Despise not prophesyings. -1 Thessalonians 5:20
A certain nostalgia surrounds the thought of prophecy, for it conveys the mystery of prediction. The prophets of old were passionate, persistent, and powerful men, who sought to awake the yawning crowd from their contented slumber. They employed God-inspired, extreme and creative means in their avid attempts to convict people of their presumptuous sins and arouse an awareness of God. They predicted that the present dream was about to end and that each would then give an account of themselves to God. Thus, a prophet is generally understood as one who both pronounces and predicts, yet, we commonly estimate his worth based solely upon the fulfillment of his predictions. -see Deuteronomy 18:22
While this is an accurate depiction of the prophet’s pursuit, it is incomplete and fails to represent the majority of his calling. A more careful study of the subject will reveal that the Bible uses the words prophet and prophecy in several different ways. While predictions are certainly a tool of the prophet, there is much more that is to be conveyed through his prophecy. An unbalanced focus on the ‘foretelling of time’ may dull our ears to the ‘forth-telling of truth’, leaving an anemic understanding of his real significance for us today.
The prophet is to be the mouthpiece of Jehovah Himself, in uttering forth the divine message committed unto him. If he speaks no predictions, he is no less a prophet. It is because the predictive element of the prophet’s message is so strong in our thinking, that we have come to confuse the matter to our own hurt. We feel less obligated to be affected by a prediction, for it may be proven false, so we hold the speaker suspect until he is fully vindicated by his words. But John the Baptist was the greatest of the prophets and he did no miracle and made no prediction except the arrival of the One coming after him who was greater than he.
Prophecy is the instruction, and the prophet is the teacher. God’s Word is written for all to read, but the prophet makes it practical. While many prophets in Israel prophesied the fall of Judah, the impending fate of the nation was not their thrust. The burden of the message was that the people were responsible for the coming judgments and thus were the predictions meant to be correctional. Ahab blamed Elijah for calling for a three-and-a-half-year drought, but it was his own actions that occasioned it. The prophets linked the moral and spiritual defections of the offenders to the coming judgments. Jonah predicted that Nineveh would be overthrown in forty days, but Nineveh was not destroyed, yet we do not fault Jonah. Likewise, similar judgments were pronounced upon Israel in an effort to alter the course and conduct of the people. Thus, we must understand that a prophetic prediction outlines a coming event rather than creating that event. Christ foretold of wars throughout the age, but His prediction did not necessitate the wars.
Obviously, there were scriptures to be fulfilled. Apart from divine inspiration, Daniel could never have foretold the historical course set forth in the great image of the man and of …the stone [that] was cut out of the mountain without hands… -Daniel 2:45. The betrayal of the Son of Man was another one of them, yet Judas is not without blame for its occasion. It is here we must realize that the thrust of the prophet is not found in predicting future events but in speaking forth the mind and heart of God and holding others accountable to it. It is on this ground that the prophet of the Lord meets his greatest opposition.
Stoning the Prophets
In the Parable of the Vineyard, the Lord sent forth servants (prophets) to the husbandmen (his people) requiring fruit. These were beaten, treated shamefully, despised, rejected, and sent away empty. In a narrow sense, these words were spoken prophetically against the Jews. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. -Matthew 21:45. Yet, what sort of a preacher would limit this application strictly to the children of Israel? This parable accurately portrays the nature of all men and their tendency to despise the prophetic word. While we exalt the prophets of yesterday who are dead and quote them to our heart’s delight, as soon as we encounter a living one demanding more fruit than we desire to give, immediate resistance arises.
In the year that king Uzziah died… -Isaiah 6:1, a twenty-year-old youth by the name of Isaiah the son of Amoz volunteered to prophesy for the Lord – …Then said I, Here am I; send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. -Isaiah 6:8-10.
Christ quoted this verse as the reason He spoke in parables. He did not preach in pointed speech, for they could not endure plain prophecy. While the deceased Isaiah was among the most celebrated prophets of Christ’s day, it was not so in his own. He prophesied for sixty years in the days of King Uzziah to King Hezekiah, and history would indicate that during the evil reign of Manasseh, he was sawn asunder. -see Hebrews 11:37.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! -Matthew 23:29-37
Such was the reception of the prophets then, and such is the reception of the prophets today. Thankfully our modern society is not so inclined to shed the blood of the men who speak for God, yet they still have little inclination to hearken to the message – Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. -Isaiah 1:13, 14.
The priests taught the traditions while the prophets told the truth. That old-time religion that was good enough for my fathers may not be good enough for God. There is nothing wrong with traditions as they stand, but when a prophet exposes the heart, those steeped in religious customs are often the first to reject him and the sparks fly upward.
