The Overall Goal Of Prophets In The Old Testament

In the Old Testament, we have been introduced to many influential characters. There are many characters who classify as prophets. In fact, there are a total of twelve prophets in the Hebrew Bible. Some of the most compelling ones are Samuel, Isaiah, and Jonah. While there are many goals of prophets, I believe that the overall goal for prophets in the bible (mostly the Old Testament) was to serve as a messenger of God and relay His message to His people. With this being said, a secondary goal of these prophets are also to relay the message from the people back to God. This messenger ideology is a two way street and relies on reciprocation but never always happens. Now, Samuel, Isaiah, and Jonah played this role differently from each other. I
For instance, another prophet in the bible that can be seen as being a messenger of God, is Jonah. We never really receive an abundant amount of information about Jonah’s life, but we do know about his actions. When called upon, Jonah defied God and ran away. Jonah is actually the first prophet to have straight defiance to God. Jonah creates a large storm, gets swallowed by a large fish, and repents. What happens next is why Jonah fits the role of the messenger. Despites his early hardships with God, Jonah spends a great amount of time thinking and repenting while in the belly of a fish. With this being said, we see Jonah fulfill the main purpose of a Hebrew prophet in the bible. We see this in chapter 3, “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim the message I give you. Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh” (Jonah 3:1-2). In this instance, we can get a visualization that Jonah is finally obeying God and doing what God planned for him the entire time. However, Jonah fits the role a little differently than the other prophets. Unlike like Samuel, Jonah questions God and becomes angry. He does not understand God’s ways with the people in Nineveh. He figured that God would use his mighty power against the sinful ninevites. Compared to others, Jonah defied God which ultimately lead him down a harder path as one of God’s prophets. His defiance and
Now, Isaiah takes a slightly different path in relation to the other prophets we have been introduced to. While many prophets are called upon, Isaiah took it upon himself to listen to the word of God. Isaiah cries out to God that he is an unclean man and repents for his sins. However, just like all prophets we have seen so far, Isaiah represents what a Hebrew prophet is in the Old Testament. Isaiah's main goal during his book was to serve as God's messenger by preaching to all the sinful people and that God is ready to make a change. We see an example of this when he writes, “Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away. His hand is still upraised. But the people have not returned to him who struck them, nor have they sought the Lord Almighty. So, the Lord will cut off Israel both head and tail” (Isaiah 9:12-14). These verses as well as this chapter in particular vividly demonstrate the primary goal of a prophet. We see God is angry with his people and sends a message to Isaiah to prophesy that the people will perish before him. Most of Isaiah is about him prophesying to people and cities about God's plans. So, Isaiah fits the role of the Hebrew prophet in the bible perfectly. Just like Samuel, Isaiah relies heavily on God's word for his actions and we see that in his prophecies throughout the entire