exilic prophets in the bible

Scripture CBS Prophet Theme King and Events ; Jeremiah 5-6: July. Yes, that may properly be understood as the ultimate goal. God had Hosea experience the heartbreak of an unfaithful wife as both a picture of Israels unfaithfulness to Him and a preparation of Hosea for his prophetic ministry. (2) Can it not be argued that the sins of Israel are sins in the New Testament too? A second good example is seen in chapter 12:3-7. Unfortunately, Apple's iOS doesn't support home screen shortcuts in the Chrome browser. Obadiah wrote to or about Edom. He was to say, I am a sign to you. The goals of these Bible studies are, first, to help you understand the cultural background and the literary structure of the biblical stories and, thus, the purpose and message behind those stories. In Haggai and the early chapters of Zechariah, for example, each prophecy is dated. Generally, these may be categorized under ten Ds: death, disease, drought, dearth, danger, destruction, defeat, deportation, destitution, and disgrace. Bible timeline of the prophets and kings before the exile of Judah to Babylon, 609- 608 B.C. The thunder of Nebuchadnezzars battering rams should have sounded the death knell of the Jews as a people, but it did not. Though Daniel would not have been viewed as a magician, he would have been viewed as one with powers of God and therefore would have been caught in the kings net. [40] In most ancient Near Eastern languages, the word describing an adult male was a cognate of the word for beard (see The New Bible Dictionary, ed. Do we Christians, who are looking so much like the pagan society around us that we are virtually indistinguishable, need the same message? Chapters 33-48 were prophecies given after. They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers. Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel was a priest (see Ezekiel 1:3). B. Gabel and C. B. Wheeler, The Bible as Literature, 2nd. Simply stated, the prophets were covenant enforcement mediators.261 There was a covenant relationship between God and His people. The life of a godly prophet was never an easy one (see Acts 7:52). Pre-exilic Prophets and Kings 609- 608 B.C. [15] Ben-Sasson, History of the Jewish People, 16162; Ackroyd, Exile and Restoration, 2023. [8] Amihai Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 10,000586 B.C. But it simply does not work that way most of the time. They did that by reinforcing the idea that Jehovah governed and controlled the destiny of all nations, including Babylon. There is an overarching theme in the prophets which should serve as the primary thrust of application. Studying the Figure above can give us a feel for how the various prophets relate to each other chronologically, which we notice is not how they are presented in the canonical order. The language of poetry is imagery. That act alone, especially shaving his beard, would have brought him a great deal of attention. Making believe the brick was Jerusalem, he was to build a siege wall, pitch toy camps around it, and place battering rams against it on all sides. For other examples of promise oracles, see Hosea 2:16-20 and 2:21-23, Isaiah 45:1-7, and also Jeremiah 31:1-9. The Book of Mormon indicates that an extensive collection was kept by one of Jerusalems generals (see 1 Nephi 3:3; 5:10). [8] Evidence suggests that most of these Jews continued to practice an impure form of Jehovah worship. God announced the enforcement of His Law (both positive and negative) through the prophets. The addition shows that the Jews were actively working on their records during the captivity. Nebuchadnezzar may rule over Babylon and its temples, but Jehovah ruled over him. In fact, it may be helpful to turn to the Table of Contents in your Bible to see them all listed. Paul Y. Hoskisson (Provo and Salt Lake City: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, and Deseret Book 2005), 245265. The books written in Jerusalem after the return from the exile, now commonly called post-exilic, are five in number: Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Jehovah had definitely climbed a few more rungs up the ladder of the pantheon. They continued in the spirit of Elijah. Judah could neither ignore nor forget what had happened. After the destruction, they begin to talk more of restoration. Beard). Isaiah quoted their prayer for restoration. Is there a need for a message of repentance today? The special literary form helps get the special message across. For a discussion of the whole issue, see David Noel Freedman, Son of Man, Can These Bones Live? Interpretation, 29 (1975): 17186. [10] Peter R. Ackroyd, Exile and Restoration: A Study of Hebrew Thought of the Sixth Century B.C. In addition, Ezekiel was commanded to lie on his left side for 390 days (apparently beside his little model of the city under siege) to bear the iniquity of the house of Israel, and when that was completed, he was to lie on his right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah for 40 days. [14] James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd