“We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, nor is there any among us who knows how long” (Psa 74:9).
There is a YouTube video about a Vietnam veteran who purchased a watch for $300 while in Thailand. When he returned to the US, he put it in a safe and left it there for the next 50 years. Years later, when he needed some extra cash, he remembered the watch and decided to sell it. He literally fell over when he discovered that it was now worth half a million dollars.
The veteran failed to recognize the true value of what he possessed. This true story can also serve as a parable for my people’s failure to appreciate the value of the Prophets. There was a time when the absence of a prophet was a sign of God’s wrath, quite literally a national disaster for a people called to be a kingdom of priests (see 1 Sam 3:1; Lam 2:9; Ezek 7:26; Amos 8:11).
Praise be to God, more and more Israelis are returning to the message of the Prophets and, consequently, finding Yeshua.
With a long history of rejecting God’s prophets (see Jer 7:25–26; 25:4–7; 26:4–6; 29:19; 35:15; 44:4–5), and with the rejection of the greatest of Israel’s prophets, the prophet like Moses (Deut 18:15; Acts 7:37), Judaism has shifted almost completely from an authority grounded in the Prophets to one grounded in the rabbis. While we have fixed our attention and affection on the oral law (Mishnah, Talmud, etc.), we have quietly set the Prophets aside in a proverbial safe, failing to recognize how invaluable they are for our well-being and prosperity as a people.
Praise be to God, more and more Israelis are returning to the message of the Prophets and, consequently, finding Yeshua. But for now, our leaders and the vast majority of our people have yet to discover that the solution to all our problems is not a larger military, more religion, better PR, a different government, or America. We as a people will find peace with God, and peace in the world, only when we stop following the wisdom of human authority and give our full attention to the message of the Prophets.
