This perhaps unattractive title refers to an essential aspect of any true prophetic ministry, one which cannot be neglected without creating an unbalanced presentation of God's truth.
The prophets of the Old Testament rejoiced to proclaim God's acts of mercy in the past, delivering his people and individuals from their enemies and from disasters of all kinds. They delighted to reassure God's people that he was present with them and that the Holy One of Israel in their midst was mighty. They strained their linguistic ability to express his promise of a future deliverance and victory, when "the wolf will lie down with the lamb" and "the Earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea" (Isa 11:6-9).
They had also to proclaim divine warnings of the awful consequences of the continued breaking of God's laws by both individuals and nations. The people were longing for 'the Day of the Lord' but the prophets had to point out that, unless they changed their ways, it would be for them a day of darkness and disaster (Amos 5:18). "Wail, Alas for the day!" was their reaction (Eze 30:2-3), and their prophecies are littered with such expressions as "Woe", "Ah, Lord God", "Alas" (for this) and "Alas" (for that), all of which expressed their reaction to the prophetic 'burden' they were called to bear.
Today's Prophets
As we give further thought to the prophet's role, we must stress the unchanging responsibility of today's 'forth-tellers' to declare God's laws and the consequences of ignoring or rejecting them. We have heard any number of prophecies which assure us that all is well; like the people of Isaiah's day, we want today's prophets to "tell us pleasant things" (Isa 30:10). We are living in serious times, far more serious than many imagine.
At the same time I am not calling for a rash of heavy condemnatory utterances which reveal more of the personal animosity of the prophet than they do of the heart of God. Like Isaiah, Jeremiah and the other prophets who said, "I weep...I drench you with tears"..."I will weep and wail...and take up a lament" (Isa 16:9 and Jer 9:10), we need to stand in the presence of God until we feel his heart-beat before we can even begin to share their ministry.
There are any number of prophecies assuring us that all is well. What we need is to feel God's heart-beat – even if it's one of lament.
Weeping Prophets' Vocabulary
'Alas!' is an exclamation of unhappiness or alarm expressing grief and voicing concern. It occurs only about four times in the Old Testament but expresses the anguish of the prophets who voiced it (Jeremiah 30:7, Ezekiel 6:11, Joel 1:15 and Amos 5:16). The word 'Alas!' occurs in the RSV rendering of these verses.
'Ah, Lord God' or 'Ah, Sovereign Lord' are special phrases used by both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, occurring four times in each of their prophecies. It is used to express their bewilderment at what God had allowed to happen, or to challenge the situation. They reason with the Lord and even tell him that he has deceived them. This poignant little phrase indicates both their respect for God but also their involvement with his people and the awful tension that these situations created (Jer 4:10, 32:17; Eze 9:8; 11:13). Jeremiah was so distressed that he even cursed the day he was born (Jer 15:10).
'Woe!' is the most frequently employed word in this connection. It is used nearly 60 times and occurs in ten of the prophetic books of the Old Testament. It is a word of condemnation and as such used in both the Old and New Testaments. But it speaks of sadness as well as of judgment. Although it may have the nature in prophetic denunciation of pronouncing an anathema or curse, it also conveys an element of grief and distress. This is true also of the 'Woes!' of the Lord Jesus recorded in the gospels of Matthew and Luke (Matt 11:21, 23:13-16; Luke 6:24, 11:42-47).
'Woes!' Addressed to Individuals
In Habakkuk 2:5-20 there are five 'Woes!' (verses 6, 9, 12, 15 and 19), and they are addressed to the man who piles up stolen goods, who builds his kingdom by extortion, who resorts to bloodshed in his building programme of self-glorification, who gets his neighbour drunk with evil sexual intent, and who makes an idol and bids it "Come to life!".
There is a similar list of six 'Woes!' in Isaiah 5:8-23. Like those in the Habakkuk passage, they are all addressed to individuals. There is still a place for a prophetic word today to individuals, pointing out where their conduct is contrary to what we know to be the word of God. Spoken in the power of the Spirit, such a word can lead to repentance and a change in lifestyle.
There is still a place for prophetic words to individuals, spoken in the power of the Spirit to provoke repentance.
'Woes!' Addressed to Nations
In order to gain the full force of what the Old Testament prophets felt about their ministry to nations as well as to individuals, we need to re-discover a word that is now hidden if we are using one of the more recent versions of the Bible. In the King James' rendering we come across the word 'burden', which is used frequently to describe the prophets' awareness of the weight and importance of the message God gave them to speak to the nations.
From a Hebrew word which means 'to lift up or to bear away', it has the dual meaning of that which is borne by a man and that which is born to a man. A prediction of severe judgment might well be a 'burden' that would render both body and mind uneasy. It might even be spoken of as being more than someone can bear. Such a prophetic word would be a 'burden' to the one who carried it, as well as to the one for whom it was destined. The word is translated as 'oracle' in most modern versions, by the prophet called to announce it.
The Prophet's Burden
The earlier chapters of Isaiah speak of the vision he saw (Isa 1:1) or of the word he received (Isa 2:1) but from chapter 13 onwards each prophecy is introduced by a different expression: that of a 'burden'. This continues until chapter 23.
God had things to say to Babylon, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Egypt, Idumea, Arabia, Tyre and the Negev, as well as Jerusalem herself. To each of the nations or communities quite detailed and specific messages were conveyed - one wonders whether they were ever received. What is clear is that a considerable part of Isaiah's prophecy is taken up with foreign nations. Are we to assume that God had things to say to those ancient nations but has nothing to say to the nations of today? Is prophecy to be limited to the local church and its activities? Is there not a burden on our shoulders, too, to find out what the Lord wants proclaimed?
Considerable parts of Isaiah's prophecy are addressed to nations other than Israel. Are we to assume that God had things to say to them but has nothing to say to the nations of today?
Are We God's Burden?
In a foreboding passage in Jeremiah (23:33-40) the people are told by the prophet that when asked "What is the burden of the Lord!" they were to reply "You are the burden and I will cast you off". Instead of carrying God's word to whoever he had sent it, they were a burden and an obstruction to his purposes.
Later on in the same passage it is clear that the burden they were carrying was not the divine word but their own word, and in so doing they were perverting the words of the living God. Judgment is inevitable on those who stand in the way of sending forth God's word or who pervert the truth as they pass it on to others.
Expressing God's Compassion
One book in the Old Testament expresses particularly well the compassion, even agony, of a prophet - in this case Jeremiah - at the disaster that had overwhelmed Jerusalem. In Lamentations we see the kind of attitude that today's prophets ought to take over those who reject the Lord's word and plunge themselves into terrible trouble.
One could go almost through the alphabet with words that are used in this book to express the feelings felt in such situations: affliction, anguish, betrayed, bitterness, calamity, crushed, crying out, disgraced, downcast, destroyed, disturbed...right through to weary, wasting away, weeping, without pity and without hope! How the nations need prophets who will care like Jeremiah did!
The 'Woes!' of Jesus
There was one who cared even more than Jeremiah. Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth, wept over Jerusalem. He did not pray for that city, because it was now too late. He could only weep and exclaim, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not" (Matt 23:37). For Jerusalem, the Lord's special city, it was too late. There is still time, though perhaps not much, for us to get God's word to the nations. "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" (Isa 6:8). It is those who care who will reply: "Send me!"
First Published in Prophecy Today, Vol 3 No 6, November/December 1987.