Prophesying Women: In defending public, speaking,
stand-up roles for women in the worship assembly, Rubel Shelly of
Woodmont Hills notes that:The evangelist
Philip had four unmarried daughters who prophesied (Acts
21:9).
In fairness you should read the entire article
by Clicking Here.
Prophesying and music went
together. Therefore, you may want to read Rubel Shelly's
repudiation of the none use of instrumental
music in worship.
A parallel article was delivered at the
Restoration Forum at Abilene Christian
University (ACU), Dr. Shelly had already established a foundation
hostile to the purely A Capella view by repudiating those who resist
full fellowship with instrumental groups.
You should understand that the true prophets were sent to
pronounce
judgment
upon the priestly leaders who had led the nation into worship
like the nations to meet their own mercenary needs.
The effeminate prophesying was
singing and playing musical instruments often in the belief that they
could arouse the dead gods. This was a direct insult to God who had
already delivered His Word to them through Moses.
When Israel rejected God's direct rule he sent
the professional "prophesiers" from the Philistine "high place" as a
judgmental sign of their rejection:
After that thou shalt come to the
hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines: and it shall
come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt
meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a
psaltery,
and a tabret, and a pipe, and a
harp,
before them; and they shall
prophesy: 1S.10:5
"This is the first mention in
the OT of a band of prophets. These were men who went about in
companies and were able by means of music
and dancing
to work themselves up into a convulsive and ecstatic frenzy (2 Ki. 3:1-10).
Their abnormality
was believed to be caused by the invasive influence of the spirit of god.
The word prophesied here does not mean
either foretelling the future or preaching after the manner of the
later prophets,
but engaging in the ritual
dance of the prophetic guild (19:18-24). Their behavior was commonly regarded as
a form of
madness (2 Ki. 9:11;
Jer. 29:26)" (The Int. Bible Ency., I Sam. p. 932).
David had soothed Saul's
madness with song and harp but in the end it drove him over the edge
and Saul tried to murder David. When David was running from Saul, he
was taunted with the boast song the musical women had composed to
honor David and insult Saul. David knew that it was a lie and that he
wasn't really that brave and had not killed that many of the enemy.
Therefore, the way to escape judgment was to fall into a form of
praise which was pretending to be insane to attract favorable
attention:
And David laid up
these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 1Sam 21:12
And he
changed his
behaviour before them,
and feigned
himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled (scratched or drummed)
on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his
beard. 1Sam 21:13
This is the boasting praise
usually associated with David's singing with musical instruments:
Halal
(g1984) haw-lal'; a prim. root; to be clear (orig. of sound, but
usually of color); to shine; hence to make a show, to boast; and thus
to be (clamorously) foolish; to rave;
also to stultify: - (make) boast (self), celebrate, commend, (deal, make), fool (- ish, -ly), glory, give
[light], be (make, feign self) mad (against), give in marriage,
[sing, be worthy of] praise, rage, renowned, shine.
This same form of prophesying in a musical
sense would be madness if done in church. Therefore, Paul precluded
charismatic music by demanding that the women be silent when the
church came together in assembly.
If therefore the
whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those
that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that
ye are
mad? 1Co.14:23
Paul quotes Isaiah 28 to show that speaking or
singing in tongues in the "prophesying" sense was a sign of unbelief.
This mad prophesying or singing with musical
instruments was a judgmental sign always heaped upon people who
reject God. Therefore, God through Samuel prophesied that the kings
would destroy the nation and he gave them other signs:
And ye have this
day rejected your
God, who himself saved
you out of all your adversities and your tribulations; and ye have
said unto him,
Nay, but set a king over us. Now therefore present yourselves
before the Lord by your tribes, and by your thousands. 1S 10:19
Is it not wheat
harvest to
day? I will call unto
the Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain; that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great,
which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a
king. 1S 12:17
Organizing the people into groups of a hundred
or thousand was a "ministry system" imposed upon Israel by God as
they insisted that they would be governed by a like the nations king
and worship like the nations.
Joel also prophesied of mixed blessings as
young boys and girls engaged in this form of judgmental prophesying
and the old men engaged in dreaming or the enchanting methods of the
Chaldeans:
And it shall come
to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and
your sons
and your daughters shall
prophesy, your old men
shall dream
dreams, your young men shall see visions: Joel 2:28 (Like enchanter)
And I will shew
wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood,
and fire, and pillars of smoke. Joel 2:30
The sun shall be turned into
darkness, and the
moon into
blood, before the great
and the terrible day of the Lord come. Joel 2:31
This word for "prophesy" is used of those who
sing their predictions by "making themselves into a prophet." When
used of true prophets, it is a pronouncement of doom upon those who
hear it:
Naba
(h5012) naw-baw'; a prim. root; to prophesy, i. e. speak (or
sing) by inspiration (in prediction or
simple discourse): - prophesy (- ing), make self of prophet.
Then the Lord said
unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them,
neither spake unto them:
they prophesy unto
you a false
vision and
divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart. Je.14:14
When people compose the song or sermon in their
own heart rather than "delivering the Word as it has been delivered
to you" you know that they are "prophesying" in the form of ancient
and modern paganism. This also describes "speaking in tongues" in the
Old Testament.
The musical Levites had been used to
panic the enemy or signal the army going into battle. After the battles
were over, David had too many musicians on his hands. As a result he
made them into musical prophesiers to "excel over" the people to
force them to worship or, later, to drive or oversee the slaves as
they were forced to build the temple:
David, together
with the commanders of
the army, set apart
some of the sons of Asaph,
Heman and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps,
lyres and cymbals. Here is the list of the men who performed this
service: 1Chr.25:1
Now, let us look at Philip's
daughters:
And the next day we
that were of Pauls company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we
entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the
seven; and abode with him. Ac 21:8
And the same man
had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. Ac 21:9
And as we tarried
there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain
prophet, named Agabus.
Ac 21:10
We don't have a single word they prophesied! To
the contrary, when God wanted Paul to receive His message,
He sent Agabus who was a male. Philip's daughters were fulfilling the
prophecy as a sign (like the tongues) that Israel as a
nation was doomed. The Holy Spirit drew
a deliberate contrast between
"prophesying" as a musical warning sign and being an inspired
prophet. Philip's daughters were not invited to prophesy "in church."
The maddening prophesying of Jezebel's
950 false
prophets was in competition with one true prophet. Remember
that Paul said that one word from a sane mind was worth 2000 spoken without
understanding through singing or speaking that which was not Biblical
(1Cor 14:6).
Elijah did not
sing, dance, play musical instruments or bruise himself. He simply
spoke the quiet word and God poured out a baptism of fire upon the
sacrificial victim and many of the false prophesiers were put to
death.
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Kenneth Sublett
- Rubel Shelly
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