Prophets in the Bible are seen in many different lights and perspectives across a variety of cultures and contexts. In the modern-Western culture, prophets of old are often seen as fortune tellers and those who could predict future events. Usually these events were not depicted in the most positive ways and were often predictions of destruction and ruin. In movies and books in our culture, prophets usually give predictions that would later be fulfilled by a sequence of events that would prove the prophecies true. 

Although this is how many of us see prophets today, that is far from the truth of how biblical prophets acted and spoke. Their main mission was not to warn of future events, though this did occur a lot throughout the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. Their overall mission was to give the people messages from God, mostly to warn them that destruction was coming. However, they also spoke of a way out. The prophets also spoke messages of hope that through repentance and a coming Savior, the covenant made with Abraham would live on and God would save his people yet again. 

When I teach children about the prophets, I always tell them that prophets were messengers of God. They told people divine messages they received from God through dreams, visions, or encounters with God. Even though they did warn many times about destruction and ruin upon people and places, this was not the main message of their words. As we journey through the prophets together, we will start to see some interesting elements of prophets. How they spoke, how they acted, and why they were doing it all. We will walk through the prophets and gain a better understanding of who they were and what exactly they were doing for God and His people. For now, enjoy this video by BibleProject to introduce the prophets of the Hebew Bible.