The Burden of the Lord
“1. The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.”
Malachi 1:1 (NKJV)
The book of Malachi begins with the prophet identifying who he is and declaring that the message comes directly from God. In the Old Testament, if someone claimed to be a prophet and even one prophecy proved false, that person could be put to death by stoning. Every Old Testament prophet made it clear that they carried the maśśā’ (מַשָּׂא), or “burden,” of the Lord. Examples can be found in Isaiah 13:1, Habakkuk 1:1, and Zechariah 9:1.
These prophets delivered both warnings and messages of hope, never for their own gain, but as faithful servants of God. When God made a promise, He kept it. Likewise, when the Lord commanded His people to obey Him or face His wrath, His word always came to fruition.
We must be careful of individuals in our daily lives who claim that God speaks through them and that they are prophets or oracles. The last Old Testament prophet was John the Baptist, who was sent to prepare the way for Jesus Christ and to fulfill prophecy. Today, believers have the indwelling Holy Spirit, and God primarily guides us through His Spirit and His Word, the Bible.
Now, I will not put God in a box and say that He cannot speak to us in other ways. God may use dreams, circumstances, signs, or aspects of His creation to get our attention. However, we must exercise discernment. We must compare everything back to scripture; if it does not match up with what scripture says, then it is not from the Lord. We are called to walk by faith, but we should also remember that God gave us two eyes, two ears, and one mouth. Let us use them wisely.
As true born-again believers, when we encounter someone claiming to be a prophet or prophetess, we should seek counsel from fellow believers, exercise caution, and carefully examine what is being said. We must test every claim against the Word of God and determine whether it withstands scrutiny or is burned away by the truth of Scripture. For more on how we as believers should be doing this, look at my series on How to be a Berean, and also compare to what scripture says in Acts 17:10-11, “10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”
Stay the course for the Kingdom,
Austin