Day 17: Prophet

I chose to take a picture of the stars because I feel that one of the most currently important biblical prophecies was that of God promising Abram that he would have as many descendants as stars in the sky.  It was because of God's promise, and Sarai & Abram's impatience, that Abram ended up being the father of two sons - Ishmael, the father of Arabs, and Isaac, the father of Jews...eventually leading us to the rift between the three Abrahamic religions today, the conflict in Israel, many wars, etc.  (If you haven't seen it, the West Wing has an awesome episode on this!)  Throughout the Bible, it seems like prophecies cause more trouble than bring good...

I wonder what it would take for us to believe a self-proclaimed prophet today.  Most of the prophets in the Bible were pretty out there - John was eating locusts!  I think we would be more likely to throw a prophet in the looney bin these days than to even give their preachings a second thought.  How would we even define a prophet today?  Would they have to accurately predict some sort of natural disaster?  Perform a miracle?  I'm honestly not even sure who would be considered the last world-wide accepted prophet...

2 Peter 1

¹⁹ We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. ²⁰ Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. ²¹ For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.