The Prophet's Work

Day 60: 2 Samuel 11–15; Jeremiah 37–42; Ephesians 4–6

When I was a kid there was a door to door vacuum cleaner salesman who visited our home on a few occasions.  My dad enjoyed visiting and talking to strangers so he'd have him all over the house cleaning the couches, bed mattresses, curtains, carpets, you name it.  But this particular guy got to talking about the end of the world coming soon.  He left us pamphlets from his church on how Jesus was coming back by 1978.  They had deciphered the codes within Revelation and other prophecies and concluded that life as we know it will end and the new unadulterated reign of God would then begin.

I have an opinion people who tell me the world is coming to an end on "such and such" date.  They have made these kind of predictions for a few thousand years and every one of them have been wrong.  I think Jesus said that not even he knew the date, only the Father (Mt. 24:36; Acts. 1:7).  It's best to obey what Jesus commanded and not spend an awful lot of time trying to figure out a date for the end of the ages of this current world. Be a witness to the gospel in words and actions of love.  

A prophet is misunderstood as a fortune teller or one who gives predictions of the future.  A prophet may indeed give a prediction of a future event, but a prophet's primary role is to speak a timely word to the people on God's behalf.  They are sent by God to deliver a message from Him.  These messages confront and confound.  These messages comfort and restore hope.  Whatever the Lord may wish to say it what the prophet speaks for God's explicit purpose.

When a prophet gets to speaking words that do not come from God, but from their own minds, they end up speaking words that please their benefactors. 

Jeremiah faced false prophets who served King Zedekiah in Jerusalem.  They discounted Jeremiah's warnings that Jerusalem will be destroyed and the king handed over to the Babylonian king.  They comforted with peace and assurance.  Jeremiah told them the brute facts, "God is fed up with your adulteries. He has handed you over for destruction."  Who do you want to believe? 

Nathan was a prophet in the time of King David.  David was blessed by the Lord. All Israel enjoyed safety and prosperity.  Every skirmish with enemies on their borders lead to victory. David noticed the ark of the covenant in a tent while he lived in beautiful palace.  He longed to make God a temple. Nathan told David, "Do what you will, the Lord is with you."  And so He was. God was moved by David's desire to honor Him with a building for His Name.  But clearly God doesn't need one.  He is just fine meeting Israel in the tabernacle tent He instructed Moses to construct.  But He rewards David's genuine love and desire to honor God by promising him to keep the throne forever.  It is the first inclination of an everlasting covenant between God and the sons of David.  From David will come kings through the generations of the nation of Israel.  One will be Messiah with an everlasting kingdom.

David sent messengers to Rabbath when the Ammonite king died to offer his consolations to the succeeding son.  But the Ammonites suspected treachery and assumed the men were spies, so they abused and humiliated them.  David sent Joab and the army against the Ammonites.  While David stayed back in Jerusalem, he saw Bathsheba bathing and desired her.  He used his authority as king and sent for her and laid with her even though she was the wife one of his soldiers.  She got pregnant.  In order to hide his sin, he sent for her husband from the battlefield.  He pretended to send for Uriah the Hittite for a report form the battle against the Ammonites when what David really wanted was for Uriah to go home and sleep with his wife and the baby would be considered his own.  Uriah thought it lacked integrity to enjoy the comforts of home and the pleasure of his wife while his comrades in arms and the ark of the covenant lay in tents out on the open terrain.  He refused to go home to his wife.  David sent him back to the front lines with a sealed message to Joab instructing him to place Uriah at the fiercest place in the battle and pull back from him allowing the Ammonites to slay the husband of Bathsheba.

And so David murdered Uriah to hide his adultery.  Nathan the prophet came to David and told him a story of a rich man with lots of flocks who took form a poor man his only sheep to slaughter and serve to travelers.  David was enraged and said the rich man would pay fourfold!  Nathan then dropped the boom.  "You are that man (2 Sam. 12:7)!"

The prophet served God and David both.  David knew he had been found out.  He knew his sin and rather than try and defend himself or downplay his guilt he simply confessed, "I have sinned against the Lord (2 Sam. 12:13)."  David fasted and prayed and hoped God would show mercy for God demanded the life of the bastard child.  The child died.  David accepted the judgement on his household.

"You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife—you murdered him with the Ammonites' sword. Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house because you despised Me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife (2 Sam. 12:9b-10)."

Nathan's work helped David, difficult as it was, to know that even he as the beloved king of Israel will not go unpunished for sin.  God did not strike him dead, nor did God break His covenant with David.  David remained loyal to Yahweh and did not lead Israel to worship any other gods.  David would write this psalm in his contrition.

Wash away my guilt,
    and cleanse me from my sin.
    For I am conscious of my rebellion,
    and my sin is always before me.
    Against You—You alone—I have sinned
    and done this evil in Your sight.
    So You are right when You pass sentence;
    You are blameless when You judge.
   Indeed, I was guilty [when I] was born;
    I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
God, create a clean heart for me
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Psa. 51:2-5, 10)

A prophet confronts a king or ruler about past events to correct the path and help them to turn away from sin and turn back to obedience.  But a king like Zedekiah does not listen.  He would rather kill Jeremiah or imprison him for his prophecies of doom.  Jeremiah is beaten, thrown in stocks, cast down into a muddy miry well, and kept under the watch of guards in the courts of the palace as a prisoner.  But his message doesn't change.  God will hand the city over to the sword, famine and plague.  Jerusalem will burn and King Zedekiah are going to be taken away by the king of Babylon.

And to people wishing to run away to Egypt, Jeremiah warns them not to go. It is the Lord's will for the remnant left by the Babylonians to stay, plant, tend the land and await restoration. Sadly many do not heed the prophet's warning.  One of David's descendants, Ishamel, son of Nethaniah, attacks and kills the man the Babylonians place in charge of Judah, Gedaliah.  The people are afraid.

And Paul, though he is an apostle of Jesus, the son of David and the Messiah of God, he too has a prophet's work.  After spending half of his letter to the Ephesians telling them about what God has done and is doing in Jesus, and what blessings it means for them, he then tells them how to live in light of the good news.

Life a life worthy of your calling! Seek unity in the church for there is one God, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism to which we all belong.  The Lord made some members of his church to serve as prophets (Eph 4:11). Paul taught that next to love, prophesying was the next best spiritual gift to build up the church (1 Cor. 14:1-4).  So speaking has a wonderful power for the people of God.  We can bless and encourage or we can curse and discourage.  Paul told the Ephesians,

"No rotten talk should come from your mouth, but only what is good for the building up of someone in need, in order to give grace to those who hear (Eph 4:29)."

Don't lie, but speak the truth. And coarse talk, foolish talk and crude jokes are not appropriate for the speech of Christians (Eph. 4:25; 5:4).  Instead we are to use our mouths to give thanks to God, sing His praises.  We are to be filled with God's Holy Spirit and speak to one another psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19).  All this is intended for building up the other. We serve one another in love just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us (Eph 5:2).

Paul's writings are now the Christian's scripture. God speaks through him still today.  Just as Paul reminds the early churches of their calling in Christ, we today need correction and instruction so that we are helped to know when we are sinning and not pleasing the Lord.  Then we can repent and turn in the right direction.  Paul's ministry lead him to much resistance as Jeremiah before him in ages past.  But he message wrings out.  And today God calls men and women to prophesy on His behalf confronting sin and comforting the oppressed.  And they too face resistance. For as Paul taught the Ephesians the same is true for today's people of God.

"Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens (Eph 6:12)."

These wicked spirits rebel against God's work to recreate the fallen creation.  These agents of chaos wreak havoc and use the weak willed and the self indulgent for their destructive ends.  The gospel will be resisted. Resistance comes in the face of well intentioned priests, preachers, teachers and educators, politicians and people who say, "why can't we all just get along?"  And it will come from brutes who care nothing for God or humanity.   But those who know "the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength (Eph. 1:19) will stand fast with the full armor of God and pray at all times. 

Lord. may all you call to speak on your behalf not fear the flesh and blood opponents, nor the spiritual wickedness behind them.  Equip and empower Your prophets to speak truthfully and in love with all boldness and passion convicting sinners until they turn and become comforting saints. Amen.