Old Testament Bases for the Contemporary Concept of the Ministry
There are three foci in this report concerning the Old Testament bases of contemporary Christian ministry. It includes the ministry of the prophets, the priests, and the wise of
The Prophets and the Prophetic Imagination. The focus of Abraham J. Heschel’s first chapter, book The Prophets: An Introduction, is to answer the question: What manner of man is the prophet? According to him, primarily God’s prophet has a deep sensitivity concerning the various forms of evil. For example,
The prophet is a man who feels fiercely. God has thrust a burden upon his soul, and he is bowed and stunned at man’s fierce greed. Frightful is the agony of man; no human voice can convey its full terror. Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profaned riches of the world. It is a form of living, a crossing point of God and man. God is raging in the prophet’s words.(AH,5)
Hence, the prophet is very concerned with the “plight of man” as a reflection of God’s preoccupation with man more than any eternal ideas. In spite of man’s rebellious tendencies and actions, nothing—whether bad of good—is trivial before God. With the prophet’s words, God expresses his concern with man. And in the language of the prophet, his words are not just violent expressions, but it reveals an artistic capacity of a poet. The emotional tone, imaginative concepts, vocal dictions, verbal cadence, and oral or literary style portray an explosive passion cultivated from tranquil recollection and reflection. Nevertheless, his poetic tendencies do not outshine his historical concerns.(AH,3-6) Poetry and lyric, therefore, are essential characteristics of a prophet (WB2,40).
The prophet of God is identified with his words and involvement in the community. Hence, his whole life is at stake upon his prophetic utterances and the fulfillment of his pronouncements. Although his language is explosively paradoxical—a mixture of firmness and contingency, harshness and compassion—it is barely enigmatic; it’s beckoning, warning, and urging; it comes from God’s heart wanting to break through man’s center of inner being. As the prophet casts events, he preaches with burning passion, communicating the sharp-edges of God’s terror (Isa. 32:11; 49:2). Generally, the prophet’s words are intense, disturbing, and full of strained feelings. However, in spite that his words usually contradicted with the status quo of popular opinions, his seemingly pessimism is bound to be concerned with the highest good of the people; that is to know God (Jer. 9:23-24; Zech. 4:6) and not the valuation of worldly wisdom, wealth, and power. Because of the prophet’s uncanny to perceive the worst in any moral circumstances of the state, his language amplify man’s weaknesses and guilt; and he makes no excuses or apologies for his prophetic utterances. What ordinary people were attuned to see, the prophet visualizes beyond; what is commonly known at present, the prophet perceives the end (Jer.
To some, the prophet’s words seemed blasphemous, irreverent, and sacrilegious, especially when he challenges “the apparently holy, revered, and awesome. Beliefs cherished as certainties, institutions endowed with supreme sanctity, he exposes as scandalous pretensions.”(AH,10) Because of the his awareness towards the negative tendencies of religion—which is to distort God’s demand on man—the prophet is concerned with the people’s way of worship and religious practices (Jer.6:20;7:9-15,21-23). The prophet does not only oversee the people’s lifestyle in worship of one God, he is also deeply associated with God. Among the pagans, the status, survival, and strength of the god or gods are dependent upon the worshiping people. Once the shrine is destroyed by the enemies, the cult practitioners do not hesitate to commit suicide. In the case of defeat in battles, the defeated tribal images of the gods are also smashed. However, most Israelite prophets consider God’s enemies as instruments of his anger and judgment towards his people (Isa.10:15;13:5;
The prophets of God usually begin with the message of doom, but it also end with a message of hope. Foundational to this message of hope is God’s love and compassion for mankind. Unlike the common notion that the prophet’s primary role is to predict, prediction is only a fraction of his authority (Deut.18:22;Isa.41:22;43:9). His main function as a prophet is to exhort God’s people concerning the here and now. Whatever he utters about the future, it is not spoken in isolation of the present. Interestingly, the prophet’s allegations to the people do not condemn the individual alone; there are sweeping generalizations that cover no particular group, instead the whole community, society, or nation is accused (Jer.5:1,5;6:13; 8:10;6:6;Hos.4:1-2;Isa.1:4;30:1;6:5). Unlike the great Roman orators, they exercise to single out individuals and their abuses, the prophet’s cavalier pronouncements knows no personal boundaries, whether the accused are kings, priests, false prophets, and the whole nation. While the prophets would despise the logic of statistics, their concern is not mere identification of facts, but the factuality’s meaning. For the prophet, there is no such thing as statistical formula in measuring the mysterious human nature and true existence. Most of the prophets perceive man in God’s perspective (AH,12-14).
