30% of the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures are made up of the writings of the prophets. These are the scrolls of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Twelve – twelve short books. But they are hard to read because they are not in any chronological order.
The prophets can’t be understood outside the historical events they spoke to. There were three distinct periods:
750 – 700 The rich northern kingdom of Israel fell into anarchy and was annihilated by Assyria. The southern kingdom of Judah only escaped the same fate by the skin of its teeth.
630 – 580 King Josiah carried our a religious reformation but was killed in battle. Judah became a pawn in the power games between Egypt and Babylon. Jerusalem was besieged in 597 and again in 587 when it was finally destroyed.
550- – 510 Babylon was conquered by Cyrus the Persian, who allowed the subject peoples, including the Jews, to return home and rebuild their temples. But life back in Judah proved more difficult than had been hoped.
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750 – 700 BCE
Hosea
A short book, and the only prophet we have from the northern kingdom of Israel. God arranged a marriage for him as a sign of the coming judgement! ‘The Lord said to Hosea, ‘Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.’ (1.2)
Hosea spoke both of God’s anger against Israel and also his unwavering love. ‘How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? … I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim. (11.8)
Amos
Amos was not a religious professional. He was a ‘herdsman and a dresser of sycomore trees, and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel.” So he travelled to the temple at Bethel, Israel and announced the coming catastrophe. When the priest Amaziah told him to go away, Amos replied, “Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword,… you yourself will die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.”’ (Amos 7.10-17)
Isaiah son of Amoz
Isaiah was a cultured citizen of Jerusalem, and had easy access to the temple and the royal court. It was in the temple that he had a vision of God in the temple and received his call as a prophet. He was told to preach, “until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is utterly desolate.’”
With the rise of mighty empires like Assyria and Egypt, making alliances seemed the smart thing to do. Isaiah said God had different ideas:
For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you refused and said ‘No! We will flee upon horses’— therefore you shall flee! and, ‘We will ride upon swift steeds’— therefore your pursuers shall be swift!’ (Isaiah 30.15)
In other words, he said that God demands strict neutrality, somewhat like Sweden’s foreign policy during the Cold War.
Micah
Micah from Judah also announced the utter destruction of Samaria (the capital of Israel), as well as disaster coming right up to the gates of Jerusalem. In particular, he denounced the way the rich oppressed the poor, ‘They covet fields and seize them, houses and they take them away..’ (2.2)
Prophecies of judgement and hope are mixed together in quite a confusing way, but his central message is timeless:
‘He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? ‘ (6.8)
620-580 BCE
Jeremiah
Jeremiah prophesied from 628 to 586 BCE. He was from a priestly family near Jerusalem and was called by God to be a prophet while still a young man. He spoke against the spiritual complacency of his people and warned of the coming destruction:
‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.”… Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are safe!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Therefore I will cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out all your kinsfolk, all the offspring of Ephraim (i.e. Israel).’ (7.1-15, ed.)
In chapter 26, we hear how his message almost got him lynched, and how he only got rescued by royal officials. Another prophet, Uriah, was not so lucky. He fled to Egypt, but Jehoiakim had him extradited and killed.
During the final siege of Jerusalem Jeremiah told people to surrender to the Babylonians. The king was too afraid to follow his advice. The result was the disaster that Jeremiah had foretold. But Jeremiah also gave a sign of hope. In the middle of the siege God told Jeremiah to buy a field in his home town, and bury the deed of purchase in an earthenware jar, for ‘houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’ (32.15)
And there was a new, spiritual message:
‘This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (31.33)
Ezekiel
Another priest/prophet was also being unpopular in Babylon. Ezekiel was a priest deported to Babylon after the 597 siege. Five years later he had a vision of God, an overwhelming experience of cloud, fire, supernatural creatures, wheels, a throne, molten metal and rainbow colours.: ‘This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.’ (1.28)
Ezekiel was asked to do a series of prophetic actions, like lying on his right side for 390 days without speaking, along with a drawing of Jerusalem being besieged: ‘Thus says the Lord God: Clap your hands and stamp your foot, and say, “Alas for all the vile abominations of the house of Israel! For they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”’ (6.11)
With the prophecies of doom and destruction came also an appeal for repentance: ‘Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?’ (33.11)
Like Jeremiah, he too proclaimed a spiritual rebirth for the people: ‘I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.’ (36.24-28)
550 – 510 BCE
Second Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah is one of the longest books of the Bible, 66 chapters. When scholars started reading it critically it became clear that it was not all written by Isaiah of Jerusalem in the time of king Hezekiah. They, and I, are convinced that Isaiah 40 – 66 were in fact written by an unnamed prophet in Babylon between 550 and 515 BCE.
Why do I think so? Three reasons:
- Isaiah 36 – 39 largely repeats the historical book of 2 Kings 18-20, creating a clear break.
2. Isaiah 40 – 55 is a book of promises, not judgement.
3. It mentions Cyrus the Persian emperor by name, and calls him the Messiah (Anointed)! ‘Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him…’ (45.1)
Whoever the prophet of Babylon was, what did he say?
First, there is a heart-warming message of comfort and a hopeful future: ‘Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.’
Second, he attacks the idolatry practised by the surrounding pagan nations: ‘No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, ‘Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals, I roasted meat and have eaten. Now shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?’ (44.19)
Third, there are four remarkable songs about the servant of the LORD. These were identified in 1892 in chapter 42, 49, 50 and 53. But who is the servant? Is it the prophet himself? or the community of Israel? or the royal house of Judah? or Jesus?
Isaiah 53 certainly seems a remarkable foretelling of the crucifixion: ‘But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed…. ‘ (53.5)
Third Isaiah
Chapter 56 – 66 has a different agenda from the earlier part, reflecting disappointment after the return to Judah in 539, and the struggle to keep the moral and religious laws. ‘Happy is the man who (maintains justice), the one who holds it fast, who keeps the sabbath, not profaning it, and refrains from doing any evil.’ (56.2)
One passage was taken by Jesus as his own mission statement: ‘The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God…’ (Isaiah 61.1-2)
Note that Jesus left out the last phrase!
Haggai and Zechariah
Round about 520 two more prophets appeared in Judah. Haggai preached the importance of rebuilding the temple, and the resulting prosperity if they did. Zechariah saw a series of dramatic visions which announced God’s good plans for Jerusalem, particularly through Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest. The result would be that the city would become a magnet for the worship of the whole world, see 8.22-23.
and the rest
There are still six prophets that have not been mentioned, all very short. They are undated, sometime 500 – 300 BCE. They are Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Habbakuk and Malachi.
What does it all mean?
Spiritual messages are there, but you have to dig for them. The overarching message is that God has an opinion on our human affairs, and these often cry out for judgement. But beyond the deserved punishment there is mercy and a second chance.
Taking it further
‘Bible in Brief gives you an overview of the whole Bible in six months. Month 3 is dedicated to the prophets. You will get a proper introduction to these strong but difficult books in four weeks, and be able to reflect on how they relate to our life today.
Have a look at the website bibleinbrief.org. You can buy the book from the website, with no p&p!
NOTE: there is a longer version of this blog, about twice the length. If you would like to see it, just email me on aoroland@gmail.com
