The task of the prophet is not just to bring a message from God. In order to be able to deliver the message at the right time and in the right way, the prophet needs to experience identification with the people in the situation the people are in. In order to do that, they need to understand the people and their situation. The prophet is not called to build his career on what God shows him, nor to rise spiritually above the people, to become the one who will “kill” the people with his message.
The pulpit, like the prophetic ministry, is not a position from which the prophet leads a personal confrontation with those who are not on his line or do not have the same theological understanding of things. Under the “firm of God” only the affairs of the kingdom of God are done. The prophet must always have the same motive in bringing the message as God himself – love for the people and compassion for their situation. This is clear from 2 Chronicles 36:15 “… he sent messengers to them early … because he felt sorry for his people and his abode.” That is why it is important for a prophet that as much as he has love for God and as much as he understands his message, so much does he have love and understanding for the people. No matter how difficult God’s message was, the people are never the ones to be destroyed. God always wants to destroy only sin.
We could therefore see the prophetic vocation and service in these two acts: to convey to the people the message received from God and to dedicate ourselves to praying for the same people, to represent them before God.
DANGER OF SELF-JUSTICE
Since the prophet is “only” a man, there are dangers of being tempted to change the message in his own way. Spiritual arrogance is one of the first things that threatens him. Many of the “prophets” do not allow anyone to teach them spiritually because they “receive all things from the Lord.” Those who, as prophets, do not acknowledge the dependence of their ministry on other services and gifts in the Body of Christ, cannot expect others to acknowledge the authority of their ministry. After all, it is not the message that is most important, but the motive behind it. Some “self-proclaimed” prophet “prophesied” to a group of Christians that God would trample them and that they would not be able to rise. The spirit of that prophecy and motive is not divine because prophecy exalts, admonishes, and comforts (1 Corinthians 14: 3).
Prophets can also experience personal insults if things do not go as they envisioned. A prophet who has not experienced that his “I” has died feels hurt if the message is not received. Jonah was such a case. In the fourth chapter of 1-3, Jonah explains to the Lord that he was right in his assessment of the situation and publicly pours out his feelings of
hurt before Him that the response was not what he expected. What they wanted in that situation was God’s difficult judgment on “those sinners.” Strictness towards others pleases the prophet’s bodily pride. You sinners! The prophet may, as is seen here, be disappointed in God’s grace toward others. For some reason, Jonah found himself personally offended.
The character of God’s servant is often revealed in this way. In 2 Samuel 12: 1-7 we see one of the Lord’s situations and the event through which the Lord reveals David’s heart. David reacts very sharply to the sin of another. The impression that David could have left on people who do not have “spiritual insight into the state of the heart”, would be that he is a very just and moral man. However, what is happening to many of us has happened to David. What was in his heart was hidden behind a sharp attitude and reaction. He did the same thing himself. His flaws were hidden behind religiously strict morality. Our reaction to the situations we find ourselves in reveals who we are.
In 2 Samuel 14: 1-13 we find another event that reveals his heart to David in a drastic and humiliating way. Condemning the other, David condemned himself. Very often this happens to God’s servants and prophets who act in a spirit of self-righteousness and often fall into what others judge mercilessly. God allows this sometimes to make us realize that despite mighty revelations and messages, they are still nothing but “the first among sinners.” David and Jonah, as well as Ezekiel and other prophets, had to go through unpleasant experiences on their own, which showed them, even before entering the service, that they were called to service only by grace. In this way, the Lord preserved them or freed them from Pharisaic righteousness. The prophet’s righteousness must not be self-righteousness but God’s providence. The righteousness of the prophets and the people of God must be greater than that of the Pharisees. In Matthew 5:20, Jesus warns his disciples about this. Pharisaic righteousness is one that judges sin, despises the person, and exalts oneself. Let us beware of the leaven of the Pharisees!
Such prophets are not sent by God, He does not want them. What is greater justice than the Pharisees? Matthew 9:13 gives the answer: MERCY for those who are threatened by the judgment of God, compassion that grows into prayer for them, is the spirit of the prophet. Prophets who do not have this characteristic “throw stones and deadly arrows” at the people. It is important for them to just “deliver the word”, even if it “killed”. Such prophets often leave the ministry in opposition, which shows their selfish motivation in all this. Jeremiah was tempted to do so (Jeremiah 20: 7-9).
EXPERIENCES THAT BREAK SELF-JUSTICE AND ENCOURAGE COMPASSION WITH THE PROPHETS
God has a higher purpose with those to whom He shows things that others do not see. God wants the prophet to feel for the people the same way He feels.
In the days when Hosea prophesied to Israel, God felt like a husband living with a wife who loves another. He lived with Israel, whose heart sank in adultery with the gods of this world. Then comes Hosea’s command from God to marry a prostitute before she can prophesy (Hosea 1: 8-9). Hosea was supposed to know to whom she was prophesying, but she also understood the message and the cry of God’s heart for his “wife”, Israel. First of all, God did not tell the woman that he would beat and kill her, but the feelings of God’s heart, and only then could he go. Otherwise, there would be a danger that he who has an orderly family life, despises the Israeli people who commit adultery and “kills” them with a message instead of returning them to God.
