Jesus is the Perfect Picture of God: Prophets, Jesus and You

"In the past, God spoke to us by the prophets, but in these last days, God has spoken to us through the Son" (my paraphrase of Hebrews 1:1).

The Old Testament Scriptures were divided into three sections. The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. The Law was Genesis-Deuteronomy and the Writings were Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes. Everything else fit under the prophets. Even books like Judges and Ruth were considered prophetic books by many Orthodox Jews. Still are, in fact. So when the book of Hebrews speaks of the prophets, the author is hinting at far more than the scary books in the back of the Old Testament.

But God, according to this verse, speaks through the Son (Jesus) now. So what is to be said of the prophets. Many different movements are trying to resurrect the idea of the prophet. Charismatic groups speak of prophecy as an active spiritual gift, telling about the future or a truth no one else could know. Social justice Christians speak of prophets as people who actively work against the status quo. Liberation theologians take that one step further and say that prophets are the ones who challenge any system, including the Church, that keeps people in oppression. And to some extent, all of those groups are right.

But if we read Hebrews 1:1 carefully, the prophets seem to be of the past, what Hebrews calls "obsolete" (Hebrews 8:13). Can that be right? Should we abandon the prophetic voice today?

Yes and no. On the one hand, we can get rid of the notion that prophets have to always be right in every circumstance. While a person claiming to speak prophetically against the systems that oppress (I lean more toward the social justice Christian voice) should be careful to speak the truth, one who occasionally messes up need not be stoned (Deuteronomy 13:5). However, we (the Church) are still called to have a prophetic voice. But that voice comes from Jesus, it comes from testifying about Jesus and about what Christ's Kingdom entails (Revelation 19:10). Any place where the Kingdom shares a border with the powers and principalities or systems of a destructive world is a place for prophecy. To speak Christ's love into hate is prophecy. To embody freedom for the captive (Luke 4), feed the hungry and care for the powerless (James) is prophecy. And that is not a call for a few people. A few people will be extreme- they will be gifted for the prophet's work. But anyone who testifies to Jesus is a prophet. And that is the calling of the Church. May we all be led to use our prophetic voice in Christ today and this week.