What Does It Mean To “Stand in the Council”?

blog.logos.com/2017/12/mean-stand-council

Michael S. Heiser December 5,

2017

Most people think a prophet is someone empowered by God to foretell the future. No
doubt, prophets announced God’s intentions, but forecasting future events wasn’t their
primary job description. A prophet’s chief task was to serve as God’s mouthpiece to His
covenant people Israel and to her enemies. So how did someone become a prophet?
Was there some sort of heavenly qualification? In fact, there was.

You might think the standard for a prophet was whether their words came to pass
exactly as uttered (Deut 18:15–22). But that’s actually a by-product of the real litmus test,
which we read about in Jeremiah:

For who among them has stood in the council ( ‫סוד‬, sôd) of the Lord to see and to hear his
word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened? [The Lord says] … “If they had
stood in my council (‫סוד‬, sôd), then they would have proclaimed my words to my people”
(Jer 23:18, 22).

What does it mean to “stand in the council”? Jeremiah elaborates: “to see and to hear his
word … to pay attention to his word and listen.” The one essential test of a prophet—that
preceded their ability to deliver a divine message—was that the prophet had to see and
hear God in His council.

In the Bible, God and His heavenly host were thought to live and conduct business in the
divine throne room. This assembly, with God as its ceo, is called “a divine council” (Pss
82:1; 89:5–7). God chose prophets and commissioned them directly for ministry. When a
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prophet “stood in the council,” they had a direct encounter with God in His throne room.
This motif of “standing in the council” is a repeated pattern in the Bible.

In the case of Isaiah, the prophet was transported to the throne room of Yahweh (Isa
6:1–6) to receive his call to service (Isa 6:8–9). For Ezekiel, the circumstances were
reversed, with the throne of the Lord coming to him (Ezek 1:1–14, 26–28). Jeremiah was
also commissioned via a direct encounter with God. At the beginning of his ministry the
“word of the Lord” came to him (Jer 1:4) and appointed him a prophet. The “word” is
identified as Yahweh (Jer 1:6–7) who has come in human form. He reaches out His hand
to touch Jeremiah’s mouth (Jer 1:9). It was this encounter that distinguished Jeremiah
from false prophets.

The pattern began with the first man, Adam, as Job 15:7–8 indicates: “Are you the first
man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills? Have you listened in the
council (‫סוד‬, sôd) of God? Have you restricted wisdom to yourself?” Eden was the abode
of God and His heavenly host. If Job could say he had such access, then he could speak
with authority about his innocence.

Proceeding from Adam, Enoch and Noah “walked with God” (Gen 5:22, 24; 6:9). The
former “prophesied” (Jude 14–15), while the latter is called a “herald of righteousness” (2
Pet 2:5). God appeared visibly to Abraham (Gen 12:1–3; 15:1–6; compare Acts 7:2–4),
Isaac (Gen 26:1–5), and Jacob (Gen 28:10–22; 31:11–13; 32:22–32; compare Hos 12:3–4).
Moses was commissioned at the burning bush (Exod 3:1–15). The elders of Israel under
Moses were commissioned directly by Yahweh (Num 11:24–25), as was Joshua (Deut
31:14–23; Josh 5:13–15). The book of Judges records dramatic appearances to Gideon
(Judg 6) and the “word” of the Lord “appearing” to Samuel, the last of Israel’s judges,
when he was a boy: It “stood” (1 Sam 3:10) before Samuel to inform him of Eli’s fate.

Many New Testament figures also began their ministries with a direct divine
commissioning. For example, the Father and the Spirit were present at Jesus’ baptism
(Matt 3:16–17), an event that told astute observers that Jesus was in the prophetic line.
Paul’s famous encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus was crucial to
proving his status as an apostle in the prophetic tradition (Acts 9:1–9; 1 Cor 9:1; 15:8).
And it is no accident that the commissioning of the disciples at Pentecost was
accompanied by divine fire (Acts 2:1–4), since fire is a frequent element of divine throne
room commissioning scenes in the Old Testament (Exod 3:1–3; 24:17; Isa 6:6–7; 66:15;
Ezek 1:4, 13, 27; Dan 7:9–11).

Amazingly, the New Testament applies this commissioning to every believer. Every
Christian is united to Christ and is commissioned to not only spread the gospel (Matt
28:18–20), but also to be Jesus to the world (2 Cor 3:18; 4:11; 2 Tim 1:9; 1 Pet 2:21; 2 Pet
1:4). Every believer is Christ’s ambassador (2 Cor 5:20), having met Christ through the
gospel. As the prophets before us, we are now God’s mouthpieces.

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Dr. Michael S. Heiser is a scholar-in-residence for Faithlife, the makers of
Logos Bible Software. He is the author of The Unseen Realm: Recovering the
Supernatural Worldview of the Bible and has taught many Mobile Ed
courses, including Problems in Biblical Interpretation: Difficult Passages I .

This article is excerpted from Dr. Heiser’s book I Dare You Not to Bore Me
with the Bible.

Discover more fascinating facets of the Bible with Dr.

Heiser
Keep exploring the strange, perplexing, and mysterious aspects of the Bible with these
excerpts from Dr. Michael S. Heiser’s The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural
Worldview of the Bible. Or dive deeper into the supernatural world of the Bible and pick
up a copy of The Unseen Realm today.

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