The prophets employ rhetorical exaggeration (a mode of writing common to biblical literature). Consequently, while there are only a handful of guilty individuals, all people are eventually responsible. When the people of God worshiped Baalim, God felt discarded and alone (Hos.11:1-2). Despite that only some of the people worshiped, the whole nation suffered. Hence, the prophets proclaimed a truth about the moral state of God’s people which is: and individual’s crime is the society’s responsibility, since the society plays a vital role in shaping an individual. The person cannot be separated from his society. And not only that, the prophet of God does consider gray areas and middle ground. It is possible, therefore, that prophets are extremists, one-sided, and strange. His strong inclination to mend man’s ways pushes him into the presence of God. Being alone is not in his vocabulary because he always recognizes God’s presence with him. To disregard that divine-human companionship is an act of insolent rejection of the relationship; hence, a way of life compatible to the realness of God’s presence is a primary task to accomplish. It is because man’s coexistence with his God determines not only the inter-relationship and companionship but the direction his is life and mankind’s history as a whole. God’s presence for the prophet is a perpetual demand, not a comfort zone. His message is loaded with God’s compassion in spite the fact that his predictions can be proven incorrect; it is because man can change his mind and action. While the prophet’s prediction may fail because of man’s (or people’s) repentance, there is one thing that will never fail: God’s compassion reveals an impeccable reality from heaven (AH,14-16).
The prophet challenges religious and political authorities with his prophetic words. This is not merely to overcome moral and spiritual callousness or to change and inner person, his intention also includes the revolutionary redirection of history. As such, to be a true prophet is embarrassing because when the proclamation necessitates the threat of disaster and death upon the people of the nation, the community would hate to hear anything other than cheerful words of peace and prosperity, self-reliance and confidence, optimism and victory. It is possible that the true prophet’s words may remain unimposing that soon the calloused people and hierarchy would forget (at least for a moment). It is also true that the prophet’s predictions of things to come do not validate his words; just like the miracles, they are not at their disposal. In fact, only a few of the miracles attributed to the prophets (1 Sam.12:18;Judg.6:36-40;1 Kings 18:36-38). It is because miracles are not probative for prophetic verification. Prophets are more identified and measured by their words and symbolic acts. While the call of being a prophet is noble, most prophets disdained it (Jer.20:14,17,18;
Biblically, the prophet is mainly concerned with the contemporary scenario of his time. By his words, he serves as an “assayer and tester” of the society’s ways (Jer.6:27), as well as a messenger of God (Hag.
Prophetic consciousness is impossible to measure and comprehend. When God’s spirit radically metamorphosize a person, the degree of power cannot be measured as the person is turned into another man (1 Sam.10:6), defying normal human consciousness. The prophet’s ability to do pronouncements or predictions is beyond his capacity; it is not a product of learned skills, but of divine gifts and consecration (Ezec.3:25-27). Thus, he bears witness to the divine source of the word. Heschel says,
The words the prophet utters are not offered as souvenirs. His speech to the people is not a reminiscence, a report, hearsay. The prophet not only conveys; he reveals. He almost does unto others what God does unto him. In speaking, the prophet reveals God. This is the marvel of a prophet’s work: in his words, the invisible God becomes audible. He does not prove or argue. The thought he has to convey is more than language can contain. Divine power bursts in the words. The authority of the prophet is in the Presence his words reveal.”(AH,22)
So, the prophet’s greatness lies not only in his testimony but also on his experience with God’s judgment, compassion, and mercy.
It has been said that the true prophet’s predictions can be unproven. Partly, it is because of the presence of apparent contradictions (or paradox) on his asserted words. If laws of principles are applied to prophetic utterances, it seems that the validity of the prophet’s words can be destroyed or discredited. But otherwise is true. It must be remembered—as it has been mentioned from the beginning of this chapter—that the prophets are dealing with the relationship between God and man. And as such, the inevitability of contradictions is always possible. This kind of relationship is intricate and complex. Human nature and behavior cannot be stereotyped because of its complexities and contradictions, therefore, predictions related to that divine-human relationship cannot do away with contradictions also. The theory of truth as coherence is not found in the principle (the “what”) of the prophet’s words but on the Person (the “Whom”) he speaks for. As God is the ultimate object of the prophet’s consciousness, so is his final theme. His prophetic utterances have no comprehensive conclusiveness because it is “expressed ad hoc, often ad hominem, and must not be generalized.”(AH,23)
In the prophet’s perspective, “God is the focal point of his thought.”(AH,24). He sees the world through that focus, no less, no more. When a prophet thinks of man, he also thinks of God at the same time. He perceives man “through” God and wants to bring man into divine focus. The prophet judge, proclaims, and predicts from God’s point of view, not on some eternal moral standard. It is a clear indication that the God of Israel is not an impersonal spectator above, but he is deeply involved with meeting human need. The prophet’s words—as words of God—are not mere factual pronouncements but an expression of God’s motives, a disclosure of “divine pathos.” The pronouncements are reflections of God’s love and compassion, as well as pain and disappointment, indignation and mercy. According to Heschel, that divine pathos is “the key to inspired prophecy,” marked by God’s involvement with the life of man. God’s commands are not mere recommendations but an embodiment of his personal concern, intensified with all the contradictions involved in a personal relationship (AH,24).
