| ReadBibleAlive.com | |
| Series Theme: Highlights of the Old Testament | |
|
|
Contents: Part 3: Ezekiel to Malachi |
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 40. Ezekiel (1)
Ezek 1:28, 2:1,2 This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking. He said to me, "Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you." As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.
When we arrive at Ezekiel we are confronted by what is arguably the strangest chapter in the Bible. I have covered this chapter in detail in a previous series we started on Ezekiel and so we will only cover it in a general sweep here. Chapter 1 introduces us to Ezekiel, a priest (1:3), one of the exiles taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar (1:1,2), who starts seeing visions about 593BC.
I cannot always help comparing what follows to the incredible clouds that accompany the coming of the aliens in the film Independence Day. It is a dramatic storm appearance with bright light at its centre (1:4) and he then sees what turn out to be four angelic beings (1:5-14) later to be identified as cherubim (10:1,2). With them come the famous “wheels within wheels” (1:15-21) later to be referred to as “the whirling wheels” (10:13). Previously I have summarised this as follows: the wheels were in total harmony with the four creatures. Wheels of course speak of transport and movement and if the presence of wings was not enough, the presence of these big wheels emphasises even more that the angelic presence is all about coming and going from heaven to earth and back again, conveying the will of God.
Following this we are told that above these four living creatures was ‘an expanse' (1:22), above which was a throne (1:26) on which was seated a human figure, but much more than a mere human figure (1:26,27) surrounded by multi-coloured brilliance (1:28a). It is at that comes the first part of our three starting verses: “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.” (1:28b)
In other words the whole of chapter 1 comes as a preamble to the actual calling of Ezekiel. Whereas in Isaiah the heavenly vision was limited to four verses, here the vision fills an entire chapter and Ezekiel identifies what he sees as “the glory of the Lord” and so incredible, so powerful is this weird picture that we find, “When I saw it, I fell facedown.” (1:28:c) It may be that this was from awe but in what follows the implication was that all his energy drained away and he collapsed.
Now we come to his first encounter with the Lord: “and I heard the voice of one speaking.” (1:28d) As we go into chapter 2 we find first of all an instruction, “Son of man, stand up on your feet,” and then a reason, “and I will speak to you.” It would appear that the Lord did not want him to be a quivering wreck on the floor but as His representative who would receive from Him face to face. To help him do that (and this is why I suggested all his energy had left him), “As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet.” It is the power of the Spirit that raised him up.
Then the Lord speaks to him and gives him his ministry instructions: “He said: "Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn.” (2:3,4) This is remarkably like the warning given to Jeremiah but this should not surprise it, because they were to go to the same people!
Having observed all this, we might now ask, why do you think the Lord gave Ezekiel this vision whereas He gave Isaiah a much briefer insight into heaven, and Jeremiah no such insight? Well, let's consider again Ezekiel's position. Whereas Jeremiah's ministry was carried out in the security of Jerusalem , despite the opposition we received there, it was relatively secure. Ezekiel, however, has been carried away by Nebuchadnezzar's army to Babylon with all the accompanying trauma. Ezekiel came from a priestly family and when he had been carried away in that first ‘deportation batch' with Jehoiachin in 593BC (1:2) he had no idea whether he had any future left. Five years passed (1:2) and it appears he was now age thirty (1:1). Now thirty was the age that a young man of a priestly family would take up his duties and so at the time when this vision comes, he is living in a foreign land, living with the disappointment that if he had still been back in Jerusalem he would just be starting his priestly ministry in the Temple in Jerusalem, but there is no hope of that now.
Imagine you are the son or daughter of a very wealthy businessman who, throughout your younger years, has been promising that when you are thirty he will hand the CEO role over to you, but then when you are twenty five you are kidnapped and deported, sold as a slave on the opposite side of the world in a country where you have no resources and are utterly reliant upon your captors. How would you be feeling? Helpless and hopeless. There is nothing you can do to change your situation and to all outward appearances you have no future. If there is to be a change, it has to be pretty dramatic. This is Ezekiel – and it is dramatic! Ezekiel is going to become God's mouthpiece to the Israelite exiles and, even more, his words are obviously going to get back to Jerusalem to back up all that Jeremiah is saying back there. Why? “ And whether they listen or fail to listen--for they are a rebellious house--they will know that a prophet has been among them.” (2:5) There is the same thing we said about Jeremiah's ministry. It's not about whether he manages to turn the hearts of the people (for he won't), it's about being God's witness against this people so that all of history will see and know. Hence his instruction, “You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious.” (2:7) These words will be written down and they will be a testimony against Israel and the next generation will read them and know the truth and repent so that in forty years after the fall of Jerusalem they will be ready to come back, a purged people.
