Role of a Prophet 2

The Old Testament has the story of a man named Caleb. He was one of the twelve scouts that Moses sent into the promised land to check it out and report on how strong the nations were there. Well, they were strong. Very strong. Ten of the scouts were so discouraged that they told the camp of Israel there was no hope of taking the land. Joshua and Caleb spoke up:

And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.


The people didn't listen to Joshua or Caleb. They were about to stone them, when the Lord entered His tabernacle, "And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel."


The Lord stated that because the camp of Israel had not had faith in Him, and had not had courage, they would not enter the promised land. They would pass away in the wilderness, and their children, one generation later, would take the land. Except, He said, for the two righteous scouts.


Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.


I said that to say this: Caleb "followed [God] fully", by following the prophet. God gave Moses instructions, Moses instructed the people, and the righteous obeyed him. But, God said Caleb followed God, not Moses, in following Moses' instructions, because God gave them first.


At the age of 85, Caleb walked into the promised land, "as strong this day as [he] was in the day that Moses sent [him.] He inherited a land called Hebron, "because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel."


(Someday soon I'll tie in all the links to the scriptures I'm quoting.)


I declare that it is self-evident from the scriptures, that obeying the words of a living prophet is obeying the Lord God of Israel, and worshiping the Lord, not His prophet. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.