Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

Madness: What Compelled the False Prophet?

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" from the array of Egyptian deities. Moses' question was basic: "They may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" (Exodus 3:13). The true God answered with a profound, simple Name of just four Hebrew consonants: Yah-He-Vau-He, the famous Tetragrammaton (the "four-lettered name") that means IAM 1HAT IAM. 1 This Name declared the eternal, invisible, majestic nature of God's very essence and put a pre mium on present-tense experience before the worshiper. In a more prac tical sense we might say that God was giving a blank check to His peo ple. By saying "IAM (whatever you need)," the people could fill in by faith their need of a given moment. 2 Newly commissioned and with heart set ablaze by the revelation of God, Moses returned to his estranged people armed with the invincible Name-and the rod to work miracles. Stubborn Pharaoh, surrounded by his court magicians, soothsayers and priests, considered himself the supreme god of the world. His mistake was to think of the Lord as just another god who could be beaten or compromised. Pharaoh found he was wrong, and mighty Egypt was humbled-in fact, stripped to the bone. As God had told Moses: "Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judg ments-I am the LORD" (Exodus 12:12, emphasis added). Every command issued by Moses, every miracle wrought by his mighty rod, had as its primary objective the destruction of some Egyptian deity and exaltation of the great IAM. Over and over God stated that through these plagues and miracles of judgment both Israel and Egypt would come to "know that I am the LORD" (Exodus 6:7; 7:5, 17; 10:2; 14:4, 18; see 8:22). The entire religious system of Egypt, as well as its crops, animals, military force and civilian population, was left a shambles. The God of the Hebrews, known as "The Jealous One," had set His people free. Moses was undoubtedly the greatest of the prophets (Numbers 12:6-8). His leadership position and example, expressed through the demolition of Egypt's gods, arches with majestic authority over all the Old Testament prophets. 3 Every succeeding prophet was to contend for the purity of Israel's worship and challenge any form of idolatry; but each was a guardian of the marvelous monotheistic revelation given Moses. False prophets compromised this concept, making the great IAM just another god. Genuine prophets knew that when people's understanding of God is right, everything else will fall into place. Henry H. Halley comments: "Modern books on the Prophets lay great emphasis on their social message, their denunciation of the political cor ruption, oppression and moral rottenness of the nation. However, the thing that bothered the prophets most was the IDOLATRY of the nation. It is surprising how largely this is overlooked by modern writers." 4

113