In the 9th chapter of Daniel is a prayer of confession that includes: “We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.”
Most of us think that Daniel himself is a prophet, especially in these last six chapters when he says things that we think are predictive of the “end times.” But, Daniel is speaking of a more powerful way of hearing and either accepting or rejecting prophets: Prophets are those voices that speak God’s truth to power, that is, to kings, princes, ancestors, and even the popular sentiment of the people.
Prophetic voices continue to speak truth to power: to kings and king-makers who gather their power by pillaging the earth; to princes who inherit their authority and imagine themselves great; to those ancestors who slaughtered Native Americans, enslaved Africans, belittled African-Americans, exploited LatinX, dehumanized Asians, and left a legacy of White Supremacy; and to the people who now live within that legacy, often blind or callous toward it.
The prophet is not the point. The prophecy – the word of truth, the naming of sin, the disclosure of that which is often hidden, the call for genuine change of direction – is what matters. My prayer today is a broken confession that we still do not listen to God’s servants, the prophets. God, have mercy.
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