Hebrews Chapter One, The Prophetic Burden

 

Finally, we have Noah. The bridge between pre-Flood and post-Flood worlds, by faith he built an ark when he was warned of things not yet seen, Hebrews 11:7, Genesis 6:13, 17. While Hebrews 11:7 informs us that his act (like Abel’s) demonstrated a faith that made him an heir of righteousness, it also condemned the pre-Flood world. Was Noah’s act evil? No. Noah, unlike his generation, was faithful, Genesis 6:8. It was the unsaved world that was evil and desperately so, corrupting everything and filling the earth with violence. Noah’s act perhaps seems evil in the face of the unsaved that perished, but recall we are considering the prophets right now. Were the peers of Noah warned of the wrath to come? Peter referred to Noah as a “preacher of righteousness,” 2 Peter 2:5.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that he was moved by godly fear to build the ark for the saving of his household, Hebrews 11:7. If he was a preacher of righteousness then we can reasonably infer that his message was one of salvation from the coming Flood, of which God had warned him. If he preached of the impending end of the antediluvian world and no one heeded him, he was no longer accountable. James warns us that if we know to do good but do not do it it is sin, James 4:17. Without doubt we know then that Noah discharged his ministry with integrity. Doing God’s will does not always equate with visible or noticeable (or humanly desirable) results.

 

Jesus our Lord related the results of what transpired during Noah’s time, likening them to His own imminent return in glory, or what the OT prophets called the Day of the Lord. “For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away,” Matthew 24:38, 39. Daily life carried on with nary a concern for Noah and his righteous preaching. When life is “fine” (however we care to subjectively define that) listening to bad news is something we seek to avoid.  The need to be rescued from a calamity unheard of and unseen was outrageous, and obviously not taken seriously, to their demise. The antediluvians “did not know” in the same way people today do not know; they are willfully ignorant of the truth. As the Sanhedrin stopped their ears with one accord so they didn’t need to listen to Stephen any longer, people insulate themselves from truth. Or more precisely, they run from God. Atheism, religion, philosophy, agnosticism, evolution, et al., are convenient things to fill our minds in an effort to resist God’s calling. As Noah entering the ark and disappearing from the sight of his peers triggered the Flood so to speak, Jesus makes mention that the vanishing (or Rapture) of people will be a sure sign of the coming of the Son of Man. The Day of the Lord will follow the Rapture, just as surely as the Flood followed Noah’s safe extraction from the coming judgment.

 

After the Flood the witnesses continued. God raised up prophets in Abraham’s lineage and it can be effectively argued that Israel as a whole was a prophetic vehicle to reconcile a lost world back to God. Prior to Israel’s national advent there was righteous Lot (2 Peter 2:7, 8), who apparently acted as a judge amongst the men of Sodom, sitting in the city gate, Genesis 19:1, 9. The Hebrew term for “judge” used in Genesis 19:9 is “shaphat” and means, “to pronounce sentence (for or against); by implication to vindicate or punish, to govern.” Lot clearly angered the residents of Sodom by condemning their licentious behavior, garnering a poor reputation from them. Yet Lot was vindicated and Sodom judged when the angels told Lot, “Hurry, escape there (to Zoar). For I cannot do anything until you arrive there,” Genesis 19:22. Like Noah, Jesus taught that Lot’s departure from Sodom precipitated God’s immediate judgment, Luke 17:29. Rather than hearken to Lot’s judgment, they succumbed to God’s because like Cain and the denizens of earth prior to the Flood, they would not listen.

 

A great responsibility rests on the shoulders of the prophets, which is why the prophetic utterances were sometimes referred to as burdens. The prophets were God’s servants, sent in His employ with a particular message they were entrusted to faithfully execute, regardless of circumstance, Matthew 21:34, Amos 3:7, Jeremiah 7:25. Jesus’ parable in Matthew chapter 21 vividly explains the Master-servant relationship the prophets had with their God. They were sent, one might say according to this parable, “at various times and in various ways,” to the vinedressers, but were seldom received well, Luke 11:47. The parable, reflecting a truncated version of the history of God’s dealings with Israel, detailed how they, “beat one, killed one, and stoned another,” Matthew 21:35. As it was with Cain and Abel so it is with the saints and the lost. Those who prefer pride to humility will respond with malice toward the gospel of peace. The prophets were not commanded to be successful in the definition you or I might have of that word. If we were to determine success, Noah would have preached, people would have listened, and a small navy of arks would have survived the deluge. Humanly speaking we define success quantitatively rather than qualitatively. But God’s view of success was determinant upon one criterion: the faith of the message’s bearer. Sometimes the recipient of the message listens as in David and Nathan’s case, 2 Samuel 12:13. Sometimes, as in Urijah and Jehoiakim’s case, they do not listen, Jeremiah 26:23. Sometimes even the prophet does not listen, but God uses them anyway, as was the case of Jonah. No matter the person given the ministry of the prophetic office, they discharged their duty to “the fathers.” The prophets had been as long as the human race existed, and to Israel’s ancestors or patriarchs beginning with Adam there was a witness to God’s mercy and justice. But in due time One greater than the prophets would come, just as the Master’s Son is greater than His servants, Luke 11:32, Matthew 21:37.