The First Prophet: Abel - Part 1

This is the very seed and beginning of what it means to be truely prophetic.  No matter what we think of the Prophet or the Prophetic, we must deal with its inception in the bloodline of humanity. Here, it starts with Abel, and the first expression of anything in scripture is the anchor for anything that follows (Matthew 24:34-35). Take heed if you wish to understand the 'Prophetic'. The Prophet comes first before the Prophetic, from which it derives its nature and name. To be sure, the Prophet always comes first before the Prophetic: the noun - then the adjective; the Person - then the People. The whole house, the whole Nave and Ark rest upon such men who are laid in the dirt . . . and here is the deepest of them, the lowliest of them, the first of them. LISTEN! He still speaks. And the prophet can never speak unless it is by "the blood".

Born to an avaricious woman, who kept a superficial faith despite seeing the Lord God face-to-face, Abel was the younger of two bothers who may have been inconsequential to his mother - given his name: breath, vapour, vanity, emptiness, transitory . . . one might even add "pointless". A second labour for Eve could not have been easy, and no doubt the novelty of bearing another man had worn thin. Could Eve's naming of Abel (she named Cain) truely reflect her state of mind, that the burden of life on earth was exhausting? Did this affect how she saw her weaker son? If so, was it that Cain picked up on this? That from Cain's mother Cain absorbed - from young - the entitlement and right to possess and to have. To this point, I doubt Eve experienced pain like this and the words of the Lord God would have echoed sourly in her ears: "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children." (Genesis 3:16) Was her heart barren and empty for her younger son? Indeed, she had the fine, strong Cain; why would she need another? It was not until Abel's untimely and cruel removal would her heart be provoked to mourn for her son, but too late. Abel's evident weakness at birth belied his strength, yet provoked Eve's disgust and contempt for the first weak human on earth; Adam and Cain were magnificent specimens of physical humanity. Eve relished the physical; she could see little else. The breath that she thought so fleeting that would soon evaporate was the very stuff of life itself.

It is into and from such situations that a prophet is born: whether in family, community or national estrangement; whether in self-doubt or ideological barrenness. He is given into such circumstances as an unacknowledged gift, and out of those circumstances is he formed. He is the goodness that comes out of the cradle of sin, totally ignorant of his effect on those around him. Even his mother considers abandoning him for the pain he inadvertantly inflicts upon her. He is wanted by no one. This, and this alone is the hallmark of the Prophet: complete and utter weakness.

'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Part 5

"Power" is the exercise of might and is not necessarily synonymous with authority, but with control and influence. It is that which flows from the explicit ability of "might". It is firmness and hardiness, together with the fruits of such labours. It may even be used in relation to the fruit of the vine or the quality of meat: all derived from the strength of the soil, of the earth, of Adam. Ultimately, it is cold-blooded and morally neutral. It does not care as long as it achieves its required end - to bring something about. It is no surprise one other use of this word refers to a large lizard - also present in the Garden of Eden, that also slid across the ground and ate the dust of the earth. "Power" and "Might" are masculine and earthy; they are from below and speak from the viewpoint of the world with the wisdom of this age. They are potent and seductive and are an ever present temptation to God's people in every work of His church. If such things are utilised the World can make a claim in the Church, the World can exercise influence with the Church; the World becomes a part of the Church.

No!

What must be born must be born from above, and not of this world, so it can be clearly seen as being from God Himself. It is entirely appropriate that the word for Spirit - Ruach - is feminine.

It is clear, given the judgement of the Lord God in the Garden of Eden and the subsequent history of mankind through war and work throughout the world, that these two words, "Might" and "Power", should be allotted as masculine. The exercise of might through power is an overtly masculine thing.

Masculine nouns in Hebrew are often concrete, and feminine nouns - abstract. Still, it is the language that God chose to express His Testament of Promise. Man's essential relationship is with the Earth and the woman's is the man as they were taken from both. For both male and female, their origin of creation was cursed. There is only one hope here and it is through the woman. The fruit of the earth can produce nothing. Salvation will come through women. Feminity is the conduit and canal of salvation. She who was taken out from inside now gives birth. "Power" and "Might" are from below. The Spirit is from above. Out of the darkness of the womb, out of the unseen comes forth God's plan of salvation, and His heel shall crush the head of the serpent, that former "Power". Power and Might are in direct opposition to God; they are enemies of God. Even that term "Power" suggests explicitly the spiritual identity behind such Might and that it derives itself from the spirit of the air - even when that "Power" is sincerely considered to be God Himself; God will not lend Himself to such schemes of men.

Out of the smallest seed in the Day of Small Things where there is a watery darkness, through the travail of birth and the agony of contractions - those involuntary pulses that cannot be controlled, comes a nation of priests, comes the line of David, in the Ark of Noah through the waters of the Flood, sealed in pitch, squeezed through the Sea of Reeds, and finally up out of the River Jordan after going down into the waters of baptism, breaking up out of those waters comes New Life. God gives birth in no other way; any 'work of God' that was not born was manufactured.