“Wherefore, behold, I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; some of them you shall kill, and crucify; some you shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city” (Matthew 23:34).

Prophets (Def): (Gr.): Prophetes from Pro Phemi: To show or make known one’s thoughts, speak, say before, foreteller, inspired speaker

There is in the common will of man a desire to be in control of one’s own life, to determine one’s own destiny. Prophets are disruptors, interferers in the process of finding one’s own way and determining one’s own future. Prophets are messengers of God and when we do not like the message, we shoot the messengers.

Don’t Kill the Prophets. Unfortunately, that is exactly what we tend to do. Jesus said concerning Jerusalem:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets, and stone them who are sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not” (Matthew 23:37).

Why did the people not want to be gathered? Why did they reject their Messiah? There are a number of reasons: (1) They were locked into their own system and tradition; (2) Their leaders were in control and did not want to give it up; (3) The message they were hearing did not conform to their traditions, conventions and general understanding of the Scriptures; (4) Jesus was an outsider. He did not come up from among them as a reformer. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but gives a strong sense of the problem that existed among them.

Prophets have a tendency to change the narrative. They tend to bring change, either to tear down, or to build up. They tend to disrupt the status quo. Don’t Kill the Prophets is a difficult word to hear for those most effected by the Prophetic word.

Receiving a word to repent; realizing one has to change course after years of carrying the traditions of one’s fathers; changing one’s mind and going in a new direction; being open to trying something new is a challenge some cannot overcome. The Prophet becomes the problem and has to be eliminated. Whether Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, or Jesus of Nazareth, all had to go away.

Behind the Prophets, however, stands the wisdom of God, the Word of the Lord, the witness of the Holy One, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Don’t Kill the Prophets because if you do, you are withstanding the Sovereign God, the Lord, the King, His Majesty.

When one comes in the Name of the Lord, we must be like the woman of Sychar at the well Jacob dug, by being discerning, by perceiving, by intuitively knowing the one to whom we speak, and from whom we are hearing.

“The woman said to Jesus, ‘Sir, I perceive you are a prophet'” (John 4:19).

Therein lay her salvation. Her openness, her humility, her genuine seeking for Truth, led her to receiving her blessing wherein she became the witness to her neighbors proclaiming, “Come, see a Man who told me everything I ever did” (cf. John 4:29a).

Friend, Don’t Kill the Prophets God sends you. Acknowledge them, recognize them, honor them, listen to them.

As the great king, Jehoshaphat, declared to the people in his day:

“Hear me, O Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, ‘Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established, believe His Prophets, so shall you prosper'” (II Chronicles 20:20).

Oh, may it be we see, we hear, we perceive, we come to know, to understand, to obey His voice and live.

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