The Prophetic Literature for Vocational Discipleship

“From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day.”^[1]

(Jer 7:25)

Vocation Proper in the Prophets

Perhaps no Old Testament genre includes as many explicit accounts of vocation or literal callings as the prophets. Not surprisingly, however, the issue of calling in the prophetic books is concerned with the event of the divine call of the prophet. In the case of this particular calling, many elements are unique to the prophet’s experience, whereas some elements can be carefully applied to the broader category of vocation in general. For instance, most prophets have an explicit call narrative in which they meet God directly, either through unearthly theophany or through a vision of the heavenly courtroom (prophetesses are at work in the Old Testament, but explicit call narratives are rare). According to the prophet Jeremiah, this calling from the divine assembly (Hebrew sod, Jer 23:18, 22; Amos 3:7; cf. Job 15:8; Psa 25:14; 89:8) is a key credential for the true prophet. False prophets speak but not from divine commissioning (Jer 14:14).

Some elements of the prophetic call, however, may have a broader application for other vocations. For instance, in Jeremiah 1, the prophet is assured that his young age does not disqualify him from the work of a prophet. Here, the Lord reveals that the prophet had been formed since he was in his mother’s womb for this particular vocation. Generally speaking, this is understood as a kind of special providence for the prophet; it would not be inappropriate to recognize that the Lord is providentially at work in all of humanity, forming them for callings that he will put on their lives. Such an idea is founded both on the sovereignty and the eternality of God. To be sure, as the Apostle Paul makes clear, God has known and loves all Christians from before the foundations of the earth.

Vocational discipleship, therefore, can be founded upon the character of God as expressed in the prophets, namely that he is all-powerful, eternal, and, as a result, unchanging. Human vocation must be found within that system of God’s divine economy. This is not a dualistic universe with forces of evil equally matching the forces of good, nor is it a polytheistic universe in which divine forces are constantly in conflict, and stability is nothing more than momentary peace. This is a world in which every decision is unto the Lord (Prov 16:33).

Related to the importance of the divine assembly in the calling of the prophet is the importance of realizing that personal experience may corroborate a true calling, but should not be understood as the grounds of the calling. In the story of Micaiah, the prophet, a deceiving spirit is sent out of the divine assembly to put a message of deception in the mouths of the false prophets. In the account, the spirit is commissioned by the Lord himself for the purpose of leading the wicked king Ahab astray in order to expedite his judgment. What is remarkable in this story is the fact that the false prophets indeed received a spiritual origin for their message. We need not doubt their sincerity or call them charlatans. They were visited by a spirit. The lesson from this account is, among other things, that spiritual experience is not an indicator of true calling. As a matter of fact, strong personal experience or perceived spiritual insight must be corroborated by the teaching of Scripture and the testimony of the community. It is easy for us to be deceived and drawn into a false sense of calling when we do not allow our personal experience and judgment to be influenced by outside authorities. As Jeremiah reminds us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jer 17:9).

Lastly, we should understand that even if a vocation appears monolithic it may be varied in actual practice. The prophets themselves understood their ministries in different ways and with different titles. It is instructive to consider the many ways in which the prophet is described in the Old Testament. These are just a few of the titles that are used to describe the prophetic call:^[2]

