A Prophet's Job Description (1 of 2)

It's clear the simple Bible study I led the other night was the first in a long time; I continue to mull over several topics that came up through the study of Acts 15.

Take for instance these two elders who were chosen to come along to Antioch to set the record straight on the law and its role in salvation.

Acts 15:22 "They sent Judas called Barsabbas and Silas, leading men among the brothers..."
Acts 15:32, 33 "And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers..."

It's interesting to me that Luke goes out of his way to mention these guys 'were themselves prophets.' I don't really know why he feels the need to add that, but the fact that he does seems to link the gift of prophecy directly with what they were able to accomplish: spend a decent amount of time talking with these believers so that they were in the end encouraged and strengthened.

Prophets--or, if that feels to strong, those with the gift of prophecy--encourage and strengthen. It's confirmed elsewhere...

1 Cor 14:3, 31 "On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation...For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged..."

Add to the list: prophets bring consolation and build others up.

Now, I'm wading into vast and murky waters here. The role of a prophet is a big one and I'm surely no expert. And one thing is certain: it's a very multidimensional role or gifting.

But perhaps that's exactly where the problem lies. Prophets seem to get stuck with a one-dimensional job description.

Usually it's the fact that they predict the future. Ask 10 people in the average American church what a prophet does and 9 of them will say predict the future. True, it has been known to be a part of their job.

But if you look at any one of the Old Testament prophets, you'll very quickly see they spend much much more of their time confronting people and warning people and exhorting people and reproaching people and trying to set people on the right path and calling people to repentance than they do predicting the future. As it's been said by plenty of people besides me, proportionally speaking, they do much more forthtelling than they do foretelling.

Then there are the camps who look at Paul's passages on prophecy in the New Testament age, and because those sorts of things make us nervous and uncomfortable, we water down the gift of prophecy and say it's someone who can speak well. Basically, a good orator. I can remember my study Bible during those teenage years when I was trying to make sense of my more charismatic friends...it tried to convince me that a prophet was just kind of like a good motivational speaker. OK, sure, they speak well. But the only thing I will say in response here is that this sort of simplification greatly and tragically diminishes and devalues the gift of a prophecy in our communities.

Jumping from the forthtelling idea, and supported by some (equally one-dimensional) teaching from certain circles, in recent years I've come to believe the prophet is the one who is always busy confronting people with God's truth. It's a tough burden to bear because it's like they're never happy and never understood, but it's an important role because it pushes communities further in their understanding of God. These are the people who aren't afraid to have the tough conversations because they're so convinced of God's True Word and they simply must speak up rather than see it compromised.

While I do think something along those lines is closest to the truth, Judas and Silas surprised me the other night, because here are some prophets that are encouraging, strengthening, and consoling. The one-dimensional take told me it's the Shepherds who do that job. The Prophets break the tough news and the Shepherds clean up after them, like a sick good-cop bad-cop routine. The Prophet is to rain cloud as The Shepherd is to sunshine. Again: oversimplified, misunderstood.

As if being a prophet isn't hard enough, the poor guys don't even know what their job is supposed to be...