PROPHETS

A prophet calls the unrighteous to repentance. He is true to God when everyone around him is against him and worship false gods. He speaks in God’s name and by His authority. Some prophets have more dramatic messages than others, may see visions, and have dreams. Although prophets preach God’s judgment, they also proclaim His restoration.

Elijah was a prophet of the Lord. He preached repentance. He also did miracles. He brought a boy to life, multiplied oil for a widow, and prayed for rain, so it rained. He slayed the false prophets. At the end of his life, he was taken up to Heaven in a whirlwind.

We might envy Elijah’s life, his victorious stand for God, and his glorious end.

Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet.  He preached repentance for forty years while he was whipped, put in stocks, arrested, beaten, and accused of treason. He was thrown down a murky well and lastly put in prison during the siege of Jerusalem and its starvation. The king of Judah never released him from prison. But the Babylonians who destroyed Jerusalem finally released Jeremiah from prison.

I’ve never heard anyone envying Jeremiah’s life.

The lives of all the prophets in the Bible are vastly different just as our lives are.

“But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” Isaiah 64:8