1. nabi‘ perhaps “one who is called” or “one who invokes” (< Akkadian nabû “to name, invoke”) (2 Kings 9:1; 2 Chron 12:5; Jer 1:5)
2. chozeh “seer of visions” and “visionary” (2 Sam 24:11; 1 Chron 21:9); pejorative use (Amos 7:12); in relation to pagan divination (Micah 3:7).
3. ro‘eh “seer” (premonarchical term, 1 Sam 9:9; but used interchangeably with the other “seeing” title chozeh (Isa 30:9–11)
4. ’ish ha’elohim “man of God” (emphasizes special relationship between God and prophet); Moses (Deut 33:1; Targum Onqelos nabi’aya‘ d-’adonay; Josh 14:6; Psa 90:1); Samuel (1 Sam 9:6); Shemaiah (1 Kings 12:22); Anonymous; against Jeroboam for the high places (fulfilled 2 Kings 23:15–16); Elisha (2 Kings 8:2–11); David (Neh 12:24: a title of honor in a list); but also an angel (Judg 13:6)
5. mal’ak ’adonay “messenger of the Lord” (also translated as “angel of the Lord” when the referent is angelic); Haggai (Hag 1:13); Isaiah (“his messenger” Isa 44:26); prophets in general (“his messengers” 2 Chron 36:15); priests in general (“messengers of the Lord of Hosts” Mal 2:7)
6. shomer “guard” (Isa 21:11)
7. tsofeh “watcher” (Hos 9:8; Ezek 3:17; 33:2)
8. ‘eved ’adonay “servant of the Lord” Moses (Deut 34:5; Josh 1:1); Joshua, son of Nun (Josh 24:29; Judg 2:8); David (Psa 18:1; 36:1); cf. “My Servant” (Isa 42:1) “Suffering Servant”^[3]

In the same way, we should understand that callings that appear to be simple and uniform may, in fact, be of a variety of different responsibilities and “flavors.” There are a variety of different ways that one might be gifted and experienced in a particular vocation. As a result, we must be careful about oversimplifying vocational profiles. There’s not one kind of pastor, nor is there one kind of private equity manager or business consultant. Rather, the Lord uses the variety of human giftings to serve in the variety of contexts in which any calling might occur.

On a related point, callings may develop and shift over time. Multiple prophets receive multiple callings from the Lord, callings that depend on the context in which they are ministering, historical events that occur during their lifetimes, and the changing profile of the audience (two prophets with changing calls, Isaiah 6 and 40; Ezekiel 3 and 33). A prophet of judgment can be re-commissioned as a prophet of deliverance. We can assume that the same can occur in other sorts of vocations; callings can adjust or outright change throughout a person’s life. For instance, a vocation that requires physical exertion and performance is a clear example of the changing nature of vocation: the athlete must inevitably face the decision to transition to coach, manager, or commentator. The tactical operator can become a trainer or strategic leader. The innovator can become the educator. The creative can become the preserver of creativity.^[4]

Vocational Discipleship in the Prophets

Vocational discipleship is concerned with the spiritual framework and practices that help the Christian pursue a vocation in a way that honors, proclaims, and ultimately worships the God who has called him. As such, vocational discipleship is about more than merely developing skills to perform in the workplace. Tod Bolsinger writes,

Christians who provide leadership to businesses need just as much spiritual and biblical understanding of the priorities of the kingdom of God as they do the economics of market forces. Christians offering leadership in the marketplace, higher education, nonprofits or other sectors have to keep growing in our faith as much as we need to grow professionally.^[5]

This essay assumes that vocational discipleship has to do with the implications of an individual’s spiritual formation for their vocation, and so it has much to do with the priorities of the kingdom of God. What does faith have to do with our work, and how do we think and act deeply as followers of Christ who are called to a particular activity in life? The following are some contributions to this discussion drawn from the prophetic corpus of the Old Testament Scriptures.

Wholehearted Vocation. The use of the “whole heart” language in the prophets is a direct reference to the passage in the Torah known as the shema or Deuteronomy 6:4–9. This passage from the Mosaic code forms a load-bearing wall of biblical faith and ethics. Christ and his interlocutors agree that it is the “greatest commandment” (Matt 22:36–37; cf. Mark 12:30) and the beating heart of the Mosaic covenant. The prophets affirm the call to “whole heart” faithfulness and call their audience to do the same (Isa 38:3; Jer 3:10; Jer 24:7). It is also the key feature of the biblical notion of calling that all of our outward energies (“strength,” but really something akin to “capital” or “estate”), whether ethical or vocational should spring from a heartfelt, sincere love of God. That means that every calling can be and ought to be shaped by the doxological intention of the individual. Even the most menial tasks can be performed with a desire for excellence, ethical diligence, and a self-giving spirit. In other words, vocation springs from the heart, and godly vocational discipleship resists hypocrisy and cynical self-aggrandizement.^[6]

