Prophets of Ancient Israel

To begin, there isn’t too much I could say regarding a two-page chapter covering the topic of the prophets of Ancient Israel. I am kind of challenged as to why Cosby did not make this a more intentionally informative chapter. He could have included stories and more background information about these prophets. However, he certainly knows more about this subject than I so I won’t question him too much about his decision to make this chapter so short. I liked the point where Cosby gave the definition of a prophet. Which is: A prophet is a messenger of God, one who is entrusted with a message from God that is addressed to a specific group of people in a particular historical context. The concept of a prophet is very interesting to me because even though they are not directly quoting scripture, they are a specially chosen people by God to articulate the message and wishes of God. Furthermore, the concept of a prophetic frenzy was a very interesting one to me. It bewilders me how at times, for someone to hear from God they enter a certain trance-like state that allows them to be fully receptive to his message. To me, it makes sense that it is necessary to be in a state of trance.

Trance is defined as a half-conscious state characterized by an absence of response to external stimuli, typically as induced by hypnosis or entered by a medium. In other realms of life, a trance sounds like an evil place to be, but if one were hypnotized by God to receive his message then that sounds like a good thing, especially since they develop a lack of acknowledgment to external stimuli, i.e distractions. If you can block out distractions and only hear God’s voice, then it must be certain that his message will return true and unaltered.