CHAPTER VI THE PROPHET'S MESSAGE HOW GIVEN TO HIM, AND HOW UTTERED BY HIM WE have found that the Israelitish sacred literature presents the prophet to us as a citizen like others, distinguished only by the fact that he has an especial message from Deity to his fellow-citizens. In the delivery of this message we have found him acting in the character of statesman, reformer, preacher, author, and claiming powers and authority from the realm of the supernatural. The question arises: Were there any distinctive peculiarities in the mode in which he received his message, and in the mode in which he uttered it? Our sources give us some detailed information on these points. We take up the two parts of the question in their order. I. First, how the prophet's message was revealed to him. What was the source of his inspiration? What were the modes in which it made itself apparent? I. The source of his inspiration is represented to be the Spirit of Yahaweh, variantly called also the Spirit of Elohim. Save in exceptional instances the Hebrew word for spirit is feminine; but like the word for soul, also feminine, it may denote a masculine person. When personally used, its suggestions are masculine rather than feminine.1 The prophetic gift is said to be by the Spirit 1 The word denotes either spirit or wind. In both meanings it is regularly feminine. The lexicons give certain instances in which it is masculine when denoting wind (Ex. x. 13; 1 Ki. xix. 11; Jer. iv. 11; Job viii. coming upon the prophet, coming mightily upon him, being put upon him or within him, being given, being poured out. This could best be studied by looking up all the numerous passages, with the aid of a concordance. We will recall a few of them, mostly those that are very familiar. Spirit to Every one remembers the instance when Moses, at Yahaweh's command, took the seventy elders to the tent of meeting outside the camp, and Yahaweh Prophets intook of the Spirit which was upon Moses, spired by the and put it upon them, and they prophesied. speak Eldad and Medad, two of the men whose names were in the list, did not go with the others, and the Spirit came upon them where they were, and they prophesied in the camp. That the Spirit here spoken of is the Spirit of Yahaweh is throughout distinctly implied, and in one verse is explicitly stated (Num. xi. 16-17, 25-29). In the passage from Joel, cited by Peter at the pentecost, we read: "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy . . . And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit" (RV of Joel ii. 28-29; cf. Acts ii. 16-18). Samuel said to Saul: "The Spirit of Yahaweh will come mightily upon thee, and thou wilt prophesy." 2), but there is room for doubt. When used personally the word very naturally passes into a masculine. "A spirit passed before my face" (Job iv. 15). "Renew thou within me a spirit that is made ready" (Ps. li. 10). "The Spirit of Yahaweh spake by me (2 Sam. xxiii. 2). "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever" (Gen. vi. 3). "The Spirit of Yahaweh will take thee up" (1 Ki. xviii. 12). "Lest the Spirit of Yahaweh hath taken him up" (2 Ki. ii. 16). "And the Spirit came forth and stood before Yahaweh." "Which way went the Spirit of Yahaweh from with me to speak with thee?" (1 Ki. xxii. 21, 24). Accordingly, the narrator says, "the Spirit of Deity came mightily upon him, and he prophesied" (1 Sam. x. 6, 10). In a little prophetic song attributed to David the singer says: "The Spirit of Yahaweh spake by me (2 Sam. xxiii. 2). In the prayer in Nehemiah the worshippers say to “And thou testifiedst against them by thy Spirit by the hand of the prophets" (Neh. ix. 30). "I truly am full of power by the Spirit of Yahaweh" (iii. 8, cf. ii. 7, II). Hosea uses the parallelism: "The prophet is a fool, The man of the Spirit is made mad" (ix. 7). Similar instances might be multiplied. In particular the book of Isaiah is full of them. It became customary to connect adjectives with the Spirit, describing him as Yahaweh's "good Spirit" (Neh. ix. 20; Ps. cxliii. 10), or his "holy Spirit” (Isa. Ixiii. 10-11; cf. Ps. li. 11 [13]). If one should undertake to make a count of the instances, he ought not to omit those in which the divine name is represented by a pronoun (e.g. Gen. vi. 3; Pss. cvi. 33, cxxxix. 