Sermon 10 - The prophets

Prophets

I wonder if you have ever regretted not following someone’s advice.

I have to say I did yesterday, I was due to pick up Megan from Dedworth and Kathryn texted me to say don’t go on the relief road as it is was really snarled up.

Well I don’t know why – but I just didn’t think it would be that bad- needless to say I was half an hour late to pick her up and almost got caught up in road rage on the way – it was so frustrating.

Sometimes well quite a lot of the time it is just not worth following good advice from a trustworthy source.

I start with this because we have reached the readings this week which focus on prophecy within the old testament.

The prophets who were sent to give good advice – sometimes tough advice – but never the less good advice from God, in fact perhaps advice is too loose a word for what they had to say – perhaps commands or instructions would be a better way of putting it.

And we know from the whole story that they didn’t always follow it and it was to their peril.

So today we look at the role of the prophets in the Old Testament and some of the key themes as well as what we can take from it today.

But I want to start with a bit of a recap on where they come in terms of the history of Israel, then think about who they were, and then what sort of things did they have to say, and then we will finish with application for today.

So a bit of a brief history lesson.

In the past few weeks in our readings we have seen a huge journey of the people of Israel,  we have seen them literally journey from nomadic tribesmen, into Egypt and then out again through the wilderness to the promised land.

We have seen them journey from having leaders to judges and then to Kings to be like the other nations.

We have seen throughout their journey as a nation the people going away from and then coming back to God.

And we finished our journey with them when they were at the height of their national identity in the reign of King David and then Solomon.

But what happened next?

Well in the next period of time it was yet again a very turbulent time for Israel.

They were being led by Kings some of which were holy and led the people to follow God but many of whom were not.
At the same time they were at risk from other nations and the Babylonian empire was becoming stronger, until finally the people of Israel were taken to Babylon in exile.

And it is at this point of time that we start to read the books of the prophets.

Because they cover this period of time of the reign of various kings of Israel and into there time of exile.

There are 16 books of prophecy in total covering this period of time,  within some of them we see reference to the risk of captivity, and in some it is obvious that it was during the time of captivity, some for example the book of Isaiah cover both times – before and after the people of Israel were in exile.

So if we see reference to the threat from other nations – then likely to be before exile

And if we see reference to salvation – then it is likely to be during exile.

So who were these prophets?

Well basically they were God’s messengers to the time.

They were ordinary people who God had called out to stand up for him against the goings on of the day.

Often they were uncertain to start with like we will see when we read passages from the beginning of Jeremiah.

Sometimes they had amazing experiences of meeting with God such as we see in Isaiah 6.

Often their words of prophecy are referred to as visions – and use amazing illustrations of the people’s sin and God’s response to this.

Often too we see the prophets themselves as rather strange figures – because their lives in many ways stand up against the prevailing culture of the day.

And in this we see God showing through their own lives aspects of himself.

One clear example of this is in the life of the prophet Hosea who was called to marry an adulteress woman as a picture of how God felt the pain of people rejecting him and how he constantly draws the people back to himself.

So what did the prophets have to say to the people and how are these 16 books of the bible still relevant today?

Well as you read through this week you will begin to see key themes that are contained within the prophets.

Whether or not the people were in exile there is the constant theme of God’s amazing love,  his judgement too but overarching this is his love.

Despite what they have done, despite how many times they have failed him, God is still calling them back and gives them hope for the future.

We read the prophets with the eyes of people who know the full story.

The promise of salvation to them from captivity was fulfilled when they returned to Israel.

To us we see the promise of salvation in a different light.

And that is the joy of the prophets,  much of the prophecy we see was not just pertinent for the people of the days in which it was given, but is also pertinent for today.

So we return to the prophets time and time again, we hear the words each year as we come to our carol services as we see the promise of Jesus echoes through these words.

So the promise of salvation that we see written in the prophets is just as real now as it was to the people way back then.

Despite what we do – God still reaches out to us, and he did that of course through the cross of Jesus Christ.

So a key theme for the prophets is the reaching out of God’s love and the promise of salvation.

But a key theme also is the expectation of God for us to live the way that pleases him.

We see time and time again within the prophets God’s displeasure over man’s actions.

Man’s inhumanity to man, the lack of thought of others.

God’s displeasure over the way man acts is evident.

The words of the prophets make stark reading when we consider our lives even today.

How many times even in our own churches do we consider the needs of the poor and marginalised?

How many times do we put others needs first before our own?

How many times do our actions trample over others who are not as fortunate as ourselves?

And as we read the prophets we realise God’s displeasure on our actions as well as the people of that day.

Things are not so different are they? People fundamentally haven’t changed in their self seeking actions and the out for all you can get culture.

But the prophets call us back to re-examine our live and call us to put our own house in order.

And the last theme I want to look at today is that of the need to put God first.

The prophets are full of description of Idolatory – the worship of other Gods.

And in this we see the people turn away from God to other things.

And this leads us nicely to our reading this morning from Daniel – (I bet you thought I’d never get there!)

What was the challenge to Daniel in this reading? The command he was given was to put aside God, to take the easy option and obey King Darius command.

But he chose instead to carry on putting his faith and his relationship with God first.

The priority of his life was to serve God not man.

He took the commandment to put God first above everything else seriously.

Here he is in exile in Babylon, in a strange country yet continuing to put his faith in God first.

And despite the risk to his own life this was paramount.

I wonder how you feel when you read this?  Perhaps you think Daniel was foolhardy, perhaps you wish you had that faith, perhaps you think its just a nice story and anyway I’l never be in such a situation so it doesn’t really apply to me anyway, perhaps you see the lions as some cartoon characters – nice cuddly lions that wouldn’t hurt a fly!

Well the reality of this story is- that Daniel was in danger, and his faith is an example to us all.

I am fairly certain that putting God first is probably the biggest thing that we struggle with as Christians,  because it concerns so many parts of our lives.

If I want to put God first then it will impact on how I live my life, how I relate to other people, how I handle my money,  and so on and son.

If I put God first then actually I will get increasingly upset about the inhumanities in the world and in our society and will want to work to change these

If I put God first then I will want to spend time in worship, I will want to help and encourage others to worship too.

But how often actually do we see worship as a nice added extra- what I can get out of it,  and I’ll go if I have time.

What is the example of Daniel – it was imperative, no excuses not to – even at the threat of his life.- he saw this as fundamental to his faith.

Putting God first isn’t easy as we saw in the example of Daniel – but the prophets constantly call us back to this, to stop having other Gods and to put the one true God first.

We may not have the Baal Gods or even be asked to bow down to a King, but what about the Gods of job success,  the God of the golf course or Gym, the God of the perfect home, and I could go on and on.

Because all of these things stop us putting God first, they stop us living by his priorities in our lives, they call us away from regularly spending time with him and other Christians in worship, they lead us to stop thinking about the poor and marginalised in society and seeing things from God’s perspective.

 

IF we take the words of the prophets seriously we are called back to the first commandment of God: I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other Gods before me.

And what was Jesus’ summary of the law- what did he say was most important.

To love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and to love your neighbour as your love yourself.

This is no half hearted commitment this is a command which challenges all parts of our lives.

So my challenge to you as you consider Daniel and the rest of the prophets this week is this- If God isn’t your number one priority in life, what needs to change for you to put God where he belongs.