ed. One thing is sure: he reckoned Jehovah as the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase (Daniel 4:37). We must remember that the prophets were primarily covenant enforcement mediators. She was forced to clarify her position in relation to the national tragedy and Babylon and its gods. [46] By doing so, they gave meaning to the whole and reinforced the need for total loyalty to her God. But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation (Jeremiah 22:35). Many hundreds of Jews continued to exist in Samaria and Galilee. Restoration was the goal, but repentance is what they hoped to see from the people. Some parts of prophetic books provide exceptions. [30] The same idea is expressed in a number of the hymns. As one of our elders related to me last week, When you read the book of Micah, its almost as if he was writing to the church today.. It would not work, the Lord testified, and urged them to go to Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel (Jeremiah 7:12). ii. That seems the better date (see Harold H. Rowley, The Book of Ezekiel in Modern Study, Men of God [London: T. Nelson, 1963], 169210). It should be pointed out that the minor prophets are so-called only because these books are relatively short in length; the major prophets are relatively long books. He was instructed to take a brick, lay it on the ground, and inscribe the word Jerusalem on it. It was to be a sign to the house of Judah. To their prayer the Lord would respond, I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there (Isaiah 65:9). The Bible has no word for the abstract idea of eschatology. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these? (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1968), 1825; Bright, History of Israel, 345. All the prophetic books contain a substantial amount of poetry, and several are exclusively poetic. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. The destruction of the Jewish capital with its temple successfully demolished the Jewish state and ended its priestly activities. The possibility is underscored by the fact that a number of Jewish communities that took root outside Palestine eventually lost their Jewish character and eroded into the cultures of the area. 2 (This was after King Jehoiachin [] and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the . Unless we know these events and others within this era too numerous to mention here, we probably will not be able to follow very well what the prophets are saying. On the positive side, the captivity did deal a mortal blow to the dogma propagated by such false prophets as Hananiah and others. 4. Let us first take a look at the chart in Figure 1 on page 2, which will help us see how the writing prophets fit chronologically in the history of Israel and Judah.253 The bar represents the nation of Israel becoming a divided kingdom after the rule of Solomon. [14] The successful Jewish communities in Egypt acted as magnets, and more Jews flowed into that country. When we think of the exile, however, we need to know that there were actually three deportations. This time of the exile is the time of the Mosaic covenant curse. And less than 1% concern events still future to us.258 The prophets did indeed announce the future. For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice. Covenant Enforcement Mediators To understand what God would say to us through these inspired books, we must first have a clear understanding as to the role and function of the prophet in Israel. The curses are found in Leviticus 26:14-39, Deuteronomy 4:15-28, and Deuteronomy 28:15-32:42. In accomplishing this primary purpose, they confronted Israels sin and demanded repentance. The message made sense and found reinforcement in other scriptures. The writing prophets may be divided into four groups: Prophets of Israel Jonah, Amos, and Hosea, Prophets of Judah Obadiah, Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk, Exilic Prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, Post-exilic Prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. [32] Her job was to repent; then God would restore the covenant. Those years were characterized by three things: (1) unprecedented political, military, economic, and social upheaval; (2) an enormous level of religious unfaithfulness and disregard for the original Mosaic covenant; and (3) dramatic shifts in populations and national boundaries. Babylonian battering rams destroyed that belief as surely and completely as they breached Jerusalems walls. Does that in itself not suggest that there is a message in the prophets for us today? 231-242. But these blessings are announced with a warning of curses (punishments) if Israel is not obedient and faithful to the covenant. And some of the prophecies in other books, notably Jeremiah and Ezekiel, are likewise dated and placed in a setting by the inspired author. Haggai. Still, few seem to have gotten the message, and its echoes must have haunted those in Babylon. Those battering rams were instrumental in ending both Judahs institutional and corporate life but not that of the people or their religion. Once Judah began to look, the scriptural evidence of her restoration must have been very reassuring. The radical change is described as the restoration and repair of David's fallen tent (verse 11), the exaltation of Israel over Edom (verse 12), and the return from the exile (verses 14, 15). 