The Ministry Of The Prophets

THE MINISTRY OF THE PROPHETS
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways... (Hebrews 1:1). The prophets served as spokesmen for God. They were the means which the Lord used to communicate His message to His people. This means that the work of the prophets went far beyond the mere predicting of future events. Their message went in three directions:

1. They looked back to the past faithfulness of God.

2. They looked to the present work of God in the nation and in the world.

3. They looked to the future. This means not everything that was said by the prophets was necessarily for the future. It can be argued that, even when they were foretelling events for the future, that they were doing so for purposes in the present. The preaching of the prophets was always practical. That means their message always had a present application. It was never merely to satisfy curiosity about the future or even to lay out some future time-line. It was always to make you live differently in the present. This brings us to the purpose of prophecy.