From dreams and visions to props and enaction: Edmund Heddle continues to look at the visual side of prophecy.

Many imagine that the use of visual aids and drama in putting over the word of God is a modern innovation. The fact is that both were used by the prophets of the Old and New Testaments and indeed, by our Lord Jesus himself. In so doing they teach us an important lesson today: that we should not present the message only in word but also in action.

Once a prophet realises that the Spirit is capable of presenting what God wants to say in dramatic action as well as in convincing word, and once he is willing to be open to some of the unusual things the Spirit may urge him to do, he discovers that enacted prophecy can make a greater and more lasting impact than the word alone.

Visual aids and drama have long been used to put across God's word – enacted prophecy can have a much greater impact than the spoken word alone.

Enacted prophecy in the Old Testament

After Solomon died he was succeeded by his son Rehoboam, who foolishly followed the advice of the young men over the elders, as shown in the classic reply that he made: "My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions" (1 Kings 12:11). As a result of this short-sighted policy the ten northern tribes revolted under Jeroboam.

But before this, the prophet Ahijah had told Solomon he was to be king over Israel by an enacted prophecy. Ahijah took the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into ten pieces, giving them to Jeroboam. His actions confirmed his divine appointment (1 Kings 11:29-36).

Later in the history of God's people, the prophet Micah was so upset as he contemplated the disaster that would overtake Samaria and Jerusalem that he said, "Because of this I will weep and wail; I will go about barefoot and naked" (Mic 1:8). In this way he enacted his identity with nations that would be driven away naked into exile. To his words and actions he added his cries, saying he would wail with the strength of a jackal until his voice was so strained that it would resemble the squeaking of a baby ostrich.

Micah's greater contemporary Isaiah also enacted his concern for the people of God by appearing in the streets of Jerusalem over a period of three years in the rags of a prisoner of war, with scarce enough covering to be decent. This would be the sad result for Israel when Egypt and Cush were led into exile by the king of Assyria as prisoners of war. Then they would have to say, "See what has happened to those we relied on" (Isa 20:1-6).

Ahijah took his new cloak and tore it into ten pieces. Micah wept and wailed, and went about barefoot and naked. Isaiah spent three years in the rags of a prisoner of war.

Later on a prophetic word was enacted by Jeremiah in Egypt (Jer 43:7-13). Although he had persistently warned the remnant of Judah, "Do not go to Egypt" (Jer 42:19), when they insisted, he decided it was right to go with them. While there, God told him to take a number of large stones and to bury them in mortar at the entrance to Pharaoh's palace in Tahpanes and to prophesy that the king of Babylon would invade Egypt and set up his throne above these very stones. Far from avoiding trouble by escaping to Egypt, they had brought it upon themselves by their disobedience.

Nebuchadnezzar would set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt and would smash some of the obelisks in Heliopolis. The archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie believed that a raised pavement he discovered was the place where Jeremiah buried his stones. Two of the Heliopolis obelisks survive to this day. One is in New York City and the other - incorrectly known as Cleopatra's Needle - on the Thames Embankment in London.

Jeremiah was led by God to bury large stones at the entrance to Pharoah's palace in Egypt – enacting a prophecy that Babylon would eventually invade and take over.

False Enactions

It is a testimony to its effectiveness that a false prophet, Zedekiah, copied what he had seen other true prophets do in enacting their prophetic words. On one occasion the kings of Israel and Judah were sitting on their thrones in Samaria with all the prophets prophesying before them when Zedekiah brought the iron horns he had made and said, "With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed" (1 Kings 22:11).

All the false prophets agreed until a true prophet, Micaiah, came on the scene. When consulted he told the king to go ahead, but his tone of voice and his manner betrayed the fact that he was speaking in irony and that he meant just the reverse of what he said. Because of his faithful testimony Micaiah was put in prison on bread and water, where he realised a truth many of the Lord's prophets have also since discovered: that evil men hate the true word of God (1 Kings 22:18 and 26-27).

