Insane Saints

“The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.” (Ho 9:7 AV)

And we thought surrendering to the ministry meant popularity and a trove of the lost coming to the saving knowledge of Christ.  Here we thought that absolutely everyone, without exception, would love us to death!  Surely all with whom we come in contact with would think us wise and worthy to be heeded.  No doubt those ideas danced in our heads as we prepared in our studies.  Surely, once we begin to expound on the word of God, all will assume us learned and wise.  When we warn of the coming and eminent return of Christ, all will consider the warning in a sober and serious matter.  When we point to the events of our current world like the recent pact between Turkey and Russia over Syria and warn this event plays a part in the first battle of Gog and Magog, all will be concerned enough to search the scriptures to see of these things are so.  The world will appreciate all the hard work and study that goes into writing a book concerning prophecy, doctrine, or practical living.  The books will fly off the shelves as the world and the church eat it all up.  NOT

We are fast approaching the time described above.  The prophet and the spiritual will be called crazy.  Our message will be seen as irrational and irresponsible.  When we speak of the LORD’s coming, those who do not love His appearing will say we have gone off the deep end.  When we teach and declare the world was formed by the word of God in six, twenty-four-hour days we will be called loony.  We will be accused of being uneducated, or at the very least, unsophisticated.  What makes the above verse even more alarming is the people calling the prophet and the spiritual man mad.  It is not the world.  It is their fellow Hebrew.  Ephraim, which is another name for the norther ten tribes of Israel, went after false gods.  They replaced the true God with a golden calf.  The turned their backs on God and even though they were God’s people, this didn’t stop them from disregarding the message of one of their own.  They didn’t cease to think their preacher had gone a bit over the deep end.

Being called into full-time Christian service is not for the faint of heart.  The more scriptural the message, the more the man of God will be considered as off his rocker.  The more separated he is and the more he preaches those standards, the more irrational he will be held.  The more black-and-white the message, the more it will be rejected.  Noah preached to the whole world.  But only eight were willing to follow.  Jesus preached to an entire nation, and at his death, only two stood by.  Be encouraged though.  After Christ’s resurrection, there were 500 disciples.  After Noah landed his ark, the world was filled with his offspring.  They may call you nuts now, but in the end, wisdom is always justified by her children.