“I don’t understand why God chose that person to be a prophet,” a fellow student said. “Why didn’t he choose me to be a prophet?” I looked to see who it was, and could clearly see he was serious.
It was the first day of class about prophecy in the seminary. He sat not far from me, about two rows back in three or four seats to the right in this class of 60 or so students. As time went on, he repeated this complaint nearly every class. Finally one day, exasperated, I asked him, “You want to be a prophet? Have you seriously considered what happens to prophets?”
A lot of us think of being a prophet has being in the know, getting a sneak peek at the future. But the vast majority of the time, a prophet delivers a message from God to people who don’t want to hear it. Over time, this tends to break down the relationship between the prophet and the people, who eventually end up taking revenge — literally. Yes, Elijah was translated, but many prophets died grisly deaths at the hands of the very people they were trying to help. The apostle Paul, who exercised the prophetic gift in both predictive and counseling modes, spent years in prison, and was eventually beheaded by the Romans.
In 2 Corinthians 11:24-26, he related several other experiences:
Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.
I mentioned that Elijah was translated, but he also had to live through a famine, had been pursued by more than 100 soldiers of Ahab, and by Queen Jezebel’s forces seeking to kill him. Being a prophet commonly meant being not just unpopular, but reviled and hated. The prophet’s message is almost always resented, and and people quickly desire to silence the voice that brings that message. My classmate apparently had not thought about that.
But then, most of us have not thought seriously about prophecy. Periodically we may hear of someone who claims to have had visions about the future, because we tend to think of prophecy as “prediction.” But prediction as prophecy occurs relatively rarely even in Scripture. The bulk of prophetic activity involves counsel and exhortation, encouragement and guidance for God’s people at the time the prophecy is given. Prophets address what God’s people need to hear and to do now far more often than they make predictions about the future.
In general, when God’s people are in persecution and suffering, prophets bring encouragement, reminding them of how God has redeemed his people in the past, and giving evidence that he is still doing so in the present. And when God’s people experience prosperity and peace, prophets remind them that God is the source of their prosperity and peace, and not they themselves. In almost every case, however, the prophetic voice is unwelcome.
You would think that encouragement and suffering will be welcomed, but often the response is, “Don’t tell us about the past and the future, we want relief now!” And people in prosperity and peace take those conditions for granted, and feel no need for God — especially his chastening’s. To put in contemporary terms, a prophetic message about the here and now would never be welcomed by Twitter. Prophetic messages are almost never popular, never echo the sentiment.
Imagine if Twitter had existed AD 31, during Passover week.
Trending Sunday: Hosanna! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord!
Trending Friday: Crucify him! Crucify him!
Oddly enough, that’s helpful. Any message, from any source, which mirrors or echoes Twitter is unlikely to be prophetic. Indeed, it is more likely to be from the Deceiver. And that’s a good “rule of thumb” for identifying a prophetic message: if it’s popular, if it reflects common response, it is very unlikely to be a message from God. Even when what it declares appears to be truthful, it does so for the wrong reasons, and eventually will induce us to perpetrate even greater evil, under the fatal illusion that we do so righteously. And in this particular moment, this is a crucial insight.
“My thoughts are not your thoughts,” God tells us. And the converse must also be true, especially when referring to the thoughts of the multitude. Our thoughts are not His thoughts.
