The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 9-11
You may have noticed that in all this talk about government, I’ve ignored prophets. You may be wondering why; the answer is simple: as I wrote these earlier lessons, I didn’t know what they were. Now I do.
Reading 1 Corinthians 12:28-29, you could be forgiven for thinking that Paul is laying out the rigid military hierarchy of the Church. But Ephesians 4:11 gives a different list, which doesn’t match; although apostles and prophets still come first.
Once you realize that there is no such thing as Church, and certainly no list of titles and offices, you have to go back and ask what he really was saying. Today, we think of the word “prophet” as meaning a person who can see the future; but that’s not actually what the word meant in the Bible.
The English word “prophet” was borrowed, like so many words, directly from the Greek word prophetes. Now this is a compound word, made of the words pro, which means “first, before, in front of, above, etc.”, and phetes which means “to say”.
Together, they mean “spokesman”, from the idea of standing in front of someone (like a king or a deity) and speaking for them. The word morphed into its more common meaning today of “future teller” through their use by Greek oracles, who would go into ecstatic, often drug-induced trances, mutter gibberish (“speak in tongues”), which the prophet would then translate… thus, speaking for them, and in turn, for the god.
Likewise, the Hebrew word “prophet” literally means “spokesman”. NOT future-teller. Now obviously, since God “declares the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10), a spokesman for God often DOES tell the future; but that’s only a small part of his job.
The apostles are first in authority; because they were the heads of their respective houses (Hebrews3:3). But once the house has been founded, they are not the only ones who speak for the Lord in that house. Indeed, Paul ENCOURAGED as many prophets as possible within his house (1 Corinthians 14:1-5), as Moses did in his house (Numbers 11:26-29).
Because the church is founded by the apostles, but WATERED by the prophets (1 Corinthians 3:6), and thus the ekklesia is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20), who themselves are founded upon the cornerstone of Christ.
Teachers can do their job by reciting what Paul taught them; ministers can help the apostle do his job, if only by washing his toga. Others can feed the poor, translate into other languages, and govern beasts
(to finish out the list in 1 Corinthians 12:28). But only apostles and prophets are capable of bringing new information into the ekklesia from God’s mouth (Luke 11:49, Ephesians 3:3-5).
But that means teachers, ministers, helpers, and so on, are, at best, merely capable of maintaining the spiritual wealth of the house unless they also learn to prophesy; which is why Paul commanded them to work towards that skill in 1 Corinthians 14:1-5.
Because without that gift, at best, they could only parrot what the head of the house said, and if they add anything to it, or take anything away, they will invariably make it worse (Deuteronomy 12:32, 27:26, etc.).
Mind you, the ability to teach facts, and relay the teaching of an elder, is a valuable job; but it’s also a job that can be done by a CD or a clever bird; it’s a job that should be done by those old enough to pass on knowledge, but not yet old enough to discover it for themselves.
Teaching definitely helps the house to continue… but it can’t grow without the apostle planting seeds, and the prophets watering them. For GOD must give the increase… and that means INCREASE must come from someone who speaks for God! Thus, it must come from an apostle or a prophet!
Which is why, in practice, all houses and Churches tend to get spiritually weaker over time. Because the house is founded and established through the wisdom of its apostle and the understanding of its prophets (Proverbs 24:3, Proverbs 3:19).
But then it decays through the increasingly authoritative recitations of teachers, who cannot themselves learn new truth. And thus, houses without apostles and prophets always tend towards darkness, never light.
IN PRACTICE
So let’s say Paul visits Rome, talks to some Jews and makes them disciples of his house; when he left, he would appoint elders to take care of the “youngers” in his absence. Depending on their faith, they may or may not be able to add anything to Paul’s knowledge (Romans 12:6); but at the very least, they shouldn’t lose what they had (Revelation 2:25).
If Paul stays gone for a long time, and God – whose house this really is, anyway – decides that these people need a bit of prodding, or a bit of new information, He doesn’t need to found a new house and start all over again; He simply needs to send a spokesman to share new Truth with them. Thus, a prophet.
This prophet may be one of their own; or a stranger; or the elder himself. He may speak of the future judgment, or judge them for their misdeeds now, or reveal a new doctrine that Paul hadn’t taught them (or remind them of one they had since forgot – Jude 1:5).
Whatever the topic God chooses to reveal, the prophet spoke for God and watered the people of God – remember, water pictures the spirit of God, thus the words of God (John 6:63, 2 Samuel 23:2-3). The prophet doesn’t have to go into a trance or see the heavens split; he just has to tell them truth they didn’t already know.
