HAVE FAITH IN HIS PROPHETS
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When we think of a prophet today, most often it is an image of someone who might be a little odd, either mumbling or shouting messages of doom and destruction. They might be preoccupied with the end of the world or some coming calamity that they have somehow foreseen. It seems it is too easy to be a prophet of doom, and people tend to be taken more seriously when they make predictions of disaster. After all, it seems there are always bad things happening or threatening to happen in our world; they are the things that dominate our news feeds and headlines, and it is easy to make people afraid. So perhaps the real prophets—those who speak with the greatest courage and foresight, and certainly those we should pay the most attention to—are the ones who actually inspire courage, grow our confidence in the God we serve, and help us to live with greater faithfulness and focus. A prophet with a message from God who can inspire an outnumbered and frightened army to march out to battle while singing about the holiness and love of God is a prophet worth listening to. And Jehoshaphat also put things in the right order—first, have faith in God, then have faith in the prophet who points to this God.
As God’s people marched out to battle praising the Lord, God used their singing to unnerve and panic the invading armies, who began fighting among themselves (see 2 Chronicles 20:22, 23). Faithful courage has a power to it that should not be underestimated. May we look to—and even become—voices who share and inspire such courage.
