The Integrity of the Prophet

SUNDAY February 22

The Integrity of the Prophet

The year was 853 B.C. King Ahab of Israel invited King Jehoshaphat of Judah to go with him into battle against the Arameans, and Jehoshaphat agreed. However, he requested that before they go into battle they ask for a word from the Lord. When Jehoshaphat refused to accept the word of the 400 prophets of Ahab, Micaiah, a prophet of the Lord, was called.

Read 1 Kings 22:10-18. How did Ahab’s officer attempt to influence Micaiah, and what did the prophet do, regardless of the circumstances?

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Micaiah’s message was unpopular with the king, and he was sent to prison for it (1 Kings 22:27). King Ahab, in spite of the prophet’s warning, went into battle and was killed; and King Jehoshaphat, who in a weak moment had agreed to support King Ahab, barely escaped with his life.

Though prophets, like all humans, have their moments of weakness, in this case Micaiah was determined to tell the truth, no matter how unpopular it was with those in authority. Throughout history, God’s prophets have endured hardship because they refused to change their testimony to suit their contemporaries.

During Ellen White’s lifetime, critics questioned her integrity, and have continued to do so ever since her death. She has been accused of deception, falsehood, and lies. One major reason for these accusations has been personal presuppositions about how a prophet should function. For example, some critics believe that “prophets ‘should have full knowledge’ from the start of their ministry; their predictions should be unalterable, their writings exempt from all errors, discrepancies, and mistakes, and never include uninspired sources. For them, prophets never express merely personal opinions in their writings.”—Herbert E. Douglass, Messenger of the Lord (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1998), p. 468. As we have seen in our study of biblical prophets, these presuppositions assume a verbal-inspiration concept that Seventh-day Adventist do not hold. If we don’t hold it for the Bible itself, why should we for Ellen White?

Have you ever had to deliver an unpopular message? What kind of pressures did you face? In what ways did you try to make excuses to yourself that could have allowed you not to deliver the message? What have you learned from that experience?