Prophetic Call Narratives נבואות הקדשה

Instructions:
1. Read each of the six נבואות הקדשה (Call Narratives) below, writing down questions, comments or reflections in between the texts (click the "+" sign and choose the "Comment' tab).
2. When you have read them all through, go back over them and annotate each text, highlighting:
a. When God is speaking - BLUE
b. When the prophet is speaking - GREEN
c. When the prophet accepts the call - ORANGE
3. Finally, bold the key words (מילים מנחות or leitwort) or שורשים (roots) that appear across multiple stories. What does the repetition of these words/ideas tell you about the idea of being "called"?

Classical Call Narratives

Isaiah 6

(1) In the year that King Uzziah died, I beheld my Lord seated on a high and lofty throne; and the skirts of His robe filled the Temple. (2) Seraphs stood in attendance on Him. Each of them had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his legs, and with two he would fly. (3) And one would call to the other, “Holy, holy, holy! The LORD of Hosts! His presence fills all the earth!” (4) The doorposts would shake at the sound of the one who called, and the House kept filling with smoke. (5) I cried, “Woe is me; I am lost! For I am a man of unclean lips And I live among a people Of unclean lips; Yet my own eyes have beheld The King LORD of Hosts.” (6) Then one of the seraphs flew over to me with a live coal, which he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. (7) He touched it to my lips and declared, “Now that this has touched your lips, Your guilt shall depart And your sin be purged away.” (8) Then I heard the voice of my Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me.” (9) And He said, “Go, say to that people: ‘Hear, indeed, but do not understand; See, indeed, but do not grasp.’ (10) Dull that people’s mind, Stop its ears, And seal its eyes— Lest, seeing with its eyes And hearing with its ears, It also grasp with its mind, And repent and save itself.” (11) I asked, “How long, my Lord?” And He replied: “Till towns lie waste without inhabitants And houses without people, And the ground lies waste and desolate— (12) For the LORD will banish the population— And deserted sites are many In the midst of the land. (13) “But while a tenth part yet remains in it, it shall repent. It shall be ravaged like the terebinth and the oak, of which stumps are left even when they are felled: its stump shall be a holy seed.”

Amos 7:10-17

(10) Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent this message to King Jeroboam of Israel: “Amos is conspiring against you within the House of Israel. The country cannot endure the things he is saying. (11) For Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be exiled from its soil.’” (12) Amaziah also said to Amos, “Seer, off with you to the land of Judah! Earn your living there, and do your prophesying there. (13) But don’t ever prophesy again at Bethel; for it is a king’s sanctuary and a royal palace.” (14) Amos answered Amaziah: “I am not a prophet, and I am not a prophet’s disciple. I am a cattle breeder and a tender of sycamore figs. (15) But the LORD took me away from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’ (16) And so, hear the word of the LORD. You say I must not prophesy about the House of Israel or preach about the House of Isaac; (17) but this, I swear, is what the LORD said: Your wife shall play the harlot in the town, your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line. And you yourself shall die on unclean soil; for Israel shall be exiled from its soil.”

Jeremiah 1

(1) The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. (2) The word of the LORD came to him in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign, (3) and throughout the days of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah son of Josiah of Judah, when Jerusalem went into exile in the fifth month. (4) The word of the LORD came to me: (5) Before I created you in the womb, I selected you; Before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet concerning the nations. (6) I replied: Ah, Lord GOD! I don’t know how to speak, For I am still a boy. (7) And the LORD said to me: Do not say, “I am still a boy,” But go wherever I send you And speak whatever I command you. (8) Have no fear of them, For I am with you to deliver you —declares the LORD. (9) The LORD put out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me: Herewith I put My words into your mouth. (10) See, I appoint you this day Over nations and kingdoms: To uproot and to pull down, To destroy and to overthrow, To build and to plant....(17) So you, gird up your loins, Arise and speak to them All that I command you. Do not break down before them, Lest I break you before them. (18) I make you this day A fortified city, And an iron pillar, And bronze walls Against the whole land— Against Judah’s kings and officers, And against its priests and citizens. (19) They will attack you, But they shall not overcome you; For I am with you—declares the LORD—to save you.

Ezekiel 2

(1) And He said to me, “O mortal, stand up on your feet that I may speak to you.” (2) As He spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me upon my feet; and I heard what was being spoken to me. (3) He said to me, “O mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, that nation of rebels, who have rebelled against Me.—They as well as their fathers have defied Me to this very day; (4) for the sons are brazen of face and stubborn of heart. I send you to them, and you shall say to them: ‘Thus said the Lord GOD’— (5) whether they listen or not, for they are a rebellious breed—that they may know that there was a prophet among them. (6) “And you, mortal, do not fear them and do not fear their words, though thistles and thorns press against you, and you sit upon scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words and do not be dismayed by them, though they are a rebellious breed; (7) but speak My words to them, whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious. (8) “And you, mortal, heed what I say to you: Do not be rebellious like that rebellious breed. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.” (9) As I looked, there was a hand stretched out to me, holding a written scroll. (10) He unrolled it before me, and it was inscribed on both the front and the back; on it were written lamentations, dirges, and woes.

