loyalty to the truth which God had put in their hearts, made them the commanding figures they were, and set them high in the world's esteem, in spite of a life of suffering, and often a death of martyrdom.

7. Finally, there was no road to the office of prophet except that of the Divine call. Sanday says very truly, "We never hear of a prophet volunteering for his mission. It is laid upon them as a necessity from which they struggle to escape in vain." 1 Probably nothing struck Jeremiah more keenly than the charge which Shemaiah made that he was a prophet by his own appointment; 2 for it was a base injustice touching a vital matter. Nothing shows the high ideal of our own ministry more forcibly than the question in the ordinal, "Do you think in your heart, that you are truly called, according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . to the Order and Ministry of the Priesthood?" No one can be a prophet without the express call of God in this age any more than in the days of the Hebrew dispensation.

NOTE.It is interesting to see that in the suggestive book of the late Dr. A. B. Davidson, The Called of God, there are included among those who received the call of God: Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Saul, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, Nicodemus, Zacchæus, the Rich Young Ruler, and Thomas. A long period of time is covered in this list, many classes of men are selected, vastly different results were attained: not all of those were called to be prophets, but every call was real.

1 Bampton Lectures, p. 150.

2 Jer. xxix. 27.

CHAPTER VI

THE PROPHET'S CREDENTIALS

O accomplish the Divine end of prophecy there must be not only a man who will speak, but also people who will listen. We have considered in the preceding chapter the conditions which led the man to speak. In this chapter we shall take up the terms upon which the people would listen. Doubtless there would be many factors in determining that result, but only one is of primary importance for us, namely, the assurance that the man was duly qualified to speak in the name of God.

If a preacher could convince the people that he was really a prophet, that he actually had a message which God wished conveyed to man, there would be no difficulty in securing a hearing in any age of the world.1 Is it possible for the people to be certain that a particular man speaks the mind of God? If it is, by what means is that assurance to be given? other words, what are the prophet's credentials?

In

This is no idle inquiry, but is often a burning question. There were thousands of Jews in the time of

1 This truth was understood by Zechariah: "In those days, ten men from all the foreign tongues shall seize the skirt of a man who is a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you” (viii. 23).

our Lord who would have received Jesus gladly and would have followed Him even to the Cross, if they had been fully convinced that He was the Messiah promised of God. But how could they know? Their rulers pronounced Jesus a misleading impostor; what evidence was available for them in the face of this decree?

The story of Micaiah, already discussed,1 affords a good concrete instance, and is a case where the problem was serious. The prophets of Ahab cried with absolute unanimity, "Go up and prosper." The solitary voice of Micaiah said, "Go up to your ruin." Ahab had the best of reasons for distrusting the counsel of his obsequious seers; but if he had been persuaded that Micaiah knew the truth, is it likely that he would have set out upon an expedition certain to result in disaster? And even if Ahab had been ready to take such a risk, would the godly Jehoshaphat have been willing to fly directly in the face of Providence, if he had been assured that Micaiah spoke the truth? Then there was a larger body interested in that expedition than the two kings. Thousands in the armies knew that they were going to certain triumph or to danger and death, as the one prophet or the other rightly foresaw the issue of the campaign. Could they tell positively which was right? If they had known that the son of Imlah spoke the truth, and the others a subservient lie, would there not have been such wholesale desertions as to render the campaign impossible for lack of troops?

Another example of the grave nature of the problem 1 I Kings xxii.; see also above, p. 52 ff.

is afforded by the conflict between Jeremiah and Hananiah. The latter is called the prophet1 just as Jeremiah is, but his message is absolutely contradictory to Jeremiah's. He throws down the glove in the most public manner. In the temple, before the priests and all the people, he addresses Jeremiah : "Thus saith Jahveh Sabaoth the God of Israel: I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within

two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the house of Jahveh which Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has taken from this place and carried to Babylon. And Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and all the captivity of Judah who went to Babylon, will I bring back to this place, saith Jahveh: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon."

"13

The occasion of Hananiah's positive declaration is found in chapter xxvii. Jeremiah had put a yoke on his neck, and was wearing it as a symbol of submission; he had declared that safety could be found only in yielding to a superior force; that not only would the vessels already carried off not be brought back, but that there was serious danger that the few remaining in the temple might share the fate of their fellows; that the prophets who declared that the

1 Jer. xxviii. I. The difficulty was solved in Greek versions and Targums by altering the text and inserting "false" before "prophet." 2 Jer. xxviii. 2, A. V., and R.V. "I have broken"; but the verb is the so-called prophetic perfect, which should be translated by a future tense.

3 Jer. xxviii. 2-4. The Greek versions have a much simpler text, omitting much that is redundant, and that weakens the force of Hananiah's terse statement.

exile would soon be over spoke lies in the name of the Lord. Further, Jeremiah had already declared that Jeconiah (Jehoiachin) would die in exile.1

In the face of this utterance Hananiah stepped forward with his positive declaration, and followed it up by breaking the yoke which Jeremiah was wearing, and using his very violence as a symbol, says: "Thus saith Jahveh: even thus within two years will I break the yoke of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, from the necks of all the nations." 2

Here was a direct issue, one prophet flatly contradicting another. How were the people to know which was right? Were there any means by which they might determine positively which counsel to follow? It was manifestly an important question; for one way led to the downfall of the nation, the other to its preservation.

We may at once dispose of the notion that the question could be settled by official authority; for both of these men, as the Hebrew scriptures testify, were accredited as prophets; one was as much entitled to speak in the name of Jahveh as the other, so far as official sanction was concerned. It follows, therefore, that official garb was not a sufficient guarantee that he who wore it was loyal to the truth of God, a fact unhappily evident in all ages.

We may also see that Jeremiah, a great and loyal prophet of God, who suffered more for the cause

1 Jer. xxii. 26.

2 Jer. xxviii. II.

The ground of Hananiah's confidence is supposed to be his knowledge that help had been promised by Egypt. It is certain that Zedekiah had joined an alliance against Babylon.