The bible being what it is ,one would assume that the writers of the bible would be the strong majority, influential individuals,who prevailed during that time.
However one would be surprised to know that it has always been the minority report.
What exactly was the function of the Hebrew bible?
1.To remember and retell the story about how God rescues his covenant people.(Exodus 17 vs 8,9,14).
2.The scripture becomes the terms of the partnership between God and Israel, much like marriage vows.(Exodus 24:3–4 ).
3.It functions as a story of the people’s failure and God’s plan to raise up a prophet to come.(Deutronomy 31:19-26).
The pattern of the Hebrew bible is salvation, covenant, human failings and divine faithfulness. This pattern continues and completes itself in the new Testament and is every believer’s story.
The prophets throughout the old Testament were the afflicted ones, they were the rejected minority, people who existed in the periphery,sometimes looked upon as a laughing stock ,(for example ,Ezekial was known as the singer of pretty songs,)called upon by God to criticise and correct powerful monarchs and people groups during those days.
Isaiah was a minority and the Lord actually tells him not to fall in line with the majority .In chapter 7 we find that he has actually been dismissed by the king and Yahweh asks him to keep his eyes on Him .So he binds the testimony of the prophets and seals the Torah and passes it on to his disciples even as the Lord proclaims a doom on the horizon.
Kings were a powerful,revered figure during those days ,almost had a status of God in places like Egypt ,but not so in Israel. A human king was marked as a failed project even as Samuel annoints the first king of Israel.
In Mount Sinai the Israelites built a golden calf and now they demanded a king.
Jesus’s posture continues to be one of the rejected marginalised figure much like the prophets, and ultimately gets executed for who He is.
The apostles later on follow the same footprints.
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