You may find it strange, but I didn’t always love the prophets. Before I graduated from seminary, I would have listed my favorite three Old Testament books as Deuteronomy (my MA thesis was “The Form and Function of the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32), Ecclesiastes and Genesis (not a prophet, major or minor, in the group!). But then I read Abraham Heschel’s, The Prophets: An Introduction (1962, Harper Torchbooks) and that changed everything. His words made the prophets come alive for me and I fell in love with them (granted, more so Isaiah than Obadiah, but Obadiah is still fun to say). That was many years ago, but I have never looked back. And that got me thinking, maybe a little Heschel will move you to love the prophets, too. And a little Heschel we can do. As the essayist Joseph Epstein once said: “I believe it was Gayelord Hauser, the nutritionist, who said that ‘you are what you eat’; but if you happen to be an intellectual, you are what you quote.”
Winston Churchill said: “It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.” Today, we want to put Churchill to the test. In the spirit of this series on Christopher Wright’s book, The Old Testament in Seven Sentences (IVP Academic, Downers Grove, IL, 2019), I would like to present seven of my favorite Abraham Heschel quotes from The Prophets in the hopes that they will encourage you to fall in love with the prophets. They are worthy of your time, your thoughts and your heart. Here are seven great Heschel quotes from his classic text on the prophets.
Quote #1: “The prophet distains those for whom God’s presence is comfort and security; to him it is a challenge, an incessant demand. God is compassion, not compromise; justice, though not inclemency. The prophet’s predictions can always be proved wrong by a change in man’s conduct, but never the certainty that God is full of compassion. The prophet’s word is a scream in the night. While the world is at ease and asleep, the prophet feels the blast from heaven.”
Quote #2: “The prophet seldom tells a story, but casts events. He rarely sings, but castigates. He does more than translate reality into a poetic key: he is a preacher whose purpose is not self-expression or ‘the purgation of emotions,’ but communication. His images must not shine, they must burn.”
Quote #3: “The words the prophet utters are not offered as souvenirs. His speech to the people is not a reminiscence, a report, hearsay. The prophet not only conveys; he reveals. He almost does unto others what God does unto him. In speaking, the prophet reveals God. This is the marvel of a prophet’s work: in his words, the invisible God becomes audible. He does not prove or argue. The thought he has to convey is more than language can contain. Divine power bursts in the words. The authority of the prophet is in the Presence his words reveal.”
Quote #4: “The words of the prophet are stern, sour, stinging. But behind his austerity is love and compassion for mankind. Ezekiel sets forth what all other prophets imply: ‘Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?’ (Ezekiel. 18:23) Indeed, every prediction of disaster is in itself an exhortation to repentance. The prophet is sent not only to upbraid, but also to ‘strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees’ (Is.35:3). Almost every prophet brings consolation, promise, and the hope of reconciliation, along with censure and castigation. He begins with a message of doom; he concludes with a message of hope.”
Quote #5: “The prophet is human, yet he employs notes one octave too high for our ears. He experiences moments that defy our understanding. He is neither ‘a singing saint’ nor a ‘moralizing prophet,’ but an assaulter of the mind. Often his words begin to burn where conscience ends.”
Quote #6: “The prophet is a person, not a microphone. He is endowed with a mission, with the power of a word not his own that accounts for his greatness—but also with temperament, concern, character, and individuality. As there was no resisting the impact of divine inspiration, so at times there was no resisting the vortex of his own temperament. The word of God reverberated in the voice of man.”
Quote #7: “The prophet is a man who feels fiercely. God has thrust a burden upon his soul, and he is bowed and stunned at man’s fear, greed. Frightful is the agony of man; no human voice can convey its full terror. Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered, poor, to the profaned riches of the world. It is a form of living, a crossing point of God and man. God is raging in the prophet’s words.”
We conclude this series on Seven Sentences with seven fine quotes. I hope you enjoyed them, and I hope they move you to consider seeking out more of the prophets. But that depends upon you. After all, Joseph Roux said: “A fine quotation is a diamond in the hand of a man of wit and a pebble in the hand of a fool.” Now, there is quote to remember!