Just as the second commandment follows from the first, so does the prophet’s interest in how members of society care for one another (Lev 19:18; Matt 22:39; Mark 12:31). To have a heartfelt sense of vocation, one is required to treat others with dignity and desire for mutual benefit. Vocational discipleship ought to encourage rather than discourage others who are pursuing different vocational ends, which means looking for ways to build up others in the community, even those who have different callings or have nothing to offer as part of a transaction (Isa 1:17; Mic 6:8; cf. deceitful scales [corruption in a transaction], Hos 12:8; Amos 8:5; Mic 6:11; [just scales in restoration] Ezek 45:10; cf. the trifecta of disenfranchisement [“orphan, widow, and sojourner”], Isa 1:17, 23; 9:17; 102; Jer 5:28; 7:6; 22:3; 49:11; Ezek 22:7; Zech 7:10; Mal 3:5).

According to the prophets, vocational discipleship should lead to a growing sense of one’s relationship with God and the community. These two relational spheres are indispensable to the mature pursuit of faithful vocation.

Adaptive Leadership. Not only is it possible for prophets to receive multiple callings over the course of their life, but they must also recognize the importance of adapting to the context in which they are ministering. In his seminal introduction to the prophets, Abraham Heschel writes this about the prophet Jeremiah, but the point is relevant for all prophets,

However, it would be more significant to say that Jeremiah lived in an age of wrath. His contemporaries had no understanding of the portent of their times, of the way in which God was present at the time. They did not care for time. But the prophet has the responsibility for the moment, and openness to what the moment reveals. He is a person who knows what time is. To Jeremiah his time was an emergency, one instant away from a cataclysmic event.^[7]

To further the example, a comparison of Jeremiah and Ezekiel is instructive. They are two prophets operating at roughly the same time with similar subject matter. They are, however, working with very different communities. Jeremiah is a prophet in the city of Jerusalem, ministering to those who have not yet been taken into exile (with the important exception of his letter to the refugees in Jeremiah 29). Ezekiel operates during the same time but in an entirely different community of refugees in the Chebar Canal region of Babylon.

Both prophets have the same general message: that Jerusalem is being judged for her syncretism and injustice, and that the refugees represent the righteous remnant who are given a chance to repent and bring about the restoration of Israel. Jeremiah’s message is contextualized for a community experiencing rapid spiritual decline, and his primary message is one of judgment and calls to repentance. Ezekiel’s message includes the same judgment oracles, but it also includes a message of hope for those in exile, one that encourages them to lay hold of the opportunity that is theirs as refugees. In Ezekiel 11:14–25, the prophet reports the taunts of the Jerusalemites against those in exile and fortifies the exiles against their accusations. The different tone of each prophet is brought to the fore because of their similar message.^[8]

Personality Matters (or Organic Inspiration^[9]). Related to the topic of adaptive understandings of vocation is the idea of organic inspiration. While the prophets all generally articulate the same theological outlook for the covenant community, their personal quirks and idiosyncrasies, including hopes, fears, and rhetorical preferences, form the way in which they perform their vocational responsibilities.^[10] Every vocation, including prophecy, is one that must be fed through the prism of each individual’s personal autobiography. People pursuing the same vocation may come at it with very different outlooks, skills, and gifts. The function of Christian vocational discipleship is to help a person understand who they are and how they bring unique contributions to their vocation.

Of course, organic inspiration has implications for the multiple diagnostic tools that are available to people when considering a vocation. Whether you are anticipating a future vocation or in the process of living out a vocation, there are a myriad of personality assessment tools at your disposal. Many of them can be powerful aids in revealing a person’s interests, skillsets, and general tendencies, but they are best applied as guides for how one might pursue a vocation. In other words, we ought to avoid reductionistic views of vocation that do not allow for organic differences between individuals. The fact that there are many different kinds of teachers, doctors, business leaders, and government officials should be recognized as a feature, not a glitch, in the system. Christian vocational discipleship seeks to direct each individual as they pursue their vocation in their own particularized way.

