The task of the prophets was very difficult,consider what Stephen said as he was about to be stoned to death by the religious leaders.' Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one'. ( Acts 7 v 51 - 52) Our Saviour speaking to Jews and their attitude and treatment of Gods prophets they murdered them.( Matthew 23 v 31) The path of the prophets was difficult,and dangerous.and often they ploughed a lonely furrow.Their task was to 'uproot, and tear down,to destroy ,and overthrow,to build and to plant' . ( Jeremiah 1 v 10) They didn't win a popularity contest, no they experienced as the book of Hebrews puts it,they were tortured,stoned to death, sawn in two,and killed by the sword. 11 v 35 -38,the writer adds, ' Of whom the world was not worthy'.Things have not changed,it is still the times of the prophets,and I can assure you that those who stand for the truth,and God's moral high ground,will not always be welcomed even within the visible church.They may be the minority ,may be only a single voice,I will leave you with words from a poem by James Russel. Lowell.
'Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne-
Yet that scaffold sways the future.
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above His own.
Once to every man and nation, comes the moment we decide .
In the strife of truth and falsehood for the good or evil side.'
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