There is also Canaan, which includes Phoenicia, where there is evidence that an Egyptian priest went there and prophesied there. Both the account of Amun's journey to Byblos and the stele of Zahur, king of Hamat, also speak of this prophecy. There are many of them, but we will give another example of a special prophecy that you need to know – this is Balaam. This is an ancient prophet who speaks at the beginning of the conquest of the Promised Land. This is about 1200-1250 years B.C., the era of the end of the 40-year wandering (Num. 22-24).

Balaam is an exceptional figure, in some respects unique in the unbiblical world of prediction. Most likely, he is a native of the Mesopotamian part of Syria. Balaam is mentioned in the biblical legends in a double guise: in the Yahwist tradition he appears as the prophet of Yahweh, and in the tradition of the Eloist, {76} he is hostile to Yahweh. As you know, the two traditions are combined in one, and it turned out to be a rather interesting story about Valaam.

Thus, we can conclude that the prophets were not the prerogative of Israel, they were also in other countries, but we argue that the biblical prophets owe much to the practice of their contemporaries (they certainly knew about these prophecies). However, despite the unconditional external forms of similarity, there is something special that separates the prophet of Israel from others – this is the light of faith in the One God, in Yahweh.

So, before us are the prophets of the Bible. The entire history of Israel, including the stories about the lives of patriarchs, judges, and kings, is full of deep meaning and drama and is to a large extent a prelude to the preaching of the great prophets. The patriarchs and leaders, priests and kings of ancient Israel were the medium into which the first rays of revelation penetrated through the thickness of superstition, barbarous mores, and crude concepts of God.

Only Moses rises like a giant in the twilight of early Old Testament history. He was a true messenger of God, a bearer of high moral and religious principles, a prophet who had no equal even after him (Deuteronomy 34:10). It was the beginning in relation to the other Old Testament prophets. The high religious and moral teaching of Moses was fully revealed in classical "prophetism." But it was unable to overcome crude naturalism and popular superstition. However, the seed planted in Sinai sprouted in the Promised Land in Palestine.

The Bible offers us a galaxy of preachers who have succeeded one another over the course of three centuries. The prophets belong to different classes: among them we find courtiers and singers, shepherds and priests, and in their sermons they speak of different things. Amos and Zephaniah on the Universal Judgment; Hosea — about Divine love; Isaiah and his disciples prophesy the coming of the Messiah's Universal Kingdom; Jeremiah teaches about the religion of the Spirit, and Ezekiel is jealous of the temple community with a solemn liturgical ritual. Daniel foretells the future, the coming of the Messiah.

Their books differ from one another, like the writings of the Evangelists. Just as in the four Gospels there is a single image of the God-man, so in the books of the prophets behind the various religious and moral aspects in their sermons there is a single image of the Eternal. The versatility of these amazing people is striking. These are fiery tribunes of the people, forcing the crowd to freeze in silence, these are brave fighters who throw accusations of moral decay at the powers that be.

Prophets appear as irreconcilable enemies of the errors of their society and their era. It would be a mistake to think that the spiritual significance of the prophets was perhaps reduced only to the prediction of the appearance of Christ. If they were talking only about the Messiah, they would belong only to the Old Testament. In fact, the prophets were first of all the forerunners of the Gospel Revelation. In announcing to the world about the coming Messiah, they first of all proclaimed the height of religious and moral revelation, which, although incomparable with the fullness of the Gospel teaching, nevertheless remains vital and important even for you and me. As soon as we open the Bible, we immediately hear a voice directed not to some distant peoples, but to ourselves; They are talking about you and me. These are teachers of faith and morality. Psalms, hymns, prophecies, in which these great God-seers expressed their inner experience, have found a lively response in every believing heart for more than twenty centuries.

The prophets lived in the era of the spiritual awakening of mankind, and in a certain sense of the word, prophetism as a movement was an integral part of people's desire to find a new worldview, to find a higher meaning of life. As we know, all the main features of the preaching of the prophets were contained in the Decalogue of Moses. The Ten Commandments are immutable, something on which all the prophets were based.

The prophets of the first generation, such as Samuel, Nathan, Ahijah, Elijah, Elisha; We also call them prophets, not writers, although we fully admit that they could have written something. They wanted to see in the life of the people the realization of the moral ideals of the Sinai legislation. The demands they made of the people were quite high. In the view of these prophets, Israel was to be united in an ideal society, entirely subordinate to the will of God.