Judge not, but sound the alarm.
By Nathan
Driving into town Saturday, I saw a woman take a wrong turn and drive onto the opposite side of a divided highway…. into oncoming traffic!! Thank the Lord, the road was mostly empty. But I was so alarmed for her safety that I started honking. “Look out! You’re going the wrong way,” I tried to shout with my horn.
I watched as she slowed to a crawl and drove back across the grass median onto the correct side of the highway. Relief flooded me as she escaped the obvious peril. While I don’t know that my honking was the only thing that brought the danger to her attention, I couldn’t have lived with myself if I hadn’t done anything to warn her.
With half of my journey remaining, I had some time to ponder the experience. Since I was on my way to give a talk about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the situation reminded me of the gift of prophecy.
A tough job.
In the Bible, prophets often get a pretty unpleasant job. In prophet after prophet, I read some variation on, “Repent of your sins and return to the Lord!” Now in a situation when a person is driving into oncoming traffic, it’s obviously good to shout, “Turn around! You’re going the wrong way!”
But human beings aren’t that simple. Sometimes they freely choose to go the wrong way. Then they get really irritable when someone else tries to point out their error. John the Baptist’s life demonstrates that sometimes heads actually roll when the powerful are confronted with their sins.
Yet, my experience on the highway provides some insight into why the prophet sends gets involved. Sinning means choosing to take a road towards misery and suffering. If I see a person taking a road to ruin, it’s an act of charity and concern to try to alert them to the danger.
I think one of the reasons that this doesn’t always go well is a lack of love and being too “judgy”. If I approach someone who struggles with sin feeling superior and looking down on them, it’s unlikely to go well. They’ll see my nasty attitude and immediately get defensive. I don’t blame them. I’d respond the same way. Honestly, I HAVE responded the same way in the past. No one likes to be confronted about sin by a preachy, self-righteous, know-it-all.
Don the mantle of humility.
But prophets have an extraordinary role that flows from their closeness to God. The prophet is not speaking for themselves, they are delivering a message from God. I saw an excellent example of this at a Knights of Columbus meeting a couple of months ago. One of the new members was asked to give a little spiritual exhortation at the end of the meeting. He got up and very humbly said that he thinks he had a message from the Lord for us. For a number of years, the Knights have done a Christmas raffle called the “Wheelbarrow of Cheer.” Basically, each knight contributes a bottle of wine or liquor to the wheelbarrow, and then the winner gets the cheer.
So this good fellow told us that he thought the Lord wants us to know that, while most people can handle winning that much alcohol responsibly, there are probably more than a few that would use it to excess. The Lord wanted us to know that our time-honored fundraiser might be a near occasion of sin for some members of our parish.
Whoah! The other Knights applauded our brother for making such a bold yet charitable proclamation. He did it with such humility and gentleness that not a single feather got ruffled, But I think that every man present at the meeting agreed that we needed to do something different in the coming year. We want to help the parish to grow in faith, not put them in peril of sin.
The prophet as a watchman.
During our brother’s exhortation, he pointed out that he was just delivering a message. The way that we responded to the message was not his responsibility. We were still free to do what we wanted to do, but we needed to know what God wanted us to do with that freedom.
The prophet delivers messages. He doesn’t enforce consequences. As God’s watchman, he sounds the alarm when God inspires him. The prophet Ezekiel explains it this way:
The prophet Ezekiel heard the Lord say: “You, son of man—I have appointed you as a sentinel for the house of Israel; when you hear a word from my mouth, you must warn them for me. When I say to the wicked, “You wicked, you must die,” and you do not speak up to warn the wicked about their ways, they shall die in their sins, but I will hold you responsible for their blood. If, however, you warn the wicked to turn from their ways, but they do not, then they shall die in their sins, but you shall save your life.” Ezekiel 33:7-9
The prophet can deliver the message and move on with a clear conscience. The responsibility to turn from sin remains with the person receiving the message.
The prophet leads to life.
The passage from Ezekiel points out something else that is super important. God’s desire in sending a prophetic message is that people will turn from their sins and find life. It’s not just that God wants to punish sinners. He wants to SAVE sinners from their sin. Sin destroys… relationships, individuals, nations. Sin bears fruit in death. God wants to prevent that.
When Jesus said, “Judge not, lest ye be judged,” (Matthew 7:1), that doesn’t mean that sin doesn’t matter. If sin didn’t matter, we wouldn’t need a Savior. But it does mean that we shouldn’t condemn others, because we are also sinners. If we have to warn people of the consequences of their sin, we should do so in humility and generosity of heart. As Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and do not sin anymore.” (John 8:11)
Jesus does not excuse her sin. But He also doesn’t beat her over the head with it. He came to save sinners, to find the lost and bring them back into the bosom of the Father. I do not doubt that this encounter with the Savior changed that woman’s life forever.
A watchman and more.
The role of the watchman, calling people on to greater holiness, helps protect the flock of God from the ravenous wolves of sin. The prophet truly fulfills this role when he is animated by the love of God and the love of neighbor.
The prophet Jonah gives a great example of what happens when a prophet lacks the love of neighbor. Jonah refuses God’s command to warn Nineveh of their sins and runs in the other direction. Then comes the storm, Jonah being cast overboard, and spending three days in the belly of the whale. After being spit back onto dry land, he goes to deliver God’s message but expresses his anger when the city repents. He wanted them to die in their sin. God chastises his prophet for refusing to love the more than 120,000 people in Nineveh.
Love must be at the heart of the prophet’s ministry. Just like my desire for the woman on the wrong side of the road, or my brother Knight’s desire to protect folks who struggle with alcohol, it should be love that inspires the prophet to send forth the warning. Repent, believe the Gospel, for the visitation of the Lord is at hand. Turn from sin and follow the path that leads to life! THERE’S A TRUCK COMING RIGHT FOR YOU!
P.S. Prophecy is bigger than just warning sinners.
Prophets do more than warn people of the consequences of their sins. They also deliver encouragement in times of trial. God also uses them to reveal His plans and purposes to His people so that they can celebrate when the plans come to fulfillment. The role that a prophet can play is as big as God can imagine because they are delivering God’s word to His people.
But that’s a discussion for another day.
To read more about my conversion, check out Demoniac, now available on Amazon.