Remember, John was more than a prophet, the greatest prophet of all, according to Jesus; yet he did no mighty works (Luke 7:26-28, John 10:41). He just spoke the Truth. Truth that was revealed to him by God; whether through a dream, through a vision, through another man, through the Bible, or through the New York Times.
However God taught it to him, if he teaches it to someone not in his house, he is a prophet of God to them… since all prophet means is SPOKESMAN for God! (James 5:10). As always, these are not ranks. Not offices. Not holy titles. They’re just jobs. Because, as I will never tire of saying, the church is not a Church!
ENTROPY IN A HOUSE
When disciples are young, it’s perfectly natural for them not to learn new truth alone; they should learn from their elder’s milk, they don’t need to be able to digest the meat for themselves… yet (Hebrews 5:11-14). That’s why they HAVE elders.
But once the foundation of the understanding of the apostles and prophets has been laid in their hearts, they should be able to add to it… and most don’t. The Hebrews were too retarded to even be teachers of the law, much LESS prophets of that same law! (1 Timothy 1:7).
So they still needed people to lay again the basic foundation – a job done by apostles and prophets, remember. They needed authorities over them to pressure them to change, people who could break their heart and spirit for them, to make it easier for their weak soul to learn how do the job on its own someday.
But training new members to the house is a slow and painful process; frustrating for all parties concerned. People have a monstrous capacity for stupidity and stubbornness – read 2 Kings 2:16-18.
Seriously, they thought God just dropped him and forgot about him someplace?? Compare to Matthew 16:6-12, Numbers 11:11-15, Galatians 3:1, etc.… even Jesus was exasperated by the incompetence of His disciples, on many occasions. And most teachers, who usually begin with the best of intentions, eventually take the easier route; a route the people themselves beg him to take… (Deuteronomy 5:24-31).
It’s so much easier to just let someone else tell you rituals you have to perform, and leave your fractions out of it. And as the head of a house, it’s just so much easier to simply tell them to do exactly what they’re supposed to do to please God… forgetting the fact that there IS nothing you can DO to please God; you must BE different inside to please Him.
But as that goal feels increasingly impossible to achieve with these stubborn, rebellious, idiotic children, the leaders settle – understandably, but unfortunately – for an external form of godliness instead of an internal change (2 Timothy 3:5).
They continually give them sips from Hagar’s bottle, and give up trying to show them how to find the Well it came from (Revelation 7:17). And when Hagar’s founder and the elders that outlived him die, the people eventually run out of water; and since the spirit that motivated them has dried up, they blow away with every wind of doctrine.
PROPHESY NOT
“There were only twelve apostles, period; and there have been no prophets since the first century. They were needed to get the church started, and make a big splash in the world; but now that God’s Church is here, there is no need for apostles or prophets”. At least, this is what every Christian today believes.
Granted, a few cultists claim to be apostles or prophets; the Catholics quietly claim that the Pope is an apostle; and a few denominations claim to have prophets. But mostly the other Christians make fun of them – and with good reason.
But isn’t it ironic that with all the alleged NT Christians in the world, who supposedly based their beliefs and their Churches upon the Bible, that most completely ignore apostles and prophets – the FIRST OFFICES in the NT Church?
And yet it is precisely because they are merely teachers of the law, but not prophets of the law, that the world’s Churches are in such a state of decay (Galatians 4:21). Because they teach words they don’t understand, about a God whom they have never known (Matthew 7:23).
Whatever dim light of Truth Martin Luther saw in his Bible has been long lost in the centuries since. Because no possible amount of water that a man could carry would keep his descendants alive forever; the water the apostle brought must be replenished by prophets, regularly!
But there is no Church that wants you to prophesy (Isaiah 30:8-15). Which is to say, no Church wants you to read your Bible and learn for yourself what God says, so that you can add truth to their house.
They fear your misunderstanding, they fear your heresy, they fear you will infect your brethren with toxic ideas they can’t control.
They are jealous of all other houses, so they cannot admit the possibility of apostles today; because their own apostle is long dead, and left no heir to reveal new truth in his place. They dare not allow prophesying, for if you study your own Bible you might destroy the precious fragment of truth that built their house.
So what’s left? 1 Corinthians 12:28. Teachers, reciting ancient traditions. Prayer lists, begging for miracles; helping the poor; governments, to keep their members from thinking outside of their approved boundaries; and translating their dead apostle’s words into as many languages as possible.
What’s left without apostles and prophets, in short, is Church. A dead, empty husk that even Hagar would have been ashamed of. A place for people to meet and pretend to be Christians; a place to get drunk on salvation; a place called after God’s name… where God is not welcome.
