Author: Pastor Bob

The prophet Amos finishes his words on the ruin and destruction of both the norther and southern kingdoms.  We find the example of a plumb line that will be used to measure the people of Israel and it is obvious that they do not measure up.  There is also a basket of ripe fruit that is used as a metaphor that the time has come to destroy both Israel and Judah because they have been so unfaithful.  But at the end of this prophecy we do see that Israel will one day be restored and the tent will be restored and Israel will be replanted in their own land once again.

Obadiah is a short little prophecy, hence the term minor prophet, and it describes the destruction of the people of Esau.  The people of Esau were the Edomites and while not one of the twelve tribes, they were still relatives of Abraham and so connected in some way to the people of Israel.  Their destruction is assured in this prophecy.

Proverbs 10 once again gives us this ying and yang of wisdom and foolishness.  Since the land is so crucial to Israel the statement in vs.30 is pretty critical: “The righteous will never be uprooted, but the wicked will not remain in the land.”

In Amos we find the words of the prophet who is a shepherd of Tekoa.  He rebukes and gives warning to the surrounding nations around Israel and Judah.  But then he launches into similar warnings for both Judah and Israel and reminds them why God is so upset with them.  He sent plagues in Egypt so that they could be freed, but they still turned their back on God.  As a result they will have the same plagues descend on them as well.  

We also see a reference to the day of the Lord, similar to what was described in Joel, but it is called a day of darkness and not light.  Amos lifts up this day as a day that the Lord will not accept the offerings that are given to them.  There does not seem to be much help in the horizon for the people of God becuse they have consistently turned their back on God.

Psalm 25 emphasizes quite the opposite, the trust that we have in God because God has been faithful in all things.  The first line is a line of a VBS song that we sing every time that we go to Italy: “To you, O Lord,  I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O God.”  Our trust in God is necessary in order for the love of God to have an impact on our lives.

This is an interesting compillation of Psalms.  We begin with a Psalm of lament that gives us the words that Jesus uses when he is on the cross and his cry of desperation as he cries out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”  There is then a listing of grievances that this person crying out has suffered including in vs.16 – “they have pierced my hands and my feet.”  This is a very clear reference to what Jesus underwent when he was on the cross.

From this very clear lament that raises up points of contact, many of them, with Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion we have one of the most well known Psalms, if not the most well known, in Psalm 23 where we find images of docile and pascal scenes that puts a mind to ease.  What a difference it is from Psalm 22.  We really go from persecution to almost a scene of resurrection.  Certainly a scene of comfort and care which is a direct contradiction to the previous psalm.

Then Psalm 24 gives us insight into a triumpant victory that will take place at the hands of the Lord.  All who come to God will receive a blessing and that blessing is a result of the Lord being the king of glory.  From there we go to Proverbs 9 that shows us a battle between wisdom and folly.  That battle rages in our own lifetime.  I love the line in vs.7 “whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse…rebuke a wise man and he will love you.”

We finish the prophet Hosea who describes now less his relationship with his wife, as an object lesson, and more the relationship between God and Israel, or the Northern kingdom.  God has made Israel prosperous, but the more prosperous they become the more they are interested in the other gods attributing to the other gods their success.  In spite of their unfaithfulness, we read in chapter 11 of God’s love for Israel and that one day there will be restoration.  Look at vs.9: “I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim (the would be Israel or the northern kingdom).  For I am God, and not man – the Holy One among you.  I will not come in wrath.”

In the midst of unfaithfulness, in the midst of obvious disrespect, God shows his love for us which is never ending.  This should not be an incentive for us to sin more, but rather humble us to put sin behind us in our lives.

The story is quite simple and tragic and yet it is meant to be a metaphor.  God commands the prophet Hosea to marry a person that we know is going to be unfaithful, what we would call and adulteress.  There is no chance that she will keep her wedding vows, but God calls the prophet to marry her anyway.  God then uses this marriage, this union, between Hosea and the unfaithful wife, to show what it is like to commit yourself to someone for eternity and that person constitently turns their back on their vows and your love.  Unrequited love reveals itself in this story as it does in our relationship with God.  For the New Testament this is a verse that speaks to this same point, you can find it in Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

I mentioned on Sunday that it is difficult to understand exactly what is taking place in the minor prophets unless you read the entire books, then, at least, you can get a bit more of an understanding of the bigger picture.  Today we get to read two minor prophets in their entirety.  Both Nahum and Habakkuk were written at a time when Israel and Judah were divided and were off in captivity.  Nineveh is addressed in Nahum, remember Jonah was also one who went to Nineveh to address the people so that the Ninevites, these foreigner, would repent.  Which they did of course.  In Nahum you have an oracle against Nineveh and the statements that it will fall and that the day of the Lord will be a terrible day for Nineveh.

With Habakkuk we find ourselves with the prophet complaining against the Lord because it is obvious to the prophet that those who are doing evil are making out better than those who are righteous.  He asks God how long will this be.  So you have the first chapter contains two complaints and one answer, the second chapter contains the second answer and the last chapter contains a prayer by the prophet asking Got not to forget his people.  

