It’s no easy business being a prophet.
If you look around, you might get a different impression altogether, but yes, it is not a business at all and indeed it ought not to be. That leaves us with “easy” and clearly, it is not that either.
For example, take something very simple like naming your new born son. With all the wonderful array of monosyllabic, bi-syllabic, modern, movie-star, stylish, Sanskritish names dangling tantalizingly from Google, you must be a stick-in-the-mud buffoon to pick a moniker like Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. Yet, God tells Isaiah (Isaiah 8:3) to do just that. “Quick loot, fast plunder” ( something that might resonate with Robin Hood) sounds extremely hilarious until you consider that the name foretells the spoiling of Syria and Samaria by the king of Assyria. Meaning aside, what a pain it will be in the various stages of life for the boy – starting with the birth certificate, through school register, passport, PAN card?
Imagine the first day at school for instance:
“What’s your name sonny boy? “
“Maher-Shalal-Hash…….”
“That’s quite enough. We’ll call you Mash.”
Laughter all around.
That was also the last day of school for little Maher, for he never went back .
Man, you don’t even have the freedom to name your son! Poor Maher – does he really have to bear the burden of the socio-geo-politico milieu of the day, in the way he is called? Not fair.
Isaiah didn’t ask those questions. In one sense, he didn’t have the freedom.
He was a prophet.
Now Hosea may have been a minor prophet but there is a major ask from God: “Go marry a prostitute” (Hosea 1:2). Why?
Because the land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.
OMG! What’s that got to do with whom I marry?
And Brother, how would you like your breakfast of barley cake baked?
“On human dung” (Ezek. 4:12).
“Too polluted for your saintly mouth Ezekiel? OK, you can have cow’s dung instead (Ezek. 4:15). Happy”?
Prophet, he may have been, but you can be reasonably sure that the same Ezekiel did not see far enough into the twenty first century to learn the findings of studies that sleeping on your left side does you a world of good. No, he did not know then that “left-side sleeping keeps the junction between stomach and esophagus above the level of gastric acid” and was somehow better than “right-side sleeping which relaxes the lower esophageal sphincter, between the stomach and the esophagus”( Credit: Blog on the subject by Tara Parker-Pope, The New York Times dt.25 Oct.2010 ). All he knew was that the Lord asked him to bear the iniquity of the house of Israel by lying on his left side for 390 days and to do the same for Judah – this time on the right side – for a much shorter period of 40 days (Ezek. 4:4-6).
No surprises there. God knew that alright, that the left is better than the right!
But pity the poor prophet – can’t even turn over in his sleep! No freedom, not even in bed.
Can it get any worse?
Sorry folks, it can and it does. The squeamish might want to skip this section.
At that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot (Isaiah 20:2) (NIV).Mercifully we are spared video images in Vimeo and YouTube of this three year long spectacle.
Isaiah was not the only non-voluntary nudist. Listen to what God tells Jeremiah: “Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a cleft of the rock” (Jer. 13:4).
Yuck!
You think you had enough? Brace yourselves for a bombshell.
“Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men. So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded” (Ezek. 24:16-18 ).
Everything a sign, every thing a portent. No life of your own. Your biography a parable; your story a proverb. Not only your mouth but the rest of your body is under God’s control as well. Not just for you, but there is no independence for your wife and children as well.
The surrender is to be total.
Want to be a prophet, anybody?
It is quite amazing that several men and women of God around us actually do! So glibly do they take on the title of prophet and proclaim themselves as such with beatific smiles from sundry corner billboards – nonchalantly venturing on to ground even angels fear to tread! Is it the same breed that Jesus speaks out against? “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long” (Matthew 23:5)(NIV). Some times I wonder.
Contrast this cavalier attitude with the intensity of struggle faced by prophets of yore. As we’ve already seen, they bore with fortitude a great deal in the name of God whom they served, but perennial rejection was a little too much for them. So it was that when Amaziah the priest acting on behalf of Jeroboam, the king of Israel asked Amos to get the hell out of his country and go peddle his wares in Judah instead, he protested:”I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs (Amos 7:14) (New American Standard Bible).
Leave me alone!!
Big guns like Jeremiah couldn’t say that, for he did come from a family of priests (Jer. 1:1). But in the face of continual rejection of a lifelong mission of cautioning the people of God, he too couldn’t take it anymore, particularly as time and time again he was subjected to cruel imprisonment and severe suffering for the crime of speaking out in God’s name.
“O LORD, you misled me, and I allowed myself to be misled…….. Now I am mocked every day; everyone laughs at me” (Jer. 20:7) (NIV), he cries.
“Why was I born?” he screams (Jer. 20:18). And he even makes a desperate attempt to give it all up, quietly return home, claim his share of the family property and possibly live pastorally outside the lime light. Only to get caught at the Benjamin Gate (Jer. 37: 12-13).
