Lesson 3: Old Testament Prophets (James 5, 1 Kings 22, 2 Kings 22, Jeremiah 14)

Are Old Testament prophets different from New Testament prophets, or different than prophets who lived after the Bible was completed? Common sense suggests that they are different. When the only source of information from God on a topic was the prophet (as in some of the Old Testament), it was critical the prophet brought a true message. But as the Bible was completed, followers of God had a reliable basis on which to test whether a person claiming to be a prophet was speaking consistently with the way that God had acted in the past. This is not simply a matter of common sense. Joel 2 seems to describe large numbers of last day prophets which suggests that the relatively few Old Testament prophets carried a heavy responsibility to correctly state God’s will. Let’s jump into our study of the Old Testament prophets!