29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. 4:5; and also Isa. I say the prophets of the Old Covenant do indeed have a message for us today. 251 Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Zondervan, 1993), p. 165. Men in both the Babylonian and the Jewish cultures wore beards, and the Jews viewed them as a sign of adult male vitality and glory. For the most part, the longer prophetic books are collections of spoken oracles, not always presented in their original chronological sequence, often without any indication as to where one oracle ends and another begins, and often without hints as to their historical setting. 18-iv. They functioned to call Israel back to God,260 which meant a call back to faithfulness to their Covenant relationship with God; i.e., back to the Law of Moses. Both had been taken into captivity from Judah. When the destruction came, the Jews would lament, The Lord our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord (Jeremiah 8:14). Now that is a comment to which I can relate. They would ask the Lord to return for thy servants sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. These godly souls would have mourned for Zion and wished for her return. Obviously this is allegiance of the people. Note 2 Kings 25:2730, which had to be added to the text by the Babylonian Jews. In 722 BC, Assyria sacked the capital city of Samaria and thus conquered Israel.262. Zechariah. Jeremiah: Obstinacy and Its Results . Until 1925, scholars did not realize the extent of the catastrophe. What they did is described in far greater length than what they said -- and when we are told what they said, it is placed very specifically and clearly in the context of the narratives in which they appear. Darius took the last step, which occurred when Daniels enemies tricked the king into throwing Daniel into the lions den. Nothing could have been further from the truth, but the attitude displayed by these two ruthless brothers was popular in Judah as well. [11] But even here an orthodox strain would have yearned for the temple and prayed to their God. Micah did not stand alone in his testimony. All three of these have are the subject of fair arguments for much later dates.255 I have shown them here at their earliest suggested dates for convenience. [19] Adolf Alt, Kleine Schriften zur Geschichte des Volkes Israel (Munich: C. H. Beckshe Verlagsbuchhantlung, 195359), 2:326, argues persuasively that the Babylonians placed the Jews under a very different internment than that used by the Assyrians. Ezekiel and Daniel are the prophets of the exile, while the last three minor prophets were during the post-exilic era. We see here an approximate chronological relationship of the writing prophets, which span the period from Elisha to the end of the Old Testament Scriptures.254. Draper, Richard D., The Prophets of the Exile: Saviors of a People in Sperry Symposium Classics: The Old Testament, ed. All this was to symbolize the pollution with which Israel and Judah had defiled themselves. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), s.v. The prophets often used what may be called poetic prose, a special, formal style employing the same characteristics as poetry, though less consistently. Following the defeat of the Egyptians, Nebuchadnezzar headed south into Judah and entered Jerusalem as conqueror. The post-exilic prophets include Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi and probably Joel. As a result, wholesale abandonment of Jehovah and His word threatened the Jews; the seductive power of Babylon compounded the problem. Hoseas gracious act of taking to himself a wife who had turned to prostitution (see Hosea 1:12:23) must have given the Jews comfort and hope. Add an RSC shortcut to this device's Homescreen, In the menu, scroll past any icons and tap. Judah should have understood the idiocy of the position taken by these pseudoprophets, for Shiloh, the chief sanctuary of Jehovah for centuries, now lay in ruins. The fall of Jerusalem did not immediately shatter those beliefs. But to have the Lord as one among the many gods would not do, so Jehovah instituted the next step. This is Jerusalem, he explained, and because she hath changed my [that is, Gods] judgments into wickedness more than the nations, God will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations. The judgment would be horrible, for fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I [God] will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds. Underscoring the reason for such severe judgment, the Lord chastised, Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity (Ezekiel 5:57, 911). Malachi.As