘I will not transgress,’ then you lay down and played the harlot. 

  • I planted you as a good seed and you turned into a degenerate plant of an alien vine

  • You say ‘I am not polluted.’  See your way in the valley and know what you have done.  You aren’t ashamed of what you’ve done.  You’re only ashamed you got called out. 

  • “Where are your God’s that you made for yourselves?  Let them arise to save you.”

  • You say you’re not guilty, so I (God) will plead my case against you.

  • You refuse to be ashamed. 

  • I said ‘return to Me’ but she did not return. 

  • Your wicked ways and your doings have procured these things for you. 

  • My people are foolish and have not known me. 

  • You have refused correction

  • When people complain asking why the LORD our God does these things to them, answer them, “Your iniquities have turned these good things away and your sins have withheld good from you.”  And My people LOVE to have it so. 

  • She is full of oppression, wells up with wickedness, violence and plundering.  Before me continually are grief and wounds. 

  • This calamity, the fruit of their thoughts because they have not heeded My words not My law but rejected it. 

  • They built altars to pagan gods and burned their sons and daughters in the fire so there will be no more gladness and the land shall be desolate. 

  • They hold fast to deceit, refuse to return, no one repented, everyone turned to his own course.  They rejected the word of the LORD and were not ashamed. 

  • They became dull-hearted and have not sought the LORD, THEREFORE….they shall not prosper. 

Does this sound ANYTHING like America to you today?!  

This is why I cry when I read the prophets. 

4) The remedy to their situation.  How to get back in right standing with God. 

  • Return. Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God…and that you have not obeyed My voice. Then I will give you shepherds according to my heart who will feed you with understanding and Jerusalem will be called the Throne of the LORD.  No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts.  Judah and Israel will come together out of the land of the north to the land I have given. 

  • Return and I will heal your backsliding. 

  • If you will return to me and put your abominations out of My sight, THEN you shall not be moved. 

  • Take away the foreskins of your hearts. 

  • Wash your heart from wickedness that you may be saved. 

  • If you can find a man, if there is ANYONE who executes judgement, who seeks the truth, I will pardon her. 

  • Be instructed, lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited. 

  • Ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls.  But they said, we will not walk in it. 

  • If you thoroughly amend your ways, then I will cause you to dwell in this place. 

  • Let him who glories glory in this alone, that he understands and knows Me. 

  • Do not learn the way of the Gentiles and their idols. 

5) Jeremiah’s feelings as a prophet and God’s response to those feelings.

Next week you will read God’s response as Jeremiah cries out to him with:

  • Insecurity

  • Betrayal

  • Distress

  • Frustration

  • Sorrow and Discouragement

  • Humility

Well, that was 14 hours and 15 minutes at a coffee shop and they’re going to lock the doors for the night in a few moments. It only felt like a couple hours.  It’s amazing how easy it is to become lost in the Word! 

How can I spend 14 hours in a coffee shop?  Easy.  

And I didn’t check text messages.  I didn’t email.  I didn’t edit anything for the ministry or even skip around in the Bible.  I spent 14 hours in Jeremiah and only made it through about eight chapters. I did nothing more than take notes in my Bible, on notecards and here in this blog.  Eight chapters in Jeremiah and I had already read five of them before starting this day.  

I teared up more than a few times, drank a cup of coffee, a cup of peppermint tea, two cups of hot water, and a caramel frappuccino.  I ate a cup of cottage cheese with a peach, a protein bar, and a bag of chicken chips I had in my backpack, and had an egg and sausage muffin for dinner.  

If I had the financial luxury to spend all day every day doing this….I ABSOLUTELY WOULD!  

I LOVE God’s Word and hope you do, too!

Donna
Next

Prophet, Prophecy, Prophesy (Part 2)