nature and role of prophecy. This however was not the atmosphere under which the Hebrew prophets delivered their message. While there were questions regarding the motives of some prophets and indeed there were questions about the essence of their message, nevertheless the religious experiences of the Hebrew prophets have not only survived, but their message have maintained a remarkable and striking relevance and resonance. The prophets of ancient Israel had the deep rooted conviction that God was actively involved in the affairs of the people, and because of the covenant with Israel, God would communicate his will to the prophets to ensure that the relationship was kept intact not only in a vertical way with God but in a seamless horizontal way with each other.
Brueggemann is certainly on point when he says that there is an element of urgency to disconnect “the academic community away from self-preoccupied triviality that is such a waste, the ecclesial communities away from excessive certitude that is idolatry and the civic community away from brutality rooted in autonomy.”37 An unmistakable and deeply rooted feature of the Hebrew prophets that cannot be negotiated away is the fact that what they have to say will happen within the context of history. The prophets in this regard are not appealing to an apocalyptic vision for the practice of justice. While there are instances when there is a vision of the next life, when there will be no more tears and the old life will pass away, the prophets for the most part are preaching for transformation and justice in this world. What this means for the prophets is that punishment, destruction, exile, scattering will all happen in this world and in the concreteness of societal settings. It might seem to some that what the prophets proclaimed will be fulfilled in the afterlife, and others who are too entrenched in places of comfort and security might in fact dismiss the prophetic call as utopian. But one is reminded that utopia carries the meaning of nowhere, and indeed the call for justice will in fact take place, and it is somewhere, and it is in our time and will be in other times as well. But most assuredly it is not nowhere. The prophets experienced God in a variety of ways, some of which are shocking to us. Despite those who today say that they take the Bible literally and follow it as in a textbook, hardly would they consider walking around naked as Isaiah did or others who exhibited ecstatic behaviors. But there is more to this sacred experience. Some today have intimated as much that God not only identifies with us as a people, as perhaps the “new chosen,” but also with our system of government. But in fact as it is, God is not tethered to one political system; God’s working is not tied to one worldview and indeed the message of the prophets is directed to every source of injustice regardless of the political system. “Like the God who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, such a God subverts rather than legitimates the social order.”38
The prophets are so deeply entrenched in the system that they cannot begin to envision extricating themselves, assuming that there is even an impulse to do so. Martin Luther King Jr. in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” where he speaks forcefully about what I would deem the “urgency of now,” emphasized the significance of immediacy and urgency. In matters of injustice, justice delayed is justice denied and waiting is the equivalent of never, according to king. In the message of the prophets, there is no waiting. Tomorrow is now. While there are many similarities in the message of the prophets, nevertheless their different foci point to the spontaneous and contextual nature of their message. While we have inherited their message as part of scripture, it was first delivered within a particular time in history to a particular people. Further, a basic presupposition among scholars today is that not all the words that we find in the text can be ascribed to the prophets. This naturally only serves to compound the problem, because the system of redaction and refinement not only creates textual and redactional speculation, but adds an element of incoherency to the already complicated interpretive issue.
It is therefore impossible to place the prophets in well rounded categories. Depending on the emphasis which is placed, the prophets have been called “ethicists,” “revolutionaries,” “reformers,” “traditionalists,” “Yahwists,” “poets,” and “messengers” among others. This wide range of possibilities in itself underlines the difficulty which exists. Clearly to posit the prophets as exclusively or even primarily one of th ese is to run the risk of overlooking significant textual evidence which might indicate differing notions. While the message of the prophets includes all of the elements listed above, I have suggested elsewhere that the prophets were fundamentally “witnesses,” as Abraham Heschel has convincingly argued.39 There is also one other aspect of the role of the prophet that merits mentioning. The Hebrew prophets were not all from the same socio-economic situation, or from the same locations, or of the same status or station in life. In fact they are from North and South, urban and rural, politically connected and without political ties or intimate connection with social and political institutions. The prophets do however have one essential factor in common and that is their core message. Moreover, they do not have structural and institutional ties and are not beholden to anyone, including those on whose behalf they speak. And of course they are not beholden to “special interest groups” who wield their power to influence their message. As witnesses they spoke the words of God without diluting it. They were challenged, they were rebuked, they were ostracized, and they were excommunicated. Being a prophet was not a position with great job security, but there was no escaping the call.
The Hebrew prophets were more than predictors of the future. Rather than simply making pronouncements in which they were somehow not personally invested, the prophets embraced and invested themselves in issues that they spoke about. Heschel suggests that they were some place between human and divine.40 One should not conclude as some are wont to do that the call and role of the prophet was an easy and sought after position. Indeed, there is no instance where a prophet sought such a calling. Moreover, there were many moments of resistance and reluctance to make such devastating announcements to the people. But there is also another factor. The words of the prophet is often so dramatic that at first glance one is sure to conclude that the prophet must be exaggerating, that surely his words cannot possibly be true. The prophetic words invite a vision that is so far reaching and dramatic, spoken to a people who are often deeply rooted in the present and the manner they imagine life will be, that such dramatic words might strike them as wholly untrue and impossible.
It is embarrassing to be a prophet. There are so many pretenders, predicting peace and prosperity, offering cheerful words, adding strength to self-reliance, while the prophet predicts disaster, pestilence, agony, and destruction. People need exhortations to courage, endurance, confidence, fighting spirit, but Jeremiah proclaims: You are about to die if you do not have a change of heart and cease being callous to the world of God.41
For you shall go to all to whom I send you,
and you shall speak whatever I command you . . .
Now I have put my words in your mouth.
see, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.42
Despite the somewhat common notion today of some who would willingly and casually take on the mantle of prophet and under this guise make pronouncements, often reflecting their personal ideologies, the Hebrew prophet was not one to flaunt being a prophet; not one to seek the role of prophet, not one who seemed enamored with the very idea of being a prophet. Rather, the Hebrew prophet is something of a solitary figure without the structural support that others might have, and we have no indication that the prophet returns to a family, to a place of belonging. Instead, solitude is his companion, as he seems to alienate all others. Heschel underlines the drama and pain of such calling in his rendering and commentary on Jeremiah’s encapsulation of his call:
Oh, LORD, you have seduced me,
and I am seduced;
you have raped me
and I am overcome.43
Typically, this verse is translated in a way that seeks to capture more of a “PG” rating while the text itself is graphic and more of an “R” rating. In diluting the drama and radicalism of the prophet’s confession, most modern translations have in fact done a terrible disservice under the guise of propriety.
The words used by Jeremiah