MOSES’ SERVANTS
Now Moses, to his credit, didn’t want this to happen (Numbers 11:27-29). Moses WANTED his people to prophesy! Why would that make the head of a house jealous? On the contrary, the more people who can speak for God in his house, the greater spiritual wealth is created!
So he WANTED them to talk to God, like he did (verses 11-15). He was exhausted because the people didn’t want to be God’s sons; they wanted to just be His servants. And a servant doesn’t need to know WHY his Lord does something; it’s enough that he does it (John 15:15).
The Israelites didn’t even want to try to understand God’s will; they didn’t want to become like Him inside; they just wanted Moses to give them the bottom line of the commandments. So that’s exactly what God did, and hid the rest behind a veil.
And that made Moses’ job hard, because it meant the source of their problems – stiff neck, selfish heart, sleeping soul – could not be fixed! Their wicked heart was, after all, hidden behind their own veil, just as God’s fractions were hidden from them behind Moses’! (2 Corinthians 3:12-18).
Leading self-motivated sons of God into Canaan would have been easy for one man to do. But herding stubborn beasts across the Sinai desert was too much work for one man – so God gave him seventy elders, which is to say, under-shepherds.
Men who were capable of prophesying on their own, and adding truth to his house, and judging his beasts to keep them in line! (Numbers 11:24-26). Not all the people would prophesy, as Moses and God had wanted (Exodus 19:5-6), but some prophets would always be there, in Moses’ house.
Enough heads of houses to keep the house sort-of righteous for most of the time, and most importantly… enough to make sure there was always SOMEONE around to teach the truth to those who actually wanted to rule their fractions!
OT BUT NC
God never, ever wanted a Church. Not even in the OT; He settled for the temple (2 Samuel 7:4-7), and the synagogues which grew out of the commanded assemblies of Moses in Leviticus 23:1-3 served a shallow, physical purpose of His; much as any lord would gather his servants together to give them orders (Deuteronomy 31:11-13).
But He knew He would never make sons out of them that way! Because to be first resurrection saints, you have TOO MUCH changing to do; it can’t possibly be accomplished by a group lecture for an hour or two once a week, no matter how inspired. You need to be corrected daily, minute by minute (Deuteronomy 6:7).
God knew He would never change the mind of His citizens by lecturing them through ministers. He could make them obey Him, but they would never love Him as a group. Why should they? They didn’t even know Him, because you can’t get to know someone you’ve only heard about from other people!
So He settled for trying to make sons out of some of those ministers! (Luke 19:12-15). These men had worked with Him closely enough to know Him better than the multitudes could ever be expected to know Him.
They, alone, might be able to become like Him; and, having become like Him, might be able to teach others to be like themselves! Which is why God doesn’t want churches and HAS ALWAYS worked through houses!
With that in mind, consider what 2 Kings 9:1 might mean. The few people to talk about this verse at all imagine some sort of a primitive seminary run by Elijah and Elisha; which is to say, an exclusive church open by invitation only. But is that really what it says?
Elisha was clearly Elijah’s metaphorical son – the son of a prophet – as we can see from 2 Kings 2:12. Elijah, thus, could be called Elisha’s “head” or “master” (2 Kings 2:3). So this was not a school of the prophets; this was a group of the children of the prophets! DISCIPLES of prophets!
These sons of the prophets clearly deferred to Elisha, as they had to Elijah before him (2 Kings 2:15-16), because he was their master now! (2 Kings 6:1-7). Which is why Elisha sent his children on missions, just like any master sends his disciples on tasks as part of their ministry (2 Kings 9:1-10).
Which, of course, Jesus did all the time… because the roles were the same! After all… what were the disciples of Jesus… if not the children of “that prophet”? (Mark 10:24, Luke 7:16). Because the goal of God to create houses of saints to dwell in has never wavered throughout history!
Paul had been appointed as the apostle to the Gentiles, and the very existence of these disciples was proof of that (1 Corinthians 9:2); and if Paul was a prophet (and we know he was), and if Paul had sons (and we know he did), then would it not be proper to call the Corinthians “the sons of the prophets at Corinth”? (2 Kings 2:3). Making Paul the head of the sons of the prophets who were not in Israel!
Now let’s imagine for a moment that God had called the disciples in the NT “the sons of the apostles”. Who, then, would doubt that the “church” is in fact just a loosely associated group of houses?
Exactly – no one. Which is why He didn’t (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12). He wanted us to be able to misunderstand and form churches instead. But He also intended for those of us who loved the truth to be able to see the clear – and I mean, clear – truth in the Bible, which is that every person who has ever achieved salvation was part of a house of God; either as a founder, or a follower; as an apostle, or a disciple.