Therefore, because the prophet responds to divine revelations, he is more than just a mouthpiece of God. The prophet is actively involved in the divine uttering, not an unconscious receptor. In transmitting what he perceives as of divine origin, he personally reproduces the words, acting as a partner of God, an associate. The prophet’s emotions are not suppressed by God but to be pursued with all of the prophet’s heart and mind (Jer.3:10;4:4,14;29:13) as God’s covenant will be etched in the people’s heart also (31:31-34).(AH,25) The prophet’s active response to God goes beyond just a religious experience, sensibility to God’s voice, or communion with God because—as in the case of Jeremiah—the divine pathos gripped his whole personality in that his words are not merely of his own but an express glow of the divine pathos. In Heschel’s words, the prophet is “in fellowship with the feelings of God.”(AH,26) The prophetic sympathy is cultivated through the prophet’s reflection, participation, and communion with divine consciousness. It is where the mind of the prophet is permeated with God’s heart. “Prophetic sympathy,” according to Heschel, “is a response to transcendent sensibility. It is not, like love, an attraction to the divine Being, but the assimilation of the prophet’s emotional life to the divine, an assimilation of function, not of being. The emotional experience of the prophet becomes the focal point for the prophet’s understanding of God. He lives not only his personal life, but also the life of God. The prophet hears God’s voice and feels his heart. He tries to impart the pathos of the message together with the logos. As an impartner [sic] his soul overflows, speaking as he does out of the fullness of his sympathy.”(AH,26)
The Priests and Levites. While prophets are more of an autonomous fiery preachers and poets, priesthood in OT is an institutional ministry. It is an established order. God’s union with his people is represented by the ministry of priesthood. As
While it is true that the order of priesthood in
After the period of exile, priesthood in the second temple was established strongly. The high priest serves as the head in the hierarchy of priesthood. In the
Nevertheless, the main honor of the high priest is the representation of God’s people in annual Day of Atonement where he enters the holy of holies and sprinkle blood (from the sin offering of the people) upon the mercy seat for his sins and the nation as a whole (Lev.16:1-25). And because he is the head of the covenant people of God, his ceremonial purity must exceed than that of the ordinary priests. In fact, if he sins, there is a special prescription for his expiation. When the high priests sins, the people are also guilty (Lev.21:10-15); such is the special magnitude of his significance as representative of the people before God. Among the order of priesthood, he alone is anointed. Moreover, the priests’ main function in the temple is to care for the sacred vessels in the temple and fulfill their sacrificial duties; it is their privilege to be the only ones who can make sacrifice in behalf of the people (Num,18:5,7). According to R. Abba, the priest, “no less than the prophet, was a medium of revelation. But whereas the revelatory experience of the prophet was personal and direct, that of the priest was collective and mediated, either through divination or through his training in the accumulated knowledge of the past.”(RA,879) Not only that, the priests are also the custodians of the health of the whole community (Lev.13-15), administrators of justice (Deut.17:8-9;21:5), re-consecrating the called-out ones like the Nazirite (Num.6:1-21), and others. They have duties in war (Num.10:1-10) and in blessing people in God’s name (Num.6:22-27). Most of the priests are supported by the offerings of the people, from the first fruits (Exod.13:12-13;Num.18:12-19), from specified sacrificial dues (Lev.2:3-10;
While priests are considered religious specialists, the Levites are more responsible on the lower duties of temple worship (Num.1:50;
The Wise and Wisdom Tradition. There is a sort of sagacious tradition established in
There are several characteristics of
Secondly, “wisdom affirms that the authority for life is to be disconcerted in our common experience.”(WB1,17) The rightness and goodness of thing is derived from careful observation of what a person ought to perform to be community-oriented or part of the society. Pragmatic patience is an important ingredient in wise actions (Prov.11:16,25;
Thirdly, “wisdom affirms that man has primary responsibility for his destiny.”(WB1,20) Man’s course in life is a personal and decisive choice (Prov.18:21;
Fourthly, it is the characteristic of wisdom tradition in considering that “man is meant for an orderly role in the orderly cosmos.”(WB1,22-23) That means man lived with a shared-responsibility towards the orderliness of the world. It is a distinct motif of wisdom tradition to deal with international themes like integrity, guidance, fear of God, righteousness, etc.(Prov.10:9;
Fifthly, “wisdom is the celebration of man as the king of creation.” (WB1,24) Man is not only responsible and highly esteemed among his fellow humans, but also to nature and social environment, to his world as a whole. Since he is a created being and part of the created world, he ought to relate to his Creator. In the first place, he is a trusted creation because he was made in a special manner. He is ordained by God, endowed with intellect, and a priced-crown among God’s creation. He is not supposed to be overshadowed in the created world. In wisdom tradition, the world is created good and is a healthy place to live; man ought to enjoy its orderliness and environment. “Wisdom affirms that the essential mark of a man is his coming to terms with the opportunities and responsibilities of his social and natural world.”(WB1,14) Aesthetically, wisdom reflects on the goodness, grandeur, and beauty of the cosmos; it also values the man-woman relationship in their essential life-giving roles to be fulfilled in this world (WB1,25).
