Where Have All the Prophets Gone?
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We’ve been working our way through the Old Testament in our Casket Empty Series. Last week we did a fly over of the Northern Kingdom, which after several kings ended due to the sins of Israel including the walking in the customs of the nations, the building of high places and worshipping of idols in every place. God had repeatedly warned Israel through the prophets, but they ignored the warnings and God remembered his judgment. Today we’re going to begin a fly over of the Southern Kingdom.
Now you may remember that God had said to Solomon (the son of David and heir to David’s throne) that he would rip the kingdom from his grasp. Why was this told to him? Because Solomon had married foreign women and worshipped their gods. It was after Solomon had died that his son Rehoboam became king and the kingdom divided.
The northern kingdom was made up of 10 tribes and began under the leadership of Jeroboam, and the kingdom at this time is not entirely out of the hands of Solomon’s lineage in that Rehoboam is king over the tribes of Judah and Benjamin along with the priestly tribe of Levi. This southern kingdom is often referred to as Judah, so you have the two kingdoms of Israel to the north, and Judah to the south.
Unfortunately Rehoboam is no better than Jeroboam to the north. He too establishes pagan practices like the surrounding nations, including the worship of foreign gods and the establishment of cult prostitutes.
Unlike their counterparts to the north where one king after another does what is evil in God’s sight, in the southern kingdom there are a few kings who serve God faithfully, such as Asa, Jehosaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. But even in the southern kingdom, most of the kings do that which is evil in God’s sight.
Much like the northern kingdom, God sends prophets to the people of the southern kingdom, calling the kings and the people to turn from evil and pronouncing judgment that will come upon them if they don’t repent. God raises Isaiah, and Micah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and others. Jeremiah and Ezekiel expose Judah’s sin in awful detail.
“They even describe Israel in the north and Judah in the south as two ‘sisters” who are ‘harlots” because they have foreign gods as their lovers.”
Over and over again prophets like Isaiah try and remind Israel and Judah of who their God is - the one who brought them out of Egypt, the One who had made covenant with them, and the One they continue to seemingly spurn with their turning to other idols.
Our Scripture today is an example of one of those reminders from Isaiah:
To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?
An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains.
He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.
Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.
This is the word of the Lord,
Thanks Be to God.
You don’t see these much anymore, but does anyone know what these are?
They’re not sticks of dynamite. They are Road flares.
When lit, they’re very bright, they last a while, though not forever - about 30 minutes is all. I’d light one, but I think if I even attempted I’d be tackled by our resident fireman to protect us from all going up in smoke. They even warn you to keep them away from flammable materials. They show up well both at night and even during the day they can be used. I remember when I was younger, as you came upon a road accident, or a car that was disabled along the side of the road, you would often first come upon these. It was a warning to slow down and to be cautious. There were hazards up ahead. Now it seems the warning is simply a bright orange triangle set up a few feet behind the vehicle.
Not much warning when you’re traveling 88 feet each second down the interstate. But road flares…they show up at a great distance.
When I was a kid I thought road flares were really cool. The flame so bright, but not yellow like a regular fire, it was bright red. One time I even had the opportunity to ski down what’s now known as West Summit at Snoqualmie in a torch light parade for the previous owner’s birthday.
It was a really fun experience.
Now days we have LED torches that work well too, but I still like the mystique of the road flares.
Much like the torches that we might have as a road flare, the prophets were warnings to the people of Israel and Judah.
Last week we read that Jeroboam king of the northern kingdom set up golden calves for sacrifice at Bethel and Dan. And as I shared that I asked the question, did they learn nothing from their past? Remember when Moses was up meeting with God on Sinai? Aaron is down below and the people get restless so he has them bring him their gold and he fashions a golden calf for them to worship. This is happening at the same time as Moses is receiving the 10 commandments among which are, “You shall have no other Gods before me” and “You shall not make for yourself an idol”.
Now as we’re reading in Isaiah and he’s reminding the people of the southern kingdom again. He’s the road flare flashing - Warning! Don’t go there! Danger! Danger!
And more than that he is pointing to the futility of it all.
To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.
The people of Judah are reminded these idols that they are worshiping they don’t move. They are inanimate objects that they themselves created.
And then the questions that remind them of their history and their relationship with God:
Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It was the Creator God who laid the foundations of the earth. It was their creator God who created them. Just as this God would not worship them, why would they bow down to something they created?
Yet that is precisely what they do when they worship their idols, they worship something of their own creation instead of the Lord of all creation.
Others of the time worshipped the creation - the high places, the mountains and what was found in nature, not unlike today. Yet again, this is not worshipping the creator God.
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
Yet how often are we distracted by such emptiness. We worship wealth in money or things. Our culture is obsessed with sex and we follow along. We bow down to and seek after power.
If only there were road flares to alert us of the danger. If only there were prophets that could speak to us again and help us steer clear of the dangers that have been plaguing humanity since the Fall back in Genesis.
There are. There are.
We still have the words of the prophets of old. We still have God’s Word to His people.
We have God’s Word made flesh - Jesus the Christ.
Yet, too often we don’t pay attention to the alerts to danger, the prophets, God’s Word, the road flares in our life. We charge full on ahead.
Prophets among us
Prophets among us
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had a meeting with a sister or brother in Christ seeking to make changes in their life. I’ve never heard one of them say anything like:
“I’m going to build a monument and offer sacrifices to it.”
Yet sometimes we do, don’t we?
Most of the time I hear things like:
“So I’ve been reading my Bible more and...”
“I’ve been praying more...”
“I quit ____________ because I know it’s not what God would want.”
“I’m making the choice to go towards God.”
So often we want our lives to be good and then we say we’ll follow God. That’s exactly opposite of how we’re designed. We follow God and our lives are good, because that is how we were designed.
Jesus said, Mt 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
The road flares and prophets are among us. Let’s not get lost following after the idols.
Amen.