THE HIGH PROPHET
We can be forgiven for assuming that 1 Kings 13:11-13 was talking about literal children; but given how prophets passed on their wisdom at that very time in history, it makes a lot more sense that these were his metaphorical sons, his apprentices, who were ministering unto him – and to whom he explained the world around them in turn ( 1 Kings 13:26-29).
Which is why THEY – all of them – called the dead prophet “my brother” (verses 30-31). Because all of them WERE brethren! Just as Jesus told His own disciples that all of them were brethren, because His disciples were sons of a prophet just as much as these men were!
And yet among brethren who dwell together, one generally judges as the head of the house. Because just think about it… if they were the sons of the prophets, then at least some elder prophets must be fathers of prophets! And someone must, in turn, be their father! The head of the NC house of God, which has always existed!
Understand, I don’t mean that there has always been a Pope-like figure among the ekklesia – nor that all the houses of God have always been united. Paul clearly was not united with Jerusalem. But I do mean that most of the time in Israel, there was a single head of the fathers of the prophets.
In 850 BC or so, that was Elijah; remember, Elijah had wanted to quit so God allowed him to anoint a successor in 1 Kings 19:14-21, which of course meant training a disciple-heir, which he reluctantly did. But notice exactly what God said; that Elisha would be anointed in his room (in his place).
The word “room” there is singular – because Elijah was THE prophet of God (1 Kings 18:36). Elijah wasn’t a prophet. He was THE prophet. After his death Elisha inherited his mantle; we don’t know exactly what it was, but the Hebrew words convey the idea of “noble cloak” – a jacket only the nobility could wear.
Regardless, it was clearly a sign of the head of a house, particularly of the head prophet (1 Samuel 15:27, 1 Samuel 28:14, Ezra 9:3, Job 1:20, etc.). Obviously there were other prophets (1 Kings 20:13, 22, for instance). But Elijah stood alone as the head of the house (1 Kings 19:10).
After all… where were these 100 sons of the prophets when he slaughtered the priests of Baal? Where was Obadiah? (1 Kings 18:3-16). Sure, he did his part with the underground resistance… but though Elijah was his “lord” (verse 7), that didn’t really help Elijah when the chips were down on Mt. Carmel.
He had to have known about these other “sons of the prophets” – his own sons, in a sense – and he certainly knew Obadiah, having just talked to him! And yet he considered himself utterly alone. Because the head of the house always is (Isaiah 59:16).
GRANDPARENTS
Since Elijah was the head of the houses of the prophets, and Elisha was his heir, it made all of the sons of those prophets Elisha’s grandchildren; and yet Elisha wasn’t dwelling in these cities, taking on disciples left and right (2 Kings 2:18), just as Elijah kept moving (verses 1-6); because, all things being equal, what grandparent raises their grandchildren? That’s the job of their OWN parents!
Remember how Samuel judged Israel from place to place moving among several key cities (1 Samuel 7:15-17), just as Paul did. Because Elijah, like Paul, wasn’t sent to baptize (1 Corinthians 1:17). He wasn’t sent to raise a big family personally. He was sent to make a big family possible through adopting other houses!
He was sent to unite the families and be the father of many GRANDchildren. Israel had many teachers, many priests, and many houses… but only one eldest father (1 Corinthians 4:15). Only one who could judge between all the houses in Corinth (1 Corinthians 5:3).
Before the days of Elijah, Samuel had been in charge of the sons of the prophets (1 Samuel 19:18-24). And why not? He had been raised in the house of God! And Samuel, who was the adopted child of God (1 Samuel 1:27-28), had been raised from a baby by Eli, the high priest and also the current judge and therefore ALSO head of the prophets! (1 Samuel 4:15, 18).
Yet Eli’s own sons were unfit for the priesthood, let alone the head of the NC; so he passed his judgeship to Samuel. And even when he was young, people knew that he was going to be the next great prophet (1 Samuel 3:19-21). And, therefore, to one day be the father of the sons of the prophets (1 Samuel 19:20).
Note that! Samuel stood as appointed OVER the company of the prophets! Just as Moses was… on those rare occasions when the Israelites could prophesy! (Numbers 11:29). You can use a lot of different names for this role as patriarch of the houses of God; apostle, the prophet, judge; elder, head, father; and in 1 Samuel 9:9, a new name is added, which was synonymous with prophet: “seer”.
Because the word we haven’t used yet, but which is obvious in retrospect, is soul. For who is a seer, but the soul? Who is a righteous judge, but the soul? Who was sent to lead the body, but the soul? Who speaks for God, his own Head, if not the soul? Who is a prophet, therefore, if not every wise soul? And the head prophet therefore is simply the soul of souls, the head of the heads of the houses of Israel.