Ezekiel prophesied after Osijek. In its spiritual decline, Israel went from adultery to apostasy. He forsook God completely and God in the image of the Old Testament is shown as the husband of Israel who is left without his “wife”, his property, his people. Ezekiel receives a message that in the middle of his service he will lose the joy of his eyes. Ezekiel 24: 15-27 describes this experience. God is denied paternal joy because of “the woman who left him.” Israel is in a similar situation due to its disobedience. They have departed from Him who is their heavenly Father. The prophet experiences all this in a physical sense and gets a deeper understanding of the message. It is easier to understand God and the reason why such a message is, but he also understands God’s feeling towards the people as well as the situation in which the people themselves are.
THE PROPHET IN THE PRAYER OF ADVOCACY
The prophet who was sent must become similar in character, the same as the one who sent him. We as God’s prophetic people are a reflection of His character here on earth. The mind of Christ is in us. Christ’s behavior is our behavior. Can you imagine Jesus walking the streets today walking irritated by “stupid, immoral people”, commenting on their behavior, dressing, smoking … with contempt? Unfortunately, most of us Christians treat the lost world that way. Before few for months I personally had to fail that exam to reveal the thoughts of my heart. While driving the car, a young man ran in front of my car in a place where he was not allowed to. I braked, the child flew from the back seat to the floor and of course, I reacted. But how? “Why don’t you watch out, monkey ?!” Before I uttered this last word I felt a struggle within me but I allowed my human pride to react before Christ’s mind and Spirit. Immediately after that, thoughts came to me: “Could I now say to that same young man – ‘God loves you and wants to save you – monkeys !?’” How do true prophets react?
When Ezekiel received the message of God’s judgment on the people in Ezekiel 9: 1-7, he in vv. 8 cries out in his compassion for the people and prays to God for mercy. “Will you really destroy all that is left of Israel?” Some would say, “That’s exactly what they need, they deserve it.” But God’s prophets know God’s heart and feel with those of whom they are a part. Moses in Deuteronomy 32:19 expresses his anger at the sin that the people committed by throwing the plaques in anger, but in the thirty-second chapter 30-32 he shows that he cares that the people do not perish and convert, that they are saved. He does not stand out as the only righteous one, but takes the sin of the people and goes before God to represent the people.
Moses cared about the people. Strange? To a nation like this? Yes, because God cares too. What were we like when Christ died for us? Moses goes a step further and in Deuteronomy 12:13 he prays for those who have personally offended him. He does not rejoice in God’s judgment on them, but cries out for mercy on such. The apostles were to begin their ministry from Jerusalem because the city needed the gospel urgently to give Christ’s murderers a first chance at forgiveness. Hallelujah; it is the love of the Father, the prophet and … yes, yours and mine!
1 Samuel 7,5 shows another prophet of God in action who relentlessly demands the removal of sin from God’s people, but at the same time goes to represent that same people before God. God’s hatred of sin has taken over the whole prophet’s heart and is manifested in the sharpness of the message, but God’s love has mastered him to the extent that he is ready, like Moses, to be erased from the book of life if God destroys the people.
Jesus is certainly the best example. He came into the world and brought the shortest and clearest prophetic message: “He who is not with me is against me”, but he did not come to trample on enemies but to love them and not only to love them, but to identify to the extent of man’s condition. he became a sin himself and died for everyone, even his enemy.
Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan and to save people and even those who were possessed by Satan himself. He felt sorry for the people. Ezekiel felt sorry for God’s temple, which was full of sin, and he wanted, like God, to see a pure temple full of glory. The message of Ezekiel is a message to today’s Church! The temple of God (and that is us) is in the final stages of construction. Are we sorry for the situation he is in? Do we weep over Christ’s divided Body. Do we hate our theological egocentrism that keeps other children of God at a distance? Are we satisfied with life in the churches of “our company” full of the sins of this world, with the fervent expectation that those who do not believe will be judged by God as proof that they have the
wrong doctrine? Let us examine whether we do not have hearts filled with Pharisaic righteousness and Jonah’s motive. People of God, Ezekiel has a message for us today! He is a sign and a challenge to us, like other prophets.
Let us repent and allow the Holy Spirit to form the mind of Christ and His love for ALL our brothers and sisters and for the lost world. If you think that the Lord is calling you to be a prophet, be sure to check the motive of your heart, because without the willingness to pray for the people in love, you have no right to say to Him, “Thus saith the Lord.” And, we, the prophetic people, do we just speak to this world or do we pray with the zeal of Christ – the zeal of His prophets, for the world? One demands the other !!!
IZVORI, 5/1984.