The measure of a prophet’s success is the measure of faithfulness before God as God’s spokesperson, and never measured by the degree their testimony, witnessing, or speaking of God’s Word is received by others. Because they reverence and respect God’s Word, they do not shrink in the face of danger, nor do they fear people or seek the praise of others. But from deep within their hearts, they seek the praise of God and His blessing. The prophets of the Old Testament were able to speak for God to make known the coming of Jesus Christ (who would be the only begotten Son of God) through the written Word they received from God. To understand the biblical way the word “prophet” is used in the Scriptures, it's always best to look at the first occurrence of the word, which is in Genesis and is used by God to tell the king to leave the man’s wife alone. “Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet” (Genesis 20:7).
This first occurrence of the word “prophet” shows us that it was used in a different way from the way we use it today, which is mostly used in our current English to indicate when one is to foretell future events. But in the Bible, it's used in connection with Abraham, who not only had a very pretty wife, but also never foretold anything in his life. In Exodus the same God calls Aaron Moses’s prophet, which takes us a step further and leads us to the question of how one could be another man’s prophet? The answer is found in Exodus, where God, who is referring to the same subject, tells Moses that Aaron “shall be thy spokesman” (Exodus 4:16). Therefore, the essential interpretation of the word “prophet” is a spokesperson who speaks for God, either by way of exhortation, instruction, reproof, warning, correction, reprobation, or judgment. Foretelling was only a very small part of their duties.
John the Baptist was born with the spirit from God right from his mother’s womb, and that is why Jesus Christ said, “Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist” (Luke 7:28). John was known to preach in the wilderness, dress in camel hair, and eat locusts with wild honey for dinner. Perhaps John did not have a beautiful wife like Abraham, but he did have one thing that was the same as Abraham—he also never foretold anything in his life. John the Baptist was God’s spokesman who was equipped and sent forth by God to prepare the way for the Messiah for Israel. Prophets were essentially God’s spokespersons, and their sole mission was to speak only those words that were given to them to speak. They were totally meek and humble, as we see so many times from the obedience of such statements as, “The word of the Lord came unto Samuel, saying” or “And the Lord commanded Moses.” A very meek and humble prophet known as Jesus Christ makes what looks like his first official public statement when he stood up to read in the Temple from the book of Isaiah.
