(a) Frequently the prophet
presented the message which had been revealed to him in the form of brief,
vivid, rhythmic utterances which were concentrated in meaning and striking
enough to be remembered and memorized by those who heard them, as the following
examples show:
'Does a lion roar in the
forest unless he has found a victim? Does a young lion growl in his den unless
he has caught something? Does the war trumpet sound in a city without making
people afraid? Does disaster strike a city unless the LORD sends it?' (Amos 3:
4,5,6)
'Blow the war trumpets in
Gibeah! Sound the alarm in Ramah! Raise the war-cry at Bethell Into battle, men
of Benjamin 1 The day of punishment is coming, and Israel will be ruined.
People of Israel, this will surely happen!' (Hosea 5: 8-9)
'You are doomed! You call
evil good and good evil. You turn darkness into light and light into darkness.
You make what is bitter sweet, and what is sweet you make bitter. You are
doomed! You think you are wise, so very clever' (Isaiah 5: 20-21).
'People of Jerusalem, run
through your streets! Look around! See for yourselves! Search the
market-places! Can you find one person who does what is right and tries to be
faithful to God?' (Jeremiah 5: 1).
(b) A most characteristic
utterance is in the first person singular, the 'I' utterance, when the prophet
speaks on behalf of God, as God's direct spokesman. It is usually introduced by
a phrase such as, 'The LORD says ... .' There are hundreds of examples of this
kind of utterance in the prophetic books. 'The Lord says, "I hate your
religious festivals; I cannot stand them!" (Amos 5:21). 'I will punish her
for the times that she forgot me when she burnt incense to Baal and put on her
jewellery to go chasing after her lovers. The Lord has spoken' (Hosea 2:13).
'The LORD said, "Earth and sky, listen to what I am saying! The children I
brought up have rebelled against me. Cattle know who owns them, and donkeys
know where their master feeds them. But that is more than my people Israel
know" (Isaiah 1 :2-3). 'The LORD says, "The prophets and the priests
are godless; I have caught them doing evil in the Temple itself. The paths they
follow will be slippery and dark; I will make them stumble and fall. I am going
to bring disaster on them; the time of their punishment is coming. I, the Lord
have spoken" (Jeremiah 23: 11-12).
(c) Other verbal forms were
used by prophets to deliver their messages.
Jeremiah preached an
important sermon (Jeremiah 7 and 26). Isaiah sang a song of the vineyard
(Isaiah 5), and Amos sang a funeral lament (Amos 5: 2). Much prophetic language
was in the form of metaphor.
(d) Jeremiah used writing to
communicate what had been revealed to him. He dictated his prophecies to the
scribe Baruch, wrote to the exiles in Babylon, and wrote about the future
destruction of Babylon (Jeremiah 36,29 and 51 :59-64). We have already noted
examples of Isaiah using writing (Isaiah 8: 1-3,30: 8).
(e) Prophetic, symbolic actions were an important way of communicating
revelation. They were more than a symbol; they were an intensified form of
prophetic speech, an acted form of the word of God. We may note the smashing of
a clay pot by Jeremiah to show the elders of Jerusalem that the city would be
destroyed, Jeremiah's wearing of an ox-yoke to show that the people of
Jerusalem would be subdued by the Babylonians as an ox is subdued by a yoke,
Ezekiel's actions relating to the siege of Jerusalem in Ezekiel 4, the giving
of very strange names to their children by Hosea and Isaiah to show that what
was symbolized in those names would take place. We have already seen such
prophetic actions in 1 Samuel 15:27-29, and 1 Kings 11: 29-31, in the accounts
of Samuel and Ahijah.