Food Poisoning

“A lion roars.  Who does not fear?  The Master, the LORD, speaks.  Who cannot prophesy?”  Amos 3:8  Robert Alter translation

Prophesy – Does this two-line poem seem odd to you?  What does the roar of a lion have to do with giving divine predictions?  Before we can draw conclusions about Amos’ intention, we need to remember that this is Hebrew poetry.  What is that?  It means that the poem offers parallel thoughts (not rhymes).  The truth of the first verse is repeated in a different context in the second verse.

“A lion roars.”  Have you ever been near a lion when it roars.  I have.  In fact, I’ve been only a meter away.  The sound instantly produced fear!  It penetrated right through me.  Yes, there was a steel fence between me and the king, but that didn’t provide emotional protection from the sound.  Quite frankly, it scared me to death.  My mind told me that the lion was caged.  My emotions told me to run!  Now!

“A lion roars.  Who does not fear?” writes Amos.  The point?  Fear is the involuntary response to the sound.  You simply can’t help it.  Everything in you wants to flee.

“The Master, the LORD, speaks.”  What is the involuntary response?  Prophecy!  “This is an idea invoked by other prophets—most strikingly, by Jeremiah.  Prophecy is not experienced as a choice.  The prophet feels it as an overwhelming imperative coming from God.”[1]

Now we can appreciate the accuracy of Amos’ poem.  Hebrew prophecy isn’t what we often think of when we hear the word “prophecy.”  We think of prognostication, prediction, a present declaration of some future event.  The Hebrew prophet comes from a different world.  Prophecy is an involuntary blurting of God’s concern.  “Run and hide” parallels “vomit words.”  It’s not about prediction.  It’s about fear!  Involuntary loss of personal control, scared to death compulsion.  Prophecy is God taking over.  With this in mind, you might want to reconsider all those prophetic preachers who crowd the airways.  What do you think they are doing?  Can I suggest they’re being Greek oracles instead of Hebrew prophets?  They provide “biblical” answers to our questions (even to questions we don’t ask).  They exhort and exegete in nicely contained commentaries, accompanied by neatly organized services and mood music.  They speak what we want to hear, even if they throw in a prediction now and again.  I have never witnessed any contemporary religious “prophet” vomit God’s words.  How do I know?  Because there isn’t any offensive smell, for one thing.

Oh, my, we have come such a long way, haven’t we?  Our religious environments are so civilized.  What a shame!

Topical Index:  prophecy, compulsion, Amos 3:8

[1] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: Vol. 2: Prophets Nevi’im (W. W. Norton & Company, 2019), p. 1261, fn. 8.