HEBREW WORD STUDY – THE PROPHET–  HANABI   הנביא  

Deuteronomy 18:22:  “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that [is] the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, [but] the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”

Deuteronomy 18:22 makes it quite clear that if someone speaks a word of prophecy and it does not come to pass, it is not a prophecy of God.  Note that the passage does not call the person a false prophet, just one who is not a prophet of God. There were many prophets in ancient times who made no claim to speaking in the name of God. In fact, it was believed that these prophets had the power to shape the future.  Just by the mere speaking of an event, it would take place.  Kings would seek out those with the best track record to be their private consultants.  The word prophet in Hebrew comes from the root word nabi’ and carries a number of different usages. It is sometimes used for someone who is just a spokesman or a speaker. It is also used for one who makes an announcement.  

However, if someone walks up and says they are a prophet who speaks in the name of the Lord, that is an entirely different matter.  We have many such prophets around today who declare that they are speaking in the name of the Lord.  They will call someone out of the audience and tell them that the Lord wants them to know…  Once they do that they have crossed a line and are declaring that they are speaking the dabar, the word from the Heart of God.  How do we know if they are really speaking the heart of God, Deuteronomy tells us that they will be one hundred percent accurate. If they are not then they are not speaking the heart of God.  They are speaking presumptuously.  That word in the Hebrew is zadon which means to speak in pride and arrogance.  

Verse 20 in the same chapter tells us that anyone who speaks in the name of the Lord zardon in pride and arrogance should be put to death.  The Talmud in the Sanhedrin 89a teaches that there are three reasons for a prophet to be executed by man.  He who prophesies what he has not heard from God, or what God has not told him or he who prophesies in the name of an idol.  The method of execution is to be strangulation.  For those hearing the prophecy, there are three reasons for a man to be slain by heaven, not man. It is one who suppresses a prophecy from God, disregards a prophecy from God or a prophet himself who disobeys his own words.  They will be slain by heaven.   

In many circles today speaking prophetically is very popular and many aspire to be a prophet and Christianity is filled with a lot of wannabe prophets.  In my many years of traveling in and through the charismatic and prophetic movement I have heard a lot of prophets and prophecies. I have had so many prophesies said over me that I would have to live three lifetimes to fulfill them.  Most the time they hedge their bets and say, “I feel God is telling me to tell you…”  I’m ok with that, they are not saying it really is of God or is really God’s words.  They just want to be obedient to what they feel in their hearts and they may or may not be right, bless be the ties that bind and all that.   But if someone points his finger at me and say, “God is telling you to quit your job and go to Africa and start a new ministry.”  Well, you know what, I’m going to want to know this guy’s track record before I even listen to him and if he has just one miss on his record I ‘m keeping my job.  

There are many who speak prophetic words and openly admit that they are not sure it is God’s word they are sharing, they still fit the definition of a nabi’ or prophet as one who is speaking or proclaiming.  That is not what this is talking about in Deuteronomy.  This is talking about the prophet who declares that He is speaking the heart of God and is doing so to win a following, to enhance his image and to make people hold him up as someone special.   Deuteronomy says he that speaks in the name of the Lord.  The Lord here is the word YHWH.  A prophet in Biblical times would actually invoke the sacred name of God and when he did people listened and they knew they must obey.  Thus, it was very important that this prophet was really speaking the heart of God and was not speaking from his own zardon pride.  The last one to invoke the sacred name of God was Jesus since that time we have lost the real pronunciation of that name.

We tend to be pretty tolerated of prophets today, we allow them a few misses and of course, the laws of the land prevent a congregation from strangling the old boy if he does have a few misses. I believe there are true prophets in the Biblical sense today, I have not really met one myself, but I believe they do exist.