Dear Would-be Prophet of 2021
I’m not going to give you a hard time for not seeing Covid coming, I mean, who did? Nor am I going to tell you to abandon prophecy as a mug’s game. We still need an eye on the future, and the likely consequences of our actions in the present, so, please don’t give up, we need you. But as you consider how you will carry out your prophetic task in 2021, could I suggest some lessons from the world of the Biblical prophets? Some of them are kind of harsh, but not all of them, and you need to know what you’re getting yourself into. So here goes:
1. Accept that the life of a prophet is never easy
If you fancy following in the footsteps of the Biblical prophets take a look at how they fared. They were ignored, ridiculed, punished and occasionally killed. If you consider yourself to be giving a prophetic voice, yet your life is comfortable and pleasant, you may be doing something wrong.
2. You’re probably not a prophet
Deal with it. The highest aim for most of us is to hear the voice of prophecy, which is more likely to come from a movement than a messianic individual. That’s how churches see their prophetic role today, and secular organisations do best when they follow this too. In fact the biblical prophets may, at first, seem like heroic individuals taking everyone on, but scholarship suggests that they were often figureheads for a movement. Prophecy is a group activity, not a way of making a few people famous.
3. You might be a false prophet
This is the unpalatable corollary of not, after all, being a prophet. You’re not just not a prophet, you’re a false prophet. This is a very bad thing. Remember Jesus’s words in Matthew 18:6-7
“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes!
Looking back in history it’s so easy to see which prophetic voices had it right. Look a bit further, though, and you’ll see all sorts of false alarms and other prophecies that gained a lot of traction but got things spectacularly wrong and led many astray. Sometimes such false prophecies have even been the seedbed for great evil and tyranny. We all have to approach the task of prophecy with humility, fear and trembling. Be sure of your calling.
4. Getting attention or followers does not mean you are a prophet - it may even mean that you are not a prophet
In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, written shortly before his execution, he warns his young protégé: For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths
It’s true that we all have ‘itching ears’, and are anxious to hear and believe some things more than others. It’s the human condition, we say we believe in those things that suit our interests or desires. The prophet’s job is to tell the people the truth, what they need to know, not what they want to know. So if your message is popular you should ask hard questions about why this is so. Lots of likes, followers, retweets or people standing at a demo applauding are not in themselves proof that you’ve got it right.
5. You don’t get to choose your message
Every prophet would prefer to tell of great events that are coming, but sometimes Biblical prophets had to deliver a message that dashed everyone’s hopes. We all have pet causes and concerns but there are times when one issue is so urgent that it demands all of our attention. The true prophet doesn’t select an issue, but responds to a call however unglamorous or unpopular. |
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6. You might choose the wrong issue
Within the language of Christian ministry there is a strong emphasis on being sure of your calling, and this is an ongoing work. Surely this is necessary for all prophets, religious or not. Feeling enthusiasm, or a special talent for a particular cause is not of itself evidence of a true calling. We cannot clarify our sense of calling unless we are open to the possibility that we may have chosen the wrong issue.
7. Some Prophets sell-out, get corrupted or get bought off
1 Kings 13 is one of several biblical stories in which a prophet who has been given a tough task sets out right but is easily persuaded to take an easier path. This is the ever present inner voice characterised in Genesis as the Serpent saying to Eve ‘Has God really said…?’ We’ve all seen modern day prophets fall from grace, it could happen to you too.
8. Some prophets burn out
Taking a public stand against orthodoxy takes everything you’ve got, and this can mean burn out. That’s what happened to Elijah in 1 Kings 19. In like manner, if you’re going to be a prophet of 2021 you will need a spiritual life that allows you to hear the still small voice of calm, and to access that heavenly fuel and refreshing balm that allows prophets to keep going in extremis.
9. Sometimes the prophet of doom has to compete with other prophets who say all will be well
In Jeremiah 6 we learn that he was not the only prophet in town, but he was the only one who was prepared to tell the bitter truth. Perhaps this is how Extinction Rebellion feel. And yet Climate Change is not the only existential threat that we face, for example nuclear proliferation, terrorism, or the behaviour of hostile states could also be a source of terrible suffering. How can you know which of these is the most urgent?
