Profile of an Old Testament Prophet & Relevance to Today’s Church

An Old Testament professor, at Lee University, Cleveland, Tennessee, Dr. Rickie D. Moore, has written an article on the profile of an Old Testament prophet and its relevance for the Church today. In this blog I would like to cite a few of his observations for you.

Dr. Moore identifies the Old Testament prophet as one who is “called out” by God for the purpose of “calling out” to the people, what is on the heart of God for them. Then, using the breadth of the Old Testament narrative, he identifies four elements of God’s prophetic call:

1. The prophet as a messenger, with more than just the transmission of information. The message of the prophet is more like an “event” resulting in transformation.

2. The prophet as a minstrel, since in many cases poetry is the medium of prophetic communication. The artistic and sometimes theatrical discourse was designed by God to move the audience in ways conventional communication could not do.

3. The prophet as a madman. In Hosea 9:7, the prophet is called a fool. Jeremiah is treated dismissively, as a madman, by the Jewish officials in exile in Babylon (Jeremiah 29:26).

4. The prophet as a martyr. Dr. Moore writes, “Given the shattering weight of the prophetic message, the passion-provoking poetic form it took, and the alien mentality it effected in its bearers, prophets characteristically lost their lives.”

If you are interested in reading Dr. Moore’s whole article on the subject, please contact the Church Awakening office at info@churchawakening.com or by phone at 425 771-5247 for your copy of the full manuscript.
Pastor Alec Rowlands
Church Awakening
Founder/President
Senior Pastor, Westgate Chapel