9: What Happened After Moses Received the Law (5)
5. The Prophets: Calling the People Back
Amid this darkness stood the prophets.
The true prophets stood almost entirely alone, confronting the wickedness of kings, priests, citizens, and false prophets. They repeatedly delivered essentially the same message: outward religious performance means nothing when people’s hearts are far from God. They constantly called the nation back to the covenant they had broken.
As the prophet Jeremiah wrote:
“For from the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.” (Jeremiah 6:13)
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And when assessing the root cause of the national decline, God asked:
“Why did they go astray? Because they forsook my teaching, which I set before them; they did not obey me or follow my law. They followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.” (Jeremiah 9:13)
The Old Testament contains many other passages describing these wrongdoings. The prophets exposed empty sacrifices, injustice, exploitation, bribery, oppression, hypocrisy, idolatry, and outward performance devoid of inward faithfulness. Every single one of these actions stood in direct opposition to the heartbeat of God’s covenant.
God gave humanity His Law together with its original spiritual purpose. Yet, human beings repeatedly chose to separate the outward requirements from the heart behind them. Some followed the strict rules without truly following God, while others abandoned the rules altogether.
To be continued: 6. When the Awareness of the Spirit Faded
