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This book is great. Here is today’s quote on the role and nature of the prophet

But what is a ‘prophet’? Prophecy is an important Old Testament tradition, and one to which Jesus frequently makes reference. Jewish prophets called the people and their rulers to God and God’s law. They did not fight or try to impose the law, but merely proclaimed it faithfully and took the consequences. They rekindled a sense of God’s dealing with the people and brought God’s law tot he hearts of the people and the rulers. They insisted on people facing God in their lives, and they were political. From Elijah through to Jeremiah, they challenged the rulers of Israel and Judah to walk with God and obey God’s law. Nor were they parochial in their concerns. They addressed the empires of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon with the word of the Lord, and Daniel’s prophecies were honed to the neo-Babylonian and Persian empires. In part, they were like God’s official opposition, commenting and critiquing government in the light of God’s purposes and law. More than just foretelling, they addressed the future in terms that looked beyond human plans to God’s deeper way. Man proposes, but God disposes. Sometimes, God proposes and rulers and nations do there own thing, but then folly and judgement inevitably become evident. Prophet’s carry God’s way to the ruelrs and the people….The prophets look on politics with God’s purview. They hold governments accountable for justice, care of the poor, and peace. Repeatable, when prophet meets king, the latter is under judgement. The kings threaten death tot he prophets, put them in cisterns, or chase them into deserts, but the word of God weighs heavier in the balances, because that is what it is. It insists that things are not the way rulers see them, and God’s perspective is different and authoritative. (62-63)