The great authority with which prophets confronted their people, leaders
and rulers came from their absolute conviction that they spoke and acted for
God. We have already seen this authority demonstrated in the very early
prophets. The prophet had experience of God in a personal and immediate way,
and knew it. To the prophet, the power and the will of God had been directly
revealed. Because of his personal relationship with God which was based on his
personal experience of God, the prophet was totally committed to serving God in
whatever way was revealed to him. He went to anyone he was sent to, without
taking into account any personal danger which might result. His own life and
actions witnessed to his faith; we find condemnation of those who claim to be
prophets of God but whose lives and actions do not witness to the covenant
faith and Law. There is nothing stereotyped about the great prophets; each man
was an instrument of God according to his own temperament, talents and
situation. Each was called directly by God in a specific situation. There was
no hereditary prophetic office. The charismatic authority which we saw in the
earlier prophets and in the early leaders continued in the great prophets.