In a wicked world, the words of God are not always appreciated. Why? Because the words of God don’t sustain wickedness and evil works but call to repentance and people don’t want that. How many messengers did God send with a message of repentance that cost them their lives? Many messengers, both in the Old and the New Covenant, paid the price with their lives for their message. And people still pay the price for the message of God. The wickedness is great on earth, which is visible in nature, the lives of people, and the increase of persecution of Christians, who preach the true gospel of Christ and call the people to repentance. The world wants to silence the messengers, who intervene with other people’s lives. But you can silence the messenger, but that doesn’t change the message.
The prophets, who spoke the words of God, were put to silence
The Old Testament prophets are many times cited in the church, due to the words, prophecies, and vision they received from God. But what they often don’t tell you, is what the speaking of the words of God cost them.
The prophets didn’t have an easy life and didn’t always experience prosperity, but resistance, setbacks, persecution, and captivity. However, the prophets had one thing in common and that was their love and fear for God.
Without the love and fear for God, they couldn’t have been so courageous and given their lives for the most wonderful and precious message on the face of this earth, namely, the message of the Most High.
The message of truth, which exposes the lies of darkness, confronts the people with their evil works, calls them to repentance, and brings them back to God, the Most High, the Creator of heaven and earth and all there is within.
They were often loners, who arose amid a rebellious people and preached a message against the will of the people. A message that was not always positive and pleasant to hear and loved by the people
Because the message was not pleasant to hear and loved by the people, these courageous prophets (messenger) were often put to silence by putting them in prison or killing them.
But silencing the messengers didn’t change the message. It didn’t change anything about God and His words, His will, the necessity of repentance, judgment, and the eternal destination of people.
God warned His people out of love
God warned His people out of love. However, His love was not always reciprocated. That’s because the words and warnings of God called for a change of lifestyle and people didn’t want that.
They didn’t love God, but they loved themselves and wanted to fulfill the lusts and desires of their flesh.
To be able to fulfill the lusts and desires of their flesh, the leaders of the people changed the words of God according to their insight, will, and desires and made evil good and good evil.
And if a messenger came and intervened in their lives, and interfered with their (evil) works, and spoke against them, they put them to silence by taking the person out.
The prophet Michaia preached nothing good but only evil
Take for example Micaiah, the son of Jimla, who King Ahab, the king of Israel, hated. Why? Because Micaiah never prophesied good concerning King Ahab, but evil. But despite King Ahab’s opinion about the words of Micaiah, the words of Micaiah did come to pass.
People can have all kinds of opinions and surround themselves with yes-men, who only speak positive words and say what people want to hear. Still, many times these people speak from themselves. They speak from the vanity of their minds and for their gain, instead of God and His Spirit. Because of that, they speak lies of men instead of the truth of God. (Read also: How do you recognize false prophets in our time?).
King Ahab and Josaphat, the king of Judah, had surrounded themselves with 400 yes-men, who stood in Ahab’s service and all prophesied prosperity.
There was only one man, who prophesied the opposite, as King Ahab expected, and that was the prophet Micaiah, who stood in God’s service.
Micaiah not only prophesied evil about the fate of the king, but Micaiah also said that the 400 prophets prophesied from a lying spirit.
The Lord permitted this spirit to go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets of Ahab.
Micaiah was not loved by the king. But because of his words, Micaiah was also not loved by all these 400 prophets.
The words of Micaiah didn’t cause unity but anger among the prophets. As a reward for his words, Micaiah received a punch on the cheek.
Micaiah’s faithfulness to God led to prison
Micaiah was faithful to God. He wasn’t influenced by the messenger of the king, who tried to persuade him to speak good words, just like the words of the 400 prophets, who declared good unto the king. But Micaiah told him, that as the Lord lives, he would only speak what the Lord told him to speak.
Micaiah was also not intimidated by the king. Nor was Micaiah intimidated by those 400 prophets, who declared they were the prophets of the Lord.
Due to his faithfulness to the words of the Lord God, Micaiah was not only beaten but also put in prison. While the other 400 prophets, who prophesied lies went home (1 Kings 22, 2 Chronicles 18)
Micaiah was a prophet. But there were also others, including priests, who gave up their freedom and sometimes even paid with their lives for their service to the Lord.
The hard message of the messenger Zachariah, the priest, cost him his life
The priest Zachariah, for example, the son of Jehoiada, the priest, was filled with the Spirit of God. He preached a hard message, namely the truth of God, that called the princes of Juda, the king, who listened to them, and the people, to repentance.
The king had always listened to Zachariah’s father the priest Jehoiada. But after Jehoiada’s death, the king listened to the princes of Judah. However, the princes of Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They had left the house of the Lord God of their fathers and served groves and idols. Therefore wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for their trespesses.
God sent prophets to them to bring them again unto the Lord. They testified against them, but they wouldn’t listen to them and continued their evil works.
