Title: To Pray with the Prophets (or Not): A Christo/Pneumato-logical Talking Back to God
Taking its cue from J. Richard Middleton’s provocative “Abraham’s Silence: The Binding of Isaac, the Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God” (Baker Academic, 2021), this paper offers to rehear three prophetic prayers: Jeremiah’s silenced intercession (Jer 7:16-20), Ezekiel’s personal intercession (Ezek 4:12-17), and Amos’s (un)relenting intercession (Amos 7:1-9). These three prayers of prophets are selected for the various roles they play in intercessions in the midst of a revelation of Yahweh’s determined judgment. In this way, these are offered as potential prayer patterns for the church. However, these are brought into brief critical Christological and Pneumatological rehearing (and taking up) of the intercessions of these prophets within the intercessions of Jesus and the Spirit. These intercessions might then function as a means of faithfully “talking back to God” in the midst of certain judgment.