To select one threat as the overwhelming emergency that needs all our attention could be preaching complacency over other threats that we consider less urgent. Suppose you persuade us to put everything into fighting climate change and we suffer a terrorist chemical attack or a nuclear strike from a hostile state? That would make you like those prophets Jeremiah describes who preach ‘peace when there is no peace’. Likewise, if you get us to put all our focus goes into defeating terrorism and we suffer a climate change related catastrophe then the same argument will apply, but the other way round. In short, you can’t win. Only when it is too late will future historians be able to say which prophets spoke the bitter truth, and which spoke ‘peace when there is no peace’.
10. Sometimes the prophetic word is to tell the people to accept the new reality and try to flourish within it
Once the unthinkable had happened, and Israel was exiled to Babylon it fell to Jeremiah to urge the people to make a future there. Settle, marry, raise children, he said, stop expecting everything to go back to how it was. Maybe this is a message for you to give to those Remainers who are traumatised by our final exit from the EU. Jeremiah added the caveat that the Lord would see them return, but not until they had spent an apportioned time in exile. Likewise, those looking to rejoin the EU may have to accept that this will be for another generation to pursue and life cannot be put on hold until then.
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11. You’d better be right when you say something is certain
According to Deuteronomy, when a prophet prophesies something that doesn’t happen they should be put to death. While this is unlikely to happen to you it’s still worth remembering that a prophecy that comes to be seen to be blatantly false may not be lethal, but it can still be fatal to your prophetic status.
12. You’ll probably fail
This goes with the territory. The record of the Biblical prophets is not good. They got ignored and laughed at (not in a good way). The whole point seems to be that once the calamity has happened everyone realises that they should have listened to the prophet and so can’t blame God. Maybe you have higher hopes for your own brand of 2021 prophecy, but it’s worth taking a moment to consider how few modern day prophets have managed to persuade enough people to act in order to avert the calamity they were warning everyone of.
13. Conditional prophecy can make you look like a false prophet and bring out the worst in you
Jonah took a message from God to the people of Nineveh: stop sinning or your city will be destroyed. Guess what, they stopped sinning, the city was spared, and Jonah was depressed because he felt like a failure and that he had been made to look stupid. This was not a good reaction. There are many prophetic causes in the year ahead where success would mean it looking like there had been nothing to worry about and you’d cried wolf. If it happens to you it will frustrate the hell out of you, but you will still have done the right thing.
14. There is a place for dramatic gestures
Publicity stunts that make a point are not a modern invention. Biblical prophets did some bizarre things to get their message across. To make various points Ezekiel lay on his side for many days, ate virtually nothing, cut his hair, and staged a mock attack on a clay model of Jerusalem. Isaiah ‘walked naked and barefoot three years’ as a symbol of the humiliation that Egypt and Ethiopia would know once conquered by Assyria. Jeremiah wore a wooden yoke round his neck, to indicate that the people should submit to the Babylonians, and then bought a field to symbolise God’s restoration and regathering of the people. Hosea was ordered to marry an adulterous woman (Gomer) to make a symbolic point about God’s relationship with Israel. But remember, none of these prophets did only these things. Prophecy is a day-in-day out business with lots of detail and hardship punctuated by occasional weirdness.
15. Prophets of Doom must have a vision of hope too
We’ve all noticed how during the Pandemic whenever there has been hard, sobering news to digest there has always been a hint of hope and a vision of a better tomorrow thrown in. This seems to be well understood by most of those offering a prophetic voice through social and environmental activism. But not everyone gets it, so take a look at how the Biblical prophets managed this. The books of Isaiah and Jeremiah are full of bloodcurdling warnings, severe social and individual criticism, and yet they are laced with some of the most beautiful, inspiring and hopeful verses in scripture. These are the most substantial and famous examples, but you’ll find the same pattern throughout the books of the prophets.
So there you have it. I hope in spite of what you’ve just read you will still feel called to speak in a prophetic voice throughout 2021. Be humble yet brave: the truth is, we need you more than ever. Thank you in advance and happy new year! |
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