Can You Hear Me Now?
Home Group Notes: week 17 - Prophets
Introduction: Prophets and Prophecy
Covering the whole collection of prophetic literature in a page is impossible, as is expecting to cover
them in a single chapel. So what follows is a extremely brief description of prophets and prophetic
literature. Prophets are generally understood as someone who has the ability to foretell the future,
and prophecy would be predictions of things to come. Yet, while forth-telling, predictions are a part
of Biblical prophecies, they are a relatively small part in terms of sheer volume. While it is accurate
to say that many but not all (Jonah) prophets foretell, all prophets forth-tell. Biblically, it is also
possible to hold the office of “Prophet” without ever having “prophesied.” Abel, Enoch, Noah, even
Saul, are all referred to as “prophets” and yet never recorded any “prophecies.” There were hundreds
of prophets who ministered throughout the Old Testament period, but there are only sixteen prophets
who wrote books that were eventually included in God's Word. Each of the books they wrote are
titled after their name. So, Isaiah wrote the Book of Isaiah. The only exception is Jeremiah, who
wrote the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations.
In our English Bibles, the prophetic books are divided into two sections: the Major Prophets and the
Minor Prophets. This does not mean that one set of prophets were more important than the other, but
each of the Major Prophets is long, taking up a single scroll, while the twelve books in the Minor
Prophets all fit on a single scroll. The terms “major” and "minor" are simply indicators of length, not
importance. The Major Prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel (Interestingly, Daniel is
not considered a “prophet” in the Hebrew Bible). The Minor Prophets are Hosea, Joel, Amos,
Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
Overview: The Major Prophets
The Book of Isaiah: As a prophet, Isaiah ministered from 740 to 681 BC in the Southern Kingdom
of Israel, known as Judah after the nation of Israel was divided under Rehoboam. In Isaiah's day,
Judah was stuck between two powerful and aggressive nations - Assyria and Egypt. Thus, the
national leaders spent much of their efforts trying to appease and curry favor with both neighbors.
Isaiah spent much of his book criticizing those leaders for relying on human help rather than
repenting of their sin and turning back to God. Isaiah also wrote prophetically about the future
coming of the Messiah - the One who would save God's people from their sins.