So you see… all of these things the world sees as separate titles, made to reflect a changing dispensation of progressive revelation, were just different names for the family of God, organized in OT times into houses just as it is today, but with the same goal then as now of teaching the NC to the select few who want it!
THE HIGH PROPHET
Reading Ezra 5:1 quickly you naturally assume these were both prophets; in fact, it says that! But if
you look closer, you’ll see that while both were prophets… only Haggai was known simply as the prophet; the head of the houses of the prophets.
Zechariah on the other hand had to be identified by his (grand)father’s name, who himself had once been THE prophet (Zechariah 1:1). As always, we could look at this as a simple description, or we could actually listen to what it says: that Haggai was THE prophet. And that Zechariah was a prophet, probably his disciple/minister.
God didn’t have to mention Haggai’s father because there was only one Haggai THE prophet. But Zechariah was simply a prophet, possibly one of several prophets with that name, and best identified by the fact that his grandfather had once been the prophet in his days.
Obviously, Zechariah was a prophet himself, and by several definitions, one of the sons of the prophets. One day, he would probably inherit his master’s role; just as Haggai had, presumably, inherited it from Iddo.
With this in mind, think about 1 Kings 1:32-34; THE priest, because Zadok was about to become high priest (head of the government of spirits, the head of the woman); there were thousands of priests, so many that David had to divide them into shifts; but Zadok was frequently referred to simply as THE priest, because he spoke for all of them!
Likewise, Benaiah was captain of the guard (2 Samuel 23:20-23), later head of the armies of Israel after Joab’s betrayal (1 Kings 2:28-35). So Benaiah was THE soldier, the head of the body of Israel, the government of the beasts of Israel.
And finally there was only THE prophet because Nathan was doing the job of Moses, of Samuel, the job that would one day be Elijah’s to do – that of the eldest soul, father of the prophets! There were many prophets in Israel, but Nathan spoke for all of them as their father would.
Nathan was the head of the house of God on Earth; not the physical house, the armies, as Saul/Caleb/David was; nor the spiritual house, as Ahiah/Aaron/Zadok, the high priest in their respective times was; but of the house of God where souls are raised as Moses, Elijah, and Jesus were.
JOSHUA, AARON, AND HUR
In Exodus 18, Moses chose captains out of the people to judge; the process he used isn’t stated, but God apparently approved for He invited these elders up to Sinai with Him – at least, partway up (Exodus 24:9-11). Now it’s important to notice that although Aaron and his two sons were present, other priests were explicitly excluded (Exodus 19:21-25). Only the high priest’s household and the seventy elders. Joshua was clearly there, but wasn’t mentioned separately, so he most likely was one of the 70 elders, as was Hur (Exodus 24:12-15).
This makes sense, because Joshua was head of the tribe of Ephraim (Numbers 13:1-2, 8). Thus, an elder. And yet also, a “young man” who was the minister to Moses (Exodus 33:11). And yet not so young he couldn’t lead men into battle (Exodus 17:9-13). Notice how these three men were leading Israel under Moses; just as we saw in 1 Kings 1:32. At this time, in terms of authority, there was Moses in the position of David as leader of Israel; under Moses were Joshua, his minister and THE captain of his armies; Aaron, THE priest; and, to fulfill the pattern would mean Hur was THE prophet.
Who, based on Exodus 24:14, was first among the elders, making those 70 the sons of the prophets!! This also makes sense, because Caleb was the prince of Judah who went into the Promised Land in Numbers 13:6; and Hur was apparently his father (1 Chronicles 2:19, 50). Thus, as the head of the house of Judah, the position as the head prophet, head judge, elder of elders, would belong to him by right (Genesis 49:10).
[Bonus points if you noticed the contradiction as to whether Hur was the son or the father; most likely he was the father but was too old to go into the Promised Land, so he sent his son Caleb to spy in his place].
SIMPLY THE PROPHET
This pattern was always true; which should be obvious, because God never changes; consider verses like 1 Kings 14:2, 18; 2 Kings 14:25; 2 Kings 19:2; 2 Chronicles 35:18, etc. THE prophet was always there, right in front of us – but as usual, we just assumed God meant “one of the”, when in fact we had every reason to believe that just as Zadok was the high priest, so Nathan was the high prophet. …at least, he was at that time. See 1 Chronicles 29:29. When God needed to send David a message – one that, for whatever reason, He didn’t want to inspire personally – He did so through one of these three men. Why? Because, at various points in David’s life, one of these men was THE PROPHET in Israel.