Ahab counted Elijah as his enemy and hated Micaiah …for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil… -1 Kings 22:8. But the prophet’s goal is fruit for the Master. Selfishness stands stubbornly planted in the center of our barren field, and to this the prophet must speak. But this awakens a dawning problem. He is human, and humans are fallible. Those who know him best are well acquainted with his weaknesses and sin. Thus, …a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house -Matthew 13:57. Today, men will give rapt attention to a visiting minister. He is novel, and they do not know him well. They also know that he will be departing for home soon and he will not be present to follow up on his words. It is similar with the prophet who is deceased, and we casually connect with his writings in a book. We interpret them through our own understanding and we rejoice that we are on the same team as he. But the prophet within the home church congregation is often despised, for he has been commissioned to…
…Root Out, and to Pull Down, and to Destroy, and to Throw Down… Jeremiah 1:10
It takes no scholar to scan this job description and observe that the orientation of a prophet is predominantly negative. In fact, there is twice as much negative work as there is positive. But the modern church has no use for negative preachers and, thus, they despise them. I once had a church deacon on my doorstep heralding his church. I asked if his church allows television in their homes to which he affirmed, but that they only watch good things. I asked him if some watch the Green Bay Packers which he did not deny. I probed him to consider that this is modern day idolatry. At this he bristled and commented that they have a much more positive message. He then proceeded to laugh and label my message as legalistic. The modern church is allergic to anything that has any tint of a negative connotation and is addicted to anything sugar-coated with cheap grace. The Bible says to put off the old man and to put on the new… in that order. Many seem to think that if they put on the new, the old will automatically fall off by itself. The prophet is sent to root out and pull down, completely to the ground. God does not follow the inclination to build upon a defective foundation. Nor does He sow His wheat among tares.
While much of the doctrine of present-day churches is faulty, this one is among the worst. Many have grown so worldly that they see nothing to root out, nor pull down. Yet, there is another class of people who do understand the things that are amiss and still decline to root out and pull down simply because it is too difficult. These …watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. -Isaiah 56:10.
Roots are deeply entrenched, and countless structures have been erected by well-meaning souls. These roots are doctrines long held, customs long practiced, sins long indulged, false traditions long supported, and worldly values long embraced. While an ambitious young preacher may energetically set his hand to the task, he soon will find the task profoundly impenetrable. He may adamantly point out the wrong, faithfully quote the pertinent scriptures, painstakingly prove the evil tendencies, and solidly reason of the consequences of the errors; still the hearts of men refuse to give in and a major storm arises. Men are deeply entrenched in their understanding. They have long supported it, and long poured their energies into it. Their arguments are not rooted in scriptural reason but in emotion. Prove the pagan roots of Christmas, the godless foundations of secular education, or the fact that the original Sunday schools were never intended for the children of Christians, and most men will care very little, while others will react with animosity. Add to the list the disgrace of women dominating the home and church, marriages consisting of partners that were previously vowed to others for life, and disrespectful children who must be entertained with sports, smart phones and videos; and the prophet has a lifetime of painful uprooting work before of him.
But Jeremiah is commonly referred to by a descriptive epithet. He is never called the prophet who rooted out, pulled down, destroyed, and threw down. He is known as the ‘weeping prophet’, for there is not a more effective way to convey a seemingly negative and difficult message than by loving the recipients to whom he must preach. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. -2 Corinthians 2:4. He only tore down so that he could effectively give himself…
…To Build and to Plant. -Jeremiah 1:10
While the uprooting must needs be, it is only meant for the interim and we ought to get it done and over with. There are some who never do anything but pull down and destroy. These are predominantly pride-laden egotists rather than true prophets of God. They oppose every church, prove everyone wrong, proclaim everyone to be hirelings, and call all doctrine but their own, heresy. These know nothing about building and planting. A prophet’s visionary calling is to nurture the conscience to sensitivity while building one another up in the fruit of faith, love, holiness, and humility and to …travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, -Galatians 4:19.
As we can see, there is but a fine line between the proud pessimist and the persistent prophet. Perhaps the only way we can tell the difference is to examine his fruit, but even many of the old prophets had little to show for their years of faithful preaching. Noah prophesied for 120 years but was only able to save his own family. Herein lies another reason for the silence of the prophet. A minister must be one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) -1 Timothy 3:4, 5. Many men give themselves to preaching the Word, but do so to the neglect of their own children. If a prophet is to build and to plant, he must first do it at home. Those who fail, ought to leave the prophet’s office and repair their own breach, but too often they don’t. They often retain their position and omit the first two-thirds of their commission, just like the Old Testament prophet Eli did in response to the evil of his sons. -See 1 Samuel 2:27-36. The lukewarm and worldly souls love it and are delighted with the men who preach it. While the pulpits are inflicted with prophetic laryngitis, the money flows in and their churches are full. These are the prophets that …have daubed them with untempered mortar… -Ezekiel 22:28, while God is seeking …for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap… -Ezekiel 22:30.
Genuine building is painstaking and slow. It is to be accomplished with patience and tears. It is to be performed by one who cares enough about others that he will refuse to allow them to build upon a faulty premise, and by one who loves enough to demand that the laborers in the vineyard surrender good quality fruit unto their God. We need the vital prophetic message for it ultimately ushers in incessant hope. Hope for a new day when truth will roll down like an ever-flowing stream of righteousness from under the church doors. May the headwaters of that mighty river begin as streams coursing down the cheeks from men and women with such a vision. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him -Psalm 126:5,6. The rest ought to despise not prophesyings.
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