Now, there is one thing even worse than rejection for a prophet of God.
He doesn’t like to be called a liar.
Now if you are a false prophet, that is not so much of a problem. You are kind of used to people calling you that from time to time, for your prophecies don’t pan out. Even then, you got to protest for the sake of your public image.
Broadly speaking, there are two schools for prophets: The Samuel School of Divine Revelation and the Mammon Institute of Misleading People. The courses are pretty much similar in both places but the latter offers some extra credits in subjects like Sycophancy and Drama.
Thankfully, there is no dearth of graduates of the former school in the Bible but products of the latter institute are not to be ignored either; their role is pretty instructive as well. In fact sometimes it is difficult to tell who is who. That should not surprise anyone for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14) (NIV). And there are instances galore of original Samuel school guys suddenly and inexplicably behaving like MIMPians!
In our blog post on Jehoshaphat (Thirteenth Page: With due respect Jehoshaphat, aren’t you Crazy to put the Choir in the Vanguard?), the performance of Zedekiah, vividly illustrates this point.
Zedekiah stands in the open court of king Ahab as the latter contemplates a fatal misadventure. The Bible says: And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron: and he said, Thus saith the LORD, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have consumed them (1 Kings. 12:11).
(credit:lincoln.lib.niu.edu)
O what drama complete with props and all! (While taking nothing away from Zinedine Zidane’s midfield creativity, I suspect this guy Zedekiah was the inspiration for the infamous head butting incident staged by the French captain in 2006 FIFA World Cup)
(credit:www.theage.com.au)
And how comforting seems the soothing salve of sycophancy that would send king Ahab of Israel to his doom at Ramothgilead! And there was a chorus of no fewer than 399 voices to back him up to boot– apparently MIMP was a pretty popular place for aspiring prophets!
And when the Lord’s man Micaiah standing in a minority of one (as opposed to the herd on the other side) dared to suggest that Zedekiah might be faking it, there was more drama: slap, biting sarcasm ( please trace the route map of the Spirit of God from me to you(2 Chr. 18:23)) – in short the whole works.
Let’s look at another (un)worthy graduate from MIMP:
In the fifth month of that same year, the fourth year, early in the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, who was from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people:“This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the articles of the Lord’s house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon removed from here and took to Babylon. I will also bring back to this place Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and all the other exiles from Judah who went to Babylon,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon’ (Jer. 28:1-4).
Now this ran contrary to everything that Prophet Jeremiah was saying day in day out for so many years. Jeremiah’s response to this patently false prophecy is a priceless lesson in Christian conduct in such situations. First of all, he listened patiently and thereafter wished that the good that Hananiah foresaw would come true, even praying that the Lord would prove Hananiah right. But when Hananiah started to get dramatic (one of the signs of falsity as we noted earlier), Jeremiah was obliged to expose him (Jer. 28:10,11,15).
But as we observed in Jehoshaphat, picking out a false prophet is never easy. For starters, false prophets do not look any different from real ones. They do not carry a placard declaring themselves fake. On the other hand, they all look alike – with beards and robes flowing, appearance pious, expressions lugubrious, eyes distant and tone sonorous.
The fakes are eventually exposed when their prophesies bomb but how do we tell the tares from the wheat in real time? We can’t do better than be guided by Jesus. He said: “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one” (Matt. 5:37). This might well be an echo of the cautionary words found in Jeremiah, that it is best to simply ask,”what has the Lord spoken?” rather than employ grandiose terms like “burden of the Lord” (Jer. 15:34-35). If you see prophecy uttered with undue exaggeration, drama, schmaltz, passion or emotion – they may be the signals of falsity, as indeed was the case with Zedekiah and Hananiah.
But what is the problem with these guys? Where did they go wrong?
It appears the seeds of their failure as God’s truthful messengers were sown when they did not spend enough time in the presence of the Lord, when they slipped up in studying the word of God. “For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD?” comes the question from the Lord God Himself (Jer. 23:18) . And He goes on to state that had they taken the trouble or rather the effort, the results would have been quite different (Jer. 23:22).
The Lord’s remarks on the vital necessity of possessing His word are just as telling. If you don’t have enough of the word, the space is taken up by wind (Jer. 5:13). Whatever you speak in such a state is pure gas!
Contrast this with the hunger and thirst displayed by Jeremiah for the word. “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts” (Jer. 15:16).
How do you treat the word of God, with scant regard or reverent fear? Remember the word is like fire that burns in your soul, like hammer that breaks the rock – the hardest heart – in pieces (Jer. 15:29, Jer. 20:9). Do you take time to sit at His feet and gaze at His face?
