THE Story, OUR Story: Prophets and Losses

The Story So Far

Today as we turn to our message we’re continuing in our series examining the story of the Bible and trying to find our place in that story. So far we’ve seen the promising start of humanity, it’s crowning achievement being placed in the Garden of Eden as the image of God in the holy of holies. But then we’ve seen how quickly sin and disobedience marred the intimate relationship between humans and God. We’ve seen then how God started over again and again, first with Noah and his family, then with Abraham and Sarah’s family. We saw how God rescued the people from Abraham that became Israel at the Exodus. We’ve seen how God formed a nation, really married a people, at Mt. Sinai and gave them the Law. Then we witnessed God giving Israel the Promised Land as their inheritance to live and prosper. But the people quickly forgot about God and fell deeper and deeper into a cycle of sin and repentance that culminated in them asking for a human king like the other nations.

God honored this request, even though it was not the way things should be in Israel—God, after all, was to be the real King of Israel. And then we witnessed how the idea of kingship was implemented in Israel. Saul, Israel’s first king was something of an object lesson in “how not to rule Israel.” He was prideful, disobedient, and did not pay close attention to the Lord’s word. David however, no matter how flawed and sinful—and he was—always remembered the Lord and returned to his way. God made a promise to David—and his entire family—that there would never cease to be a ruler from David’s line on the throne. And all looked good as David’s son Solomon took the throne in Israel. Solomon’s wealth, wisdom, and political power surpassed even David’s wildest dreams. But soon that power, that wealth, began to overcome the wisdom Solomon prized. His marriages to cement political alliances introduced the worship of foreign gods into Israel—and even Solomon began to participate in this pagan worship.

After Solomon’s death, things began to go from bad to worse. Solomon’s son Rehoboam was an insecure man and not much gifted in wisdom. He failed to listen to the advice of his elders and instead followed the advice of his friends and oppressed the people of Israel by increasing their burdens. This led to the Kingdom of Israel being permanently split. Rehoboam would retain control of just two of the twelve tribes of Israel and a new nation—confusingly called Israel—was born. Jeroboam the son of Nebat was given—by God no less—the same promise as David. If he ruled the northern ten tribes well there would never cease to be a descendent of his on the throne of Israel. But neither king did well. Judah, the new name of the Southern Kingdom went downhill. And Jeroboam, insecure at the prospect of people going to Judah to worship, set up his own idols, golden calves, for people to worship.

Enter the Prophets

Thus, God was none too pleased at the situation in both Judah and in Israel. What was God going to do? I think I know what I would do at this point. Honestly, I think after all of this labor trying to give birth to a people that would restore the mission of humanity in the world to be light and hope—and then promptly seeing it fail in every way imaginable, I think at this point I’d just give up—and maybe take up a hobby and retire.

But thankfully, I’m not God. God remains faithful to God’s promises even in the midst of rampant human unfaithfulness. And God has now made many unbreakable promises in Scripture—we call these “Covenants.” God promised never to destroy the world by flood to Noah, he promised to make a great people in a great land and bless the nations through them to Abraham. He promised his presence and steadfast love to Israel through Moses. And he promised David a never-ending line of kingship.

But how was God going to accomplish these purposes if the people would never uphold their side of the agreement? Is it really a relationship if only one person is doing the work?

And that is precisely where the Prophets of Israel come in. You see, too often we view prophets as primarily people who engage in the art of prediction. We look at the prophets merely as people who tell Israel what will happen in the future. Especially, we search the prophetic literature looking for things that point us to Jesus and what will happen at the end of time in the coming of the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are indeed all of these things in the Bible. There are hundreds of prophetic statements that deal with the future and hundreds that deal with the coming of Messiah that find their fulfillment in Jesus. And yes, there are even prophecies that relate to the Second Coming of Jesus and what will happen at the end of time.

But with our modern tendency only to look at the future, we have failed to grasp what is central to the message of the prophets. You see, the main role of the prophet was not to speak of the future. No, the main role of the prophet was to speak TO the present. To call Israel back from the brink of annihilation and towards the Covenant. In a real way, the role of the prophet was what we might call a “Law Enforcement Officer!” They called Israel again and again to the keeping of the Law of Moses, to watching out for the weak, the oppressed and the outcast. And they denounced excess, oppression, hoarding of wealth and resources. In short, the prophets enforced the love of God and the love of neighbor. And that should sound familiar because Jesus picks that up as the summary of the entirety of the Law of Moses.

Deuteronomy 18

And the premise of prophecy in Israel is found explicitly right in the Law of Moses in Deuteronomy 18. God, speaking through Moses, tells the people that after the death of Moses God will raise up people in Israel with the gift of prophecy. These people, like Moses will guard and keep the people by calling them repeatedly to obey the Law of Moses. These prophets should be listened to. They should be obeyed because they speak for God.

But how can Israel test a prophet? The answer is actually quite simple. If the prophet tells you something and it doesn’t come about, do not fear the word of that prophet. But you had better watch out if the prophecies that are spoken come to pass. For in that person the Lord has spoken and this prophet carries the mantle of authority passed down from Moses.

But just who are the prophets? How is a prophet made? What does a prophet do?

Well, the best way to answer those questions is to read the Scriptures and find some examples of prophets and see how they ministered. Today we see three prophets in our Scriptures. We see, of course, Moses, who speaks in Deuteronomy. Then we meet Elijah, one of the most famous prophets in all of Israel. You can read about his story in the books of the Kings. And finally we meet a man by the name of Micaiah, a more obscure prophet but one that has a great lesson for us.

