The OLD Philosopher – John M. Miller
The Old Testament prophets are an intriguing group of grumps, at least at first reading. Cheerful chaps they are not. The prophets did not write in a vacuum, however; their words were written in particular political and social contexts. The prophets were observers of the contemporary social and religious trends in which they lived.
When times were good, the prophets did not say much, if anything. It was when times were rough, and the world seemed to be coming unglued, that the prophets stepped to the forefront. Negative realities caught their attention much more than positive realities. Their minds raced when it appeared as though the entire world was, as we say nowadays, “going to hell in a handbasket.” These dour men would never proclaim, “Every day in every way we’re getting better and better.”
Some people have gloomy dispositions, and others have perpetually sunny outlooks. No one ever accused any prophet of being too sunny. Often the prophets insisted that incurable optimists were false prophets painting false pictures. If others claimed that everything was coming up roses when the prophets were certain that catastrophe was just around the corner, it irritated their prophetic psyches and spirits to hear that everything was AOK when they knew it most certainly was not.
However, it would be incorrect to imagine that the prophets were constantly purveyors of doom and gloom. Many consider Isaiah to be the greatest of the prophets. In his opening chapter, Isaiah wrote, “Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who deal corruptly!” (1:4) Norman Vincent Peale would not approve of such a doleful introduction. But Isaiah also said, “In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: we have a strong city; he (God) sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks. Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps faith may enter in” (26:1-2).
Prophets do not point out our personal or corporate errors simply to attack wrongdoing. They firmly believed that errors are a means of teaching us. The prophets remind us that when we are good we can still do better, and that when we are bad we must do better. Their words are not intended to make people feel guilty; they are meant to encourage them to turn away from evil and to do good.
Without question Jeremiah was the gloomiest of the prophets, but even he put a positive spin on the first chapter of his prophecy. He said that God told him, “I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah tried to weasel out of his calling from God. “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” God was not about to take no for an answer, so He declared to the recalcitrant son of Israel, “Do not say ‘I am only a youth,’ for to all to whom I send you you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak” (1:5-7). Then, despite crying holy hell against Judah in nearly all of his 52 chapters, Jeremiah nonetheless occasionally says things like this: “In those days, and in that time, says the Lord, the people of Israel and the people of Judah shall come together, weeping as they come, and they shall seek the Lord their God” (50:4).
The purpose of prophecy is not to predict the future, nor is it merely to point out sins. Rather it is to declare righteousness to be the antidote to sin. It is not primarily to slam bad behavior; it is to promote good behavior. Prophets see themselves as change-agents, to use a contemporary term. They do not perceive themselves essentially to be grouches.
In many respects, the modern word “futurists” is somewhat akin to the word “prophets.” Writers such as Aldous Huxley, Alvin Toffler, Arthur Clarke, and George Orwell tried to predict a possible and perhaps even likely future in their books and essays. Scientists such as Buckminster Fuller, Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, and Freeman Dyson also attempted to declare how an unpredictable and confused present was leading to a predictable future collapse.
Nevertheless, both prophets and futurists attempt to show ordinary people how their choices and decisions not only can but will affect what happens in the decades to come. It is pointless to tell everyone that their behavior is leading to inevitable destruction; rather they must be led to see that it is an enormous spiritual and ethical error to act badly. “The people” constantly need to be told that they are shapers of the future, and that what they do personally has an inevitable bearing on what will occur corporately in future years, for either the good or the bad.
People are fundamentally neither good nor bad, but our behavior can and does lead us toward one or the other. Mistakes are inevitable, but they are not irreversible. The calling of prophets is not correctly to predict the future. It is to clarify the nature of the ethical lapses of the present. It is not to show how bad things are, although that may be part of their calling. Instead it is to paint a broader, more encompassing picture of how good things can become if we more closely yoke ourselves to the laws of God, and how we can get there if we are more attuned to His desires for His world.
The metaphor of the half-filled glass is frequently used to describe the difference between optimists and pessimists. Is it half-full, or is it half-empty? Some scientists and technologists proclaim that it is nine-tenths full, while some futurists and all of the prophets say that, at best, it is half-empty.
Currently it is not scientists who seem to represent the wave of the future. Instead it is technologists who do that. Many of the founders of the most financially successful Silicon Valley or Silicon Valley-type corporations are the most convinced of the brightness of the future. However, others of them are the most fearful of what the future is likely to bring. This is especially the case for artificial intelligence. AI will cure numerous social ills, say the optimistic technologists, and no doubt that it is true.
But might technology also be our downfall? Is the evil genie still completely in the bottle, is he half out of the bottle, or are his feet the only part of him and his malevolence that is still contained within the bottle? From the time the first prehistoric humanoid attached a sharp rock to a manipulable short tree branch to the present time, technology has always been improving itself. But some of its advancements may be more menacing than meritorious. Nuclear weapons, AI, the internet, and climate change are major “advances” which come to mind. If the fears provoked by each of these examples come to pass, then as it was stated in holy writ, we may sow the wind and reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7).
Prophets can be colossal pains in the neck. But they exist to ease the pains in our necks and minds and hearts, and in our flawed and floundering societies. Prophets are the chemotherapy of humanity. It may feel as though they are killing us, but without them, the malignancies we create for ourselves might bring an early social demise.
As it says in the last song of the musical Godspel, “Long live God” - - - and long live His prophets. – March 29, 2024
John Miller is Pastor of The Chapel Without Walls on Hilton Head Island, SC. More of his writings may be viewed at www.chapelwithoutwalls.org.