The Twelve Minor Prophets and Today’s Church (Part 3): The Prophets as Models
After the tears comes restoration. That is also part of the message of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets. Since this book spans several centuries, the later parts of it reflect back on the earlier parts and do long-term assessment both of human behaviors and of the consequences of the older prophetic words themselves.
Perhaps the most obvious place to see this assessment occurs in the words of Zechariah, written in the late sixth century BCE, after the Persian absorption of the Babylonian Empire and the return of at least some subject peoples to their ancient homelands.
Zechariah says,
You should not be like your ancestors, whom the former prophets called to, saying, “Thus says YHWH of Hosts, ‘Turn from your evil ways and your evil deeds.’ But you didn’t listen or consider me – an oracle of YHWH.”
Your ancestors – where are they? But the prophets live forever. “My words and my statutes that I commanded my servants the prophets – did they not overtake your ancestors?” But they turned and said, “Just as YHWH of Hosts threatened to do to us according to our ways and our deeds, thus he did with us.” (Zechariah 1:4-6)
We will consider this and other texts’ reflections on the past in the next post, but for now, notice the prophet’s reflections on the prior prophets: “They live forever.”
Zechariah is probably not commenting on the literal immortality of one group of people or extinction of others. He means instead that the prophetic word and therefore the witness of the prophets’ lives continues to exert a powerful influence. They spoke in ways that others must reckon with.
This sense of the abiding value of the prophetic message explains important features of the Book of the Twelve as well as the other prophetic works, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. The words say something at their point of origin to dynamics of that time, but they also say something equally important to other times and places. While a recovery of the original settings and usages is desirable (when possible), the texts’ meaning does not live or die with that point of origin.
Moreover, the prophets become a model for a proper relationship to the God who speaks into the human situation. We see this notion play out in many ways in the centuries after Zechariah. For example, we all know Jesus’s line in the Sermon on the Mount: “You are blessed whenever they abuse or persecute you and say evil things about you for my sake. Rejoice and celebrate, because your reward in the heavens is great. So did they persecute the prophets before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12)
I don’t think Jesus meant all his followers to be prophets. But he did think all his followers stood in the tradition of those who rightly heard the prophets’ words and tried to follow them. Even to do that is to invite opposition.
This view of the prophets as moral exemplars and even martyrs speaks to a pressing question in the contemporary church in the United States. Who counts as a Christian martyr? Is it possible to incorrectly designate someone as such? If we do so in error, can that false designation corrupt the church and its witness in some way? The questions are urgent because political forces in our culture work overtime to steal Christian symbols, including our words and songs, to serve deeply anti-Christian ideologies.
A few tests of a claim that someone is a Christian martyr: (1) Did this person actually die for the faith? Does the postmortem evidence prove that the killer carried out the murder because of the victim’s Christian commitments? (2) Did the deceased consistently and persistently teach the Christian faith accurately? That is, did this person announce God’s justice, mercy, and peace for all human beings? Or did this person proclaim peace for some (his or her race or tribe) and war against others? A basic Christian belief is that we cannot love God without also loving our neighbor. Moreover, all human beings are our neighbors. A message that denigrates groups of people while exalting other groups cannot be Christian, no matter how much pretty “Christian” language accompanies it. (3) Did the deceased exhibit penitence in his or her own life? If the words used harmed others, did efforts at repair occur?
These tests are obvious to anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of the Christian faith. Persons who fail any of them cannot possibly be honored alongside the prophets and martyrs.
Remember, the prophets challenged power. They comforted the weak by reminding them that God noticed the oppression they experienced. They pled with people to care for widows, orphans, migrants, and the poor. They treasured compassion. They begged God for mercy on behalf of even sinners.
They suffered for these things, not for demagoguery. They did not grow wealthy from their work. They did not earn the praise of the powerful. “As for the prophets, they live forever. But where are your ancestors?” Indeed, where are we?