7; Isa. xxx. 1). Deeds of Our survey of the subject of the Spirit that inspired the prophets is not complete till we have looked at a very different class of manifestations of the men inspired Spirit of Yahaweh. In the narrative concernby the Spirit ing Elijah we are told of the Spirit's carrying him away, rendering him invisible (1 Ki. xviii. 12; 2 Ki. ii. 16). Marvellous acts of this nature are not often attributed to the Spirit; but marvellous acts in the form of great achievements of men are as prominently so 1 66 attributed as even the inspiring of the messages of the prophets. Samson's exhibitions of wonderful strength, for example, were by "the Spirit of Yahaweh" coming mightily" upon him (Jud. xiii. 25, xiv. 6, 19, xv. 14). It was when "the Spirit of Yahweh came upon Othniel and Gideon and Jephthah (Jud. iii. 10, vi. 34, xi. 29) and others, that they wrought the exploits by which they delivered Israel. When "the Spirit of Yahaweh came mightily unto David," its presence was probably manifested by David's achievements quite as much as by his words; and the removal of the Spirit from Saul was probably indicated by his failure in achievement (1 Sam. xvi. 13, 14). The Isaian singer says of Israel in the wilderness (Isa. lxiii. 10-11): "They rebelled, and grieved his holy Spirit." "Where is he that put his holy Spirit in the midst of them? that caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses? that divided the water before them ?" In saying this he attributes to Moses the great deeds of the exodus, and not the great words only. At first thought, the qualifying a man for war or statesmanship, and especially the qualifying a man for such athletic feats as those of Samson, by an inrush of spiritual influence, seems to be very different from the qualifying a prophet to utter a divine message; but certainly there is no incongruity between the two. pecially should this idea find a hospitable reception among us of the present generation, now that we have introduced athletics so prominently among our appliances for Christian service. Es More difficult is the case where the four hundred prophets are prophesying in the name of Yahaweh before Ahab and Jehoshaphat, and Micaiah has his vision of "the Spirit" proposing to be a lying spirit in the mouths of the prophets, and finding his offer acceptable to Yahaweh (1 Ki. xxii. 21, 24); but we are Micaiah's not at liberty to evade the difficulty by omitlying spirit ting this passage from our induction. This seems to me to be a truly oriental instance of extremism in the use of figure of speech. These prophets, professing to be moved by the Spirit of Yahaweh, were prophesying falsehood. Micaiah says that it is as if the Spirit of Yahaweh had become a lying spirit in them in order to deceive Ahab to his destruction. That is all that they understood him to mean. They did not understand that in fact the Spirit became a lying spirit.1 The nature of Yahaweh What is the Spirit of Yahaweh as delineated in the passages we have studied? To this question I give here no philosophical or theological answer. The answer that lies verbally in the accounts is clear. of the Spirit The Spirit is effluent energy from Yahaweh the infinite Spirit. But if we stop with this, the answer is incomplete. This effluent energy is spoken of in terms of personality. But the language used concerning the Spirit of Yahaweh is different from that used concerning the many personal spirits whom these writers conceive of as doing the errands of the supreme Spirit.2 The inspiring Spirit is one, and is spoken of in terms that are definite. If we were confined to the instances in which other divine names than Yahaweh are used, there might be room for disput 1 The English versions try to solve the difficulty by translating, "a spirit," a translation that is within the limits of possibility. Other solutions have been proposed. In Deity's causing or permitting Ahab to be deceived, we have simply one more unsolved detail in the unsolved problem of the origin of evil. 2 Of these Saul's evil spirit is a familiar instance (1 Sam. xvi. 14b, xix. 9). Job says: "A spirit passed before my face" (iv. 15). "He maketh his angels spirits" (Ps. civ. 4). |