The ‘Success story’ of the ‘Unsuccessful’ prophets!!!
At the outset, I desire to bring to the fore, a ‘juicy’ tale adorning Science history. When, the invention-coal miner’s lamp- of Sir Humphrey Davy began to pale relatively before the astounding discoveries of his far more illustrious pupil Michael Faraday (in the field of electro-magnetism and electro-chemistry), he was prodded by the prying media of his day ‘on how he felt on seeing his discovery being overshadowed by those of his own famous student’. To this he is said to have come –up with an apt, witty reply ‘Gentlemen, you are forgetting that my greatest discovery is not the coal miner’s lamp but Michael Faraday, himself’. Oh, how weak is human memory! Oh, how soon, lives of men who have inspired other men to ‘great works’ are soon reduced to mere footnotes in the history books! Thankfully, it doesn’t happen in the spiritual realm, for here the fair and a just God who is in charge, using an altogether “DIFFERENT SCALE” for measuring success has affirmed that
“…those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.”- Mark 10:31
What a wonderful source of encouragement, these words are to those who serve the Lord diligently, far away from the public spotlight for words “The least important now” alludes to them. Yes, they may get no proper recognition from the people of their era, for the industrious efforts, they put in for the Lord but their efforts are being recognized by the Lord himself! “Then” in the above-captioned Scripture of course refers to the time of distributing “rewards” to God’s servants (1 Cor 3:12-15) coinciding with middle of the Seven year tribulation period when the “serpent-tongued accuser” would be forever cast off from the Heavenly realm (Rev 12:7-10).
Let’s take the life and ministry of Jewish Prophets before the exile, as a case in point. Unlike prophets and leaders after the Exile like Haggai, Ezra and Nehemiah who were able to elicit positive response from the people and rally them around for great socio-spiritual civic projects like Temple and Wall reconstruction, the prophets before the exile were not as “successful”. Not only were they ‘unsuccessful’ in bringing the errant people of their generation to repentance but also to top it all, some of them paid for their sincere, selfless efforts with their own lives!
At this stage, it would serve us well to hit the loop line, as it were and have a brief chronological recap, of the history of the Nation of Israel till the advent of the Messiah especially keeping in view the benefit of those who are uninitiated on this subject
1. Call of Patriarch Abraham with the Divine Promise of giving the
a) “Land Flowing with milk and honey to his descendents (Gen 12:1-3/Gen 15) by extermination of the sinful Amorites (Gen 15:6), the original occupants of the same
b) Messiah-the Promised Child of Abraham (Gen 15:4 /Gal 3:16-18) who would be the cause of Divine Blessings coming upon both the Jews and the Gentiles (Gal 3:29)
2. The Settling of Abraham’s descendents in Egypt and their deliverance from Egyptian oppression in order to lead them to the Land Promised to Father Abraham
3. The Deuteronomic Covenant (Deu Chapter 28) with Abraham’s descendents now Christened as the Nation of Israel and the Conquest of the Promised Land (Joshua)
4. Era of Judges as the Leaders of the Nation of Israel (Judges) till the beginning of the Era of the Kings.
5. Era of the Kings till the end of the reign of King Solomon (1 and 2 Samuel/1 Kings 12)
6. Division of the Kingdom of Israel into two
a) Northern Kingdom of Israel and
b) Southern Kingdom of Judah
7. Serious deterioration of spiritual climate in both the Kingdoms’ with Kings and people deserting their Redeemer God (from Egyptian bondage-Jer 2) and choosing lifeless idols as their gods’.
8. Warning from the Almighty through His Prophets to His people to turn from their detestable ways (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, Amos, Hosea) lest they lose their Promised Land much in the way Adam and Eve lost their Promised Land…viz…Garden of Eden (Hosea 6:7)
9. The Jews turning deaf ear to all the Prophetical warning besides persecuting the Prophets.
10. The Exile from the Promised Land firstly with
a) Israel (2 Kings 17)
b) Judah (2 Chro 36)
11. Return from the Exile and re-establishment of Jewish Society under the leadership of Priests’ like Joshua, Ezra (Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra and Nehemiah) in the Promised Land albeit under the overall reign of Medo-Persians, who were the World super-powers at that time.
12. The Priest being the leaders of the Nation (the likes of Annas and Caiphas-John 18:13-14) till the advent of the Messiah under the over-all reign of the World Super power –Rome which had displaced the Greek Empire. The latter had previously unseated the Medo-Persians as the World Super power.
Time to hit the main track once again and “go back” to the time preceding and following the Exile with the spotlight firmly trained on the Ministry of the Servants’ of God of that dispensation and the response they got from their “audience”..
Softened…
Of the era of Ezra, Haggai and Nehemiah, the Biblical scholars would tell us that the hearts of God’s chosen lot, were ‘softened’ and made into “pliable clay” by the retribution of exile, as such they were more receptive to God’s instruction (after the Exile) than that of their hard-hearted fathers. Let me state affirmatively here that it is not Haggai’s or Nehemiah’s fault that they did not face the wrath of their own people in the way their predecessors did before the Exile. It also follows that their (Haggai or Nehemiah) rewards too wouldn’t be diminished just because, their suffering did not equal that of their counterparts before the Exile dealing as they were with the softened people ready to submit themselves into the hands of the Divine potter.
