Prophetic Actions

נמצאו 7 תוצאות חיפוש

1. Introduction

   Rabbi Elchanan Samet

   Sefer Melakhim dedicates two literary sections to the activities of two prophets. Eliyahu and Elisha perform many miracles and Elisha is Eliyahu’s successor. Eliyahu begins his prophecy when the Kingdom of Israel was politically stable, but had reached new spiritual lows. Eliyahu and Elisha seem to perform their miracles without an explicit command from God. A Divine message can be delivered orally or through action – even an action that is not explicitly commanded by God. At times God may not accept the independent action of a prophet. Other times God may help the prophet preform a miracle, even if God is not in complete agreement with the prophet’s action. The majority of prophetic actions preformed without an explicit command reflect the Divine will, and achieve the objective of the prophet’s mission.

2. Ahav's Final Battle

   Rabbi Alex Israel

   While the 400 prophets in the narrative are not prophets of Ba'al, but speak in the name of God, they are nonetheless false prophets. The method in which God reveals himself to prophets, other than Moshe, does not allow two prophets to prophecy in the same words. At the request of Yehoshafat, the king of Yehuda who enthusiastically embraces unity with the Northern kingdom, a solitary true prophet is brought. He brings a message of Ahav's demise and for this he is punished. Despite his disguise, Ahav is mortally wounded in battle, but remains in the battleground, sacrificing his life, in order to give moral support to his soldiers. 

   Ahav is a wavering personality who lacks a solid backbone and is easily influenced. He can be swayed towards Ba'al and can be shocked to veer closer to God worship. It is this lack of personal resilience and consistency that leaves him so susceptible to wide alterations in his religious orientation. The damage that he inflicted upon both the nation and the unfortunate individuals who met their death as a result of his actions means that he is one of the worst kings in the history of the Northern kingdom.

    

3. The Fall and Rise of Yisrael

   Rabbi Alex Israel

   During Yehu's reign Aram, headed by Hazael occupy the Eastern bank of the Jordan. In Yehoahaz's time the situation becomes direr as Aram imposes a full demilitarization of Israel. The turnaround begins in the days of Yoash who receives a deathbed prophecy from Elisha of a victory over Aram and peaks in the time of Yerovam ben Yoash who receives a prophecy from Yona ben Amitai and restores the Northern border to a magnitude previously witnessed only during the days of David and Shlomo. While historians describe the decline of Aram due to the rise of Assyria, the book of Kings describes a divine process which is surprisingly almost entirely devoid of any repentance. 

   Does the outcome of the prophetic action that Elisha preforms with Yoash on his deathbed actually have an impact on the outcome in reality?

   Is the resurrection from death of the man who came in contact with Elisha's buried bones just another miracle of Elisha or does it symbolize a national resurrection?

4. The Rise of Nevuchadnetzar and the Beginning of the Babylonian Era

   Rabbi David Sabato

   After twenty-three years of prophecy during which Yirmiyahu and his fellow prophets warned about the impending calamity, the geopolitical situation becomes clarified; the "enemy from the north" about whom Yirmiyahu had warned over the years of his prophecy takes on concrete form in the figure of Nevuchadnetzar, king of Babylonia, serving as God's agent, who will come and punish the people for their refusal to hear His words during those years. Additionally, Yirmiyahu provides a long list of nations and kings who will fall into the hands of Nevuchadnetzar, and he thus highlights the global revolution that will take place in the wake of his conquests. After seventy years however, Babylon too will be destroyed.

5. Yirmiyahu and Hananya ben Azzur

   Rabbi David Sabato

   Yirmiyahu hears the words of Chananya which negate his prophecy, does not counter them, but merely warns Chananya against false prophecy. Moreover, Yirmiyahu who loves his people with all his heart, hopes and wants to believe that his own prophecy of calamity will be cancelled. Only after God speaks to him does he know that this was a false prophecy. A true prophet is aware of the possibility of change and of the dynamic quality of prophecy.  The decree is not fixed and absolute, but rather dynamic and conditioned on the situation.

   In contrast, Chananya presents the opposite position. He extrapolates from prophecies he heard from others and attempts to draw conclusions from them. The falseness in his prophecy stems from his failure to understand that God's word does not fit every generation in the same way, and in this regard, he is the total opposite of Yirmiyahu, the true prophet.

6. Yirmiyahu’s Prophecy of Consecration

   Rabbi David Sabato

   The consecration prophecy of Yirmiyahu is compared to the opening prophecies of Yishayahu and Moshe. What does this consecration prophecy teach about Yirmiyahu and his prophecies in general and what is the significance of the fact that God chose the prophet "from the womb"?

7. The Potter's House and the Earthen Bottle

   Rabbi David Sabato

   In the prophecy in the potter’s house, the house of Israel is like clay in the hand of God, the creator of history, and the fashioning of its destiny is based on its moral quality. But Israel's moral quality does not depend upon God's will because from the moment that God created the world and constricted Himself, He entrusted the choice between good and bad in the hands of man alone. If they choose to do that which is good in God's eyes, their historical destiny will be fashioned in a positive manner. But the moment that they corrupt their ways, their destiny will perforce change in accordance with their deficient moral quality. Despite the resoluteness of the prophecy itself and the decree of calamity that it contains, there is always the possibility of change, which depends exclusively on the people.

   In contrast, the breaking of the bottle prophecy symbolizes the hopeless situation – the potter's vessel that cannot be made whole again. The first prophecy was delivered to the people at a stage when there was still a place for repair and renewal, while the second prophecy reflects the crisis to which the people arrived when the malleable clay hardened to the point that it turned into a bottle that could no longer be changed and that can no longer be fixed, but only broken.