Deuteronomy 32;2: “My doctrine shall drop as rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass.”
I believe there are prophets today, I also believe I can count on one hand, with fingers left over as to the number of prophets that I really believed were true prophets of God. There are many self-acclaimed prophets who manage to get on the radio or television and warn of impending doom. They dress in Brook Brother’s suits and fly in private jets. Most of the people in this country pay them no mind except the few who help pay for the Brook Brother’s suits and private jets. Some are no so rich but just as phony. They use old carnival tricks doing cold reads on people. You know the type, they ask leading questions like: “You are very concerned for someone.” Everyone is concerned for someone. This leads to the next question: “It is a relative.” The prophet notices a slight movement of the eyebrow an expression of doubt, a miss so he quickly adds: “Or no, a close friend.” The prophet sees a note of surprise, he has a hit. So he continues a line of questioning until he has that person telling his life history without saying a word. It doesn’t matter how many misses he has people want to believe so bad that he is a prophet that they will only focus on the hits. The way you get people to believe in you is your confidence.
I paid my way through college working as a ventriloquist. Now there is no such thing as throwing your voice and the key to a ventriloquist is not lip control. Edgar Bergen the greatest ventriloquist who ever lived moved his lips. He did it on purpose to show what a great ventriloquist he was. You see ventriloquism is the ability to create an illusion that that dummy sitting on your lap is real. Everyone knows it is not real but as the ventriloquist you need to almost hypnotize your audience in such a way that you break their will and they just relax and enjoy the show never reminding themselves that that dummy is just a piece of wood and that the ventriloquist is doing all the talking. They key to a successful ventriloquist as with any audience even in sales is confidence. If you have that level of confidence that you are creating the illusion you are creating it. In fact the English idiom con man comes from the word confidence man. A thief who wins you confidence and robs you blind.
So I do not deny the existence of prophets today, but I am very skeptical and I take a very Old Testament approach in discerning whether the old boy who tells me that my books will bless hundreds of thousands, yea millions is really speaking from the Spirit or from his own imagination. If he tells me my books will bless millions I automatically will label him a false prophet. Those books that bless millions are usually those about a kid who does not actually die but claims to have been to heaven and saw Jesus riding a rainbow colored horse. Those books sell millions, not Bible study books like mine.
So what does the Old Testament tell us about prophets. Well for one thing prophets are strategically placed by God into the culture of the nation and they minister within their own vocation and life experience. Hosea prophesied from his personal marital problems, Amos prophesied from the vantage point of a farmer and share cropper and Jonah from his position as a statesman. Their personal lives preached their message. Tim Tebow, most Americans have heard of him and amazingly still do even though he never succeeded in the major leagues but he is still remembered for his unwavering stand for Jesus and still appears in the press and news articles showing the world that even if you don’t make in the majors, you still have a job for God which he is still performing and using his vocation to, shall I say it, prophesy.
We learn in Deuteronomy that God sends his doctrine as the rain or the dew. Actually, the word used for doctrine in Hebrew is laqach. This is a word used in the Hebrew for influence but originates from the idea of influencing a father to give his daughter as bride in marriage. It is used in the Akkadian language to impregnate. So you could actually read this as the Lord impregnates us with his influence like the rain or the dew. God is the ultimate confidence or con man.
The Lord influences us as the drop of rain. The word drop in Hebrew is araph which means to trickle. This is not a pouring rain or a rain storm, but a gentle rain or small rain that falls on the tender herb but does not harm it. It is like the dew. Again I think of Tim Tebow and a recent picture in the news. Here was a powerful former professional athlete picking up and gently hugging a fragile disabled child. It told me and the world that God uses a gentle approach to influence us.
The word in Hebrew for dew is katal which comes from the root word talal. It means to moisten, to be soft and tender. It is spelled Teth, Lamed, Lamed. The Teth is a picture of shedding the old and allowing the new to enter. The Lamed speaks of teachings. Even the built in commentary for talal dew shows a bringing in of the new in a gentle, tender way.
Too often when we think of a prophet we think of someone preaching doom and gloom. Actually, the message of a prophet is to turn back to God. It may come as a warning of doom or gloom, but just as often it comes as a life example and a tender nudging toward God. Just like a powerful football player who makes no excuse for his faith and love for God tenderly picking up a disabled child. That is a prophetic message if ever there was one. The picture of a powerful God who will tenderly pick us up in our need. That prophetic message is not unlike Hosea’s method of prophesying.
This prophet has been strategically placed in the center of America’s favorite pastime by God right in the center of the American culture. He simply prophesies from his own life experience but he has been given a dramatic platform and his noble acceptance of his departure from his profession only enhanced his prophetic message. Maybe it will not be a lifelong prophetic ministry it wasn’t for Hosea or other prophets but it is not the length of the prophetic ministry as it is the message itself. I don’t discount the message of doom and gloom from some prophets, but I will not ignore or belittle the gentle prophetic message like a gentle rain or fallen dew. It is not a message of doom or impeding destruction, it is a simple a call to live a pure life before God.
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