Which means, in 1450 BC, “the prophet” was Moses (Deuteronomy 34:10); then it was Joshua. Then from 1400-1100 BC or so, it was any of a long string of aptly named judges who were also usually called prophets! (1 Samuel 3:20, 7:15, Judges 4:4, etc.).
Because what is the job of a judge, if not to speak for God – to be a prophet? (Deuteronomy 1:17, 1 Kings 3:28, John 5:39). For a judge must be able to see the truth; and thus, be a seer! And it is the eyes which see, which are themselves a symbol of the soul!
In 850-800 BC Israel, that soul was Elijah and then Elisha; in the Gentile lands of 50 AD, it was Paul; in Jerusalem at the same time, it was James (Acts 15:13-19)… who was a judge over the sons of the apostles! Thus, had you written James’ obituary, it would have been perfectly correct to say that James judged God’s people for a certain number of years – in exactly the same way it was correct to say it about Samuel who filled the same room 1000 years earlier!
And part of that job was to write down the events in the house, and the lessons to be learned from them. After all, think about it; if the Bible truly was inspired, thus, filled with the words God inspired to write… wouldn’t it have to be written, by definition, by the spokesmen of God? And, at least usually, by THE prophet?
And when you think about it… the people I just mentioned wrote a massive portion of the Bible. (Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Paul, Peter, James, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, etc. – few are the books of the Bible that were not written by “THE prophet”.
HOUSES OF THE JUDGE
Given our tendency to view the Bible through the lens of church, I feel I need to stress that, while a prophet often inherited his job from his master, I don’t mean to imply that, in every case, a prophet inherited his role from another man; or that it really matters, in any case, as long as he speaks God’s words (Jeremiah 23:21-22).
On the contrary, when God saw there was no one fit to train a new prophet, He simply did it Himself (Amos 7:14-15). This man was pointedly not the son of a prophet (nor, perforce, a disciple of one).
And yet Amos found that worth mentioning precisely because it was the exception, not the rule! Most people learned through other men because it’s a much safer way to learn – in every sense of the word (1 Corinthians 1:21). Because when you don’t listen to another man, God can forgive you easier than when you don’t listen to Him.
These men were what we would call the apostles and elders of the OT-era-but-very-much-NC-Houseof- God, passing on their wisdom just as has always been done – from father to son. And just as it always WILL be done (Zechariah 8:21-23). Houses, as we understand them in the NC, have always existed, and they have always had heads; sometimes one man has been the head of many houses, while at other times each house has done their own thing (Judges 17:6). Doing right in your own eyes, what makes sense to your own soul!
God had always wanted a nation filled with independent, righteous houses, each of whom could be trusted to do the right thing – working together when needed, but capable of working separately just as well. To practice that, each house had to have the freedom to do good or evil in their own house, without a greater house uniting the ekklesia together.
But when they proved themselves incapable of ruling themselves, and unworthy of that kind of trust, God repeatedly had to centralize power under a single judge; but only just long enough to save the nation, and train a new generation of souls to prevent this from happening again! (Psalms 105:17-22).
And as you know, the only way to do this was to call disciples, and teach them to lead their fractions as the judge led his own. There was no other way, then or now, to achieve God’s goal of getting the nation turned back to the right path without creating sons and heirs in the image of the man of God to lead houses and, hopefully, to leaven the whole nation with righteousness (Luke 13:20-21).
With that in mind, for consider how large the houses of judges often were (Judges 10:1-4, 12:8-15, etc.). Now, it’s possible these were biological sons, and in some cases, that was certainly true (Judges 8:30, for instance, spoke of sons “from his body”).
The very fact that the Bible stressed that point suggests that some of these other judges’ sons were not from their body. But whether his own sons or another man’s, the point was that the judge trained them up in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6).
And if they were the sons of the prophet (biological or not, it makes no difference)… then suddenly these verses mean something very different; it means that Jair left behind 30 elders to lead in every city (compare to Titus 1:5). Just as God has always done!
PROPHETS AND APOSTLES
I’ve led you to believe that apostles and prophets are the same, or almost the same, and that isn’t quite true. True, they did exactly the same job, as heads of the house for training souls. So why, then, were they named differently? Why does the NT refer to the prophets as the OT analogue to the NT apostles? (Revelation 22:9, James 5:10, etc.).
Remember the definition of prophets; one who speaks for God, particularly in another man’s house. And under the OC, whose house was it? Hebrews 3:1-5. Moses did not send those prophets; they were not prophets of Moses, they were prophets TO Moses’ house!
Now remember the definition of an apostle: one sent; specifically, one sent to lead a house. Therefore, in Exodus 3:10-15 we can see Moses was an apostle, for God SENT him to Pharoah, to lead the house of Israel out of captivity. He was their head, thus an apostle in every sense, and Aaron was his prophet (Exodus 7:1).