Moses

From Moses we learn that a prophet is a real person who is called by God into a special ministry. We know Moses’ story pretty well, right? Moses met God at the burning bush and was consecrated there for a special mission—to go to Pharaoh and speak God’s word to let God’s people go. And we also know that Moses served as a kind of intermediary figure between Israel and God too, right? God spoke to Moses and then Moses told the people what God had revealed.

In much the same way, the biblical prophets spoke the word they had received from the Lord. And each prophet has a story of how they came to be called by God. Many of these we find in the Bible like the call story of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. But some prophets, like Jonah or Micaiah, who we’ll meet later, aren’t explicit in the Bible. But we know that one criteria of prophecy is a specific commission by God to speak to the people.

Elijah

One of the people we don’t learn a great deal about their prophetic call is the great Prophet Elijah. We know that he is from a place called Tishbi and we know that he was a perpetual thorn in the side of certain kings. But we’re not as sure about when or where he received the call from God to be a prophet.

But what we do learn from Elijah is that being a prophet in Israel was not for the faint at heart. Being a prophet often meant that you must speak truth to power and oftentimes that power had the ability to punish and persecute.

Let’s look at two incidents in which Elijah plays a central role. Both of these stories concern the King of Israel named Ahab and his wife, Queen Jezebel. And they are both challenges to the power of God as the true King of Israel.

The first passage, one we’ve seen before, is the classic battle of the gods. Elijah, a lone Israelite prophet, challenges 400 prophets of the Phoenician storm and fertility god Baal to a contest of deities. In this challenge it will be decided just who is God—is it Baal or is it Yahweh?

And to make matters more interesting—besides the fact that it is one against 400, Elijah ups the ante by dousing his offerings not once, not twice, but three times with water. We all know that wet wood doesn’t burn.

But God...

God steps in and immediately sets the offering on fire. But what about Baal’s offering? It remains raw and no fire has fallen.

And to add insult to injury, Elijah starts taunting and teasing the prophets of Baal. Maybe Baal is on a journey, maybe he’s busy elsewhere, or, as our translation says maybe Baal is deep in thought…what that term “deep in thought” means in Hebrew is that maybe Baal is in the bathroom. There is some comedy in the Bible as well, if a bit crude. But I digress. The main point here is that Elijah not only wins the contest, but he rubs God’s power right in their noses.

And then, amazingly this contest becomes a military conflict as one man, Elijah, slays all 400 prophets of God. You see, false prophecy and idolatry in Israel, according to the covenant, were offences punishable by death. And the prophets role was to enforce that covenant. As harsh as this sounds, it is consistent with the promises that Israel herself agreed to at Sinai and to which these so-called prophets of Baal should have been aware.

But our second incident follows on the heels of the first. As soon as Ahab and Jezebel hear about the death of the precious prophets they plot revenge. Elijah hears about the plot and runs away for his life.

But God takes care of God’s prophets. Because part of the course of being a prophet is that they often faced persecution. They often did without the basics of food, clothing, and shelter. And when you speak truth to power, especially power wielded by selfish people bent on enforcing their own will rather than God’s will, you are bound to end up making some enemies. In fact, for most of the prophets in Israel, like the martyrs of the early church, their end is not always pleasant. Sometimes they were killed, sometimes imprisoned. Jesus tells Israel that how she has treated her prophets is a stunning indictment on how they view and treat God—indeed how they have, in essence, rejected God.

But in this incident we see God providing a few things for Elijah. God gives Elijah rest. God gives Elijah food and water. God gives him a breather too—forty days and nights in peace, and in the Bible the number 40 is often used for preparation for a mission. And finally, God gives Elijah the gift of his very presence. God doesn’t speak in the storm, not in the whirlwind, not in the flood, not in the earthquake. But rather, God speaks in a whisper. But a whisper from the mouth of God is enough, Amen? And Elijah goes away strengthened.

Micaiah

And this idea of encountering the very presence of God is central to the entire concept of prophecy in the Bible. Our last story, the story of Micaiah, illustrates this well. Now here we have yet another encounter with Ahab but not just Ahab but also the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat.

You see, Ahab wants to attack his neighbor Aram and he wants Jehoshaphat to join him. Jehoshaphat agrees on the condition that they consult a prophet. Now Ahab has stocked his court with a bunch of “yes men” who tell the king what he wants to hear. That whatever he puts his hands to will proper.

But kudos to the King of Judah, he doesn’t quite buy it. He asks if there are any other prophets around. Reluctantly, Ahab reports that there is one more, Micaiah, but he only ever tells Ahab bad stuff, so you might not want to hear from him.

The court prophets tell Micaiah what they’ve been saying to the king in an effort to get him to say what the king wants to hear but Micaiah is having none of it.

Instead, Micaiah shares his vision of God’s heavenly court, the Divine Council, where God makes decisions. You see, a real prophet has access to God’s own inner sanctum. A real prophet has been called to the Divine Council, indeed, in a way, is made part of that Divine Council, and is in charge of making the decisions of God with his heavenly court known to the people.

And Micaiah does. He tells Ahab that his whole idea has been planted by God through a deceptive spirit to bring about his downfall. Of course, Ahab doesn’t like what he hears and shoves Micaiah in prison.

But guess what? Ahab meets a bloody end, and so does his wife Jezebel. What’s more, God, through the ministry of Elijah and Micaiah among others brings about the death of not only the king and queen but his entire family. In Israel, if you play with unholy fire, you get burnt. And often not just you but those you have involved in your apostasy as well.

This is where we are going to leave things this week. A kingdom divided. God raising up prophets calling the people to obey the Law of Moses, to side with the weak, the downtrodden, the oppressed. To seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. Will Israel listen or will they go even deeper? Will Judah listen or will they too turn away? Stay tuned, more to come next week.