Hardened…
Spare a thought to the diligent Prophets’, who laboured for the Lord before the Exile, pleading with the people to repent? Forget listening to their clarion call and repenting, the hard-hearted Jews of that day wanted nothing to do with them. Situation turned from bad to worse for these representatives of God, when the emotional pain of social rejection (Amos 7:12) assumed the dark contours of physical hardships. Take the flogging and imprisonment of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:1-2) and then throw in cruel execution of other faithful prophets such as Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the High priest (II Chronicles 24:21-22) and Uriah, son of Shemiah (Jeremiah 26:20-23) and the grim picture of all pain and no gain of these prophets would slowly but surely emerge with no shades of grey. Oh yes, prophets like Jeremiah or Amos, may be a popular subjects of study amongst the Bible students of our age but what were their popularity ratings in the Jewish society of their age? Were they at least looked upon as Prophets- Representatives of the Almighty God? NO! Far from being viewed as men holding a holy office, they were actually looked down upon as ‘ unholy traitors of their nation’ (Jeremiah 38:4/ Amos 7:10). In essence, they were the very definition of the word ‘the least’ our Lord was talking about in the afore-referred scripture portion.
While on the subject, I want to present yet another important dimension of their Ministry, which made their popularity graph dip further…alarmingly. As Prophets, not only were they foretelling the dark future of the hard-hearted people prone to receive just Divine comeuppance but they also assumed the role of forthtellers of God’s word. Not for them, any sugarcoating business! They boldly portended all of God’s warnings’ of ‘gloom and doom’ to the disobedient people without mincing any words! Do we practice such honest forthtelling in the pulpits nowadays, even if it means risking empty pews?
Sanctioned…
Now coming to the ‘success’ of their Ministry, which did not bring to God’s kingdom ‘many repentant souls’! Let me forewarn, the success per se, of the ministries of these faithful ambassadors of God ought not to evaluated in the context of its meaning spelled out in say an Oxford dictionary but rather in the backdrop of its meaning as outlined in God’s lexicon! If to God, they were ultimately accountable, then from Him alone ought to come the Final verdict on the ‘success’ of their ministry!
For the ‘Divine verdict’ on this subject, let’s have a closer look at the words of commendation of the Divine master (in the parable of talents) addressed to those earnest servants of his, which goes thus… “ Well done, my good and faithful servant” (Matt 25:21-23). The words of commendation employed (not once but twice, as though to underscore a point) were not, “well done, my successful servant” but rather “well done, my faithful servant”. Ah… Faithfulness that’s the key to gaining God’s approval in any realm of spiritual service!!! Is it pervading every area of our work for Him? If it is then my dear Co-servants in His vineyard, let’s never fret over the so-called ‘lack of success’ in our Ministry, because as long as we faithfully endeavour to carry out His tasks assigned to us…we are guaranteed the Master’s sanction! Let me reiterate here even at cost of sounding repetitive… “FAITHFULNESS” alone is the scale by which the Divine Master rates success in Ministry done for His Glory!!!
God, who sees and punishes every done sin in secret, also sees every good deed done faithfully for His glory in secret and rewards (Heb 4:13) suitably. Early Church, didn’t know about Cornelius, the charitable Roman centurion till his baptism but his good deeds done faithfully albeit in a corner, as it were, were noticed by Him, whose opinion matters the most at all times (Acts 10:1-5)!
Enlivened…
In conclusion, I want to highlight the ‘greatest’ success of the supposedly unsuccessful Prophets before exile. It is only logical to believe that for a far more popular, successful, history-conscious (Nehemiah13:26) socio-spiritual leader like Nehemiah, the faithfulness displayed in the past by prophets such as Jeremiah and Amos was always a source of great inspiration especially in his moments of discouragement, as he endeavoured to rebuild the broken Jerusalem wall against heavy odds. Jeremiah, Amos and their ilk may have been Davy’s equivalent to Nehemiah in the sphere of inspiration. Leave alone Nehemiah, even today, when we see the perseverance and faithfulness of the ‘unsuccessful’ prophets, are we not enlivened and encouraged to go an extra mile for the Lord? The simple fact is… THE GOOD LORD IS STILL USING THEM, EVEN TODAY, THOUGH PHYSICALLY THEY ARE LONG DEAD AND GONE, FOR THEIR EXAMPLE, STILL CONTINUES TO INSPIRES US!!! They were the very definition of the catchy phrase “If you aspire to inspire before you expire, then you would continue to inspire long after you expire”. Hallelujah!!!
Would our lives and our selfless (?) work for Him, inspire the posterity in the same way like that of say a Jeremiah or an Amos, inspires us today? Hmmm…inconspicuous Humphrey Davy or popular Michael Faraday? It doesn’t matter in God’s realm, as long as you are FAITHFUL!!! AMEN!!!
(Suresh Manoharan)
