Day 941 – Standing in the Council – Wisdom Wednesday

Published: Aug. 29, 2018, 7:03 a.m.

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 941 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Standing in the Council - Wisdom Wednesday


Thank you for joining us for our five days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. Today is Day 941 of our trek, and it is Wisdom Wednesday.

Creating a Biblical worldview is important to have a proper perspective on today’s current events. To establish a Biblical worldview, you also have to have a proper understanding of God’s word. Especially in our western cultures, we do not fully understand the Scriptures from the mindset and culture of the authors. In order to help us all have a better understanding of some of the more obscure passages in God’s word, we are investing each Wisdom Wednesday reviewing a series of essays from one of today’s most prominent Hebrew Scholars Dr. Micheal S. Heiser. He has compiled these essays into a book titled I Dare You Not to Bore Me with the Bible.

What does it take to be a Prophet of God? Today’s essay will lay out the qualifications as we explore…
Standing in the Council


Most people think a prophet is someone empowered by God to foretell the future. No doubt, prophets announced God's intentions, but forecasting future events wasn’t their primary job description. A prophet's chief task was to serve as God’s mouthpiece to His covenant people Israel and to her enemies. So how did someone become a prophet? Was there some sort of heavenly qualification? In fact, there was.

You might think the standard for a prophet was whether their words came to pass exactly as uttered as described in Deuteronomy 18:15-22. That is actually a by-product of the real litmus test, which we read about in Jeremiah 23:18 & 22.

“Have any of these prophets been in the Lord’s presence (or the council (sod))
to hear what he is really saying?
Has even one of them cared enough to listen?

If they had stood before me (the council (sod)) and listened to me,
they would have spoken my words,
and they would have turned my people
from their evil ways and deeds.”

What does it mean to “stand in the council”? The one essential test of a prophet—that preceded their ability to deliver a divine message was that the prophet had to see and hear God in His council or presence.

In the Bible, God and His heavenly host were thought to live and conduct business in the divine throne room. This assembly, with God as its Judge or CEO, is called “a divine council or heaven’s court” (Psalms 82:1: 89:5-7). God chose prophets and commissioned them directly for ministry. When a prophet “stood in the council,” he had a direct encounter with God in His throne room. This motif of “standing in the council” is a repeated pattern in the Bible.

In the case of Isaiah, the prophet was transported to the throne room of Yahweh (Isaiah 6:1-6) to receive his call to service (Isaiah 6:8-9). For Ezekiel, the circumstances were reversed, with the throne of the Lord coming to him (Ezekiel 1:1-14. 26-28). Jeremiah was also commissioned via a direct encounter with God. At the beginning of his ministry, the “word of the Lord” came to him (Jeremiah 1:4) and appointed him a prophet. The “word” is identified as Yahweh (Jeremiah 1:6-7) who has come in human form. He reaches out His hand to touch Jeremiah's mouth (Jeremiah 1:9). It was this encounter that distinguished Jeremiah from false prophets.The pattern began with the first man Adam, as Job 15:7-8 indicates.

"Were you the first person ever born?
Were you born before the hills were made?
Were you listening at God’s secret council (sod)?
Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?"