Welcome back. I’m continuing my series, “The Prophets Before You.” This week, we are going to take a look at another unlikely and unrecognized prophet by the religious leaders of his day - Hosea.
But first, I want to emphasize some things which I’ve already noted, but that are crucial to recognizing the prophets and the prophetic in our day. And just as an aside, let me say that all followers of Jesus, walking in the spirit of Christ, can and will recognize the difference between the real and the artificial.1
Recognizing the prophets among us today requires two things. First, we must believe that prophets are not confined to “Bible Days.” I mentioned this in an earlier post, but it was in a footnote. I want to put it front and center in this post.
What most evangelical churches mean by saying there are no prophets today like there were in “Bible Days” is that the words of the prophets recorded in Scripture possess an exclusive authority that the words of so-called “modern-day” prophets do not. While there is truth in this, it creates a dangerous dichotomy between “Bible days” and modern times. The magical days of the Bible are gone. But the truth is that God is the same God today as he was then, and the issues the prophets addressed have been and will always be relevant to our lives, our countries, and our world.
Ah, those magical “Bible Days” when prophets roamed the earth. They’re extinct now. They all died off after “New Testament Days,” which put an end to “Bible Days.”
Not.
A prophet sees (also referred to as a Seer in the Bible) beyond the surface of things. In so doing, he or she recognizes the signs of the times, the days in which they are living. In their church, in their family, in their nation, in their world, the eyes of prophets are open, seeing things to which others are blind.
Moses said he wished all God’s people were prophets.2 Paul makes it clear that “not all are prophets.”3 But I believe there is a prophetic spirit in all who belong to Christ. This is precisely why Jesus addressed the crowds from his mountain pulpit, saying -
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)
But back to what I was saying. Recognizing the prophetic among us today requires two things, the first of which is believing that prophets are by no means confined to “Bible Days.”
The second thing that enables us to recognize the prophets and the prophetic among us today is understanding that those prophets we revere and hold in such high esteem, those who have books of the Bible named after them, were opposed, rejected, and persecuted by the religious movers and shakers in their day.
This is seen throughout the Bible, but nowhere is it more clear than in Jesus’s words to the religious big shots in his day -
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started. (Matthew 23:29-32)
Last week, we looked at the prophet Amos. He was opposed, denounced, and forced out of Israel. And the leader of this opposition was none other than Amaziah. Amaziah was the powerful high priest (can we say, Senior Pastor?) in charge of the prestigious temple of God at Bethel. This politically powerful, religious mover and shaker warned King Jeroboam that Amos was “raising a conspiracy against you.”4
This week, I want to look at Hosea, another prophet who rebuked the ambitious, self-serving religious leaders of his day, but who, by all accounts, did not fit the mold as a prophet of God.
We’ll get started tomorrow.
In Christ,
Dan
This was a tough sentence to write. It was tough because there are many followers of Jesus who, as both the prophets and our Lord said, are misguided sheep, misled by shepherds whose priority is their place and position in the religious institution. They are every where, and my heart breaks for them.
Numbers 11:29.
I Corinthians 12:29.
Amos 7:10.