Prophet: A life dedicated to listening to God
In the passing of the story presented by the Word of God, the Lord used many men to carry out his plan of salvation and thus clean the sin of the world. From Adam’s sin, God had planned to rescue the man from sin through his son. We see this in Genesis 3:15, when God punishes the snake for what he had done, and tells him that I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed;He will hurt you in the head, and you will hurt him in the heel. That seed referred to in this verse was Jesus Christ, who would come to end Satan’s reign on man. After this, God began using men to take the first steps to fulfill that promise, and this is where the prophets appear. God ordered men to listen to the voice of God, and also transmit it to other human beings. The first one was Abraham, whom God blessed greatly and with whom he communicated for many years to give life to what his people would be, Israel (Genesis 20: 7). But seeing all this, how should it be a prophet of God?
The definition of a prophet according to the new illustrated biblical dictionary is as follows: "The one to whom God is about his authority to communicate his will to men and instruct them". This definition already releases certain characteristics that a prophet should have.
- It should be someone with a close relationship with God, because in order to really know God, it is necessary to have a relationship with him. An example of this can be seen in Habakkuk, who had such a close relationship with God, that in his first chapters we see how he claims the Lord for the evil in the people at the time (Habakkuk 1: 1-3).
- The other characteristic of a prophet is that he must also be a teacher, because he must have the ability to convey what God rebelled in a clear way to the people of God. We see this in Moses, whom God spoke directly and sent him to communicate the things he had told him, to the people. For example, when God gave him the tables of the law (Exodus18-20) God told Moses all laws so that he would tell the people in a clear and concise, understandable way, so that the Israelites would carry them out.
- A prophet should be someone brave. We see this in the life of the prophet Jeremiah;A prophet who had a pretty hard task, because in everything we see in his book, he had to conve;Despite all this, Jeremiah was not afraid to speak the words of God. He transmitted them as God gave them, warning the Israelites of the trial that would fall on them if they did not regret their paths.
- A prophet should be someone persevering. They could not get carried away by their fears, or decline in the face of the people’s rejection for their prophecies. They had to remain firm and persevere in God, despite all this. We also see this in Jeremiah, that despite all the earthly evil that brought him the prophecies that God sent him to say, he kept speaking what God sent to the people, and he continued to pray for the people, and asking them to bethey regret their sins (Jeremiah 4), but the people did not want to hear it. Fact, it is incredible that during all the time God uses Jeremiah as a prophet, no one surrendered to the feet of God;On the contrary, they got angry with him.
- The prophets should be obedient to the voice of God. If God sent them to do something, they had to fulfill it fully, and they should say every thing that God had told them. In general, all the prophets did a good task in this, the worst in the word that ignored, God punish him for his disobedience;This prophet is Jonah, who did not want to obey the message of judgment to Nineveh because he knew that God was merciful and was going to forgive them (Jonah 1: 2; 4: 1-2). Jonah disobeyed and received his punishment, but in the other prophets we see a commitment to clearly convey the word of God to the people. For example, this Joshua, who, in all his task as a priest and prophet of God, transmitted what God told the people to strengthen them in the promising land. He also did everything God sent him, as we see in Joshua 4: 1-18, where God orders him.
- I see in the prophets sensitive men. When I say sensitive I do not mean weak men, but to men who really hurt for the sin of the people and by the judgment that was going to occur to them if it did not begin to follow the paths of God as He wants. One of the most representative of this is Jeremiah, the "weeping prophet", which is not a good way to refer to him, because when he cried he did it lamenting him for the sin of the people, by the judgment that came over them, and nevercried for fear or for some personal subject. Jeremiah was always sensitive to asking for mercy from Israel, even knowing that God’s judgment was fair.
Seeing all these parts of the character of a prophet, God calls his people to fulfill all these things. We see this at these points:
- God wants to have a close relationship with us. We see this in John 1:12, where we read: "But to all who received him, gave them the right to become children of God, that is, those who believe in their name". God gave us the right to be called children, one of the closest relationships that exist. This implies that we know him a lot, because a child knows his father very well. It implies that we talk to him every day, and he will listen to our afflictions, fears, difficulties, joys, triumphs and others. In addition, this leads us to know his will, because, just as an earthly father has projects that want his son to develop, God also has plans for our lives that he expects us to carry out, this is called his will. So clearly God wants us to have a very close relationship with him.
- God also calls us to be aware of His Word and study it. In 1 Peter 2: 2 God tells us through Pedro "desired as newborn children, the pure milk of the word, so that you grow up for salvation". God wants us to study His Word and teach her, but not always staying in the basics, but to move forward and want more and more of the Word of God, as we are told in Hebrews 5: 13-14 "because everyone who takes onlymilk, is not accustomed to the word of justice, because it is a child. But solid food is for adults, which by practice have the senses exercised to discern good and evil. So, God expects us to be teachers of the Word of God, so that we grow in it, and we transmit it to other people who need it.
- God expects us courage to bring from his gospel. In Joshua 1: 6-9, where we see that God asks Joshua to be brave, not only for the war that was about to battle, but more to comply with the law that God had given Moses. This means that to obey God, courage is needed, because it is very hard task and with many stumbling blocks. God expects us courage to face the world every day. When a child of God goes into the world to carry out their daily activities, they will have to face various tests and temptations, which only those who are brave, are able to overcome them and get ahead. A weak succumbs immediately to temptation, but a brave fight and moves away from it as soon as possible. As 2 Timothy 2:22 tells us "flee from youth passions", or as 1 Corinthians 16:13 tells us "Stad alert, remain firm in faith, carrieros manly (bravely), be strong.
- God asks us to be persevering, in prayer, in faith and in his word. God does not like warm people;We see this in Revelation 3:16 "Thus, since you are warm, and not cold or hot, I will vomit you from my mouth". God does not want his children to be changing, to get carried away by waves, but want children to perseverate even in the greatest difficulty. As Santiago 1:12 tells us “Blessed is the man who perseveres under the proof, because once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised those who love him”. The fact of being persevering in the test will bring us blessings from God. So, God does not want warm, He wants firm people who persevere in his word despite the difficulties.
- God wants and loves that we are obedient to his word. God expects us to obey him in everything;Above sacrifices, rites or other things that could be done to try to please him, is to obey him. We can see this in Saul’s life;In chapter 14 of Samuel, we see that he decided to make the sacrifice before the war, instead of waiting for Samuel to do it. That sacrifice to God could only be made by priests, but Saul was carried away by pride and fear that the people would disperse, and he did it. This bothered God a lot, because Saul was disobeying him. Maybe he wanted to make this sacrifice with good intentions, but this shows us that God cares more obedience than any ritual or offering.
- God asks us to be sensitive to his voice, and to the needs of others. When we read the Word of God, we see that God always advocates those in need and those rejected from all societies. For example, within the laws that left Israel in LeviticFor widows or the poor who came to collect them (Leviticus 23:22). We also see it when Paul asks Timothy.
In conclusion, we see that God had asked certain fundamental characteristics in his prophets to carry out the task of communicating the word of God to the people of Israel, and thus be able to speak with them without generating fear of dying for the holiness of God (Exodus 20:19). His task was never easy, because they had to talk about good and bad news to the people, which often caused problems here on earth. However, God always chose brave and hard -working men, so that they never had fear of the people, but rather they were afraid of God. Likewise, God sends us as his children to be like the prophets today;To bring the word of God to everyone without fear, without hesitation, persevering in the things he teaches us, so that more people are free of sin, and so that we correctly teach the word of truth.
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