Receiving a message from God is an exciting experience. We may receive a message that provokes a positive reaction in us or a distressing feeling. The first case is a revelation of God’s glorious deeds that he intends to do with his people, and the second is a message of rebuke, discipline and judgment. In “positive revelation,” the prophet usually delivers a message enthusiastically in anticipation of the enthusiastic response of God’s people.
In Exodus 2: 11-15, Moses expected this from Israel, but he experienced disappointment and persecution. A prophet who has been shown the bad condition of God’s people can very easily get over the feeling of bitterness towards the people. At the same time, he can deceive himself and he feels because of that insight that he has “purer” and more spiritual than the people. In Ezekiel’s case, that is what happened.
Language. 3:14: “… And I went with bitterness and wrath of heart …” Have not many of us gone through this? How many young people have left the church because of its inconsistency in living the Gospel! How many indignant prophets are there today who, “though right,” are more to the detriment than to the blessing of the body of Christ! In both cases, it is the same thing – the prophet’s human pride. My personality will be hurt because “I” was rejected. People who react easily are those who never go through God’s prophetic school.
II. In the meantime,
Moses saw the need and was willing to go, but he went according to his plan, before he experienced the basic things:
- a) a call from God,
- b) an encounter with God (revelation of God’s glory and understanding of his smallness),
- c) a message from God for His people,
- d) shaping his character for such a task.
Many of us want to skip the latter, and without that there is no prophet. The church often wants to skip this because it is accustomed to a God who only fulfills her desires. In 1 Samuel 8: 6-7, the Lord tells Samuel that he does not feel offended because they did not reject him but the one who sent him – God. The same explanation and warning that he can save from severe emotional crises, Jesus gives to the disciples in John 7: 7 and 15: 20-21.
They did not hate Jesus because he was Jesus but because of the message he was telling them. Paul was aware of this and in Galatians 1:10 he mentions something that is the initial condition for anyone who wants to be a prophet. All this does not mean that the prophet should be too harsh on people. On the contrary, Peter invites us in his First Epistle in 3: 15-16 to treat the world gently and respectfully. What the prophet and the prophetic people (and that is us !!!) should be careful about is that they do not accept people’s opposition as an attack and criticism of a personal nature. We often mention Jesus ‘thirty years of preparation for ministry, Moses’ forty years in the wilderness, Paul’s sixteen years before his public appearance as preparatory periods for their ministry. This is normal in the kingdom of God as well, because no one is “born again learned”. What about us? Usually when we are in such periods, we have a thousand questions “why God?”
We would like the truth that we understood immediately and everyone else to understand, although in most cases we do not live that message ourselves. Moses was a murderer forty years ago. Without that learned lesson, the students “called fire from heaven” to those who did not accept what they said. I also walked for years in the bitterness I felt towards the sleeping churches. I justified my unbiblical bitterness by attacking others. Then the Lord led me (and still leads me) through the “desert of learning” because He does not need prophets who “kill” people. He sent prophets to Israel out of love, and he sends them to us today to show us where we are and where he wants us to be. God wants prophets who are one with the message. Words have power if experience is behind them.
A prophet has understanding for those to whom he prophesies only if he knows what that message means to himself. Why did Hosea have to marry a prostitute? Because God had a “wife” prostitute at that time. Israel indulged in fornication and Hosea needed to know how the one who sent him felt. Why did Ezekiel experience what it means to be without paternal joy (Ezek. 24: 15-25) – because it was such an experience before God’s people. God intended to leave them. He, their Father. A well-known Indian proverb says; “He who has not walked in Indian sandals does not know what it is like to be an Indian.” Good lesson for us. Walking in these sandals can be called the interim period, the time from the day I received the invitation to the day I received the invitation to the day when I can officially act as God’s messenger. It is Jesus ’thirty years of preparation.
These are the experiences and years we have to go through, no matter how many, if we think of being a prophetic people on this earth. One of the worst sins of the Church today is that the Pharisees are offended and speak of the horror of the sin in which the people around us live. We are not on earth to “rub people’s noses” with their horrible sins, but to show them Christ who is the way out of sin. What were you and I born into? In justice? Certainly not, and that is why it is time to stop being offended and try to get out of our own perils.
