Just as Moses was a hybrid of patriarch and prophet, linking two covenantal epochs, Samuel was the last judge and also the first person in the Old Testament named as a prophet after Moses. He also linked the epochs of the theocratic, tribal community of Israel, and the theocratic Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. As a prophet, Samuel was a new kind of mediator between the radiating, central revelation of God’s nature and will, and the people of God. Beginning with Samuel and King Saul, prophets and kings shared the tasks of representing God to the people, and the people to God. Sometimes, the power struggles between royal prerogative and prophetic application of God’s revelation led to rifts between kings and prophets. This was usually because either the king or the prophet, or both, stopped paying attention to God’s central, radiating revelation, and so stopped listening to God, thus ceasing to operate as an authentic representative of God to his people.
Isaiah gives us a remarkable insight into the calling of a prophet: The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back (Is. 50:4-5 NIV).
The prophet was one who had been “instructed,” and continued practicing the daily discipline of the “morning by morning” study of the Word. He listened to the Word, as “one being taught,” and he did not “(draw) back” from his primary role. The primary role of the prophet was to prophesy (or preach) God’s revealed Word. (J. B. Phillips properly translates the New Testament word prophaytas as “preach” (for example: 1 Cor. 12:28 Phillips)). This is what preaching has fundamentally always been – professing the properly received, exegeted, and applied Word of God. The prophets were expected to be formed through their understanding of God’s Word through exegeting the Law (which was the only revealed text they had at that point), to hear God’s Word afresh (as prophets, they received God’s special revelation directly and personally – Am. 3:7), and to profess God’s Word so that the community of God would be Spiritually formed.
Prophets were forbidden to pass their opinions off as God’s authoritative Word (Jer. 31:34). These are plainly called “lies” (Is. 9:15), and false prophecy was punishable by death (Deut.1 3:5). They preached God’s revealed Word to their contemporary context. The postmodern church needs preachers who know and understand God’s Word (through excellent exegesis, meditation, and living), and who know and understand their own contemporary context, so that they can proclaim God’s authentic Word to their generation.
It is important to point out that God himself attested to the authority of prophets (and apostles) as his spokesmen by doing miracles through them. These miracles were a sign by which God’s covenant people could test whether anyone who claimed to speak for God was indeed called by God to speak for him and to bring revelation from his throne. This is important for today because many men and women claim to speak for God and even claim to be prophets and apostles. One must ask anyone by what authority they claim to speak for God, and ask for proof (a “sign”) of their authority. Even still, the Church is warned to beware of false teachers and prophets who can also produce miraculous signs (Deut. 13:1-5, Mk. 13:22-23). The real test of any teaching will be that it does not compromise, contradict, or even add to what God has revealed through his Word (Gal. 1:6-9).
