False Shepherds and True Prophets

1 Corinthians 14:22 Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers.

1 Corinthians 14:24-25 But if you all prophesy, and some unbeliever or uninstructed person enters, he is convicted of sin by all, he is brought under judgment by all, and the secrets of his heart are laid bare; so he falls on his face and worships God, saying, "God is really here among you!" What is our conclusion, brothers? Whenever you come together, let everyone be ready with a psalm or a teaching or a revelation (the prophets, for the believers), or ready to use his gift of tongues or give an interpretation; but let everything be for edification.

So the job of the prophets, presupposing that prophets prophesy, is then to convict the unbelieving among God's people of sin and bring him under judgement by laying bare the secrets of his heart. This is what a prophet has always been, what he is, and what he will always be. What does the shepherd do?

Taking the direct shepherd analogy, he herds the sheep to the pasture and lets them graze. Over and above that, he protects them from the wild beast looking for a feast, and brings them home again.

The modern day shepherd does things in the opposite fashion. The pastor goes alone to the pasture with his lawnmower, cuts down the grass, binds it in bags, brings the bags of grass back to the sheep, and feeds it to them. By the time the grass has arrived, it is long dead. Those pastors delivering the sweetest tasking grass attract more and more grass eaters, which in turn calls for larger and larger stalls. The largest stall wins!

This unnatural shepherding and grazing is due to laziness. It takes more effort to do things right than to cut corners. Corner cutting is not without consequences. The sheep are notoriously weak, for they get no exercise. They cannot eat the raw feed themselves, for like animals kept in a zoo, they have lost the will and the ability to rip the grass out of the dirt under their own power. So they become overly dependent upon the zookeeper for their nourishment, "proving" that they need a pastor for good spiritual health. Just as a caged animal will never reach its potential for splender, power and pride, so will the church-goer never obtain God's best for his life. How can he?

In an effort to save space we refrain from quoting verses 3 through 24. It should, however, be read before continuing.

It is not surprising that the job of the Prophet has been regulated to speaking encouraging (solely in the fleshly positive sense, not in the Biblical sense) thoughts. Some go as far to proclaim they no longer exist. The Prophet is the evangelist for God's people, and their conscience. By the very nature of the pyramid system - which concerns itself much more with our "proper" submissive relationship with the leaders in direct opposition to a focus on our relation to God - there is no room for the real Prophet. For if the Prophet were to speak, the sheep may enter into God's plan as follows:

This is life in true blessing. How many sheep live here? The promised shepherd is in reference to Jesus.

Ezekiel 34:23-24 "'I will raise up one shepherd to be in charge of them, and he will let them feed — my servant David. He will pasture them and be their shepherd. I, ADONAI, will be their God; and my servant David will be prince among them. I, ADONAI, have spoken.

Take special note that of "I will make a covenant of peace with them". It does not say I will make a contract with the apex of the pyramid, who will then subcontract down to the second tier, and so on down through the lower levels. The pyramid is the absolute antithesis of the relationship that God wants. He desires no middle people. The pyramid does not fit into the spirit of the Written Word.

Question: how many of the mishandled sheep realize they were being exploited? The sheep keep returning under their own free will. Would they do it if they knew? Most people who are abused, do not know it. A seldom quoted verse bears repeating:

2 Corinthians 11:19-20 For since you yourselves are so wise, you gladly put up with fools! You put up with it if someone makes slaves of you, exploits you, takes you in, puffs himself up, slaps you in the face.

It does happen. It can happen to you, dear reader. Everyone reading this should take a quick pause to consider if he is a victim of being too wise as displayed in the verse quoted above.

Jeremiah's Call out of the City

The prophets were disliked, expelled and killed. Was this because they routinely had nice messages to present? Quite the contrary. God depends on the prophets to tell the ugly truth. This is why the prophets - the real ones at least - are not allowed into the pyramid structure; for then the whole thing would crash into one huge heap of straw and stubble.

If one wants to be a career prophet - those repeatedly invited to speak at the pyramid meetings on Sunday morning - the best bet is to proclaim peace, where there is no peace. They should prophecy that there are some in the audience this morning, who will be great businessmen bringing money into the kingdom (of the pyramids), and that they should not forget to pay the tithe to the local pyramid storehouse. Proclaim that others will have international ministries to be sent out under the spiritual covering of the pharaoh. This is too easy. Anyone can do it. But the prophets from God have a different mission. They say, "Get out of the city".

The city represented, in the usual case, a place of fortification and security from enemies. Jeremiah - going against the grain, which is par for the prophets - claims the exact opposite. The logic emanating from the king's men is impeccable. Once the people flee the bogus safety of the city, the king is no longer king; for kings always have subjects to boss. No subjects, no king. This is, of course, a very big problem for the king. His pride does not allow the salvation of the souls, since he is more interested in his own position of prestige.

And Jeremiah calls the people to surrender, in order that they may live. The leaders find this demoralizing for the troops and the regular sheep. The leaders determined that Jeremiah is trying to harm the sheep. The opposite is the case. "Just don't let those sheep out of the stall! They need the king to save them!" All the while, the king was dragging them to certain destruction.

Scott Wallace Brians
March 2007
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Complete Jewish Bible (1998) by David H. Stern