The Sunday News
Divinity Digest, Witness Dingani
“Old testament kings viewed prophets as necessary evil” Examine this view. What is the attitude of the society towards the prophets of Zimbabwe?(25)
COMMENT OVERVIEW
The above question requires one to have deep knowledge about the relationship of Kings and prophets in the Old Testament.
The question is linked with Zimbabwean context, meaning that it should not be ignored. The above question was submitted to the author by Kundayi High School students in Concession, Mazowe District under the subject teacher Mrs Manomano.
ANSWERS
Samuel as a prophet anointed the first King Saul, initially the relationship was a bit amicable, this is even evidenced by Samuel directing Saul where there was a band of prophets, this is recorded in 1st Samuel 10:5 “After that you shall come to Gibeathelohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines; and there, as you come to the city, you will meet a band of prophets coming..” And also the fact that Samuel and Saul offered sacrifices together, should be considered. Saul was responsible for marshaling people, this proves to us that the relationship was amicable. BW Anderson believes Samuel with sons of prophets/band of prophets championed holy wars as they will be giving soldiers a patriotic feeling during the days of Saul, as a result Israel was able to win all battles. It is beyond no doubt that Saul was happy about the contributions of Samuel, hence he viewed him as a necessary evil.
•King David had his two courts prophets, Nathan and Gad. These prophets played different roles, but one should note that they all advised the kings. Nathan advised David to extent of being involved in the establishment of the Davidic covenant, this is recorded in 2rd Samuel 7:12-16. As such this indicates that Nathan had an amicable relationship with the King. The prophet Gad, David’s seer who is recorded in 2rd Samuel 24:11, advised the King, he went on to the extent of advising the King to build the alter, this is evidenced in 2rd Samuel 24:21.These two court prophets received a remuneration fee from the King this has led number of scholars to regard them as “civil servants”. As such this indicates that King David viewed two the prophets Gad and Nathan as necessary evil.
HOWEVER PART
In as much as it can be said that Kings viewed prophets as necessary evil, it should not be ignored that, some Old Testament Kings viewed prophets as unnecessary evil. For instance, Moses was commissioned by Yahweh to free the Israelites which were under the hands of Pharaoh who was oppressing them on a daily basis. The task of Moses was political, hence, he was supposed to negotiate with Pharaoh.
Unfortunately, Pharaoh did not understand this, as such leading him to view Moses as an enemy instead of a friend. This is the reason why Pharaoh sent soldiers to stop the Israelites with Moses to move to the promised Land, all this indicates that Old Testament kings also viewed prophets as unnecessary evil.
The Tishbite prophesied during the reign of The Omri candidate, Ahab. The second action of Elijah was to challenge Ahab with his wife, this is evidenced by the action of Elijah commanding Ahab to gather the Baal prophets. Ahab went on to regard Elijah as the “troubler”. After sometime Elijah responded by condemning the King over Naboth’s vineyard, this is recorded in 1st Kings 21:17. Soon after the event Elijah went on to prophesy the death of Ahab, this is recorded in 1st Kings 21:19 “…..dogs will lick your blood”. Such evidence will lead the writer to suggest that King Ahab viewed Elijah as unnecessary evil.
The Ramoth Gilead incident is known by a number of students. The King of Israel said he “hates” Micah Ben Imlah for his message, this is recorded in 1st Kings 22:8. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Micaiah the son of Imlah; but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil”
The point at this stage is the word “hate”, there is no element of friendship or amicable, hence, this shows us that Ahab viewed Micah Ben Imlah as unnecessary evil.
NB There are so many examples which can be added. For instance ~Ahaz with the Prophet of Jerusalem Isaiah ~Hezekiah with prophet Isaiah ~Jeremiah the prophet of Judah with Josiah ~Amos the country prophet with Jeroboam 2
ZIMBABWEAN CONTEXT
In Zimbabwean context, the society has a negative attitude towards prophets who are involved in politics, one of the notable example is that of Makandiwa who was condemned for blessing some of Zanu-PF politicians .The critics were even published on local newspapers The Zimbabwe Daily. Some of the pastors even wrote “dossiers” of advice to Makandiwa to warn him against supporting any particular political party. Readers can follow the following website to read full story about the above information <http://www.thezimbabwedaily.com/zimbabwe/8743-prophet-emmanuel-makandiwa-turns-down-zanu-pf-offers.html>
All this portray the attitude of the society towards the Zimbabwean prophets.
The story of the controversial pastor “Sanyangore” has shocked lot of Zimbabweans, it was even recorded on Bulawayo24.com on the 7th of December 2016 “Controversial Pastor Paul Sanyangore is at it again! The man of cloth is said to have made his congregants drink raw sewage on Saturday while clearing ground at his church stand along Seke Road. This has led to a number of so many Zimbabwean Divinity practitioners to greatly criticise the incident, one of the notable practitioners is Gabriel Caroline who argued that “there is no such miracle, people should be very rational, there is a thin line between faith and foolishness”. All this indicates the attitude of the Zimbabweans towards prophets.
It should be noted that some of the individuals in Zimbabwean society, have positive attitude towards the Zimbabwean prophets. Newspapers record such stories on a daily basis, one should peruse local newspapers for better information.
Witness Dingani is the author~ Columnist~Youth Coach & Cricketer. He is the founder of charity organisation “Dingani Charity Organisation”.
In 2016 he has been voted as the most influential youthful figures in Zimbabwe and being voted on the 8th position out of 15 people by the Pan-Zimbabwe Society. Questions by schools can be submitted through his mobile number +2363777896159
