Lesson 266: "So, You Want to be a Prophet?"

Personally, I do not know a modern day prophet and quiet frankly I pray that God does not call on me to be one if it means that people will treat me like the Old Testament prophets were treated. They were mostly hated worse than a tax collector. One reason for this is that the people elected the tax collectors and God elected the prophets (the true prophets of God that is). Not much has changed today. The people still want control over the elections and usually talk to God about the best possible candidate as a last resort. The prophets of old started their messages with “thus sayeth the Lord”; “the Word of the Lord came to me”; “this is the Word of the Lord”; and “this is what the Lord said to me”! Notice that the “lying prophets” said the same thing but God did not let them get by with it, declaring that they “prophesy the delusions of their own minds” (Jer. 23:25-32, 14:14-15). This obviously was still going on in the New Testament since the warnings continue and John says to test the spirits (1 John 4:1-6).

Jehoshaphat was one of the rare “good kings” of Judah who had allied himself with Ahab, the king of Israel. While they were visiting, Ahab asked Jehoshaphat if he would join him in going against Ramoth Gilead. Jehoshaphat answered that he would but first they should seek the counsel of the Lord and Ahab agreed but brought in what seemed to be his personal prophets, four-hundred of them, and received the “go ahead” to go to war against Ramoth Gilead. Jehoshaphat asked for a prophet of the Lord and the king of Israel answered; “there is still one man through whom we can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad; he is Micaiah son of Imlah” (2 Chro. 18:7). Continuing to read in Chronicles I found that Micaiah assured the king he would tell him only what the Lord said, unlike the other prophets who told the king what he wanted to hear. Again Ahab was angry about the message and told Jehoshaphat; “didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad”?

Here is a part of Chronicles that I have missed in the previous readings. Seems the Lord wanted Ahab to attack Ramoth Gilead so that he would be killed, fulfilling the prophesy from 1 Kings 22:37, 1 Kings 21:17-19, so He asked who would entice Ahab into doing this (Micaiah related this through a vision he saw where God commissioned a demonic spirit to inspire the prophets of Ahab to lie to him – 2 Chro. 18:10-22). This is also akin to the “thorn in the Apostle Paul’s side” which God gave him through a messenger of Satan (2 Cor. 12:7-9), showing that the Almighty God has control of all things and uses all things to bring His plan to fruition. Zedekiah, one of the king’s “lying prophets”, slapped Micaiah in the face demanding to know; “which way did the spirit from the Lord go when he went from me to speak to you?” Micaiah did not explain to the satisfaction of the king so Ahab ordered him put in prison with nothing but bread and water; “until I return safely”. Though slapped and imprisoned, Micaiah did not stop talking, saying; “if you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me! Mark my words!” All day long the battle raged and at sunset the king of Israel, Ahab, died, fulfilling the words of Micaiah.

The prophet Jeremiah didn’t stop talking either, even when the officials wanted him put to death. Instead of the death sentence the king ordered him dropped into a cistern where he sank into the mud and there he would die slowly. However, through Ebed-Melech he was saved from the cistern but kept “imprisoned” in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured (Jer. 38) just as he predicted. Ezekiel was made a “watch-man” for the Lord, a duty filled with awesome responsibilities (Eze. 337-9). Habakkuk’s prophecy was filled with questions and complaints so he stood watch on the ramparts waiting for the answer from God. The Lord’s answer was; “the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false” (Hab. 2:1-3). Every prophetic revelation demands a certain degree of patience and one must wait for its fulfillment. The book of Malachi begins with “burden” setting the stage for rebuke and accusation which is hardly ever readily accepted by the readers or the recipients of the message. Few prophets have succeeded in packing into such a short book, so much spiritual common sense as Haggai. He referred to himself as simply “the prophet Haggai” and nothing else is known about him. To be a prophet of God seemed to be his one and only purpose; awesome responsibility I would say!

Isaiah had the unique job of announcing the suffering servant; born of a virgin; child of God; the Messiah; Jesus Christ. His message is crystal clear and probably more detailed than in any other Old Testament book. Daniel is sometimes referred to as the “Apocalypse of the Old Testament” pointing directly to the book of Revelation and the end times. We picture prophets of old as being stooped with white hair and beards but according to the scriptures most of them were called by God at a young age. They were scorned, beaten, imprisoned and in the case of Daniel, thrown into the lion’s den but they stood for God, and God stood with them, delivering through them, His Word! Kings and rulers did not want to believe them and false prophets tried to copy them but again I say; they were despised. Their rewards in heaven must be great as they received few on earth. Even the satisfaction of seeing the results of prophesies in their time could not have been much of a reward since they themselves were involved in the destruction connected with judgment prophecies.

So! You want to be a prophet?

“SCRIPTURE MADE EASY” by: polly gwinn

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