Multiple Vocations. Throughout the Old Testament, it becomes clear that individuals can have multiple vocations and, as a result, need to recognize the different responsibilities appropriate to each of those vocations. Similarly, the influence of one vocation over another is appropriate and adds to the unique features of the calling. For instance, the judge Deborah is also described as a prophetess (Judg 4:4). Both kings Saul and David are said to prophesy (1 Sam 10:12–13). Jeremiah and Ezekiel both come from priestly families and are prophets (Jer 1:1; Ezek 1:3). It is fascinating that Ezekiel is most likely called to ministry at age thirty, and his last vision occurred when he was fifty. These dates are also the appropriate ages for a levitical priest (Num 4:3; though also Num 8:23–25).

Vocations can happen coincidentally, and they can influence each other. We should not be surprised, therefore, to see that many of David’s prophecies recorded in the Psalter are interested in the enthronement of the Messianic king and the future hope for the kingdom of Israel. Likewise, Jeremiah and Ezekiel are particularly interested in the abuses of the temple and the reforms needed so that Israel may be restored.

It is not uncommon for individuals to have multiple vocations that operate both independently of each other and also influence each other. The pastor is also a statesman; the teacher is also a volunteer fireman. If we open the aperture of our study to other vocations, such as parenthood and community leadership, the picture becomes crowded. If we think about it, most individuals wear different vocational “hats,” and proper vocational discipleship takes this into consideration.

The Case of Daniel

It is, of course, difficult to talk about the issue of vocation without considering the case of Daniel and the other Jewish youths taken into captivity in the first deportation of Jerusalem in 605 B.C. Their example is commonly used in studies that focus on vocational discipleship on a theology of work, but in the context of this essay, the example is complicated by the fact that Daniel is not traditionally thought of as one of the canonical Prophets in many of the ancient canonical orders of the Old Testament text but rather as one of the anthologies of miscellaneous works sometimes referred to as the Writings. The Book of Daniel does appear to be a late addition to the Old Testament canon, which is not surprising in light of its subject matter and the dating of the events it describes. This is compounded by its unique commitment to the ancient genre known as Apocalypse. Unlike other prophets, the visions of the future in the book are remarkably detailed, which raises questions about the nature of the prophecy found therein. Because of these differences, Daniel is not often included in the corpus of prophets, but given that this essay is intended for an audience that receives the Christian biblical canon, it is appropriate to address it here.

Daniel and the Jewish youths offer relevant examples of vocational discipleship, particularly in the way that they pursue callings that are not, by definition, ministerial. Each case presents the reader with a faithful Israelite who is serving in the Babylonian court, about the closest thing that we can find in the biblical text to a secular environment. As a result, the way that the narrator portrays, and at points praises, Daniel and his friends in these stories is instructive for us.

The following are a few additional principles that can be drawn from this intriguing book:

Sometimes Antithesis Is Required. The courtly tales found in Daniel 1–6 offer us a glimpse into the life of exiled youth in the Babylonian and later Persian courts. Each chapter offers a different episode that sheds light on the realities of life as a faithful exile. Three of the accounts (Daniel 1, 3, and 6) give vivid examples in which the main character(s) take a principled stand in the face of imperial edict. In each case, their antithetical stance towards the governing power results in a positive outcome in which they attain a higher position than they would have received before. These episodes include the following: the case involving the king’s food, the case of the fiery furnace, and the case of the lion’s den.^[11]

Faithful Presence in Secular Spaces. James Hunter writes, “Christian faith had been enormously influential in the culture precisely because it has had a principal if not hegemonic role in the culture-producing institutions of society.” ^[12] Much of the success enjoyed by Daniel and his three friends springs directly out of situations in which they are present and at work in the king’s court. They are faithful to God by being actively involved in the imperial statecraft of the Babylonian and later Persian regimes. Their mere presence provides them with incredible opportunities to serve the Lord in their work for the betterment of the people of God as well as for all the citizens of the empires they serve. As a result of their presence, Nebuchadnezzar is confronted with the truth about the Lord and responds with worship; the city’s ruler, Belshazzar, is faced with the truth about the Lord’s plans for Babylon (literally, “the writing on the wall”), and the wicked counselors are thrown into the den of lions. The focus here is not on the prophetic messages of Daniel and his friends but rather on the presence of these faithful Israelites and their influence in the great regimes of the world.

