It appears the most popular notion regarding a prophet or a prophetess involves foretelling the future. However, the Old Testament’s descriptive terms for prophets and their activities reveal a more expansive function.
For starters, the author of 1 Samuel provides an historical context. “Now it used to be in Israel that whenever someone went to inquire of God he would say, ‘Come on, let’s go to the seer.’ For today’s prophet (nābîʾ ) used to be called a seer (rōʾeh)” (1 Samuel 9:9).
Seer (rōʾeh) comes from a Hebrew word to see. It describes the prophet’s ability “to see” God’s messages, such as visions (Jeremiah 38:21; Zechariah 5:1). Such seeing could include hearing as well (1 Kings 22:7,17,19,20,21,22).
A second term for seer (ḥzh) also indicates the verbal idea of seeing. It might be translated as prophet in order to distinguish it from rōʾeh (Is. 30:10). Within our Bibles, the ḥzh term for seer can be found from 2 Samuel 24:11 through Micah 3:7, where translations might render it in any given verse as either prophet or seer (2 Chronicles 19:2).
Other descriptive terms for prophets include watchmen and servant. As God’s watchman, the prophet was accountable to God whether he faithfully announced God’s message (Ezekiel 3:17-18).
As God’s servant he was privy to God’s message (Amos 3:7; Jeremiah 7:25). Furthermore, like a king’s ambassador the prophet’s role entailed proclaiming the Master’s message (2 Kings 21:10).
When we examine the terminology within the Old Testament describing the prophets and their activities, we discover that their fundamental purpose involved revealing God’s message. From time to time they achieved this through drama (Ezekiel 4:1-3). On other occasions they communicated through verbal or written forms (2 Samuel 24:11-12; Jeremiah 36:1-3).
And yes, sometimes the prophets did foretell the future. Such prophecies might be certain or they could be contingent upon human responses (Jeremiah 18:7-10; Jonah 3:2-10).
However the prophets did not just foretell the future. Much of their energy focused upon recounting the past and explaining how to live in the present (Jeremiah 11:1-8).
Studying the prophets of the Old Testament can provide us with a number of practical lessons. As Paul revealed, like the prophets of old we too are accountable before God for whether we share God’s message with those around us (Acts 20:26-27). Furthermore, in contrast to false prophets who might disseminate the inbreeding of human thinking (Jeremiah 23:25-27), “let him who has my word speak my word truthfully” (Jeremiah 23:28).