Now Aaron couldn’t be an apostle, for he was part of Moses’ house. Yet Aaron spoke for God (Malachi 2:7). Thus, as a speaker for God in another man’s house, Aaron was a prophet. Yet Moses did not send Elijah; God sent him, as He does all prophets and apostles.
Now in the NT, Jesus has replaced Moses as head of the house – no, that’s the wrong word. The house had always been Jesus’ (Exodus 3:10). He had left it with husbandmen like Moses for many days, but now He was reclaiming it (Matthew 21:33-41).
These men whom He had sent back to His house which was in Moses’ care were not apostles, they were prophets since they were not sent to build a NEW winepress, but to receive the fruits of the old one – or to warn the husbandmen if they weren’t ready.
But after “miserably destroying those wicked men” who sat in Moses’ seat (Matthew 23:2-4), He would hire OTHER husbandmen to work His farm and build upon it (Matthew 21:42-46). Note that He was a prophet to them! Because at that time, this was STILL their house, the house of Moses!
After Jesus’s death officially re-founded the house of Melchizedek, He no longer had to work within Moses’ house; indeed, He expanded His winepress to include the entire world. And into that world, He sent men to BUILD and CREATE houses in His name. Thus, they were apostles!
Now consider the way the OT was divided in the time of Christ (Matthew 5:17, Luke 16:16, etc.). The LAW was written by Moses; the head of the house, and thus, the sole apostle of the OC! But the rest of the OT Bible was written by THE prophets! (2 Timothy 3:15).
And if those prophets were able to make Timothy wise unto salvation BY FAITH through their writings, how much more so could they have brought salvation by faith unto their own disciples, even in 1200 BC!
Read what happened to Saul when he dwelt with these same prophets who wrote some of these same scriptures in 1 Samuel 10:6. Isn’t that what needs to happen to every disciple? After all, what was the point of discipleship then as now, if not to turn us into another man by the spirit of the Lord? (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Thus the sons of the prophets were doing the same thing we do today: being changed into the image and likeness of God! Sometimes on their own, but more often with the help of an elder son of God to make sure they do it right!
THE “NEW” IN “NEW COVENANT”
God has never changed how He intended for the truth to be spread. Due to a gross misunderstanding of verses like John 7:39 and Colossians 1:25-27, the world has the idea that if you were born in OT times, that was just too bad for you – you couldn’t be saved until the second resurrection.
But that’s simply not true; Abraham heard the same gospel we have (Galatians 3:8, 17, etc.). David had the holy spirit (Psalms 51:11). And the prophets – THE prophets, and their sons – were moved by the same holy spirit we have! (1 Peter 1:9-12).
And that, really, is the verse that sums up this lesson; the prophets and their sons had the same spirit of Christ IN THEM that we have! Because they, in every sense of the word, are our brethren! (Revelation 22:9).
And you could have found salvation through the house of Samuel just as you would find it through the house of Peter, or in any true house today, because through the same spirit we are all part of the same body (1 Corinthians 12:12-14); whether we joined the body in the time of Abel, in the time of Ahab… or in the time of Adele.
Any Israelite who has ever wanted to do the works of Abraham has had the opportunity to do so, because God has always been watching for them (2 Chronicles 16:9). They always had access by grace to the salvation of their souls; and they always learned from, or taught others through, a house of God – in one sense of the word or another.
Everyone who has ever been saved has done so by keeping the 1-2-10 law – whether by instinct, or by custom, or by Moses’ teaching (Romans 2:10-15). And then, having done that and gotten noticed by God (John 6:44-45), been brought to Christ – whether to a prophet in Moses’ house, or to an apostle in Jesus’ house.
The ONLY difference with the NT is that now any PERSON who wanted to do the works of Abraham could do so; Gentile or not (Acts 10:34-35); which is what Paul explained in Ephesians 3:2-9. It wasn’t the salvation of Christ which was “hidden in a mystery”; obviously the prophets talked about that all the time.
No, what had been hidden was that the Gentiles could be fellow-heirs of Abraham. But then again, this wasn’t hidden either (Isaiah 11:10, 66:19, Genesis 12:3, etc.). Because Gentiles have always been able to be saved by becoming circumcised, following the laws of Moses (Romans 9:25-10:21, particularly 10:4, 12-13).
But only through Moses, and THEN through the sons of the prophets (Romans 1:16, 3:1-2, etc.). Moses’ house had, by contract, a monopoly on the words of God. It was necessary to find God through Moses, which is why it was so hard for the Christian Jews to let that go (Acts 15:1).
