God is weary of the doom and gloom prophets. We’re seeing a tipping point in heaven as a response to the Jonah prophets: Abraham prophets and intercessors.
Consider 2020 in the context of the Law of First Mention, a hermeneutical method stating the way a word is first used in the Bible will be the way this word is largely understood thereafter. The first time the number twenty is found in the Bible, it’s connected to intercession and a plea for mercy over judgment. In Genesis 18:16-26 we overhear a conversation in heaven:
“Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. And the Lord said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.’
“And the Lord said, ‘Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”
“Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. And Abraham came near and said, ‘Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?’
Although God is a God of judgment, Hosea understood that He is also a God of mercy. This why he cried out: “O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid; O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2). Let’s all remember, mercy triumphs over judgment (see James 2:13).
Prophets who take pleasure in seeing judgment fall do not have the heart of God. God does not delight in judgment. It’s not His will that any shall perish, though we understand some will. Judgment is a reality of the Kingdom, but in this decade God is going to change the hearts of some of the judgment prophets with mercy encounters. Others who have pronounced judgment with bliss out of bitterness are going to experience judgment in their own life and change their tune after they experience what they’ve been prophesying.
Jesus said, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:1-5).
If this applies at the person to person level, and it does, how much more so to people groups and nations? If prophets prophesy judgments, they should do so with tears, fear of the Lord, trembling and a redemption mindset. And they had better make sure it’s the Lord speaking and not their own biases, like Jonah.
