By holding a mirror to the sunlight it can be reflected on to a specific place. Mirror reflects the rays of the sun which falls on it. In the Old Testament there was a group of people who did the same role which was done by the mirror. They are “prophets of Israel”. When they receive the message of God, they proclaimed it to the people of Israel. The picture given below depicts it.
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The word for prophet in Hebrew is “Nabi” and the Greek word is “prophetes”. Those words give the meaning "of the one who proclaims on behalf of God".
There are two categories of prophets in the Old Testament.
1. Oratary Prophets :
In the Old Testament, they do not have books or writings under their names, but their words and deeds are found in the historical books like I and II Samuel and I and II Kings. Such oratary prophets' names are Nathan, Elijah and Elisha.
2. Literary Prophets :
There are writings or books under their names in the Old Testament. These prophets can be di- vided into two groups.
i. Major prophets
ii. Minor prophets
i. There are 3 Major Prophets
Isaiah
Jeramiah
Ezekiel
ii. There are 12 Minor Prophets
Hosea
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Mica
The prophet who speaks on behalf of God must first listen to the voice of God. He should open himeslf to the divine voice to understand the message which he has to proclaim to the people.
In todays society, the Word of God (Holy Scripture) is the most effective media which brings the divine voice to us. As same as that, different people are helping us to identify the divine voice; they are Priests, Religious, Parents, and teachers. Even the signs of the time are also helpful to us to find the divine voice.
A Prophet who speaks on behalf of God is bound with responsibility to speak what God wants, but not what he wants. Therefore prophet receives a vocation to hand over the God's plan to people.
Through Baptism, all of us had been anointed to be the prophets in the Church. It is very difficult to witness to this prophetic call, but we can be strengthened and be active with the power of God. According to that the responsibilities mentioned below were given us to follow.
Act truthfully
Bring back all those who are doing wrong into the correct path
Challenge against those who are trying to hide the truth
Guide others to do the correct thing
Proclaim the message of the Bible to others
We should dedicate ourselves to be the prophets of the era, and try to make the God's plan, a reality in the society. By guiding, correcting, challanging and witnessing, we can be true prophets in the society.
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