Quite naturally we associate prophets with prophecy.
A prophet must therefore prophesy - No!
It is about actions and words - No!
Abel, the first prophet, has not one recorded word in Genesis. Not one speaking is attributed to him. He has no words. There is no prophecy . . . but he 'speaks'. And it is his blood(s) that speak(s): the testimony of his life - not an action bolted on to the spiritual life like a once-in-a-moment spiritual gift. The message is him; without guidance, he has intuited the requirement of God. He sees the state of the three individuals around him (Adam, Eve and Cain) and he instinctively knows the demand of God. The Law of God is written upon his heart. His wordlessness is not by accident, not some freak of a concise and sparse narrative style, but the specific design of God. His life, his action by faith and his murder IS the prophecy. His life is the parchment upon which God writes. The irony escapes neither us nor God Himself; it has always been the blood that seeps and speaks, that trickles - the life given in death, the prophet that speaks without words. And in a sense Abel prophesies the treatment of every prophet that came after him - even Jesus Himself, especially Jesus Himself. A prophet isn't a prophet unless he dies, unless his word is flesh, unless he is mistreated by those closest to him. Abel is the complete prophet and he is unacknowledged as one. Even amongst prophets he is hidden and of 'no account'. Thus the character and disposition of the Prophet is not found in words but in the actions of faith when there is no Law and no guidance.
A prophet must therefore prophesy - No!
It is about actions and words - No!
Abel, the first prophet, has not one recorded word in Genesis. Not one speaking is attributed to him. He has no words. There is no prophecy . . . but he 'speaks'. And it is his blood(s) that speak(s): the testimony of his life - not an action bolted on to the spiritual life like a once-in-a-moment spiritual gift. The message is him; without guidance, he has intuited the requirement of God. He sees the state of the three individuals around him (Adam, Eve and Cain) and he instinctively knows the demand of God. The Law of God is written upon his heart. His wordlessness is not by accident, not some freak of a concise and sparse narrative style, but the specific design of God. His life, his action by faith and his murder IS the prophecy. His life is the parchment upon which God writes. The irony escapes neither us nor God Himself; it has always been the blood that seeps and speaks, that trickles - the life given in death, the prophet that speaks without words. And in a sense Abel prophesies the treatment of every prophet that came after him - even Jesus Himself, especially Jesus Himself. A prophet isn't a prophet unless he dies, unless his word is flesh, unless he is mistreated by those closest to him. Abel is the complete prophet and he is unacknowledged as one. Even amongst prophets he is hidden and of 'no account'. Thus the character and disposition of the Prophet is not found in words but in the actions of faith when there is no Law and no guidance.
