Messenger of the Lord

Timeliness of the Prophet’s Messages

We have already seen that the “fruit” of the prophet’s ministry often takes time to “ripen.” However, many were the occasions when the prophet changed the course of history by being the right person for the right time in the right place with the right message. MOL 32.9

Think of Elisha and the king of Syria as recorded in 2 Kings 6. The Syrian king was determined to invade Israel. He set up ambushes here and there. But Elisha kept the king of Israel informed regarding these ambushes, and the record says that Israel’s king “was watchful there, not just once or twice” (2 Kings 6:10). MOL 32.10

The Syrian king was exasperated and was confident that he had spies among his counselors—after all, his most secret strategies were known almost immediately by his enemy. But one of his counselors knew what was happening: “Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom” (2 Kings 6:12). MOL 33.1

For a prophet’s contemporaries, the prophet’s prompt and precise intervention by personal presence or written communication is compelling affirmation of his or her divine credentials. MOL 33.2