Threefold: Prophet

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In the Old Testament, God ordained that three offices be established to instruct, to intercede for, and to protect His children. These are the roles of the prophet, priest, and king. In this series, we will look at how Jesus fulfills these three roles, and continues to do so to this day.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
-Hebrews 1:1-2

As the Messiah, Jesus took upon Himself three Old Testament roles, and they are offices He holds even now. Francis Turretin tells us, “The threefold misery of men introduced by sin – ignorance, guilt, and tyranny and bondage – required this conjunction of a threefold office.” The first of the Threefold Office is “Prophet.”

“Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Such was John the Baptist’s frequent refrain as he spoke prophetically to the people of Judea. He stood in the wilderness as a prophet of God, divinely ordained to speak on behalf of God.

This has been the role of the prophet from the beginning. As a prophet, Moses spoke to Pharaoh on behalf of God, warning him to let the Hebrew people go. As a prophet, Isaiah spoke the words of the Lord to try to turn the Jews back to God. As a prophet, Jonah took the message to Nineveh. John the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord in his prophetic office.

It has always been the role of the prophet to teach, to rebuke, and to warn. Moses taught us what God expects of us in the Law. The Apostle John warns us about the Second Coming of Christ, that we should be ready for Him. It is the ignorance of men, the darkness of unbelief, and the wrong ideas about God that the prophet seeks to remedy. Where we do not know, he teaches. Where we ignore, he rebukes. Where we sin, he warns.

The ultimate Prophet of Scriptures is Jesus Himself. We sometimes miss this, because a prophet points to God, and so Jesus’ words may sound slightly different to us sometimes. After all, He is God, and He therefore points to Himself.

And yet, He has come to teach, rebuke, and to warn. We see Him even using John the Baptist’s favorite phrase in
Matthew 4:17: “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

The biblical prophet speaks on behalf of God. He is the mouthpiece of the Almighty, and whatever words he says in the name of God proves true. In fact, the Bible teaches that we can know a false prophet because he gets stuff wrong. God doesn’t get things wrong, and neither does His prophets. So it is when Jesus speaks to us. His counsel is righteous in all ways, His reproof just in every sense, and His warnings should be heeded.

He reminds us even of how He is of one mind with the Father – “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” (John 5:19).

And if we doubt His role as a prophet, He even speaks of Himself as a prophet in Luke 13:33: “Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.”

So prophet Jesus has come in this office to teach, rebuke, and warn. He teaches us of the nature of God and salvation. Like a prophet of old, He distributed blessings and woes according to what pleases and displeases God. To one group He will say, “Blessed are the pure in heart” (Matthew 5:8), but to another, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” (Matthew 23:13). He gives us analogies of the kingdom of God to instruct. He teaches of sin and judgment. And He teaches of Himself as the way to life.

He rebukes one group for coming to Him for a miracle without believing in who He truly is. To merchants in the temple He rebukes with a whip. The scribes and Pharisees are His favorite target, for they wear their religion like a robe, but not in faith and love, but out of their own self-promotion. It is a warning that we should heed even today, for we often crave credit for our own righteousness. What Jesus would tell us is that we have none.

To all He warns of the wrath to come. “Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).

The warning of judgment is a true one, for no true prophet, least of all Jesus, spoke falsely. The expectations that God has for us are true. There are many of us who have sought our own ways, but Jesus has told us, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6), and “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). By the words of a prophet we can be assured, that only through Jesus can we be saved.

Jesus continues in this role today. After He rose from the grave and ascended into heaven, He sent His Spirit to be our guide. It is through this Spirit that He still teaches, rebukes, and warns. It is this same Spirit that inspired the writing of the Bible, and in this we have the Word of God. Just as John tells us that Jesus is the incarnate Word of God, we have delivered to us the written Word of God to point and guide us in righteousness, to teach us about God, to banish our ignorance about spiritual matters, and to warn us of the wrath to come if we do not repent and believe.

But Jesus is more than just a prophet, pointing the way to righteousness, but He is also a priest, who has interceded on our behalf with the Father. We will look more at that next time, but we must see that God’s perfect standard cannot be met in this life. When Jesus tells us, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), He was giving us a command directly from God, but it is one that we cannot obey. We need more than a prophet, but also a priest, who can stand for us before God and secure grace for us. Likewise do we need a king who can take us into His paradise for all time.

God spoke through an earlier prophet, Ezekiel, these words. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:26-28). It is this new heart that is only available through Jesus, because He alone could make atonement for our sins. Only He could pay the price for us for all the times we have failed in our holy duty to obey and worship God in all things. We are not perfect, yet He is. Once He has bought us with His Blood, He also keeps us until the last day and glorifies us in eternity. These are some of His actions as king, for in this way He has authority over us, even our very souls.

We will learn more of that next time, and it would be appropriate now to see Jesus as not just a prophet who would condemn our actions, but also a priest who would take the place of God’s children in the punishment of those actions, and also as a king with authority to keep us until the last day.