Discovering the Distinctive Traits of Latter Prophets

INTRODUCTION:
The Latter Prophets foretell Israel’s decline and eventual destruction through heavenly visions, poetry, and sermons. The Latter Prophets include the Major Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and the Minor Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

Major vs. Minor Prophets
The Major Prophets consist of Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Whereas, the Minor Prophets consist of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The distinction between Major and Minor is merely one of size. The Major Prophets are larger books but not necessarily more important. In the Jewish Canon, the Minor Prophets are one book, whereas, they are separate in the Christian canon. While Daniel is a Major Prophet his works are not part of the Former Prophets, but part of The Writings.

Classic Prophetic Prophets
The Prophets from Isaiah to Malachi are referred to as Classical Prophets. They follow a relatively predictable structure:
Address and audience.
Address the specifics of their sin.
Foretell an impending doom.
Call them to repent.
The promise of salvation for those who will turn to God.

Characteristics of the Prophets
Justice The prophets passionately sought justice. All prophets directly address personal and societal moral failures with particular emphasis on the plight of the oppressed.
A famous example is Isaiah 5’s 6 Woes against the Nation:
Economic oppression (8-10)
Alcoholic abuse (11-17)
Scoffers against God (18-19)
Morally subjective (20)
Self-exalted (21)
Corrupt authority (22-23)
Isaiah 11:2-5, Micah 3:9-11
Calling: The biblical prophets experience a direct calling from God. One of the Hebrew words for prophet is “נָבִיא/nāḇî,” which is from the route word, meaning “to call.”
Isa. 6:8-9; Jer. 1:4-5; Ezek. 2:1; Amos 7:14-15
Heavenly Visions: Prophets experienced heavenly visions that they communicated to others. Another Hebrew word for prophet is “רָאָה, ḥōzeh or rōʾeh” which means “to see, gaze, or look at.” In prophetic terms, such people saw the things of God. The terms are often translated into the word “seer.”
Medium of the seer includes:
Dreams (Gen. 37). Visions (Isa. 6:1; Ezek. 1:1; Dan. 7).
Scripture (Dan. 9).
God spoke directly (1 Sam. 3).
God spoke to the prophets through the inner voice of the Spirit (Jer. 1; Hos. 1; Joel 1).
Forthtellers: As opposed to predicting the future, the prophets primarily focused on declaring clear biblical teachings. The prophets focused on reiterating biblical commandments and a return to their covenant.
Foretellers: The prophets predicted future events to manifest divine knowledge. This was usually predicted as a coming judgment but God's eventual restoration of His promises.
Creative Preaching: The prophets used fascinating methods to manifest God’s message, by living out heavenly metaphors.
Isaiah preached naked (Isa. 20).
Ezekiel cut his hair and burned and scattered some (Ezek. 5).
Daniel had incredible visions (Dan. 7-8).
Hosea married a prostitute (Hos 1-3).*

Information summarized from Cotton, Dr. Roger D.; McGhee, Dr. Quentin. Survey of the Old Testament Faith &Action Team.

[ForRealist]

I really liked your timeline. Could you show more of those please?

[scudthehero]

You’re videos rock Patrick! Thank you for making them! I have been watching history videos that cover the present to about 6000BC over the past few years. I haven’t been able to find a channel like this though, love your work. If you’re ever in LA please give us a shout over at New Abbey.