Ignore the Prophets, Lose the War

What a revelation!

An historical account of the gospels pointed out the political perspective of Israel at the time. For the Jews, salvation didn't mean spiritual freedom, it meant conquering Rome. They were looking for war. Historically, many of the prophets had actually participated in acts of war. Moses didn't fight but sent plagues on the Egyptians and tricked the army into drowning themselves in the Red Sea. Elisha and Elijah stood on battlefields and called to power of God to conquer enemies. The previous King of Kings, David, conquered armies 10 times the size of Israel.

One prevalent and recurring theme in the Bible is, the prophets deliver God's promise and humans get it all the way wrong. Battle after battle was lost following the mob's ignorance of prophets' warnings. And it still happens today. Today we have prophets and those prophets get turned into soundbites.  More immediately, it's more attractive to follow the reactionary/emotional responses. Then, manipulators can turn those sound bites into whatever they want the message to be instead of an unfiltered message.

These manipulators turned Martin Luther King Jr into a Civil Rights crusader. They turned Malcolm X into a mere rabble-rouser. These men were nothing less than prophets. They each took the information provided by their respective religions and saw the messages in between the lines. 50 years after their deaths, we have ignored their pleas. (Prophets tend to plea because they are well aware of our tendency to ignore them.) 

Our tendency is to ignore prophecy because it doesn't fit into our limited worldview. And/or, we believe in something so strongly, we refuse to accept anything that may distract or deter our focus on what we believe. We don't believe in the same thing as the prophet or we don't believe in anything at all. What seems even worse than those two scenarios is when what we believe is only slightly different than the prophet believes. We are so distracted these days by minuscule details we will miss movements and opportunities just because of a minor detail.

And don't let the prophet may have some separate personal issues. We are so judgmental or seeking to avoid responsibility, we will jump all over a prophet with even the smallest personal flaw. And that's just it. The prophet usually calls us to action and responsibility. In this day and age, we are satisfied with passionate Tweets/Instagram messages/Facebook posts. We pat ourselves on the back vote voting every four years (even if/when we miss midterms). Don't let us have donated a few clothes/hours to the less fortunate! We don't have to do shit else. We can afford to ignore any and every other call to action that comes. We've done enough. 

Except that, with each more gruesome incident, it's more and more apparent that we haven't done enough. We are inching closer and closer to the amount of pain which will force massive action. We must be careful to choose the proper action.

"Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil." -1 Thessalonians 5:20-22

We have to pay attention to the messages re are receiving. The proper path is out there. The prophets are still speaking. We must use ALL of our discernment to hear the message of the prophets. Prophets always offer solutions. Prophets will not make emotional pleas. (For the slow, they may speak passionately but emotion won't be the focus of their message.) Prophets are not profits. The message is always free. Prophets usually say things that are unpopular.

Be clear. A movement involves change. A revolution involves changes in a drastic way. The unpopular becomes popular. The abnormal becomes normal.

Start paying attention to the prophets and watch the world change for the better.