Nehemiah was the last of the Old Testament historians, Malachi was the last of the prophets; and they co-operated with each other; for while Malachi, unlike Haggai and Zechariah, does not give the date of his message, the contents of it show clearly that he spoke after the temple had been completed and the regular service therein had been renewed. Further, these inspired men facilitated the miracle by satisfactorily answering the exiles most urgent questions and, in the process, giving the Jews both hope and direction. In thinking about application of the prophets to us today, we can make some observations: (1) The ungodly society in Israel and Judah in the days of the prophets is certainly similar to the ungodly society of our day; i.e., we see the similar self-indulgence, materialism, sexual promiscuity and perversion, pluralism, humanism, rampant ungodliness, etc. But they would have sensed his message, for the shaved beard symbolized a radical change in the state of affairs. . That single difference accounts for most of the problem people have making sense of the prophetic books. Where there was no righteousness, there was no hope. It is the phenomenon whereby two or more successive poetic lines strengthen, reinforce, and develop each others thought. Saviors of a People Richard D. Draper The thunder of Nebuchadnezzar's battering rams should have sounded the death knell of the Jews as a people, but it did not. This was to illustrate Gods prophecy that Judah was to soon come under the yoke of Babylon. These prophets have great explanatory power for progressive revelation up to their time. As you read the prophets, look for these simple patterns: either (1) an identification of Israels sin followed by a prediction of cursing, or (2) an announcement of Gods faithfulness and love for her followed by a prediction of blessing, depending on the circumstance. 225-236. 260 For specific examples of the prophets calling Israel back to God, see Amos 5:6, Hosea 14:1, Joel 2:12-13, Isaiah 55:3, and Zephaniah 2:1-3. As Jeremiah had worked to redirect Israels thinking about the temple, Micah had earlier tried to make a course correction concerning Gods covenant with her princes. See, for example, Psalms 2; 18; 20; 21; 45; 72; 89; 101; 110; and 132. Consequently, poetry uses devices such as simile, metaphor, personification, and hyperbole to create images that evoke a sensory experience in our imagination. For those who obey the stipulations of the New Covenant (loving God and loving one's neighbor through Jesus Christ), the final, eternal, result will be blessing, even though the results in this world are not guaranteed to be so encouraging. Crops, for example, will be so enormous that the harvesters will not be finished by the time the sowers are to start planting again (verse 13). I am referring of course to the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel) and the Twelve Minor Prophets (the final twelve books of our Old Testament). [30] The theology quickly developed that each king, as Jehovahs anointed son (Psalm 2:711), would be protected from his foes and lead Israel to an ever-expanding kingdom (see, for example, Psalm 72:811). In summary, lets remember that in order to understand the prophets, we must understand the function of the prophet (which is not merely to tell the future), the historical context (not only in general, but specifically with regard to each prophet and, ideally, each oracle). I have only scratched the surface and talked of some of the features they have in common. Walt Kaiser, one of my favorite authors in Old Testament studies, commented on application from the prophets in the following, Preaching from the prophets can have a great contemporary application if we recognize repentance as the condition for experiencing Gods favor. 271, How much are we like Israel, who claimed Gods eternal favor based on His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then worshipped the things of this world? 270 For more examples of Pedagogy in Biography, see Jeremiah 19:1-11; 43:9; 51:63-64; Ezekiel 5:1-4; 21:6,7; and 24:1-24. Among other things, he symbolized the coming fate of Jerusalem by drawing a picture of the city on a brick and then, while eating rationed foods, simulating a siege against it (see Ezekiel 4:115). By the very nature of things, we will have a harder time understanding the words of the prophets than the Israelites who heard those same words in person. Ezekiels words stung the Jews of the captivity, but they refused, at least initially, to respond. and concluding after Zedekiahs fall in 586 B.C. That explains in part why he became one of Nebuchadnezzars many hostages, the Babylonians concentrating on children of the gentry, clergy, and aristocracy. Nebuchadnezzars dream emphasized the last point. Further, it promised the Jews that even in Babylon, Jehovah could and did sustain and protect those who remained true to the faith. The second deportation occurred in 597 BC when Nebuchadnezzar returned to quell a resistance movement; this is when Ezekiel was taken to Babylon (during all this, Jeremiah remained in Jerusalem). Chapters 40-55 in the Book of Isaiah are believed to be the work of a prophet who lived with the Hebrew exiles during the Babylonian captivity. Gods Word came through the prophets to people in particular situations. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. WILLIAM A. IRWIN A NY DISCUSSION of the exilic prophets numbers of prophets and other self-ap- entails at the outset a critical prob- pointed guides who made their bid for the lem, for who were they? Jeremiah gives the total number of those deported (in 597, 587, and 582 B.C.) He assured them that God took no pleasure in His peoples pain but that it was the only way He could get Judah to turn from her wicked ways (see Ezekiel 33:11). It is hard to know from the text if Nebuchadnezzar moved from polytheism to henotheism or monotheism. They Spoke in Oracles When we come to the actual study of the prophetic books, the first thing we must learn to do is to think oracles (just as we must learn to think paragraphs in the epistles or narrative sections of the Bible).263 This is not always an easy task, but to know the difficulty and the need to do this is the beginning of some exciting discovery. especially in the post-exilic prophets (cf. . [42] Jehovahs doleful words promised Babylon a tragic end: I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. They Were Poets God spoke through His prophets largely in poetic form. 253 Thomas R. Rodgers, The Panorama of the Old Testament (Trinity Press, 1997): chronology of the early prophets, p. 310, and chronology of the later prophets, p. 321. Poetry must be read, understood, and interpreted as poetry. Trying to rebuild the temple and populate it with the Priests/ re-established the priesthood and the will be in charge of the torah obedience. Ezekiel clearly preached against the idea that the temple alone would save the people. . His message was both clear and simple: It was not the temple but righteousness that would be Judahs only shield. To say it another way, Jerusalem's destruction, followed by the Babylonian captivity, marks a major break in the course of Jewish history but not its end. Solomons inspired prayer had seen them repent, and make supplication unto thee [Jehovah] in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness (1 Kings 8:47). First, the policy of deportation carried out by the Babylonians meant that the Jews in Babylon were the top of Judahs intellectual, political, and ecclesiastical leadership. ed. Just what precedents caused the people to believe and the false prophets to propagate this idea are unknown, but the common proverb was The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these (Jeremiah 7:4), meaning that as long as the temple stood, God would protect the people. This feature is primarily seen in the narrative portions where we are told something about the prophets themselves. As a result, the king concluded that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret (Daniel 2:47). The Lawsuit Oracle Lets turn to Isaiah 3:13-26, which constitutes an allegorical literary form called a covenant lawsuit. In this and scores of other lawsuit allegories in the Prophets (e.g., Hosea 3:3-17, 4:1-19, etc. He stated in no uncertain terms that he had full authority to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. Why is there such a concentrated writing down of prophetic word during the time between Amos and Malachi? Rather, Egyptian wiles seem to have acted more to cool what little heat there was. Antithetical parallelism, on the other hand, is where the second or subsequent line contrasts the thought of the first, as in Hosea 7:14: They do not cry out to me from their hearts. Through them, God reminds people in the generations after Moses that if the covenant is kept, blessing will result, but if not, judgment will come. Ezekiels prophecy took place between 592 and 589 BC. The first occurred in 605 BC when Daniel was taken to Babylon. The difference of opinion, however, could not be resolved while the Jews were in Babylon, but it does illustrate their growing faith in the prophecies. There is another feature in the prophetic books which I find fascinating. The evil agent, He warned, already gathering to the north, was ready to move against this vile and sinful nation. It should be pointed out that less than 2% of Old Testament prophecy is messianic. Isaiah also assailed the nobles, judges, and priests for their unscrupulous willingness to rob from the poor and defenseless. People often approach these books casually, as if a surface reading through the Prophets will yield a high level of understanding. Archaeology has shown that the Babylonians razed virtually every fortified town in Judea (see Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert/The World of the Jaredites/There Were Jaredites, ed. Daniels second point, showing that the Lord governed Babylon, centered on Jehovahs work in convincing its kings that He was the living God.
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