When we read the words of the old prophets we marvel at their boldness, their fear of God and their obedience to give that word whether anyone believed it or not. We marvel at the accuracy of their prophetic words and the fact that many of these prophets died without seeing their prophecies come to pass. They lived in a season of blind faith, blind declarations and much trembling because of that word, yet many of the prophecies will not come to pass before the season of the fullness of the time of the Gentiles, thousands of years after the words were declared. For example, I marvel at the vision and prophecy of Enoch (Jude 14-16), a mere seven hundred years out of the Garden of Eden, when he saw the glory of the Second Coming of the Lord “with all His saints.” This was not destined to take place for another five thousand years. When Enoch walked the new earth and preached God to the people, he knew nothing of the birth of the Messiah, the crucifixion, the resurrection, or the redemption that would be offered to all. He saw the Lord coming to judge the wicked and the ungodly. He may have known a lot more than is written of him, but the point is, he prophesied these things five thousand years ago – and it will happen just as he said it would. And of course, from the very beginning, when men first began to preach the words and ways of the Lord, he had opposition. In Seth’s day it was Cain, in Enoch’s day it was Cain’s descendants, filling the heads and hearts of the people with lies of deceit, immorality and idolatrous temptations. In Abraham’s younger days, in Ur of the Chaldees, it was Nimrod who established Mystery Babylon, the religion of the sun worshippers, the mother and child cults that promoted sexual perversion, and a tower of Babel that he intended to build right up to God’s chin. So every generation of preachers has had their thorn in the flesh to endure and expose, a type of Nimrod, Ahab, Antiochus Epiphanes, Herod the Great, Caiphas, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Fidel Castro and Ahmadinejad of Iran. What is a thorn in the flesh? A spirit messenger (a demon) from Satan to buffet God’s man of the hour. God allows it in the hope that such buffeting will perfect the faith of the preacher. On the other hand, Satan’s plan, always, is to stop or kill the preacher. A thorn in the flesh uses a ruling or influential unbeliever, an egoist who believes he himself is a god and will say so with deadly defiance. He is an antichrist and, to protect his own image, he is a murderer of those that do believe. We see this today in China, in North Korea and in Russia. This has been the way of God and men since the beginning. For one who walks with God there is no rose garden to tip-toe through in this life. We lost it when we lost the Garden of Eden, remember? There is instead a briar patch with snakes lying in wait. But Glory to the Highest, the believer has the all powerful Word of God and all the host of heaven to clear the path through the patch and deliver the weary traveler when faith reaches out and touches the heart of God. The Old Testament prophets were powerful because they obeyed, and because they carried in their hearts an humble reverence for God, an undying loyalty and an insurmountable respect for His sovereignty. They didn't always understand the visions or the words, still they cried out even without the understanding. When God spoke, they trembled and started walking. And so it should be with the prophets of today, whether they are called to the office of the prophet, or are intercessory prophets. Isaiah took God's messages to northern Israel from circa 758 B.C. to 698 B.C., a total of sixty years! He was supposedly 90 years old when he was sawn in half in a tree trunk on the orders of an evil king of Israel named Manasseh. He had warned northern Israel of the coming Assyrian invasion that would take them into captivity unless they repented of their rebellions and idolatries and turned back to God. And, in keeping with God's own prophecy in the Garden of Eden, Isaiah announced the birth of Messiah seven hundred years before Messiah was born, and, in keeping with Enoch's prophesy of Messiah's Second Coming (in Jude), he prophesied Messiah's redemptive sacrifice, His eternal Kingship and His promised judgment of the nations. Enoch’s prophecy of the glorious Second Coming was also confirmed by Jesus Himself and by the Apostle John in his Revelation of Jesus Christ, written on the Isle of Patmos circa 95-97 A.D. John was the younger brother of James and the youngest of all the Disciples that Jesus called. At that first call on the Sea of Galilee, John was just a kid, probably 14-16 years old, and by the time of the crucifixion he was no more than 18-20 years old. At the time of his apocalyptic visions and his transportation to heaven, and the writing down of it all (commanded by Jesus), John