The Main Purpose of Prophecy

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Question
What was the main purpose of biblical prophecy?
Answer
The main purpose of biblical prophecy can be understood if we have a sense of the prophets as, say, ambassadors or secretaries of state. They came as representatives of God, and they came to call God's people back to faithfulness to God's covenant with them. At times, it was to call them to repent and to turn away from sin, and at other times it was to give them hope in difficult circumstances. When the prophets came to call the people to turn back to God, it was to turn away from sin, from individual sin, but particularly we see, to call people from sinning against one another, from gaining an advantage against others, from being unjust, from not being merciful, and those kinds of things, and also to call them to turn back from serving other gods that they had begun to worship, sometimes alongside the God of the Bible, and sometimes to the exclusion of him. And so, often we speak of the prophets as those who brought a covenant lawsuit, like a lawyer would bring, to bring God's people back, to give them an opportunity to repent and to turn to him and to be faithful to the covenant that he had given them at Sinai in the book of Exodus where we see the fuller version of that, and in the book of Deuteronomy.

Answer by Rev. Michael J. Glodo

Rev. Michael J. Glodo has served on the Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) Orlando faculty since 1991 with the exception of six years as Stated Clerk (Chief Administrative Officer) of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (2000-2006). During that time he has taught Old Testament, New Testament, Preaching, Theology of Ministry, and a variety of electives. He has also served as Dean of the Chapel where he planned, lead, coordinated, and preached in weekly chapel services for many years.