2 The Word as a communication tool

To communicate with his people God often uses his prophets. As a minister of the word prophet is distinguished from other mediators between God and his people; he is the direct mediator, as the wordcomes directly overwhelming him, grabbing him and he can not help but pass it on.

As Jeremiah ( 20,7) expressed : You have seduced me, Lord, and or let myself be seduced; you made me strength and you have prevailed. I became the object of ridicule every day; everyone mocks me. When I speak I scream, I proclaim: – Violence! Oppression! -. So the word of the Lord has become for me reproach and derision all day long. I said to myself – will weigh no more of him, nor speak any more in his name! -. But in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, but I could not ‘. 123 times in the Old Testament uses the expression ‘the word of Yahweh came to ..’ and not a mere arrive, but it is an inexorable grip of the prophet; so the prophet Amos (3.8): ‘The Lord hath roared, who will not be afraid? The Lord hath spoken, who can but prophesy? ‘. Through the word of the prophets is God himself who invests his people and acts effectively on it. Through Hosea (6.5), God condemns his people as a judge in court: ‘For this reason have I hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth …’ (cfr. 1,2-Is also 20, I 6,1-8; Ger 2.4 to 29).

On the other hand, the word is also judging the strength of the prophet who receives it, whom is aware of the greatness of this reality (see 3.7, ‘Truly the Lord God will do nothing, if He has not revealed his plan to his servants the prophets ‘; Is 61,1ss,’ the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me; has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord, a day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. … ‘), the responsibility of its transmission . Ezekiel (3.16 to 21) compares the prophet to a sentinel, who must warn the people of impending danger, the reality of which it is accountable. (to be continued)