Why Prophets?

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LadyFlynt

Puritan Board Doctor
Question...

This is a question in our ladies study of Hosea. "Describe why God chose to speak to his people through prophets" The verses given are Exodus 20:18-19, Deuteronomy 18:14-22.

The best I can surmise from these verses alone is that the people were too scared to have God speak with them directly. But this seems a poor rendering to me...there has to be more (meaning I also feel these verses don't fully answer the question).

Help?
 
Actually LF, the truth is that we desperately need a mediator. Moses was the OT mediator par excelance, the people were unable to bear God speaking the Word directly to them from the mountain. The prophets were an extension of Moses' mediatorial ministry. They continued to preach the revelation of God to the people.

We now have a permanent Mediator, who was the ultimate "Prophet, like unto Moses," namely Jesus, "who was dead but is now alive forevermore." He was the Word incarnate, he spoke the Word of life.


Sinclain Ferguson told this story last summer at a conference:
A professor of his in Scotland said once: "Hell is an eternity in the presence of God. Heaven in an eternity in the presence of God, with a Mediator."
 
Okay, but where to find that in scripture. The verses given don't state the "need" for a mediator. So is there something IN the verses that I'm missing?
 
Job not only speaks for every man but his cry for a mediator is the cry of the soul. The verses that speak of the need for a prophet (one who represents God to his people) are the verses that speak of our utter ruin and the inability to approach God on our own.

Job 33:19 “Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed
and with continual strife in his bones,
20 so that his life loathes bread,
and his appetite the choicest food.
21 His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen,
and his bones that were not seen stick out.
22 His soul draws near the pit,
and his life to those who bring death.
23 If there be for him an angel,
a mediator, one of the thousand,
to declare to man what is right for him,
24 and he is merciful to him, and says,
‘Deliver him from going down into the pit;
I have found a ransom;
25 let his flesh become fresh with youth;
let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’;
26 then man prays to God, and he accepts him;
he sees his face with a shout of joy,
and he restores to man his righteousness.
27 He sings before men and says:
‘I sinned and perverted what was right,
and it was not repaid to me.
28 He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit,
and my life shall look upon the light.’

[Edited on 10-11-2006 by BobVigneault]
 
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