When the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, he said unto the people, why they transgressed the commandments of the Lord so that they wouldn’t prosper. Because they had forsaken the Lord, the Lord had also forsaken them.
But instead of repenting, the people became angry.
The people conspired against him and stoned Zachariah with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the House of the Lord.
King Joash didn’t remember the kindness of his father towards him but slew his son (2 Chronicles 24).
Zachariah spoke the words of the Lord in the power of the Spirit and was stoned as a reward.
Many prophets of God were put in prison and/or killed
Many messengers, who were chosen and sent by God were put to silence because of their message. Messengers like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zacharias, and John the Baptist were beaten, put in prison, and/or killed, because of their love, faithfulness, and fear for the Lord God and died as martyrs for the Lord (a.o. Jeremiah 20:2, Matthew 14:1-12; 21:33-46, Luke 11:51, Hebrews 11:33-40).
However, their death didn’t change anything about the truth and the words of God. God continued sending messengers and empowered them with His word and Spirit.
God sent His Son Jesus, who met the same fate
Jesus Christ the Son of God also met the same fate. After Jesus was baptized in water and received the Holy Spirit and was tempted by the devil in the wilderness for 40 days and resisted the devil, Jesus went in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus preached boldly the Kingdom of Heaven and called the people to repentance.
And just like the messengers in the Old Testament were silenced due to their message, they also tried to silence Jesus. Because Jesus spoke the words of His Father and testified of their evil works (a.o. John 5:30; 7:7; 8:38).
Although many, who belonged to the house of Israel, gave heed to His call to repentance, there were also many, including leaders of God’s people, who didn’t believe His words and didn’t give heed to His call to repentance.
To them Jesus wasn’t the Messiah but a meddler, who stood in their way, and harmed their public image by exposing their lies, the hidden things of their hearts, and their evil works. (Read also: Jesus in the midst of blind leaders).
But Jesus didn’t adjust His words and message to the desires of the people and what people wanted to hear. He remained faithful to His Father and kept preaching the words of His Father, just like the prophets of God.
Jesus was taken captive, scourged, and crucified
Jesus came into the world, but He didn’t belong to the world (the darkness), but the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, Jesus didn’t speak the words of the world but the words of God. Jesus knew where His words would lead to. But the love for His Father and His fear for Him drove Jesus to accomplish what He came for.
The people thought that by putting this Messenger of God to silence, by taking Him captive and crucifying Him, they had gotten rid of the message. This proved, that although they pretended God appointed them, they didn’t know God. They were not familiar with His words and Kingdom.
Their mind was darkened and they lived in darkness. The people didn’t believe the words of Jesus, whereby they didn’t know what would happen with this Corn of wheat, when it would fall into the ground and die (John 12:24).
They had not counted on the fruit of the Corn of wheat
They thought they had gotten rid of Jesus and His hard message and could pick up their old lives without any interference. But they had not counted on the fruit of the Corn of wheat.
On the Day of Pentecost, the feast of first fruits, the words of God were fulfilled and all the 120 disciples of Jesus were filled with the Holy Spirit.
They went outside to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven and called the people to repentance.
They had received tongues of fire, whereby they all began to speak in other tongues, testifying of the wonderful works of God and magnifying Him.
Peter was the first one, who rose and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ and called the people of Israel, who were gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of first fruits (Feast of Weeks), to repentance.
Thousands gave heed to the call of repentance and were saved by the blood of Jesus and reconciled with God.
Through the words of Peter and the power of the Holy Spirit, they were convicted of sin, repented, and baptized. They gave their lives to Jesus, Who had given His life for them.
Why does the message of God not always lead to repentance, but to anger, resistance, and persecution?
And so the message was preached and is still preached. Despite the fact, that the world tries to silence the messenger of God. Because as the words of God that were spoken by the prophets and Jesus in the Old Covenant and by His disciples in the New Covenant, were not always received by the people and did not always lead to repentance, but caused anger, resistance, and persecution instead, the words of God still lead to anger, resistance, and persecution.
Why? Because the words of God still testify of the evil works of fallen man (the works of the flesh).
The words of God still call for repentance, the removal of sin, and the return to God and obeying Him and His Word.
And not everyone is willing to lay down his life and put off the works of the flesh for Jesus.
The love for the flesh and the world holds people back from following Jesus and obeying and serving Him. (Read also: Following Jesus will cost you everything).
Because the people don’t want to be condemned, feel bad, and be confronted with their uncleanness and dark carnal works, the people try to silence the messenger of God.
You can silence the messenger, but that doesn’t change the message
Throughout the ages nothing has changed, although people think there has. People are still wicked. They still love the evil works of the flesh. And if the messenger can’t be influenced and the message can’t be adjusted, then there is only one thing left to do and that’s to silence the messenger, one way or another.
However, people can do their best to silence the messenger, but that doesn’t change the message.
‘Be the salt of the earth’
