'So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech' (Gen. 20:7,17).

While Abraham utters no prophecy of future events, he 'prayed' and the

thing he prayed for came to pass, so, even though the predictive element is

inconspicuous, it is there nevertheless.

The next man to be named a 'prophet' is Aaron.  When the time came for

Moses to go into the presence of Pharaoh, the Lord said to him:

'See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be

thy prophet.  Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy

brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel

out of his land' (Exod. 7:1,2).

This related appointment looks back to Exodus 3 and

4, where Moses was originally called by God and commanded to go back to Egypt

and to Pharaoh.  Moses had seen the sign of the burning bush (Exod. 3:1 -5),

had heard the Lord speak in the name of the God of his fathers; had been

assured of the Lord's presence; had received the unfolding of the great name

I Am (Exod. 3:6 -14) and had received confirmation by the working of two

especially typical miracles (4:1 -8), yet even after all this Moses is seen

to be diffident:

'And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither

heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow

of speech, and of a slow tongue' (Exod. 4:10).

Humility is a lovely grace, but a false humility takes on itself an

ugly look whether assumed out of fear, pride or any other reaction to the

Divine challenge.  Paul served the Lord with All humility, and could

nevertheless say, 'I can do all things', but only 'through Christ which

strengtheneth me'.

The Lord remonstrated gently with Moses, saying:

'Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the

seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?  Now therefore go, and I

will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say' (Exod.

This is surely enough -- but no!

Moses replied:

'O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom Thou wilt send'.

These words do not mean loving and loyal acquiescence but rather suggest,

'send by someone else, rather than send me'.  The Students' Commentary

remarks here:

'The hesitating and timid Moses of Mount Horeb was the same courageous

and self -reliant Moses who smote the Egyptian dead!  His strength then

unfitted him as a Divine instrument, and now his weakness unfitted him.

God can use neither one nor the other, if the strength is trusted, or

if the weakness is sheltered behind as an excuse'.

So it was that Aaron came to be appointed: