Princes and prophets

I read about a scam recently. Someone will email 10,000 people to tell them they knew who would win a particular football match. Half of the envelopes would say one team, half of the envelopes would say the other. Once the game is played, 5000 people now believe you are good at guessing the results of a game. So, the scammer does it again. Predicts the outcome of a game next week and sends an email to half of those 5000 people saying one team will win, and to the other 2500, that their opponents will win. They get it right for half of them; now they have 2500 people who have seen them get two guesses right in a row. Do that two more times and you will have 650 people who have seen you guess four games in a row accurately. Then the fifth email says, “Send me your money and I will bet it on the game, and you can be sure I’ll know the outcome.” Of course, they disappear with your money once you give it to them. The scam works because it builds confidence in what will happen based on what the scammer has accurately predicted.

Most scams work similarly and for the same reason—people want to know what will happen in the future. While the future can be exciting—containing all kinds of unexpected surprises—its uncertainty can also be unsettling for many. People look at their horoscopes, visit psychics or watch the weather forecasts just to help understand the future so that they are not surprised by it. 

Life tends to not often let us get away with this unfortunately and sometimes seems to perversely delight in surprising us. I think God, being considerate of this, gives some people a little advanced knowledge. Those people have been described as having the gift of prophecy.  We often expect prophets to be able to see the future clearly for our benefit. But I never saw a prophet winning the lottery, so I suspect prophecy might serve some other purpose. So, if they aren’t here to make us rich, what are prophets for?

what?

First and foremost, God communicates with His people through them. In some way God lets someone know that He has a message for His people and gives it to those He has selected to share that message. 

who?

Hebrews 1:1 says,

“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways.”

God could speak in a dream as He did to Daniel when He showed him animals that represented the coming kingdoms in history (Daniel 2), or a vision like Isaiah who saw into God’s throne room (Isaiah 6), or maybe even as a still small voice like the one Elijah heard (1 Kings 19). 

why?

There seem to be several themes we see repeated in the messages prophets deliver. First, God sends prophets to His people when they forget about Him. He calls them back to true worship and away from worship of false deities that were being worshipped by the people living around them. Sometimes this message was given in dramatic acting out of messages in a prophet’s life. Hosea is told by God to marry a woman who would cheat on him as an object lesson to His people that were behaving in the same way toward God. God isn’t shy about telling people what could happen if they continue to reject Him and His protection. 

The second theme is of God calling His people back to Him. These messages call on God’s people to make amends for being unfaithful and come back to the love of God. Jeremiah passes on the message to return to God.

“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity” (Jeremiah 29:12–14). 

The third main theme is that God will one day return to save His people and that He will make a better world where they can live without fear, death, sickness or tears. He will make sure that justice is finally done and that everything wrong is put right. This is often called the “day of the Lord”; a day of judgement and justice.

The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord (Joel 2:31).

Great in its awe, dreadful for those receiving judgement—but ultimately full of hope for those who have suffered at the hands of evil. Those who belong to God will be healed and saved.

It is this third theme that draws a lot of attention as God will often describe events surrounding the future, some of which humanity has now lived through and can be confirmed to have come to pass. This is remarkable, because between you and I, the horoscope never seemed to mean anything, but biblical prophecy turning into history gives me confidence that the messages from God are the real deal. If He can predict the march of nations through time as he has in Daniel 2, then I can trust the other words of the Bible too.

was Jesus a prophet?

While Hebrews tells us how prophets spoke in the past, it says something interesting about Jesus.

But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe (Hebrews 1:2).

This seems to say that as well as being the Son of God, Jesus also had the gift of prophecy, and was a prophet, meaning He had a message from God for His people.

His message certainly matches all of the main themes we have. Jesus called people to repentance. Once, Jesus condemned the religious authorities of His day, saying,

These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules (Matthew 15:8,9).

On another occasion, when speaking to the human condition, Jesus said,

Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Luke 5:31,32).

This was Jesus’ way of calling us to stop worshipping strange gods or even our own desires—and return to God.

Perhaps most remarkably, Jesus called people into the kingdom of God now.

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:20,21).

He preached a message of love and acceptance, teaching that the defining mark of His disciples should be the love they have for each other.

And of course, Jesus taught about the day of the Lord to come, His day, the day when He would return to put all things right. In John 14, Jesus tells His disciples that on that day He would return,

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going (John 14.1–4).

I think we can conclude that Jesus was a prophet, giving a message that is still relevant to us today—but that He was also much more than just a prophet. He is my Lord and Saviour, and the King of both my heart and the universe. We should turn back to the Lord, and then we can have confidence in the day He comes again that we will be with Him forever!