by act and teaching by word were alike their task. But during the time of the judges, the priesthood
sank into a state of degeneracy, and the people were no longer affected by the acted lessons of the
ceremonial service. They required less enigmatic warnings and exhortations, under these
circumstances a new moral power was evoked the Prophetic Order. Samuel himself Levite of the
family of Kohath, (1 Chronicles 6:28) and almost certainly a priest, was the instrument used at once
for effecting a reform in the sacerdotal order (1 Chronicles 9:22) and for giving to the prophets a
position of importance which they had never before held. Nevertheless it is not to be supposed that
Samuel created the prophetic order as a new thing before unknown. The germs both of the prophetic
and of the regal order are found in the law as given to the Israelites by Moses, (13:1; 18:20; 17:18)
but they were not yet developed, because there was not yet the demand for them. Samuel took
measures to make his work of restoration permanent as well as effective for the moment. For this
purpose he instituted companies or colleges of prophets. One we find in his lifetime at Ramah, ( 1
Samuel 19:19,20) others afterward at Bethel, (2 Kings 2:3) Jericho, (2 Kings 2:2,5) Gilgal; (2 Kings
4:38) and elsewhere. (2 Kings 6:1) Their constitution and object similar to those of theological
colleges. Into them were gathered promising students, and here they were trained for the office
which they were afterward destined to fulfill. So successful were these institutions that from the
time of Samuel to the closing of the canon of the Old Testament there seems never to have been
wanting due supply of men to keep up the line of official prophets. Their chief subject of study
was, no doubt, the law and its interpretation; oral, as distinct from symbolical, teaching being
thenceforward tacitly transferred from the priestly to the prophetic order. Subsidiary subjects of
instruction were music and sacred poetry, both of which had been connected with prophecy from
the time of Moses (Exodus 15:20) and the judges. (Judges 4:4; 5:1) But to belong to the prophetic
order and to possess the prophetic gift are not convertible terms. Generally, the inspired prophet
came from the college of prophets, and belonged to prophetic order; but this was not always the
case. Thus Amos though called to the prophetic office did not belong to the prophetic order. (Amos
7:14) The sixteen prophets whose books are in the canon have that place of honor because they
were endowed with the prophetic gift us well as ordinarily (so far as we know) belonging to the
prophetic order. Characteristics .—What then are the characteristics of the sixteen prophets thus
called and commissioned and intrusted with the messages of God to his people?
•They were the national poets of Judea.
•They were annalists and historians. A great portion of Isaiah, of Jeremiah, of Daniel of Jonah, of
Haggai, is direct or in direct history.
•They were preachers of patriotism,—their patriotism being founded on the religious motive.
•They were preachers of morals and of spiritual religion. The system of morals put forward by the
prophets, if not higher or sterner or purer than that of the law, is more plainly declared, and with
greater, because now more needed, vehemence of diction.
•They were extraordinary but yet authorized exponents of the law.
•They held a pastoral or quasi-pastoral office.
•They were a political power in the state.
•But the prophets were something more than national poets and annalists, preachers of patriotism
moral teachers, exponents of the law, pastors and politicians. Their most essential characteristic
is that they were instruments of revealing God’s will to man, as in other ways, so specially by
predicting future events, and in particular foretelling the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the redemption effected by him. We have a series of prophecies which are so applicable to the
frankie
(Frankie)
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