Prophetic Self-Negation: Validating the Divine Origin of the Word

This paper argued that the human weaknesses of many of the Hebrew prophets recorded in the Old Testament, rather than diminishing the authority of God’s message, confirmed the divine origin of the message. Yahweh called and inspired the prophets, and irrespective of their human frailty, Yahweh used them as He willed. Thus, no prophetic ‘successes’ or ‘achievements’ were attributed to the prophets’ personal proficiency or charisma throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. To illustrate this point, the lives of six prophets were considered, including Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, and Jonah. Each had moments of weakness or instances of prophetic self-negation, thereby confirming that Yahweh was in total control and justifying the prophets’ prefacing, concluding, and intermittently punctuating their prophecies with the classical signature: “Thus says Yahweh,†or “Oracle of Yahweh.†The paper concludes that prophecy is not all about the prophet, but about God and God’s word. Additionally, the leadership of God’s people is not something to be sought and cannot be accomplished by the skills and strengths of any individual.