The Voice of the Prophet
Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 20:1-28
The Lord through His prophet encouraged Ahab who was threatened by the intimidation of Ben-Hadad, the King of the Syrians. Ben-Hadad intimidated the armies of Samaria and made fun of the God of Israel and doubted His ability to deliver Samaria from his powerful grip.
In the midst of the fear of Ahab, the Lord sent a prophet to encourage him, assuring him of His prepared deliverance and victory. In the passage it is realised that the Lord was using the prophet as a channel to draw attention to Himself so that Samaria may be more committed to the Lord and love Him. “The man of God came and spoke to the King of Israel, and said, “thus says the LORD: ‘because the Syrians have said, “The LORD is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys," therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD”
The reason for the Lord delivering Samaria was to subdue Syria for making fun of the LORD and not giving honour to Him. God wanted to show Himself as God and draw the attention of His people, Samaria, to Himself so that they could better serve Him. The role of the prophet therefore is to point the people to the LORD so that their allegiance to the LORD and their fear for Him will grow.
The voice of the prophet declares the mind of God bringing the hearts and minds of the people to the power of the LORD so that the LORD would make name for Himself. Anytime a prophet’s voice does not draw attention to GOD and does not make us fear and love the LORD the more but causes us to rather fear and feel intimidated in the presence of the prophet then we need to be careful. The voice of the prophet is a call to fear and love the LORD.
Prayer: Cause me to fear you and reveal your power to me in all my dealings. (EAK)
MEMORY VERSE FOR THE WEEK
Matthew 24:24 (NlV Live) For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
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