prophets

Prophets were the most notable of God's attempts to gain and secure man's enduring attention. How can you argue with a man who can call down fire on a water soaked mountaintop in defiance of 450 religious zealots? Yet the war with God is fought with the flesh on a person to person basis. Though the prophets are powerful witnesses to God, they were also local people with limited reach. Their mission was spectacular and dangerous, truly radical emissaries for the omnipotent God.

A prophet was a forth-teller and a fore-teller. As a forth-teller he used the known truths about God and man in order to lay out the probable future. Sometimes one trained (yes, trained) as a prophet would hear from God directly. Most of the time these trained individuals had a gift for insight and application so their words were true. The fore-teller was divinely anointed to be able to see what could not be discerned by man's skills. Elisha knew every move of the Aramean army because God told him what to expect. Elijah saw Jezebel in the dust being devoured by her own dogs. 

The purpose of the prophet was to provide evidence that could not be refuted and call the people back to God. They fought the false gods, foreign armies, traitors and the Israelites themselves. God protected them, spoke the words of truth through them, and in Elijah's case took him to heaven directly instead of death. 

Yet the Israelites and others around them would not submit to the God of the prophets. I am reminded of the taunt of Satan to Jesus to become a spectacle of miracle. Been there, done that Satan. Didn't work then won't work now. And so the call for a clear show of God on earth is a test of God that has been done and ignored by those who called for it. We can point to the prophets when someone says "Where is your God?" or "I'll believe in God when (insert miraculous event) happens." 

Prophets, God's ambassadors to an unbelieving world that was trying to ignore the Living Lord. They are proof that God can, when He so desires, totally turn over the world for his purposes.

Someday he will again, only this time through the precious return of His Son, Jesus Christ.