It is a testimony to the effectiveness of prophetic enaction that false prophets through history have copied the same behaviour.

Marital Enactions

Jeremiah was forbidden to marry and to have children. This was to make his marital state a witness to the imminent disaster that would overtake God's people: "They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried...they will perish by sword and famine" (Jer 16:1-4). Every time he was asked why he was not married it gave him the opportunity to bring to people a warning of what was ahead unless they repented. Today the testimony of those who choose to remain unmarried for the sake of the gospel is a powerful enactment.

In contrast to Jeremiah, Hosea was told to marry, but to take a prostitute as a wife (Hos 1:2). Israel's unfaithfulness to the Lord is depicted by Hosea in terms of a wife who turns her back on a faithful husband in order to give herself to a succession of lovers. In spite of God's goodness to his people, Israel went lusting after Baal and other gods of Canaan. Hosea 2:2 appears to contain a formula for divorce: "She is not my wife, neither am I her husband" but the God Hosea depicts cannot take that action. He is the one who says, "How can I give you up? How can I hand you over?" So the prophetic word is powerfully enacted.

In contrast to both Jeremiah and Hosea, Ezekiel is allowed to marry a wife who is "the delight of his eyes" (Eze 24:15-19). But suddenly he is told that he is about to lose her; nevertheless he must not weep or shed any tears. God shows the prophet that he also is being bereaved of "the delight of his eyes", by which he means his sanctuary in the temple in Jerusalem. God says they are not to mourn the desecration of his sanctuary because it is the result of their persistent sin (Eze 24:20-24). In each of these examples the family life of the prophet enacts and makes clearer what God is saying.

Enacted prophecy by Jeremiah

It is in the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel that we see the constant use of enacted prophecy. Both prophets are involved with the closing stages of the kingdom of Judah and exile and captivity of God's people in Babylon.

There are five enacted prophecies in addition to the one already mentioned:

1. Jeremiah is told to make thongs and yoke-bars and to put them on his neck. This is to illustrate his message - unacceptable to them - that only by submitting to the King of Babylon could they remain in their own land. Hananiah the false prophet disagreed and broke the yoke-bars from Jeremiah's neck. Jeremiah's reaction is to make iron bars instead of wooden ones and to announce that Hananiah would die that very year because he had preached rebellion against the Lord (Jer 27 and 28).
2. Jeremiah is told to buy a linen waistcloth and to bury it in a cleft of the rock by the river Euphrates. After many days he is told to return there to collect it, only to discover that it was good for nothing. So he enacts God's desire that Israel would cling closely to him and the refusal that was to spoil the whole relationship (Jer 13:1-11).
3. Jeremiah is told to buy a potter's earthenware jar and to smash it by the Potsherd Gate in the presence of the elders of the people and some of the priests. Then he was to say, "This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter's jar is smashed and cannot be repaired'" (Jer 19:1-12).
4. Jeremiah is told to buy a field at the very time when the entire surrounding country was in enemy hands. This strange action dramatised eloquently Jeremiah's confidence in the future of God's people and in their certain return to their homeland. His actions spoke more convincingly than any words could have done of his absolute confidence in the Lord's promise: "Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land" (Jer 32:6-15).
5. Jeremiah is told to take a scroll and to write on it the doom of Babylon. This he was to give to Seraiah (a brother of Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe) to take to Babylon. When he got there he was to read it aloud, to pray and then to throw it into the river Euphrates (having first attached a stone so that it would sink). As he threw it into the water he was to say, "So will Babylon sink to rise no more!" In all these examples it is clear that the dramatic symbolism adds considerably to the verbal communication (Jer 51:60-64).

Enacted prophecy by Ezekiel

In the prophecy of Ezekiel we have a series of symbolic actions which are required of the prophet and which represent the siege, capture and the future of Jerusalem. Like Jeremiah he was required to enact the message he had to pass on verbally.