Because that HAD always been true! What was NEW about the NEW covenant was that now it wasn’t! The Gentiles could now bypass Moses altogether and be joined directly to Moses’ own head, as God and Moses had always wanted them to do.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
At every point in history, including the OT, a worthy NC house of God has been there to find; there to follow; there to learn from, at least in part. If not, God would simply teach you the hard way, but a path was always there for those who wanted it.
But I do not mean to imply that we could trace every NC house from today back to a disciple of Noah; on the contrary, the entire period of the judges shows a depressing cycle where God calls a new man, out of the blue, to head the house of souls; him building a house, and spreading his understanding as wide as possible.
Then dying, whereupon his heirs did a more-or-less terrible job of shepherding his legacy (Judges 3:9- 12, Acts 20:25-31, etc.). Generally, this generation would do a good job for awhile; but inevitably, they or their spiritual children would drift farther and farther from the truth, and the house founded by the prophet would collapse (Judges 2:7, 10-11, Proverbs 29:2-4, 3 John 1:9-10, etc.).
To be in turn replaced by a new judge/apostle/house-head, called directly by God; and so it goes. So it went with the judges, so it went with the prophets, so it went with the apostles; so it went in the Middle Ages, and so it goes to this day.
So it must go, so that every generation has a chance to hear the truth or reject it; and having heard it, to build the best house they can; and then, when they go the way of all the Earth, to let the day reveal what it’s made of (1 Corinthians 3:13).
Because the real test is not in the believing of the truth; the real test is not even in the building of the house. The real test is what happens when you die and your descendants are exposed to the winds (spirits) of the Earth; when the rains beat against that house, will it stand? (Matthew 7:24-27).
It’s relatively easy to keep the truth yourself and find salvation on your own; I say “relatively”, bearing 1 Peter 4:18 in mind, because as hard as that might be, the true challenge, the genuinely HARD part, the part JESUS found hard, is to pass on your wisdom to future generations in such a way that it never fades, never is corrupted, so that every one of your seeds will be able to find life… forever.
If you teach your children to depend on you, as most parents do, they will be incapable of adding to your house when you die. They will, at best, maintain it like a museum maintains an ancient artifact or a church recites an ancient dogma, but they will not keep breathing new life into it with every generation, as the world changes around them.
So the true challenge is building an incorruptible house, as always, in every sense of the word. A house where every member can prophesy, where any one of them would be capable of solving any problem God would send their way with no help from you.
But that’s HARD. It takes a great deal of wisdom, patience, time, and work from everyone involved. Few indeed are the men who have made a house to last more than a generation. Few were THE prophets who, hard as they worked, managed to build a house that would last.
Of course, with the obvious exception of THE prophet; THE prophet OF THE prophets, to whom Moses himself deferred (John 6:14). That Man was able to build a house that the gates of hell could not prevail against (Matthew 16:18). Something no other man has ever done!
And anyone who builds upon that foundation will never be shaken, no matter what the winds do or the floods say or how the sun beats down. It doesn’t matter where in that house you are; whether you are laid directly onto the rock, or attached to the stone of an apostle, or a prophet.
Whether you are anchored to the disciple of an apostle or the son of a prophet; for whether you are begotten directly by the seed of Jesus, or of His Seed, or of His seed’s seed (Isaiah 59:21), He has finally laid the foundation of an enduring house, and no stone in it will ever fall.
Which is why, of course, there is just THE ONE AND ONLY THE Prophet; the one spoken of Moses; THE prophet of prophets. The Speaker of speakers. The Word of words. The King of kings and Lord of lords.
And all of these houses, civil, spiritual, or of souls, were ultimately His; and each of these houses served His purpose “For the perfecting of the saints (souls), for the work of the ministry (spirits), for the edifying of the body of Christ (beast)” (Ephesians 4:12).
He used the government of the beast to rule the beast; He used the government of spirits to rule the spirits. And that was enough… to create righteous nations and holy spirits. But it could not create wise souls, because a home is the only environment where a soul CAN be raised.
Souls cannot be raised in herds. They need families. They need them now, they needed them then. God wanted them in His house now, He wanted them in His house then. So why would He have ever done it differently? Why WOULD the OT method of true salvation have been ANY different from the NT method?
Then as now, all you need to do is join yourself to His house and follow in His footsteps; let His spirit and His servants change you to be like Him and when you are, bring others into your own house and repeat the process.
Do that, and God’s spirit will never depart out of your mouth or the mouth of your seed or your seed’s seed, and you will all live forever in His House (1 John 2:17). Because like all children, you’ll have been raised up in the way you should go by parents… which means even when you are old, you will not depart from that Way.