Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

Having followed Nehemiah in the quest to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem so that the people of God could worship and live in peace and safety, this month we will turn to look at the prophets of Yahweh to see if what they said came to pass or will come to pass in our day.

I am aware that this topic is huge and that there are many takes on it. Therefore I will only be looking at some of the pertinent themes to see if they have any relevance to us today in the light of the various occurrences happening around the globe.

Throughout the history of Israel the position of the prophet was crucial. This person was someone that God spoke directly to, either to warn the people of impending danger or to alert them to as to what they needed to do to get back on track. Invariably they went their own way and ended up being alienated from God and eventually being dispersed all around the world. The position of prophet was still an important part of God’s plan and we can see that when Jesus the Messiah came, about 2000 years after Abraham, the three posts; prophet, priest and king, implemented by God to lead his people were all occupied by him. When the New Testament church was instituted, one of the five ministry gifts that Jesus gave to set up and run the church was that of prophet (Ephesians 4:11ff). So although the setting has changed, i.e. the people of God have moved away from a specific nation to encompass the whole world [the kingdom] the role of someone who God spoke directly to was still relevant. So when Jesus taught his followers to pray ‘your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is on heaven’ he was implementing the universal kingdom that would last forever.  Over the next month we will be looking at the role of the prophet then and now and finding out how it impacts our world today. Read Ezekiel 36.