I, The Prophet

By Edwin Walhout

Here’s a book of first-person interviews with all – yes all – the prophets in the Old Testament. Even a few others who were not prophets. Was Jonah really swallowed by a whale? Did Isaiah really go around for years naked? What kind of prophet was Hosea or Habakkuk, Zechariah or Zephaniah, Micaiah or Micah, Elijah or Elisha? Here they tell you all about their fascinating adventures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Edwin Walhout
• Release date: Oct 18, 2010
• ISBN: 9781458006745

Edwin Walhout

I am a retired minister of the Christian Reformed Church, living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Being retired from professional life, I am now free to explore theology without the constraints of ecclesiastical loyalties. You will be challenged by the ebooks I am supplying on Smashwords.

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I, the Prophet

First-person Transcriptions from Prophets

and Other Notable Figures in the Old Testament

by Edwin Walhout

Published by Edwin Walhout

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2010 Edwin Walhout

Cover design by Amy Cole ([e-mail])

See Smashwords.com for additional titles by this author.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1 Deborah

2 Samuel (4 sessions)

3 Nathan (3 sessions)

4 Elijah (5 sessions)

5 Micaiah (2 sessions)

6 Elisha (6 sessions)

7 Amos

8 Hosea

9 Jonah

10 Micah

11 Isaiah I (2 sessions)

12 Nahum

13 Zephaniah

14 Habakkuk

15 Obadiah

16 Daniel

17 Ezekiel (2 sessions)

18 Isaiah II

19 Haggai

20 Zechariah

21 Mordecai

22 Nehemiah (3 sessions)

23 Malachi

24 Joel

25 Salome Alexandra

26 Simon Zelotes

Orientation

The West Michigan Institute for Time Travel has been in business now for several years. Readers may recall my reports on Jeremiah, Abraham, David, Moses, and Paul. What began as an effort to contact all the writing prophets of the Old Testament expanded to include a few non-writing prophets as well as several persons who can hardly be classified as prophets at all. The net result of all this effort is a cross-section of Jewish history during Old Testament times, through the eyes of important people in that history.

* * * * *

1

Deborah

We chose Deborah as a good example of one the Judges in early Jewish history. She lived during the period after Joshua led the twelve tribes of Israel to settle in among the peoples of the land of Canaan. I found her at home near the town of Bethel where the desert tabernacle of Moses was kept. I came from Michigan with a comfortable collapsible tent and all the provisions necessary for a stay of a week or two. I also came with a gift of a bolt of cotton cloth, deep purple, which she could make into a robe for herself, with some thread and needles.

(Based on Judges 4)

Deborah: Welcome to my tent, friend from foreign lands. You look strange and you talk strange and you dress strange. I do not understand what country you have come from. Nevertheless, you are welcome and I am happy to talk with you this morning.

Question: Thank you for your hospitality. I would like to know first, if I may be so bold, how you, a woman, became such a person of importance in Israel. It is unusual, is it not, for a woman to exercise authority as you do?

Answer: Yes, it is unusual. The Lord Yahweh has brought me to this position. I suppose it is because no man around here has shown much interest in public affairs. Years ago people simply began coming to me for advice, and I did the best I could to help them solve whatever problems they had.

Q: Do you have scrolls available, the scrolls of the Torah?

A: Yes, I learned how to read them from my father who was a priest serving from time to time in the tabernacle. I came to understand very well what the Law of God was saying, and I was very insistent that when someone came to me for advice we would ask what the Lord required.

Q: So, you were never formally appointed to be a judge or a prophet or any other office? Just that it happened gradually? People saw that the Lord gave you special gifts of insight and wisdom?

A: Yes, that’s the way it happened. There have been others who became judges for the people. Not necessarily appointed by the elders, but simply exercising the gifts that the Lord God of Israel gives. There was Joshua a long time ago. Othniel after him. Ehud. Shamgar. I suppose there will be others from time to time as the need arises.

Q: That’s interesting. So there is no one person in all the tribes of Israel who has authority over all the people? No government, for example, to make decisions for all Israel?

A: No, we are a theocracy; we are ruled directly by God and we do not need any centralized authority such as other countries do. We have the Law and we have elders and priests and prophets and judges and we think that should be enough to keep us faithful to the Lord our God.

Q: Does it work? I mean do people actually remain faithful, without a central government?

A: Yes and no. We know we are God’s people. We all give honor and obedience to the covenant and the law. The priests and the elders of the people do try to keep the people obedient. Still, if people do make idols, there isn’t much to stop them. What’s worse, however, is that we do not have an army to fight off enemies. And from time to time that happens.

Q: Doesn’t the Torah have any provision for defending yourselves from such enemies?

A: No. When we have to fight a battle, someone will call the men of Israel to come fight the enemy. Maybe the elders of the tribe would choose someone, or maybe a prominent man would take the responsibility. You may have heard of the battle in which I became involved a few years back.

Q: Yes, I heard some mention of it. Would you be so kind as to tell me what it was like?

A: Well, there was a king up north who began oppressing the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun. His name was Jabin and he lived in Hazor. He had an army whose general lived in a town farther to the west, close to Mount Carmel. The general’s name was Sisera and he had a powerful army of horses and chariots, hundreds of them. He kept sending squadrons of these chariots and soldiers to the towns of Israel, demanding tribute money, taking Israelite children as slaves, carrying off harvests. That lasted year after year for a long time, until the people were so angry that they decided to do something about it.

