Possible Identity of The Prophet

Using Isaiah 6, the call narrative of  Isaiah and one other passage form the Hebrew Bible; discuss the possible identity of the prophet.

In Isaiah 6, the prophet meets God and discovers his identity especially where he discovers himself. When he looks on to God he discovers that he is unclean and even his surroundings especially the people he lives with are unclean. As such, the presence of God brings him to discover more about his condition as a sinner. The self-discovery leads him to repent whereby one of the cherubim take a coal and place it on his mouth to cleanse him.  He therefore notices his uncleanness and God gives him a new identity where he is cleansed from his uncleanness. Isaiah goes ahead to prophesy to the people and give them God’s message and how he was dissatisfied with their actions. The prophet was identified as a person who brought God’s message to the people whether or not they wanted to hear it. God protects the prophet and ensures that even though he passes through various trials he still comes out of them by the protection of God. The prophet mostly spoke about the things to come especially if Israel at the time had sinned. Sin in this regard usually called for judgment and God would speak through the prophet to either warn the people to return to him or to declare judgment against Israel as a nation. After God cleanses him, he is given a call and answers to it just like Jeremiah where God comes to call Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations and shows him various visions. The prophet was thus given the mandate to spread the message to God’s people through revelations and the word from God.  Jeremiah took his message to the Israelites and their king and warned them to the times to come by further giving them instructions if they wanted to survive the invasion by the Chaldeans. Prophets in such a case were to help the society to come back to God or declare the judgement of the Lord. Jonah for instance warned the Ninevites who repented and God did not carry out the judgment he had planned on the people.

Scroll to Top