Don’t Blame the Messenger!

Posted On July 30, 2023

“Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute!”

Acts 7:52 NLT

This week we get back to our journey through the Bible by examining the role of the Old Testament prophets. If you recognize the movie character in the image above, you know he’s not a biblical prophet. But he’s the one who came to mind as I was thinking about the next chapter in The Story…

Our plan for 2023 is to journey through The NeverEnding Story of the Bible and discover how we fit into it along the way. Our plan for this year is loosely based on The Story, an abridged chronological version of the Bible, and the accompanying study guide The Heart of the Story by Randy Frazee.

Here is where we are in The Story:

MOVEMENT TWO: The Story of Israel (Genesis 12-Malachi)

Chapter 15 – God’s Messengers

This chapter in The Story covers 1 Kings 17-19; 2 Kings 2, 4, 6; Hosea 4-5, 8-9, 14; and Amos 1, 3-5, 9. There were many prophets throughout the Bible who shared God’s messages with His people, but this chapter focuses on a few of the prophets that served in the northern kingdom of Israel before the Israelites were conquered and exiled to Assyria.

“The mighty and blessed nation of Israel is divided into two weaker nations — ten tribes to the north called the kingdom of Israel and two tribes to the south called the kingdom of Judah. For God to fulfill his unconditional promise to Abraham and David, only the southern kingdom of Judah needs to survive, for it is from the tribe of Judah that the Messiah will come. God positioned the northern tribes to be removed from the rest of the story due to their serial disobedience. In fact, the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles retell the story of 1 and 2 Kings but leave out the kings who reigned in the north. Yet more than 150 years before the northern kingdom’s scheduled destruction, God, out of his intense love for Israel, sends messengers to warn them in the hope that they will return to a place of pure worship.”

Randy Frazee, The Heart of the Story

God had messages for Israel about their future, and it wasn’t necessarily good news. This did not make things easy for the prophets. It was their job to share God’s words with His people, whether they wanted to hear them or not. Many prophets faced disgrace, imprisonment, or even death because of their upsetting revelations. But they were called to do God’s work, and they did so, even when it was difficult.

This brings me back to the character I mentioned at the top of this post: His name is Bruno Madrigal from the Disney movie Encanto. The movie tells the story of the Madrigals, a family whose members have supernatural powers and live in an enchanted house. Bruno’s gift is seeing the future, but unfortunately, he doesn’t always have good news to share. So, after being shunned by his family, as well as the local townspeople, he goes into hiding and lives alone with only a few rats for company. The family is fine with this arrangement, except for young Mirabel, who wants to know more about him. As she begins to ask the others for more information, however, she is told very firmly: We don’t talk about Bruno!

Riding in the car the other day with my younger daughter and me, my granddaughter requested to listen to this song. As it played, my daughter commented how unfair everyone in the song is being to poor Bruno. After all, we agreed, he’s not the one causing these things to happen. He’s just reporting what he sees. It’s not his fault bad things happen!

I guess this is why I thought of Bruno when I began to prepare this post. Because God’s prophets were often treated the same way. Many of them suffered terribly, but they weren’t causing God’s judgment. They were just passing along His message. It wasn’t their fault Israel faced destruction. The nation’s fate was a result of the people’s continued disobedience and idol worship.

Unfortunately, we humans have a tendency to blame the messenger when we don’t like the message. Instead, we should heed God’s warnings! Because He wouldn’t share a message about the future unless He had a reason for doing so.

“For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man,
but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

2 Peter 1:21 ESV

“Listen to this message from the Lord!”

2 Kings 7:1 NLT

No one wants to hear bad news. But rather than ignoring or trying to stifle God’s warnings, we would do well to pay attention. God gave the Israelites plenty of opportunities to change their ways, but they repeatedly refused to listen. Here is just a small sample of Scripture verses about God’s prophets and how they were received by God’s people after sharing His messages:

• “Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam, king of Israel: ‘Amos is hatching a plot against you right here on your very doorstep! What he is saying is intolerable. He is saying, “Jeroboam will soon be killed, and the people of Israel will be sent away into exile.”‘” (Amos 7:10-11 NLT)
• “Elijah replied, ‘I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.'” (1 Kings 19:10 NLT)
• “But when Jeremiah had finished his message, saying everything the Lord had told him to say, the priests and prophets and all the people at the Temple mobbed him. ‘Kill him!’ they shouted. ‘What right do you have to prophesy in the Lord’s name that this Temple will be destroyed like Shiloh? What do you mean, saying that Jerusalem will be destroyed and left with no inhabitants?’ And all the people threatened him as he stood in front of the Temple.” (Jeremiah 26:8-9 NLT)
• “Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, ‘This is what God says: Why do you disobey the Lord’s commands and keep yourselves from prospering? You have abandoned the Lord, and now he has abandoned you!’ Then the leaders plotted to kill Zechariah, and King Joash ordered that they stone him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s Temple.” (2 Chronicles 24:20-21 NLT)

Pretty harsh treatment! Rather than being grateful for the warnings, God’s people grew defensive, hardhearted, and even violent toward His prophets. But they were only hurting themselves.