3. GOD’S VISION OF PROPHETIC CHARACTER
Ezekiel experienced the glory of God, his smallness, and sanctification and vocation. You and I have experienced the same thing through salvation. In Ezekiel 3: 1, God gives him a message. Swallow and … and … go! As it was written to us, it seems that it should have gone immediately. But not! In verse 22 of the same chapter comes what did not suit Ezekiel either: “Arise and go down into the valley, that I may speak to you there.” Before you talk to the people, I want to talk to you, says the Lord. There are some things in your heart that you need to get rid of in order to be ready for the task. In Ezekiel 3.3 Ezekiel ate. The word of God was sweet in his mouth. Hallelujah, new revelation! But not in the stomach. Usually then the fighting starts. What will people say? Fear, insecurity! That is a difficult word. Jeremiah wanted to leave the whole task of preaching because he had to speak only condemnations (Jeremiah 20: 7-18).
Ezekiel’s message was the message of the cleansing of God’s people for the final construction of the temple, which was shown in a vision while the people were living in sin. I firmly believe that this is a MESSAGE FOR US TODAY, for God’s people, because Jesus is in the final construction of his Church. Let us dedicate ourselves because God will work great miracles. There has never been a new Church without religious leaders opposing it. Preserving the tradition of the denomination is still more important for many today than building the Temple, the Body of Christ. That is why God has a vision for his prophet in Ezekiel 3: 8: “THEREFORE I WILL NOW HARDEN YOUR FACE AS IT IS THEIRS AND I WILL MAKE YOUR HEAD STUBBORN AS THEIRS.” Yes, we are sent as “sheep among the wolves” (Matthew 10:16) and that is why we need to strengthen our criticism.
This does not mean that we should not consult with anyone. This does not mean that if God shows us to be stubborn and not accept anyone’s opinion, we should remain steadfast. Not! Such people make divisions and it is stubbornness that says: “If you don’t want to, as ‘God’ showed me, I’m leaving.” Love for Christ’s one body receives people who are different but there is stubbornness that is from God: perseverance in preaching what He says we should say – a hard forehead that cannot be hurt by criticism of religious leaders and the world that rejects us. God wants a prophet who says, “I do not want to live at all; only to complete my race, the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus. I only want to witness to the Gospel of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24). Paul is not up to reputation but to the Gospel
IV. UNDERSTANDING FOR THE PEOPLE
We have said that God does not want “prophet murderers”. He either sends out of love even though the message contains judgment. Judgment is never the last word of prophecy. If he went through God’s school and the events of the intervening period, the prophet will descend to the level of the people and identify with them. The message condemns sin but saves the people. Jesus did so, Moses did so!
THE PROPHET MUST APPEAR IN THE SHARPNESS OF UNDERSTANDING CONTRAST:
HOLY GOD AND SIN, BUT THE SAME WITH UNDERSTANDING IN GOD’S LOVE FOR FALLEN MAN.
These two elements must be pre-installed in the person sent before he begins his ministry, saying, “Thus saith the Lord.” Amos 5: 21-24 shows God’s wrath against the sin of His people, and Hosea 11: 1-4 shows God’s unquenchable love for His people. He does not trample on his people as one false prophet prophesied to a group of Christians! God cleanses and heals His people (Hosea 6:11; Hosea 7: 1). God’s vision of a prophet and prophetic ministry for His people is the image of Moses throwing tablets of law against the sin of the people, but he is also ready to be erased from the book of life if God destroys that same people.
The image of Jesus expels the merchants from the temple, permeates the Pharisaic hypocrisy and religiosity but also sits with sinners, prostitutes and despised for their salvation; He rebukes the disciples for their struggle for position and gives Himself for them, hates sin to the point of hellish condemnation and becomes sin itself for the salvation of sinners. God does not want prophets of conventional behavior with white gloves in their hands, who are able to skip a wounded man on the way to a TV studio or press conference where they will make big statements about people’s needs, and are not ready to do anything for them.
NOT!!! God wants a prophetic people like Jesus, like Paul who is the first among sinners but lives a holy and exemplary life, devoted to God and man, cries over the condition of the Corinthians but also speaks words that separate the physical from the mental and the spiritual from the spiritual . YES, God wants the Church, a people with a sharp taste of salt that will fix the bland taste of the world in which he lives, whose word will be deadly to sin but also whose love will be full of life for the people around them. You and I are part of that nation called to be a prophet to this world. You and I are then part of the process of forming a prophetic character. Awake, prophet, remember why you were called and allow the Spirit who inspired and shaped the previous prophets, complete your work in you and shape you into the person God intended, a person similar to Christ. Because, the sent one must be similar to the one who sends him !!!
Izvor: IZVORI, 3/1984.