DAY 1: The Role of a Prophet
Try to imagine living in the ancient world sometime between 1,000-500 B.C. What are you doing for a living? How do you teach your kids? Where do you go for spiritual advice?
As you can imagine, education was very limited in the ancient world. As such, people would turn to a local prophet for religious insight. These prophets were common in every nation, not just within the nation of Israel. Every religion or belief system had men or women who served the role of a prophet.
What was their role? Primarily, the role of a prophet was to speak on behalf of the people’s God (or god). While this sometimes included speaking what was going to happen in the future, it was primarily about speaking their God’s (god’s) truth. In simpler terms, when a prophet spoke, the people listened! This person was speaking directly on behalf of their God (god) and the people wanted to know what their God (god) had to say.
Hundreds of years later, Jesus arrives and takes on the role of a prophet. Everything Jesus spoke, He did so on behalf of God.
READING & JOURNALING:
How intently ought we study the life of Jesus if He truly did speak on behalf of God?
What questions do you have about the life of Jesus? (Think of as many as you can.) Where will you go or who will you talk with in order to find the answers to these questions?
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, I understand that no matter how long I’ve been a follower of Jesus, there is more that I can learn from Him. As the Christmas Season approaches, my desire is to be connected to Jesus, the Vine (John 15), so that I can grow in my love of You and love of others. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
F260 READING: (A Scripture Reading Plan for Busy Believers)
The F260 is a Scripture Reading Plan designed to read through the foundational passages of the Bible in 260 Days (5 Days a week, 52 Weeks a year). It is a separate reading from the above devotional but is included for those who would like to engage with the Scriptures on a deeper level throughout the year.
Read: Deuteronomy 8 & 9
Journal: Write it out. Following the pattern from 7 Arrows Page (click here) what did you learn from today’s reading?
Note: Are you looking for a Study Bible to help you engage with the Scriptures at a deeper level? If so, click here for some recommendations.
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