As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.<\/i> James 5:10<\/p>\n
My guess is that it has never been convenient or comfortable to be a messenger of righteousness in the midst of a godless or backslidden generation, even back in the days of Noah: \u201cFor if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness<\/b>, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly\u2026<\/i>\u201d (2 Peter 2:4-5, emphasis added). I can picture Noah preaching repentance and righteousness to the rebellious pre-flood world the whole time he worked on the ark\u2014more than likely being scorned and mocked the entire time.<\/p>\n
\u2026take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.<\/i><\/p>\n
Isaiah<\/b>, Jeremiah<\/b>, Hosea<\/b>, and Amos <\/b>spoke to God\u2019s people living in the midst of prosperity. While the people conformed to a display of religious tradition, many also cozied up to pagan worship. Leaders were becoming more and more corrupt, families were growing increasingly unstable due to widespread immorality, and class hatred was on the rise (taken from notes on the Book of Isaiah and the Book of Hosea, Spirit-Filled Life Bible<\/i>, Thomas Nelson, Inc., \u00a91991).<\/p>\n
Joel <\/b>prophesied during an interruption to the prosperity in Judah when it was overrun by a devastating plague of locusts that stripped the land of all vegetation within a few short hours.<\/p>\n
Micah<\/b> saw the beginnings of the divided kingdom and witnessed the spread of idolatry as it competed with the worship of God. Zephaniah<\/b> was the last to prophesy to Judah before its captivity; and Habakkuk <\/b>witnessed increasing violence against citizens, oppressive treatment of the poor, and the collapse of the legal system in Judah, just before Jerusalem fell (taken from notes on the Book of Micah, the Book of Zephaniah, and the Book of Habakkuk, Spirit-Filled Life Bible<\/i>, Thomas Nelson, Inc., \u00a91991).<\/p>\n
Daniel<\/b> and Ezekiel<\/b> prophesied during the time of exile; Haggai<\/b> and Zechariah<\/b> prophesied in the days following exile as the people returned to their land, and by the time of Malachi<\/b>, the final prophet in scriptural record before the birth of Christ, the people had become immoral and careless once again (taken from notes on the Book of Malachi, Spirit-Filled Life Bible<\/i>, Thomas Nelson, Inc., \u00a91991).<\/p>\n
None of these godly men had an easy task; with fire in their hearts and tears in their eyes, they warned a rebellious people of God\u2019s judgment.<\/p>\n
As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n
Although some of those prophets met with seasons of favor, none of them saw lifelong celebrity or fame. It didn\u2019t matter; what did<\/em> matter was the message God had branded upon their hearts.<\/p>\n Prophets had a unique manner of staying separated to God even as they connected with people. They were often loners who were misunderstood because of the message God gave to them and the methods by which He led them to share that message. They were the proverbial sore thumb, sticking out in the crowd. They were typically unpopular. They were rarely viewed as rock stars.<\/p>\n