Prophets and potentates.

Yeah, I wanted an alliterative title, and “prince” kinda gives people the wrong idea, so I went with the less-familiar word “potentate.” It just means “power.” Potentatus was the Latin word St. Ambrose of Milan used for the biblical Greek word ἐξουσίας/exusías, “power,” in Ephesians 1.21. Ambrose was thinking of spiritual beings, but I just mean any person with power.

• Might be political power, like a king, dictator, president, or backroom dealmaking party member.
• Might be economic power, like a billionaire or CEO.
• Might be cultural power, like a popular entertainer or internet influencer.
• Might be spiritual power, like a pastor or guru. (Sometimes this overlaps with cultural power, like with activist pastors; sometimes not.)

Whatever kind of power we’re talking about, they got it, and people are swayed by it—voluntarily or not.

Sometimes prophets have this kind of power. I’ve known more than one Christian who considered the prophets at their churches to be their spiritual guides or spiritual mentors. After all, prophets listen to God; when you pick a Christian mentor, they’d better be listening to God. And certainly various prophets in the bible had people they were mentoring; Elijah, Elisha, and John the baptist certainly did.

But usually when we see prophets in the bible, they’re not the ones in power. In fact one of their regular duties is to serve as a check on the ones in power. The potentate—whether a king, judge, governor, or emperor—oughta be listening to God way better than he is. So the prophet’s job is to either remind the potentate, “Thus says the LORD”—or just plain tell him, because the potentate doesn’t follow God any, and has no clue what the LORD says.

Yeah, there are obvious biblical exceptions like Moses ben Amram, who was both prophet and potentate. Or Joshua ben Nun. Or Deborah eshet Lappidot. Or Samuel ben Elkanah. Although you might be aware at some point Samuel had to give up judging Israel and hand the civic authority over to the new king, Saul ben Kish… and then spend the rest of his life reminding Saul that no, the LORD didn’t want him to do as he was doing; stop that.

Thereafter, even though there were various kings who could hear God the same as any prophet, and are even rightly considered prophets themselves, they still occasionally needed a corrective from one of God’s other prophets. King David ben Jesse still needed to hear from the prophet Nathan when he stopped listening to God and got a bit murdery. King Solomon ben David still needed to hear from the prophet Ahijah when he stopped listening to God and got a bit idolatrous.

Because power corrupts. Even good men can fall victim to the corrupting influence of the power they wield. That’s why they need prophets to pull ’em back onto the right path when they go wrong. They can’t just presume, “Oh I hear God just fine”; history has shown time and again no, they really don’t.

Potentates need their prophets.

Like I said earlier, a billionaire is just another kind of potentate. Any wealthy person is. And they’d do well to remember Jesus’s warning:

Mark 10.25 KJV

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

It’s not that they can’t get into the kingdom; you can easily get a camel through a needle once you grind him up finely enough. Hopefully the rich person won’t need to undergo something similar! But the rich are easily distracted by their riches. Same as politicians are distracted by those who covet their power; same as influencers are distracted by anything which might affect their influence; same as pastors are distracted by all the busywork that gets dumped on them because their church members don’t pitch in. It’s way too easy to get distracted away from listening to God. You gotta make an extra effort.

And even those who carefully make the effort, can be distracted or led astray by all the stuff they want to achieve. Honestly, that’s true of everyone. But the more power you control, the more tempted you are to use that to get things done, than to turn to God and see what he wants done, and to use his power to do it. When you’re praying, “God, do you want me to buy that new BMW?” he might not… but if you really want it, and it just so happens you have a spare $100K in the bank, sometimes it’s mighty hard to hear God over the noise of your own urges.

So here’s where prophets come in. They confirm whether you really heard God. Or they confirm you didn’t hear him at all; you’re just following your heart and psyching yourself into thinking God wants the very same thing you do.

Potentates need that kind of second-guessing. It keeps ’em honest! And a wise potentate will listen to the prophets in their life.

A foolish potentate, in comparison, will presume they do know God’s will… and why should they bother to listen to people who aren’t in their position? Who don’t realize what it’s like to shoulder the burdens of their authority or wealth? Who (if you’re a social Darwinist) weren’t worthy to shoulder the burdens of their authority or wealth? Why, they deserve to have the desires of their heart. And God gave ’em the power to get it, so God surely must approve.

Yeah, there are a lot of stupid potentates out there. Power isn’t always given to the wisest and most deserving, as many an American election has proven. Wealth is regularly inherited by morons. And even if you are wise and deserving, power corrupts, as I said, and can turn you stupid. Look at King Saul in the scriptures. Started off as not a half-bad king. Then he stopped listening to Samuel, and things went all to hell for him. (Possibly literally.)

So if you ever find yourself in any position of power—and I mean any position; even if you’re just a parent, and you’ve got children you’re now in charge of—you need to have people in your life who legitimately hear God. People who can accurately confirm what God tells you. People who can correct you when you’re going wayward. We all could use such people in our lives. But the more power we have under our control, the more we really, really need someone to keep us in check, and remind us what God legitimately says.

And if you happen to know anyone in a position of power—and you happen to hear from God—help them! If God has a message for them, share it. If they think God told ’em something, confirm it—or find out God told ’em no such thing, and warn ’em. If it turns out you’re the prophet in their life, be there for them. And if they appreciate God, they’ll appreciate you.

And if they don’t appreciate God… well no; let’s stop here. Don’t wanna end on a downer.