Windbags

Windbags

 

The prophets are but wind and the word is not in them; so let what they say be done to them.  Jeremiah 5:13 (NIV)

 

A prophet is not a predictor. A prophet is a truth-teller. The only truth a true prophet of God has is the Truth of God. The prophet tells a community, usually in distress, what God has to say to a current situation. Often the truth is hard to hear but it is never the prophet's opinion. The prophet can have no axe to grind. The words must be God's.

I like how the God's Word Translation states Jeremiah 5:13.

 

Some prophets are nothing but windbags. The Lord hasn't spoken through them, so let what they say happen to them.

 

Ancient kings of Israel had hired-gun prophets on the payroll to say what they wanted to hear. They were windbags. Elijah met a group of windbags on Mount Carmel and they experienced how self-serving prophecy can come back and hurt you.

 

We here a number of people speak on behalf of God about Haiti today. Before, it was about people with AIDS or soldiers killed in action or abortion clinic bombings. Two things stand out for us.

 

First, we need to silence false prophets in our day. Not through force but through words and actions tempered by God. We need to speak up and refute that which is not from God. This means we actually have to be in touch with God ourselves.

 

Second, we must support those who truly are prophets. These people are always reviled and marginalized. Most people distance themselves from them because they are unpopular. Jesus was unpopular. He may grow on you but, at first reading, we withdraw.

God even told Isaiah the prophet that o one would listen to him. That must have been frustrating. Prophets lead us to new freedom. We need them. We can support them no matter how unpopular. Life is not a popularity contest but a faith journey.