SERVANTS OF THE WORD: The Prophets of Israel

Prof. Smart of Union Theological Seminary has written with great clarity for laymen the story of the vast conglomerate of prophetic literature in the Old Testament. The prophets come alive as dedicated human beings speaking the word of God amid the problems of their own day. Called of God, their ""mouths sharpened like a sword"" for the divine utterance, they touch every aspect of human experience and become teachers, statesmen, critics, judges. Moses at the fiery bush anticipates Isaiah at the high altar. God and his covenant with Israel absorb the passionate concern of these men:- Elijah, seeking to save the compact; Amos, warning of the doom of national unfaithfulness; Hosea, pleading in human compassion; Isaiah's trumpet call for holiness; Jeremiah, prophet of the new day -- all anticipating the coming of the One greater than they, but like them, a Servant of the Word.