Israel’s prophets were those who mediated between God and human society, or more specifically, the covenantal community. They were called by God, spoke with his authority, predicted the future and reminded the people of their conditional obligations under the Mosaic Covenant. Israel’s prophets were unique because they differed from the prophets of other Ancient Near Eastern societies in several ways.
Firstly, although they gave counsel and encouragement to the people, they also rebuked them for moral errors. Secondly, they didn’t seek to manipulate God, but pleaded for submission to him instead. Thirdly, they didn’t offer probabilities, but spoke of certainties determined by God. Finally, they preached that God required Israel to reflect his holiness and obey the Mosaic Covenant.
Like the Israelites, the nations surrounding them were also religious. They too sought divine guidance, desired to live in peace and enjoy prosperity. To obtain these ends, they sought to know the will of the gods so as to maintain harmony between their own human societies and the divine world of their gods. Since they constantly lived in fear of making their gods angry, they would try and figure out what (appeared to) please them through prescribed rituals such as divination, which essentially became part of their religious practices.
By nature, humans seek salvation, along with a way to make sense of their environment and puzzle things out, which is why an unlucky flood might lead the people to believe their gods were angry with them. Following this same idea, if the people made their gods happy, their crops wouldn’t be destroyed. Doing these rituals provided them with a kind of reassurance – that they had some measure of influence when it came to controlling their destinies. Similarly, the use of magic gave people advantages and special powers, along with a way to create disadvantages for their enemies.
Israel had one sovereign, holy and moral God whose actions could sometimes be influenced by prayer and behavior, but who could not be tricked or coerced. In contrast, other Ancient Near Eastern societies’ deities had human characteristics, faults and different levels of power and importance. Those deities could be manipulated and tricked by other gods or by magic. Although both Israel’s prophets and other nations’ prophets sought to know the will of their God or gods and appease them if angry (through rituals including divination, oneiromancy and cleromancy), Israel’s God could not be manipulated.
Inside the Minor Prophets 