Keywords: prophet, prophetic mission, missionary impact, sacrifices
Abstract:
Prophethood, a religious institution specific to the chosen people, played a major role in the life of the Israelite community, contributing decisively to the consolidation and preservation of the monotheistic faith; it cultivated high religious sentiments expressed by putting into practice the divine commandments contained in the Mosaic Law revealed on Mount Sinai. The prophets, through the mission entrusted to them by Yahweh, renewed the society of the time by becoming deeply involved in the uncompromising fight against corruption and the morals of their fellow citizens. Together with the preaching of faith in the One true God, they fought in writing or orally, publicly or privately against those who wronged the people by the abuses of their social position or against the political leaders of the people who, once in power, were characterized as corrupt despots eager to enrich themselves. The interaction between the chosen people and other neighbouring peoples, the penetration of their idolatrous beliefs, corruption and moral decay became prevalent in the social life and, consequently, these resulted in the alienation of the chosen people form the Living God. In this context, the prophets were sent to defend the monotheistic faith and at the same time oppose the social evil. Thus, the missionary vocation of the prophets does not reveal reforming ideas, but becomes a grace through which the prophet, as an active “instrument” of Yahweh in the midst of the chosen people, fulfils what he has heard through mystical words, preserving his personal individuality, but cooperating with divine work, so that, by these two intertwined, he puts into practice the divine commandments and carries out the missio Dei in the midst of the chosen people. In the same terms, Isaiah also becomes the messenger of the Living God who hears the divine call and brings the new word that sheds light on the old word of Sinai and who, through his prophetic message, whips up a religiosity too strongly linked to sacrificial worship. In order to counter the false ideas among the chosen people, Isaiah warns his countrymen that the real cause of their estrangement from the living God is their moral and spiritual decadence (cf. Isaiah 1:1-14; 59:2-9). Therefore, the people’s obstinacy, their moral corruption together with that of Israel’s politico-religious leaders causes God to turn His face away from them and punish them according to their deeds. The divine punishments poured out on the people are not triggered by the impulse of anger, but in order to remove the evil that must not overwhelm justice, their role being pedagogical, to correct the sinner, for by His absolute holiness, Yahweh expected His people to fulfil all the frameworks of a worship in spirit and truth, that is, accompanied by real, unfeigned piety. Before God, there is no worth in the fulfilment of a formal cult in which the sacrifices prescribed by the Law were performed and prayers were said only with the lips, but rather the moral behaviour that characterises the quality of a people consecrated to the holy and just God. This was the premise of the true worship, born of the inner conviction and social justice that conditioned and complemented each other. Isaiah shows that the origin of sacrifices must be sought in the spiritual feelings which are innate in human nature, for man, conscious of his dependence on the living God, feels the need to express his attachment to the Creator in a visible way by means of material gifts, but it is necessary on the part of the human creature to manifest worship in spirit and in truth to his Creator, for “God is the Spirit, and he who worships Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).
Pages: 43-54