Friday, 9 August 2019

SOME CALLINGS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT


NAME: MUOGBO MICHAEL

COURSE: CONSECRATED LIFE IN THE CHURCH

LECTURER: Rev. Fr. DANIEL ONYEAYANA cmf

TOPIC: THREE MORE CALLINGS THAT UNDERLINE VOCATION AS A CALL AND CONTEMPLATION

JEREMIAH: his call came during the complicated period of Judah. His two visions indicated the content of his commission. He was called by God in the 13th year of Josiah. Jeremiah is a prophet called to a mission to preach to and admonish the nation of Israel during the reign of the Davidic kings (Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah). His mission was basically centered on the concept of reformation and renewal, thus he was set over ‘nations and kingdoms to uproot and knock down, to destroy and over throw, to build and plant’.[1] He was a man of strife and dissension for the whole community, living and prophesying during the tragic years preceding and succeeding the ruin of the kingdom of Judah. Jeremiah practiced an inward and heartfelt contemplation of God; his suffering purified his soul and made it more open to God. With contemplation he was able to conquer the challenges that faced him as a prophet during the ruin of the kingdom of Judah.

EZEKIEL: Ezekiel as a prophet demonstrated a quality and character of mission (a call) and contemplation. Ezekiel received his mission from God which can be summoned up as a mission of revival, thus the dry bones shall rise again. Nevertheless, He started his mission with an exclusive reproach and threats addressed to the Israelites before the siege of Jerusalem. Ezekiel’s whole ministry was among the exiles in Babylon between 593 and 571. His contemplation of God is evident in the narration of the four visions he had.

ISAIAH: Isaiah is quite an important figure in the prophets of the Old Testament. He had a definite vocation; he received his prophetic vocation while he was in the temple of Jerusalem and his mission was to proclaim the fall of Israel and of Judah as punishment for the nations infidelity. His mission can be summed up under the concept of judgment, justification and punishment. Isaiah’s calling was to serve as God’s emissary; his contemplation of God is shown by the purification of his lips with a burning charcoal.



[1] Jer 1: 10

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