In The Heart of the Story, Randy Frazee talks about the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. By now, we probably all know the story of how the massive, supposedly unsinkable ship hit an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean and sank, killing most of the passengers on board. What you may not know — at least I didn’t — is that several nearby ships sent messages to the Titanic, warning them of the danger ahead, but these messages were ignored. Apparently, the operator on the Titanic was so focused on sending out messages from passengers that he didn’t bother paying attention to any of the incoming warnings. In fact, he replied to one of the ships: “Shut up. Shut up. I am busy.”

Like a massive ship on a deadly collision course, Israel was on a dangerous path, and God repeatedly sent warnings through His prophets to get them to change direction. But these messages were ignored. The tragic result: Like the Titanic, they went down.

“God sent messengers to the northern kingdom of Israel to warn them of the danger they were in due to their careless worship of other gods. Over the course of 208 years, he will send nine prophets who have the same basic message. God is doing the same for us today. He has sent his message through his word, the Bible, and through his followers to lovingly warn us and direct us in paths of righteousness. We would do well to learn from Israel’s example and heed these messages, turning our lives in the direction of God’s Upper Story. . . . Will we say, like the Titanic operator did, ‘Shut up. Shut up. I am busy,’ or will we listen and make the necessary turn to avoid disaster?”

Randy Frazee, The Heart of the Story

“Watch for the new thing I am going to do.
It is happening already—you can see it now!
I will make a road through the wilderness
    and give you streams of water there.”

Isaiah 43:19 GNT

When we refuse to listen to God’s warnings because we don’t like bad news, we can put ourselves in spiritual, or even physical, danger. His rebukes are meant to help us, not to hurt us. Ignoring His course corrections can lead us down perilous paths with possibly catastrophic consequences.

But another tragic result of not listening to God is that we can miss the good news He has for us as well. The book of Isaiah contains a lot of bad news about God’s judgment and punishment of His people. But it’s got a lot of good news, too! Good news about comfort, deliverance, restoration and a future King, not just for Israel, but for all mankind.

Rather than being afraid to hear things we may not like, we should focus on the fact that God is good and everything He does is for our benefit. In my own spiritual journey, I have been drawn to books about how to hear God, because I’ve been so desperate to hear His voice. I want to know His will and His plan for my life. Basically, I want to hear some good news about what’s in store for me! But I’ve learned that what I want and what God wants aren’t always the same thing.

“If you aren’t willing to listen to everything God has to say, you eventually won’t hear anything He has to say. If you want to hear His comforting voice, you have to listen to His convicting voice. And it’s often what we want to hear least that we need to hear most. Trust me, though, you want to hear what He has to say.”

Mark Batterson, Whisper

Rather than focusing on hearing what I want to hear, I have had to learn to focus on hearing God, no matter what He tells me. This can sometimes be painful and even a little scary. But it’s also exciting! Because hearing God gives us the opportunity to become a part of His work in our lives and in the world. And once we learn to hear His voice, we may be amazed at what He shares with us!

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” 

John 16:13 NLT

This week’s Scripture passages are all messages shared by God’s prophets. While they were originally meant for God’s people in Israel and Judah, they still speak to us today. They are messages of repentance, comfort, and hope for the future. When God speaks — through Scripture, through others, or through His Spirit — He may not always tell us what we want to hear, but we don’t do ourselves any favors by ignoring Him. Let’s never forget the power of God’s voice! With just a few words, He spoke the universe into existence. His words have purpose, and everything He says will come to pass, so let’s pay attention to what He has to say!

The Lord has spoken. And He still speaks. Will we have the courage to listen?

“And I will give you a new heart—I will give you new and right desires—and put a new spirit within you. I will take out your stony hearts of sin and give you new hearts of love.”

Ezekiel 36:26 TLB

References:

• Batterson, Mark. Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God. Multnomah, 2017.
• Encanto. Dir. Jared Bush and Byron Howard. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2021.
• Frazee, Randy.  The Heart of the Story: Discover Your Life Within the Grand Epic of God’s Story. Zondervan, 2017.
• The Story: Read the Bible as One Seamless Story from Beginning to End. Rev. ed., Zondervan, 2008.
• “We Don’t Talk About Bruno (From ‘Encanto’).” YouTube, uploaded by DisneyMusicVEVO, 28 December 2021, https://youtu.be/bvWRMAU6V-c.

Images:

• All images taken from “Encanto 2021 But Only BRUNO MADRİGAL SCENES.” YouTube, uploaded by TV SERİES CLİPS, 29 December 2021, https://youtu.be/j7oUnlOKYZY.