Vocation and Divine Sovereignty. The theme of total divine sovereignty is present throughout the whole prophetic corpus, but it receives a special focus in the book of Daniel. No matter how precarious or dire the situation seems for Daniel and his Jewish friends, the Lord is present and active in all of them, moving them irrevocably towards his purposes. From the relatively local events of worshiping the king’s image or praying to a God that the king does not recognize to the global events such as the movement and fall of empires, the divine king directs the steps of the book’s characters. This is an important context for any conversation about vocational discipleship. No matter how secular the work or desperate the situation, the steady divine hand is always on the tiller of human history. There’s no place in which one might say God is not present or God is not in sovereign control. As a result, the Christian can work as “unto the Lord” (Col 3:23–24).

Conclusion

There is much more to be investigated regarding vocational discipleship in the prophetic corpus. I have attempted to look at several themes that arise both explicitly and implicitly in the prophets’ description of their own vocation as well as the way they admonish the community to whom they have been sent. The desire here is not to flatten all vocations or miss the unique features of the office of the prophet, but rather to recognize that the biblical text does place value on a certain framework concerning vocation and how to pursue it with an eye for the kingdom of God in Christ.

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[1] Unless otherwise specified, biblical quotatiosn are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV).

[2] A helpful discussion of prophetic titles can be found in Edward J. Young, My Servants the Prophets (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), 56–75. The list in this essay goes beyond but is influenced by his discussion.

[3] N.B. “my/his servants the prophets” (2 Kings 21:10; 24:2; Jer 25:4; 26:5; Amos 3:7) is used collectively and anonymously in reference to prophetic testimony.

[4] Arthur C. Brooks shows how this occurs in vocations that depend on intellectual abilities as well. He describes the transition from flexible thinking in youth to static thinking in older age. See From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Purpose in the Second Half of Life (New York: Porfolio, 2022).

[5] Tod Bolsinger, Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncarted Territory (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2022), 21.

[6] See the epilogue on vocational discipleship in Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor (New York: Dutton, 2012), in which he connects vocational discipleship in the church to faithful worship.

[7] Abraham Heschel, The Prophets (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2007; repr. New York: HarperCollins, 1962), 1.106

[8] On the contextualization inherrent in prophetic communication: “Prophecy as oral communication is raw, iconoclastic, immediate, and exacting. It seeks to bring about fundamental changes in social arrangements, often before the collapse of long-standing and cherished structures—political, religious, economic, and symbolic. Prophecy as written communication attends to survivors. It takes shape during and after the frightful events; all the while it engages in artful reinterpretation and reenactment.” Louis Stulman and Hyundai Chul Paul Kim, You Are My People: An Introduction to Prophetic Literature (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2010), 10.

[9] “Just as every human thought and action is the fruit of the action of God in whom we live and have our being, and is at the same time the fruit of the activity of human beings, so also Scripture is totally the product of the Spirit of God, who speaks through the prophets and apostles, and at the same time totally the product of the activity of the authors. ‘Everything is divine and everything is human.’” Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, MI; Baker, 2003), 434–435.

[10] James D. Nogalski, Interpreting Prophetic Literature: Historical and Exegetical Tools for Reading the Prophets (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015), 55–56.

[11] These also provide an example of adaptivity. While antithesis is necessary in the case of the episode concerning the king’s diet early in the captivity, there comes a time when the avoidance of such foot is no longer required (Dan 10:3).

[12] James Davison Hunter, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, & Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 84.