Any organ of divine revelation, or medium of divine communication, is a prophet. “Hence,” says Philippi, “the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings are called ‘prophetæ priores,’ or ‘the earlier prophets.’ Bernard's Respice, Aspice, Prospice [pg 711]describes the work of the prophet: for the prophet might see and might disclose things in the past, things in the present, or things in the future. Daniel was a prophet, in telling Nebuchadnezzar what his dream had been, as well as in telling its interpretation (Dan. 2:28, 36). The woman of Samaria rightly called Christ a prophet, when he told her all things that ever she did (John 4:29).” On the work of the prophet, see Stanley, Jewish Church, 1:491.
(b) The prophet commonly united three methods of fulfilling his office,—those of teaching, predicting, and miracle-working. In all these respects, Jesus Christ did the work of a prophet (Deut 18:15; cf. Acts 3:22; Mat. 13:57; Luke 13:33; John 6:14). He taught (Mat. 5-7), he uttered predictions (Mat. 24 and 25), he wrought miracles (Mat. 8 and 9), while in his person, his life, his work, and his death, he revealed the Father (John 8:26; 14:9; 17:8).
Deut. 18:15—“Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him shall ye hearken”; cf. Acts 3:22—where this prophecy is said to be fulfilled in Christ. Jesus calls himself a prophet in Mat. 13:57—“A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house”; Luke 13:33—“Nevertheless I must go on my way to-day and to-morrow and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.” He was called a prophet: John 6:14—“When therefore the people saw the sign which he did, they said, This is of a truth the prophet that cometh into the world.” John 8:26—“the things which I heard from him [the Father], these speak I unto the world”; 14:9—“he that hath seen me hath seen the Father”; 17:8—“the words which thou gavest me I have given unto them.”
Denovan: “Christ teaches us by his word, his Spirit, his example.” Christ's miracles were mainly miracles of healing. “Only sickness is contagious with us. But Christ was an example of perfect health, and his health was contagious. By its overflow, he healed others. Only a ‘touch’ (Mat. 9:21) was necessary.”
Edwin P. Parker, on Horace Bushnell: “The two fundamental elements of prophecy are insight and expression. Christian prophecy implies insight or discernment of spiritual things by divine illumination, and expression of them, by inspiration, in terms of Christian truth or in the tones and cadences of Christian testimony. We may define it, then, as the publication, under the impulse of inspiration, and for edification, of truths perceived by divine illumination, apprehended by faith, and assimilated by experience.... It requires a natural basis and rational preparation in the human mind, a suitable stock of natural gifts on which to graft the spiritual gift for support and nourishment. These gifts have had devout culture. They have been crowned by illuminations and inspirations. Because insight gives foresight, the prophet will be a seer of things as they are unfolding and becoming; will discern far-signalings and intimations of Providence; will forerun men to prepare the way for them, and them for the way of God's coming kingdom.”
2. The stages of Christ's prophetic work.
These are four, namely:
(a) The preparatory work of the Logos, in enlightening mankind before the time of Christ's advent in the flesh.—All preliminary religious knowledge, whether within or without the bounds of the chosen people, is from Christ, the revealer of God.
Christ's prophetic work began before he came in the flesh. John 1:9—“There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world”—all the natural light of conscience, science, philosophy, art, civilization, is the light of Christ. Tennyson: “Our little systems have their day, They have their day and cease to be; They are but broken lights of thee, And thou, O Lord, art more than they.” Heb. 12:25, 26—“See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.... whose voice then [at Sinai] shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven”; Luke 11:49—“Therefore said the wisdom of God, I will send unto them prophets and apostles”; cf. Mat 23:34—“behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: some of them shall ye kill and crucify”—which shows that Jesus was referring to his own teachings, as well as to those of the earlier prophets.