Other Popular Call Narratives

Exodus 3

(1) Now Moses, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, drove the flock into the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. (2) An angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire out of a bush. He gazed, and there was a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not consumed. (3) Moses said, “I must turn aside to look at this marvelous sight; why doesn’t the bush burn up?” (4) When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him out of the bush: “Moses! Moses!” He answered, “Here I am.” (5) And He said, “Do not come closer. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. (6) I am,” He said, “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. (7) And the LORD continued, “I have marked well the plight of My people in Egypt and have heeded their outcry because of their taskmasters; yes, I am mindful of their sufferings. (8) I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the region of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. (9) Now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me; moreover, I have seen how the Egyptians oppress them. (10) Come, therefore, I will send you to Pharaoh, and you shall free My people, the Israelites, from Egypt.” (11) But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites from Egypt?” (12) And He said, “I will be with you; that shall be your sign that it was I who sent you. And when you have freed the people from Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.” (13) Moses said to God, “When I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” (14) And God said to Moses, “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh.” He continued, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites, ‘Ehyeh sent me to you.’” (15) And God said further to Moses, “Thus shall you speak to the Israelites: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you: This shall be My name forever, This My appellation for all eternity. (16) “Go and assemble the elders of Israel and say to them: the LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me and said, ‘I have taken note of you and of what is being done to you in Egypt, (17) and I have declared: I will take you out of the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.’ (18) They will listen to you; then you shall go with the elders of Israel to the king of Egypt and you shall say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, manifested Himself to us. Now therefore, let us go a distance of three days into the wilderness to sacrifice to the LORD our God.’ (19) Yet I know that the king of Egypt will let you go only because of a greater might. (20) So I will stretch out My hand and smite Egypt with various wonders which I will work upon them; after that he shall let you go. (21) And I will dispose the Egyptians favorably toward this people, so that when you go, you will not go away empty-handed. (22) Each woman shall borrow from her neighbor and the lodger in her house objects of silver and gold, and clothing, and you shall put these on your sons and daughters, thus stripping the Egyptians.”

Jonah 1:1-3:3

(1) The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: (2) Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim judgment upon it; for their wickedness has come before Me. (3) Jonah, however, started out to flee to Tarshish from the LORD’s service. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went aboard to sail with the others to Tarshish, away from the service of the LORD. (4) But the LORD cast a mighty wind upon the sea, and such a great tempest came upon the sea that the ship was in danger of breaking up. (5) In their fright, the sailors cried out, each to his own god; and they flung the ship’s cargo overboard to make it lighter for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the vessel where he lay down and fell asleep. (6) The captain went over to him and cried out, “How can you be sleeping so soundly! Up, call upon your god! Perhaps the god will be kind to us and we will not perish.” (7) The men said to one another, “Let us cast lots and find out on whose account this misfortune has come upon us.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. (8) They said to him, “Tell us, you who have brought this misfortune upon us, what is your business? Where have you come from? What is your country, and of what people are you?” (9) “I am a Hebrew,” he replied. “I worship the LORD, the God of Heaven, who made both sea and land.” (10) The men were greatly terrified, and they asked him, “What have you done?” And when the men learned that he was fleeing from the service of the LORD—for so he told them— (11) they said to him, “What must we do to you to make the sea calm around us?” For the sea was growing more and more stormy. (12) He answered, “Heave me overboard, and the sea will calm down for you; for I know that this terrible storm came upon you on my account.” (13) Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to regain the shore, but they could not, for the sea was growing more and more stormy about them. (14) Then they cried out to the LORD: “Oh, please, LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not hold us guilty of killing an innocent person! For You, O LORD, by Your will, have brought this about.” (15) And they heaved Jonah overboard, and the sea stopped raging. (16) The men feared the LORD greatly; they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and they made vows. (1) The LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah; and Jonah remained in the fish’s belly three days and three nights. (2) Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish. (3) He said: In my trouble I called to the LORD, And He answered me; From the belly of Sheol I cried out, And You heard my voice. (4) You cast me into the depths, Into the heart of the sea, The floods engulfed me; All Your breakers and billows Swept over me. (5) I thought I was driven away Out of Your sight: Would I ever gaze again Upon Your holy Temple? (6) The waters closed in over me, The deep engulfed me. Weeds twined around my head. (7) I sank to the base of the mountains; The bars of the earth closed upon me forever. Yet You brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God! (8) When my life was ebbing away, I called the LORD to mind; And my prayer came before You, Into Your holy Temple. (9) They who cling to empty folly Forsake their own welfare, (10) But I, with loud thanksgiving, Will sacrifice to You; What I have vowed I will perform. Deliverance is the LORD’s! (11) The LORD commanded the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon dry land. (1) The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: (2) “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it what I tell you.” (3) Jonah went at once to Nineveh in accordance with the LORD’s command. Nineveh was an enormously large city a three days’ walk across.

most important verse: this is Jeremiah's job description

his prophecies are all about destruction but there is hope at the end