Daniel 9:6

Neither have we harkened unto thy servants the prophets.

The Prophetic Ministry

It was the design of Daniel, in this sentence, to look back upon the whole course of the prophetic ministry that people had enjoyed from the time of its establishment to the time of their humiliation. We now consider the period from the death of Samuel to the close of the Babylonish captivity, a period of more than five hundred years.

I. SOME FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE PROPHETICAL ORDER. It was a class distinct from the priestly class. Their schools. The prophets were the founders of the seminaries of religion, learning, and philosophy, in which a class of men of cultivated minds and of holy hearts were raised up to influence their fellow-men. By the “sons of the prophets” we are to understand not children, but disciples. Samuel seems to have been the first tutor of these colleges.

2. How were the prophets called? It was not a matter of course, that because a man had been in a collegiate establishment, therefore he should be a prophet of God. God has never tied up His influence, never restricted His grace to any institutions of man, however wise and reasonable they may be. Thus Amos says--“I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son.” The Divine call was very discriminating.

3. The customs of the prophets. They were known by their costume. A garment of the coarsest sort--haircloth, and sometimes sackcloth. These were the signs of mourning; and they wore that attire to indicate their grief at the transgressions of the people. They were remarkable in their diet. Their deportment was very reserved and solemn.

4. The nature of their ministry. Their oral addresses were, no doubt, abundant. They addressed the multitude as popular preachers. And they sometimes acted parables. Their written predictions were a third part of their ministry. They were the historians of the church and nation of the Jews.

II. SOME REASONS WHY THE MINISTRY OF THE PROPHETS WAS ORDAINED.

1. It was partly to counteract the tendencies of an established priesthood. Under priesthoods men are in great danger of losing all view of the spiritual and moral part of their office, and sinking down into that which is merely ceremonial and ritual. The prophets often arraign the priests--often charge upon them, in very plain end faithful terms, their wickedness. Morality must ever take the lead of ceremonial institutions. God regards obedience rather than sacrifice.

2. They were to enforce the authority of the Divine law. No man can acheive anything great in reference to his fellow-men who has not first achieved the conquest of himself. The prophets were men who had learned to deny themselves, and then men who had seen visions of eternity.

3. To correct the tendency of the people to trust in heathen oracles.

4. To excite the hope of the Divine mercy in the minds of the people.

III. THE SUBJECTS INCLUDED IN THE MINISTRATIONS OF THE PROPHETS.

1. They embrace the whole social condition of the Jews during five hundred years. We say that history is the key to prophecy; but prophecy amongst the Jews was the key to history.

2. They were employed to announce the judicial visitations that should come upon the heathen.

3. A third class of subjects was a description of the Christian dispensation, as it should be set up by Messiah. (J. Blackburn.)