The justifications for these three tiers lay in the individuals relationship to God and the environment they are selected to prophesy in.The typical relationship between God and one of his prophets is that of a master and slave. God calls a man to be his prophet, the prophet obeys and delivers the message, and the prophet is continually at Gods disposal. Such as in the case of Abraham, the first prophet, here God tests Abraham and asks him to take the life of his only heir, Abraham obeys and offers to sacrifice his son, but God intervenes and saves the boys life (Gen, 22-23). Because of his obedience, Abraham lived a long and prosperous life, but what if he hadnt been obedient? Would he have been condemned by his master, or given the same prosperity? The book of Jonah aptly represents this situation, and in it the prophet ignores Gods will and tries to escape his wrath. However, he is unsuccessful and is forced to obey on the account of saving his own life. This suggests that condemnation will take place until obedience is served (Jon, 1-3). This type of relationship coincides with the tier of preach, and preach only, for the prophet is almost entirely powerless. He is, in these instances, a mere puppet for which God acts out his divine will.The second class of prophets are those who have a certain amount of power in their actions. God, in turn, selects them to embrace responsibility beyond that of a typical prophet. The most obvious examples are that of Moses splitting the red sea and leading the Israelites to the promise land (Exodus), and Jesus healing the sick and leprous (Mark), but they classify beyond this tier. Samuel, adversely, falls into this tier because he is given the direct responsibility of acting on Gods behalf to select a king, he was, at that time, the sole mediator of Gods power (1 Sam, 8:1-10:27). Which appears to be far more prestigious than the common practice. In addition to Samuel, Enoch and Elijah are also in t...