Q: They came to you?

A: That’s what they did. The elders from Naphtali and Zebulun came to me and asked for advice. They knew the only way they could do it was to fight.

Q: I suppose they were wondering whether the other tribes would be willing to send soldiers to help them?

A: Exactly. They asked me to persuade the other tribes to help them. We held conversations with the elders of the southern tribes in my area, Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim. In the end Ephraim and Benjamin agreed to supply soldiers to add to those from Zebulun and Naphtali. However, other northern tribes such as Reuben and Dan and Asher were reluctant to send help. It was very disappointing. But we thought we had enough men to defeat the Canaanites.

Q: How would you do that? I presume the Israelites did not have any chariots. Wouldn’t it be difficult to defeat chariots and horses?

A: We devised a strategy that we thought would work. Get the chariots to come to a place where there was a river or stream that would make it difficult to maneuver. If we could catch them in such a place we could attack and gain an advantage.

Q: Will you tell me about the battle? I heard that Israel won a great victory, but I would like to hear the story.

A: The elders from Naphtali and Zebulun recommended a man named Barak to lead the soldiers into battle. So I summoned him to come to consult with us here in Bethel. He was a capable man, but he did not want to take on the responsibility to lead an army into such a difficult battle.

Q: But you did persuade him to be the general. How?

A: He agreed only if I would go with him. He did not trust himself, and wanted me to help make decisions.

Q: And you agreed?

A: That’s the way it was. I told him that if he was so reluctant someone else would probably be more important in defeating Sisera than Barak himself. Actually, it did turn out that way. A woman got the glory, not Barak.

Q: Will you tell me about that?

A: Yes. The battle went like this. We had an army of some ten thousand men, and we camped near Mount Tabor. King Jabin sent his army, under General Sisera, to meet us there. We were camped on one side of a small river named Kishon, and the enemy on the other side. During the night God sent a massive rainstorm that sent water rushing down from Mount Tabor into that Kishon River. Sisera sent his chariots across the river, but the water was so violent that the horses could not pull the chariots through. That is when we attacked them. The Canaanite soldiers were so preoccupied with their plunging horses and chariots that they could not fight. So we defeated them. God gave us a marvelous victory and we thank him to this day for it. No longer do Zebulun and Naphtali have to worry about the Canaanites intruding into their lives.

Q: You were going to tell me why Barak did not get the credit for victory.

A: Of course Barak got credit for victory, but the most important part of the victory was how Sisera, the general of the enemy army, was killed. Barak did not do that. A woman did.

Q: A woman?

A: Yes, a woman named Jael. While Sisera was fleeing toward his home, chased by Barak and his army, he came to the tent of this woman who he thought was a friend. He asked for shelter for a night, and to be warned if any Israelite soldiers came by. Jael fed him and gave him a bed for the night. Sisera trusted her and went to sleep. After a while, when the general was in deep sleep, Jael took a hammer and struck a tentpin through his head, killing him. So, in the end, it went just as I had predicted. Jael, not Barak, got the credit for killing Sisera.

Q: Thank you, Judge Deborah, for your kindness in telling me about your work. I hope you can make a fine robe with the cloth and sewing materials I am leaving with you. May the Lord Yahweh guide you forever.

* * * * *

2

Samuel

Samuel was the last of the long line of Judges in early Israel. We wanted to find Samuel rather late in his life, at a time after his break with King Saul, and after informing David that he would eventually become king. As it turned out, we needed four sessions with Samuel to get the main parts of his story.

Session 1

In this session Samuel tells about his childhood in the home of High Priest Eli.

(Based on 1 Samuel 1-4)

I never knew my mother and father very well. They came to visit me once in a while, my mother Hannah anyway.

Eli told me about it. My mother was so thankful to have a baby that she devoted me to the Lord. That meant she brought me to live with the High Priest and help work in the tabernacle. So that is the only life I ever knew.

But as I grew up I watched how the others in the priest’s household were behaving. Eli had a couple of sons who were much older, and I soon discovered that they were not very serious about serving the Lord faithfully. They went through the motions of officiating at the altar, but they were very selfish men. More than once I saw them pick out the choicest cuts of meat from the pot, when they were supposed to reach in with the skewer and take whatever came. Even worse, whenever an attractive woman came along they would do their best to seduce her, and often they succeeded.

Their father Eli suspected it, but he had never controlled them well when they were boys. And now that they were grown men they simply deceived Eli into thinking all was well. It wasn’t.

Let me tell you about an incident that happened just about that time, that is, when I was old enough to realize what was going on in the tabernacle.

I was sleeping in my bed one night when I heard the High Priest Eli calling me. He was an old man and sometimes needed help in the middle of the night. So I went to him and asked what he needed. He said he did not call me. So I went back to sleep.

But then I heard him again. And again he told me he had not called me.

It happened a third time that same night. Then Eli realized what must be happening, that it was God calling me. He told me if it happened again I was to say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. It did happen again. I heard a voice calling me, Samuel, Samuel. I replied as Eli instructed me.

I was frightened by what I heard the Lord say to me. He told me that because Eli had not been able to control his sons, and because all that evil was happening right in the tabernacle, God