Don’t we all love the story of Jonah?  I’m thinking we love it because it is a success story of God sending a whale to swallow one of his prophets so that he could carry on his work of evangelizing and evnentually an entire population is saved as a result.  I guess that is the big picture perspective.  But think about it from Jonah’s perspective.  He ran from God, he was grumpy when God saved the people, he didn’t understand his role in God’s kingdom which one of supporting cast, not of decision maker.  Are we comfortable with that role of supporting cast to God’s plans and not the decision maker?  

Haggai takes us to the call to rebuild the temple after the people have returned from captivity.  He calls out the leaders and say why is it that you have prioritized rebuilding your homes when the house of the Lord is in ruins.  Remember, the Babylonians destroyed the temple completely and so there it was, in ruins, while the people worked hard to get their life back in order, God calls them out for not focusing on their relationship, their duty to God.

When we look at the minor prophets, such as Joel, we need to know that they were written primarily in the time when the both the nations of Israel and Judah were in captivity.  As a result there will be words that predict doom and destruction as well as restoration.  We find that in Joel.  We read about the day of the Lord that is to come and it is not a day that we often imagine.  When we think of Jesus coming back again we often think of a celebration that will take place as he takes his people to him.  We don’t often think about a day of destruction, but that is what Joel speaks about.

We also see in Joel the verses that we often use to describe the day of Pentecost in 2:28-29 where we see that all flesh will have the Holy Spirit poured out upon them.  There is also the reverse of what we read in Isaiah that we often quote as a time of peace in 3:10 where the plowshares become swords and the pruning hooks spears.  Not the promise of peace which we come to expect with the kingdom of God being established.

When we look at Psalm 138 we find a psalm of thanksgiving by David which reminds us that the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.  That is a good one to end on.

There last chapters of II Kings contain the most celebratory and the most tragic of all the chapters in this book of the Bible.  We continue along that cycle of those kings of Judah, and we are only looking at the Southern kingdom at this point, of those who don’t do the will of the Lord and those who do the will of the Lord.  We have the extreme disobedience of Manasseh who even got the people involved again in human sacrifice as we see in II Kings 21:6 that he made his son pass through fire.  That would have been a human sacrifice.  As a result of the evil of Manasseh the Lord determines that he will destroy Judah including Jerusalem one day.  That day had not yet arrived, but he determined to do so.  

But then we have King Josiah who is the exact opposite.  He tears down all that was built up that was pagan and not pleasing to the sight of the Lord.  What is more, he discovered the book of the law and made all of the people pledge to follow the book of the law.  This has to be the highlight of the people of Judah as we see that they all follow the will of God.  It was an incredibly fruitful time.  The temple was repaired and all the other places of worship to the foreign gods were destroyed.  

Once Josiah dies, this go south quickly.  Babylon begins to move in and takes a group of people into captivity and leaves others in Jerusalem.  Those who are left in Jerusalem rebel and take just about everyone else and they flee to Egypt.  After that Babylon is angry and they take the rest of the people into Babylon and leaving behind just a few people to tend the land and then they destory Jerusalem and burn down the temple and take all that was in the temple, most probably the ark of the covenant as well.  It isn’t mentioned specifially but we can pretty much be sure that this is when it is taken.

Proverbs 8 speaks about the importance of wisdom and the importance of following in her ways.

We see the diametrical opposite result for both the northern and the southern kingdoms.  In the north we see Hoshea is the last king of Israel (the north) as the Assyrians come and conquer them and take all of the people into Assyria.  After they take the people they then transplant others into that territory so that the Israelites, the northerners, would not be able to resettle even if they escaped or got out of Assyria.  You can basically call it a wrap for the northern kingdom at this point.  We read in chapter 17 that this takes place because of the unfaithfulness of the people of the north.

We then transition to the south and we see a ruler who according to 18:5 – “Hezekiah trusted in the Lord…there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.”  That’s pretty high praise.  As a result the Lord honors him and honors the people of Judah, the south.  The Assyrians who had just taken over the north now try their hand on the south.  But Hezekiah turns them back and they never do end up taking over the land or the people.  

One of my favorite places to go when we visit Israel is Hezekiah’s tunnel.  It is simply amazing.  Made by hand it is a long tunnel that stretches under Jerusalem and provided water for the city especially during sieges.  Interestingly enough Isaiah is the prophet who is alive during the reign of Hezekiah and so is the one who advises him that Assyrian would not take over the land of Judah.  Babylon, now that is a different story.

There is no Psalm more powerful than Psalm 139.  It is the one that I read the most when I make visits to the hospital because it reminds us how the Lord has made and created us.  It also reminds us of the deep knowledge that the Lord has of us.  Even while we were yet unformed in our mother’s wombs did the Lord know us.  That speaks to something pretty powerful there.