Time to look at a sad little episode in the book of Jeremiah; we are moving ever closer to our provocative title! Let’s begin with a brief synopsis of the dreadful denouement:
The Babylonian army of king Nebuchadnezzar breaks into Jerusalem, king Zedekiah gets captured and is subjected to unspeakable cruelty, the king’s house is destroyed and the place is pretty much cleaned up by Nebuzaraddan, captain in the Chaldean army in accordance with the word of God through Jeremiah, Gedaliah is appointed Governor of the remnants who are joined by some returnees from Moab, Ammon and Edom, Jeremiah is at last home in the care of Gedaliah.
But misery upon misery, the good Governor Gedaliah (oh, sometimes good people are so, so naïve and therefore extremely vulnerable!) is assassinated by the war lord Ishmael. The desolate little flock of Israel that is left is scared, confused and totally bewildered. Johanan the son of Kareah with his band of associates and followers tries to bring some semblance of order.
They begin well, by seeking God’s face in prayer and supplication through His faithful servant Jeremiah (Jer. 42:2). They want to know God’s will; they want His guidance (Jer. 42:3).
But why go through Jeremiah? They could have approached God directly, right?
Yes, they could have as David did at every turn, but the custom of the day was mostly to approach God through His prophets, His agents. Fair enough we say, but there is something interesting here that shouldn’t escape our attention.
Whilst Johanan and company recognize and accept that they ought to come to the Lord God, they seem to enjoy no relationship with Him whatsoever. So much so, they plead with Jeremiah to pray to His God on their behalf. Why? Is He not their God as well?
Considering that God loved to be the God of Israel and has declared Himself so innumerable times, the problem seems to be with the people. For some reason or another, living for so long under successive regimes that rejected the One true God for wood and stone, the people lost touch with their redeemer. And God complains that He has been short changed (Jer. 2:11), forgotten (Jer. 2:32, 18:15).
The closeness has gone, alienation has crept in and the people have no longer the confidence to “own” their God. Suddenly He has become distant, unapproachable except through an agent.
Is that our condition? Have we lost the freedom to call Him “Abba, Father” and instead or we looking for intermediaries?
But Jeremiah is watchful; he listens to their every word carefully and in replying to them, he makes it a point to impress on the inquiring lot that He is very much their God too (Jer. 42:4). He embraces them; he includes them and subtly conveys the truth that God’s position remains unchanged; and in a space of a few verses (Jer. 42:6), he has seemingly won them over: “the Lord our God” they now say.
Take heart, people! He is our God.
Encouraged by Jeremiah’s wholesome response, the people vow to do whatever God says and pledge to obey His voice (Jer. 42:5-6).
Wonderful!
The Lord takes 10 days to answer.
Why so long? Surely the creator God who fashioned the earth in six days did not need a longer period to act in a matter like this?
Every day you wait, your faith should grow stronger – at least that is how God sees it, some of his servants have proved it in their lives. See what David says: ”Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD” (Psalms 27:14).
But it is not an interminable wait. God knows that you can only take so much. He knows that at some point the slope will begin to slide. He steps in at just the right moment. He knows when.
The question is what do we do in the interregnum?
Do we repeat the prayer multiple times or in various versions in the fear that perhaps God didn’t hear it or understand it right the first time? Jesus has something to say on the question in Matthew 6:7 .
Do we die every day with gnawing anxiety as to how God will deal with the situation? Paul tells us what to do in such a case in Philippians 4:6.
Do we get busy with planning and working leaning on our understanding – just in case God doesn’t come through? Check out Proverbs 3:5.
What were Johanan and company doing?
They were busy preparing to go to Egypt (Jer. 42:14) acting on a plan they had thought up even before they approached God (Jer. 41:17). Yes, they were determined to go to Egypt.
So what was the prayer all about? Your mouth says one thing while your heart lies elsewhere. Hypocrisy, lack of honesty and sincerity.
They came to the right place – God.
They approached the right person – Jeremiah, the prophet.
They raised the right prayer – seeking the will of God
They made the right promise – we will obey the voice of God whatever He says
Their heart however, was perverted.
And so when the answer does come, with the forceful words “So now, be sure of this: You will die by the sword, famine and plague in the place where you want to go to settle” (Jer. 42:22), they find it hard to accept.
For they had set their hearts on Egypt; that is where they wished to go, that is where they desired to settle.
Where do you want to go?
When the Lord lays out before you life and death, what will you choose?
It might look like a no-brainer, but still it is a choice one has to make.
But how to justify a wrong decision?
Find fault with the message. Blame the messenger.
Jeremiah, you are lying! (Jer. 43:2) (NLT).
Owning God – now the Lord becomes our God.
Shooting the messenger – Baruch the son of Neriah has set you against us (Jer. 43:3)
And who is this Baruch? Jeremiah’s scribe, faithful secretary (Jer. 36:4) – the guy who possibly wrote this amazing book for us as Jeremiah dictated.
The accusation was in effect: the tail was wagging the dog!
What a cruel thing to say to Jeremiah, ordained a prophet to the nations even before he was born (Jer. 1:5)!
(credit: Jewishsoftware.com)
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