The doctrine of the last prophet – Part 6

As It Was With Natural Israel MANKIND has always succeeded in turning every good and beautiful thing that God has given to us, in His love and His mercy into idols. It has always been man’s trait to turn prophets, pastors, churches, etc into idols with which we share the glory of the Living God. Bro Paul says in Romans 1:25 “that the truth of God is changed into a lie and the creature is worshipped more than the creator” and to such people who failed to retain the knowledge of God, but retained the knowledge of the idol, God gave them over to a REPROBATE (evil, base) mind, to do things which are not convenient (Romans 1:28).

This is the judgment that comes upon a man, who has left God out of his reckoning and who transfers the love, and glory that is God’s to an idol, whether it be man or objects. We are going to look at two stories one each in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. These are stories that perfectly reveal the power and subtlety of that idolatrous spirit that turns a great prophet into “The Last Prophet.” These are stories that the Holy Spirit caused to be included in the canon of Scriptures to give us (the Church) a vivid picture of how Satan can take the things of God and turn them into religion, something totally abhorrent to God, to show us how easy it is to shift the focus of our faith, if we are not watchful, from the CREATOR to the CREATURE

• “NEHUSHTAN”
The first of these stories is found in II Kings 18:1-4. Now, it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of the lord, according to all that David his father did. He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan.

This story concerns one of the good things done by the revivalist king, Hezekiah, who reigned over Judah. He began to reign over Judah, when he was twenty-five years old and reigned for twenty-nine years. This scripture says in verse 3, that Hezekiah did that, which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father, David did. What did he do? He removed the HIGH PLACES and broke the images and cut down the groves.

The Living Bible says that, “he removed the shrines, broke down the obelisks, knocked down the shameful idols of Asherah. Notice what else he did: he broke into pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made. The brazen serpent is associated with the high places and images of an idolatrous worship. There is a familiar ring to this brazen serpent. It is not any other brazen serpent. The scriptures emphasised that it was the same brazen serpent that Moses had made. There is a story that surrounds this brazen serpent. Let us visit that story again in order to have a full understanding of what Hezekiah did. This story is found in Numbers 21:5-9. Please, bring out your Bible and read it.

The 15th Anniversary of Watchmen’s Conference has been suspended until further notice. This is due to the present prevalent of COVID-19 pandemic and the government banning large religious gathering. A new date for this programme will be announced as soon as the evil wind of COVID -19 pandemic is over. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this might have caused. We pray God will protect us all in Jesus Mighty Name. For more information please call 08037253604 or 07034495177.
Bro. Kunle Adigun, Friends of the Bridegroom International Ministries (FOBIM)