Who would believe someone like God?

Would you believe God if a prophet told you something he had to say to you?

This is the big questions coming out of the prophets - spanning several hundred years of independently recorded history, we see the predictions, we see them come true, and we see the people repeatedly ignore God!

Now one side is that it's not God they don't trust, it's his prophets. But that sounds like a pretty rubbish excuse to me.

When you see all the warnings Jeremiah gave, and the threats to his life because of it, it's pretty shocking how in denial people really were. And it was a double-edged thing as well - they were ignoring both the reality of their sin (obvious, as they had the Law), and the threat of God's punishment.

Now think back over the last few weeks, to one of the resounding questions people have had - why is it so violent; why is there so much death? And think...would you mess with a God like that when he tells you to clean up your act? I wouldn't!

Well as you get to the later prophets, the response is improved: Haggai warns the people about building plush homes for themselves and ignoring God, and they start to rebuild the Temple.

So the question is - do you need God to have warned, punished and rescued you before you submit to his will in your life, or can you learn lessons from the Bible and be more open to Him?

To me that's the biggest personal challenge coming from the prophets - doing God's will, first time.