was 85-87 years old, in captivity on the Isle of Patmos for preaching Jesus Christ, and was the one remaining Apostolic Governor and teacher over the seven churches of Asia Minor. By the time of John’s Revelation, Titus of Rome had already destroyed Jerusalem and the Holy Temple, slaughtered tens of thousands and driven all Jews from Jerusalem. It had all happened in 70 A.D., about twenty-five years before the Revelation. Hadrian restored Jerusalem as a colony of Rome in 135 A.D., erecting a temple to Jupiter on the site of the Jewish Temple. The holy city of Jerusalem would pass from the hands of the Jews, the Christians, the Romans and the Muslims of Saladin until 1517 when all of Israel passed into the hands of the Ottoman Turks. It was Suliman of the Turks who built the present walls of Jerusalem in 1542. It was exactly 400 years after the Ottoman Empire conquered Jerusalem, in 1917, that the British defeated the Turks toward the end of World War One, and drove them out of the Middle East. Afterward they presented the Balfour Declaration that promised the Jews of the world a return at last to their ancient and eternal homeland. Only a few returned to Palestine at that time, partly because of the stormy war clouds of an impending World War Two, and partly because of the White Paper Policy of Great Britain that forbid immigration of the Jews to Palestine during the war. This was enacted because of Arab pressure against the settling of Jews in the territory, and because England needed the Arabs to help defeat Hitler in the Middle East. It was a “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” type of deal. And so it would be 1945-47 before the Jews returned in droves to settle and re-establish the nation of Israel. Born in a day, Israel said farewell to the British mandate with its officers and troops as they set sail for England on the evening of May 14th, 1948. Just moments after midnight, May 15th, 1948, they declared their independence as the sovereign and democratic State of Israel. Jerusalem is built on the ruins of ancient societies. These ruins are about a hundred feet deep around the walls of the Temple Mount, and about forty feet deep in the city proper. The entire city is an archeologist's dream - a confirmer of ancient Jewish history, all the way back to David's capture and possession of the city in 1046 B.C. David, prophet, king, praise and worship leader, mighty warrior, enlarged and fortified the city and built his palace there, making it the central and eternal capital city of all Israel. After David's death, his son Solomon, priest-king, prophet, wise judge, teacher of proverbs, intercessor and builder built the first Jewish Temple... The stories of the prophets of old are treasured stories in themselves. Their lives, their loyalties, their unique and various customs, apparel and personalities stand alone in the annals of God's own world history. One cannot mimic a prophet of ancient Mesopotamia or of Israel. One would be wise not to try. One may pray and ask for the Spirit (anointing) of one prophet or another, but one dare not claim that prophet's anointing out of his own mouth. If it is indeed a particular anointing of old, others will see it and speak of it, and God will confirm it to those that have ears to hear. One does not mess around with God's anointing, and one does not mess around with the holiness and righteousness of God's called and enabled prophets. Spiritual gifts were and still are given to the Church by the Holy Spirit of Pentecost. When we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we receive His Holy Spirit within us, and when He comes in to stay, the spiritual gifts come with him. One of these gifts is the gift of prophecy, which is but a step or two away from the Divine call to the office of prophet. Paul encourages us to welcome and sharpen all our gifts by faith, “Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy (1 Corinthians 14:1) When Moses was in the wilderness with the children of Israel, he gathered seventy of the elders of the people and set them round about the tabernacle. And the Lord took of the Spirit of Moses and laid it upon the seventy elders and they began to prophesy and did not stop. But two of them, Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp, nevertheless the Spirit rested on them also and they too began to prophesy right where they stood. This frightened Joshua who appealed to Moses, “Lord Moses, forbid them.” But Moses said to Joshua, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:29) Little more than 1,500 years later, the Apostle Paul, following and speaking of the teachings of Jesus, again said concerning the Spirit of prophecy, “Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues” (1 Corinthians 14:39). Next week: The Call of the Prophet… Joan Krempel
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