Brueggemann observes: “We have been robbed of the courage and power to think an alternative thought” in relation to the common norms set before us as a church (WB2,39). It seems that prophetic imagination was not welcomed in most of the church belief because of the “royal” mentality—that is the static religion afraid to embrace to divine pathos—which self-satisfies the church in comfort. We love to sit in comfortable ministry. In fact, we often grind ourselves with the common, the ritual, the mundane, and the standard; all newness is held in suspicion. We want to implement almost anything, ironically, without vision and creative imagination. And yet, prophetic imagination echoes for the contemporary church to be concerned first with the “vision”, then the “implementation” (WB2,40) The problem: there is so much implemented according to the standard norm without vision. As a result, lack of prophetic imagination and the implementation of anything become futile.
It is no wonder that most totalitarian stance—even government—are afraid of artists. It is because of their ability to stir and procreate alternative to the common norm. The same is true in the popular church mainstream. Prophetic imagination, with their appreciation of arts, poetry, lyrics, and verbal power, can be a threat to the placid, docile, and easy-going atmosphere of their “kingly” status. Nevertheless, according to Brueggemann, “It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing futures” by providing alternative to the commonality of church ministry and dominant reality (WB2,40). As much as possible, the church must be willing to embrace the “divine pathos’ towards the community where it belongs. Prophetic ministry embraces pain—the pain of God and the pain of man. “It is the task of the prophetic ministry and imagination to bring people to engage their experiences of suffering to death” namely, the opposite of the fullness of human life. While most of the church ministries are designed for something out of this life, heavenly, and out of this world, prophetic imagination—despite of the seemingly phantasm ideal and its “visionary”-ness—it is deeply concerned with historical process and continuity of humaneness. It is not afraid to know the reality but creates awareness about it. It does not deny the pain of death but it responds properly to human existence (WB2,43). As a matter of fact, prophetic imagination unveils self-deception and numbness that denies the divine pathos (WB2,45).
How can the modern church learn from the ministry of prophetic imagination? At least in three ways: First is to offer symbols that are integral to the transparency and integrity of human life. by reactivating symbols from the past, self-deception, stonewalling, and artificiality has to end. The church must not dwell in ghettos. Second is to open up hidden fears and terrors of the marginalized. Underneath the superficial expressions of individual persons lies the suppressed longing to voice out their suffering and pain to the community in public. The prophet gives explosive voice to those very fears and terrors before the society. And third is to overstate in concrete terms and metaphors the “deathliness” with passion and anguish. Apathy and numbness to death through self-deception that “all is well” leads to alienation of life and loss of humane consideration for others (WB2,45).
While the prophet is well acquainted with the language of grief that brings out the reality others won’t even dare to see and behold, the church must be stirred up from her personal satiation by taking into consideration how she values mankind. While the ministry of priesthood is already conformed to the institutional norm, at least, that ministry does not contradict to the wisdom tradition of orderliness and valuation of the relationship between God and man. As the divine-human union deserved a proper place in priesthood ministry, so is the valuation of man before God in the wisdom tradition. We are to seek, as contemporary prophets, priests, and sages to alleviate the appreciation of man and his culture. Instead of despising human culture—a norm that has a long tradition already in the church—we pursue the appreciation of contemporary youth culture, the message of freedom and justice instead of apathy and un-involvement to the needs of the society. We might as well value also the here and now and the continuity of historical process, not just the ethereal ideas. Man might never be the measure of all things, but certainly, he has the capacity to live up his significance as a created being towards humane becoming.
Bibliography
Brueggemann, Walter. In Man We Trust: The Neglected Side of Biblical Faith.
____________. The Prophetic Imagination, 2d ed.
Heschel, Abraham. The Prophets. Vol 1.
posted by GlenPlas @ 9:29 PM
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