38 先知——神差遣使者宣告衪的旨意Prophets - God sent messengersto declare His will
《简明神学》Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs，巴刻（J. I. Packer）著/張麟至译，更新传道会，2007年。
38 先知——神差遣使者宣告衪的旨意
Prophets - God sent messengers to declare His will
我必在他们弟兄中间给他们兴起一位先知像你；我要将当说的话传给他，他要将我一切所吩咐的都传给他们。（申18：18）
圣经中又先知写成的书卷，其数量超过了旧约圣经四分之一的篇幅，他们被神称为启示的出口与管道。他们是站在会中属神的人（耶23:22），认识神的心意，并且能够将之宣告出来。圣灵之神住在他们里面，并透过他们讲话（彼后1:19-21；赛61:1；弥3:8；徒28:25-27；彼前1:10-12）。他们也知道自己在为神说话，所以，他们敢以[耶和华的默示]作信息的开场白，表明耶和华自己为他们信息的发言者。
预言（prophecy）包括预告（foretelling），但这预告通常是在宣告神对祂立约的百姓在此事此地所发的警告与勉励（forthtelling）。这些预告都与神所膏立的君王及其国度之降临有关，而这降临是发生在神施行除净式的审判之后；先知基本上也是改革者，励行神的律法，并再度呼召神的百姓从他们不该落入的光景中，回到立约的信实里。
当他们向全国讲道之际，他们也为国家祷告：他们殷切地向神为百姓说话，就像他们向百姓为神说项一样；这样，他们完成了身为代祷者得独特职事（出32:30-32[摩西]；撒上7:5-9；12:19-23[撒母耳]；王下19:4[以赛亚]；另参耶7:16；11:14；14:11）。
假先知危害以色列，他们籍着在职业上和国家崇拜组织联结在一起的机会，尽说百姓想听得话，尽说他们的梦想和意见，而不说神的话（王上22:1-28；耶23:9-40；结13章）。
新约圣经里有一卷——启示录——宣告它自己是最真实可靠的预言，是从神直接领受来的（实际上是由父神籍着耶稣基督来的，启1:1-3；22:12-20）。使徒们的职事是由神那里，直接为祂的百姓带来指引，就像旧约时代先知的职事那样，只是呈现信息的形式有所不同，新约时代的先知与使徒联结起来，阐释旧约的盼望如何应验在基督身上（罗16:25-27），就成为教会的根基（弗2:20；3:5）。希伯来书可以说是这种先知职事的好例子。
PROPHETS
GOD SENT MESSENGERS TO DECLARE
HIS WILL
I
will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put
my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.
DEUTERONOMY 18:18
The
canonical prophets, whose books make up over a quarter of the Old Testament,
were called by God to be organs and channels of revelation. They were men of
God who stood in his council (Jer. 23:22), knew his mind, and were enabled to
declare it. God the Holy Spirit spoke in and through them (2 Pet. 1:19-21; Isa.
61:1; Mic. 3:8; Acts 28:25-27; 1 Pet. 1:10-12). They knew he was doing so;
hence they dared to start messages with “this is what the LORD says” or “an
oracle of the LORD,” and to present Yahweh himself as the speaker of what they
were saying.
Prophecy
involved prediction (foretelling), but usually this was done in a context of
declaring God’s warnings and exhortations to his covenant people here and now
(forth-telling). The predictions had to do with the coming of God’s king and
kingdom after purging judgments; the prophets’ chief concern was to exhort to repentance,
in hope that for the present the judgments might be averted. They were
primarily reformers, enforcing God’s law and recalling God’s people to the
covenant faithfulness from which they should never have lapsed.
With
their preaching to the nation went prayer for the nation: they talked to God
about people just as earnestly as they talked to people about God, and they
fulfilled a unique ministry as intercessors (Exod. 32:30-32 [Moses]; 1 Sam.
7:5-9; 12:19-23 [Samuel]; 2 Kings 19:4 [Isaiah]; cf. Jer. 7:16; 11:14; 14:11).
False
prophets were a bane to Israel. Professionally linked with Israel’s organized
worship, they said what people wanted to hear and spoke their own dreams and
opinions rather than words of God (1 Kings 22:1-28; Jer. 23:9-40; Ezek. 13).
In
the New Testament, one book, Revelation, announces itself as a true and
trustworthy prophecy, received directly from God (actually, from God the Father
through Jesus Christ: Rev. 1:1-3; 22:12-20). The ministry of the apostles
brought instruction directly from God to his people, just as the Old Testament
prophetic ministry had done, though the form of presentation was different.
Prophets of the New Testament period were linked with the apostles in the
foundation of the church (Eph. 2:20; 3:5) as expositors of the fulfillment in
Christ of Old Testament hopes (Rom. 16:25-27). The book of Hebrews may well be
an example of this kind of prophetic ministry.
