SUNDAY April 26, 2026

The Faith of the Prophets

For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets....
Hebrews 11:32

Samuel and the prophets were the ones who heard the voice of God and spoke God’s Word to His people. Listen carefully to Stephen’s discourse given to the Jewish leaders to find out what they were guilty of doing:

“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it” (Acts 7:51-53).

Are you familiar with any of God’s prophets? Some of them were Amos, Jeremiah, Haggai, Habakkuk and Isaiah. Called to be a prophet from his youth, Jeremiah obeyed the Lord and prophesied doom upon the city of Jerusalem. Pashhur, the son of a priest, struck Jeremiah the prophet and placed him in stocks (Jeremiah 20:2).

Something interesting caught my attention in Hebrews 11:37: They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. Who was the prophet who was stoned to death? Zechariah was ordered to be stoned by King Joash for confronting the nation’s disobedience (2 Chronicles 24:20-21).

What prophet was believed to be sawn in two? It is believed Isaiah was cut in half. Tertullian (“Father of Latin Christianity”) and Justin Martyr (Christian apologist) both referred to Isaiah’s death in their writings. It is thought that King Manasseh had Isaiah killed.

What happened to the prophet Elijah? God asked Elijah what he was doing in Beersheba, to which he replied: “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life” (1 Kings 19:10). The prophet felt alone, but he was not.

The more we study church history, the more fully we shall know that Jesus reigns.
~C.H Spurgeon~

For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!