1. Ezekiel is told to carry out certain symbolic acts which portray the siege of Jerusalem.
   • He is to take a brick whilst still soft and to portray on it the mounds and battering rams attacking Jerusalem.
   • He was to place an iron plate (such as a griddle on which cakes were baked) between himself and the brick to symbolise the barrier between God and his people.
   • He was to lie on his left side for 390 days and on his right side for forty days representing the years of Israel's and Judah's chastisement.
   • He had to bake a cake out of a strange mixture of grains but was permitted to eat only twenty shekels' worth once a day with a small quantity of water. The cake was to be baked on human dung, but at the prophet's entreaty this repulsive condition was relaxed. In all these ways God's judgment on sinful Jerusalem was portrayed (Eze 4:1-17).
2. Ezekiel is told to shave his head and beard by using a sword. The hair was then to be divided into three equal portions. This showed that a third of the population would die of famine or disease, another third would be killed by the sword and the final third would be scattered among the nations. The few hairs the prophet managed to save were to be tucked in the folds of his garment. But even some of this righteous remnant would have to face further judgment (Eze 5:1-4).
3. Ezekiel is told to pack his belongings for exile and to bring them out of his house while the people were watching. He was to do the same thing in the evening but was first to dig a hole through the wall and to drag his kit through, again before the people. He was to cover his face while he was doing these things. The idea was to provoke the people to ask questions. The Lord's instruction was, "Now that these rebels are asking you what you are doing, tell them". By his obedience to the Lord's instructions the prophet had become a sign to the people (Eze 12:1-11).
4. Ezekiel is told to make and erect a signpost in such a way that it indicated one route starting from Babylon and continuing until it diverged into two roads, one leading to Jerusalem and the other to Rabbah (today's Amman, capital of Jordan). Ezekiel is told that the king of Babylon will stop at the fork in the road to use various methods of divination to discover which way to go. He will however take the road to Jerusalem, because God intends to use him to punish his people (Eze 21:19-23).
5. Ezekiel is told to take the cauldron and having put water and meat into it, to bring it to the boil. The cauldron is Jerusalem, the pieces of meat are its inhabitants, the fire and boiling water stand for the siege and its severity; finally, the pieces pulled out of the cauldron symbolise the universal dispersion of the people when the siege is over. Even the cauldron is defiled and must be put on the fire until its impurities are melted away. Jerusalem must be destroyed in order to be cleansed (Eze 24:3-12). But there is hope for the future and this is shown as follows:
6. Ezekiel is told to unite the sticks of Joseph and Judah: "Son of man, take a stick and write on it, 'Belonging to Judah...' Then take another stick and write on it, 'Ephraim's stick...' Join them together so they become one in your hand". The thrilling message is then given: "I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone...I will make them one nation in the land. There will be one king over them all" (Eze 37:16-22)

Enacted prophecy in the New Testament

There are numerous places in the gospels where Jesus enacted what had been prophesied about him in the Old Testament. The clearest example is his entry into Jerusalem on an ass, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah: "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey'" (Zech 9:9; Matt 21:1-11). We can certainly see the power of enacted prophecy in the comment of Matthew, "When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred".

The second example from the New Testament is found in Acts 21:10-11 where a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. He took Paul's belt, tied his own feet and hands with it and said, "the Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him to the Gentiles'." Hearing this, the believers in Caesarea tried to stop Paul from going up to Jerusalem. They had misunderstood the reason why Agabus had been moved to present this enacted prophecy.

It was not to stop Paul from going to Jerusalem, but to prepare him for what would await him there, just as Jesus himself had been warned by the Holy Spirit about what would happen when he arrived there (Mark 10:32-34).

To be a truly biblical prophet today we need to remember that God's prophetic word can be more powerfully presented when we make use of the 'eyegate' as well as the 'eargate'.

First published in Prophecy Today, Vol 3 No 5, September/October 1987.