So Ezekiel receives this incredible vision (and there is more of it in chapter ten) which refocuses all of his thinking and overrides all of any potential fear or anxieties he might have as an exile, and he will be focused on his one goal – to speak God's words to God's people. The glory of the Lord – which represents the very presence of God will become a key feature in this book as it goes on. Like no other prophet he is aware of the movement of God in His dealings with the holy city.
For 99.99% of us, we are unlikely to have such a vision because we will not have such a calling, but God will speak to us and the question has to be, will we obey what we hear? It seems that God uses two major things to turn human thinking: either a dramatic vision, such as that in chapter 1 (which is rare) or catastrophe or upheaval, which is far more common. We get such things depending on God's calling or our stubbornness, but whatever form comes, it will always be the loving God bringing what He knows is best for us, best to bring us into a good place with Him.
|
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 41. Ezekiel (2)
Ezek 36:22 It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone.
If we have struggled to choose a verse or verses in some of the earlier books, that difficulty is now multiplied many times over, for Ezekiel is one of the most complex and varied of the books of the Bible. In broad terms, chapters 1 to 24 speak about judgment against Judah and Jerusalem (but that comes in many varied forms, visions, acted out prophecy, words, etc.), chapters 25 to 32 are prophecies of judgment against other nations (and in this he is truly international in his vision), chapter 33 to 39 are a mix of prophecies, often consoling, and then chapter 40 to 47 are all about the importance of the temple. We'll consider one element of that last section in the next meditation but for the moment we'll take a word and a picture that summarises the nature of what is going on, from the penultimate section.
In chapter 36 we find this summary section, spoken by the Lord to Ezekiel. This particular part starts in verse 17: “Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by their conduct and their actions.” This sums up the years of the life of Israel and Judah . The Lord had given them this Promised Land but down through the centuries, when they were supposed to be a people revealing God and the wonder of His ways to the rest of the world, instead they revealed the folly of the sin of mankind to the rest of the world. Instead of worshipping and revealing God, they defiled this holy land with idol worship.
That had a consequence: “So I poured out my wrath on them because they had shed blood in the land and because they had defiled it with their idols. I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered through the countries; I judged them according to their conduct and their actions.” (36:18,19) That is so simple and straightforward it needs no further comment. It is then that we come across our verses above: “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name….. will show the holiness of my great name….. name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD….. when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.” (36:22,23) Nebuchadnezzar coming and destroying Jerusalem and deporting most of the people is all about this, showing the world that Israel were accountable to a holy God.
But then comes a tremendous word of hope: “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God.” (36:24-28) Wow! God will bring them back from exile with transformed hearts. They will be a transformed people. Read the verses again to take it all in. These verses run on to the end of the chapter, reinforcing the same promise of restoration. Amazing! So much for the word; now to the prophetic vision, the vision of the valley of dry bones. Now what is strange about this is where it comes. It will ask a question of Jeremiah but, if this is in chronological order, he's already been given the answer, so why the vision? The answer has to be either that it was given earlier than the word (and there are indicators that everything in Ezekiel is not in exact chronological order) OR (and I prefer this one) the Lord wants to test Jeremiah to see if he has taken it in and wants to involve him in it. See the vision.
The Lord shows him in a vision a valley full of dry human bones (37:1,2) and asks him, “Son of man, can these bones live?” (v.3) Well, initially, Jeremiah doesn't know who or what these bones are and so he cautiously and wisely replies, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” Smart answer! He might have surmised that in the light of all that had been happening that these bones must be Israel , but he didn't want to jump to conclusions. Prophets don't do that, they only bring what God reveals.
But then comes a strange instruction: “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, `Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.” (v.4,5) He is to speak God's intent over these bones in this vision, and when he did so (v.7) all the bones came together as skeletons and then with flesh but no breath in them (v.7,8) The process is repeated (v.9,10) and the bodies stand up with life in them. Then the Lord explains that these represent Israel who, now in captivity, have lost all hope and that he, Ezekiel, is to prophesy to them what the Lord will do, raising them up again and giving them a new spirit (v.11-14).
So what have we seen in all the verses we have highlighted? First the Lord gave an extensive word about the restoration of the people to the Land, with a new heart and a new spirit, and then He reiterated it by means of the vision of the valley of dry bones, but with a new commission for Ezekiel to tell Israel in exile that this is what is going to happen.
So what lessons come through these verses? First, and quite obviously, a reiteration that all that is happening to Judah and Jerusalem is expressly the disciplinary judgment of God, brought about to end the decades, if not centuries, of idol worship that has polluted this land, a land that was supposed to be the holy home of a holy people revealing God to the nations. Second, they again make very clear that exile is not the end game for this people; the Lord WILL bring them back to the Land as a purged people.
But then we have to look at the nature of what happened here so, third, we see the Lord speaks a dramatic word but then reinforces it by a clear and vivid vision. So often the Lord brings His word more than once, and often in different forms, because He knows we struggle to take in new things. Fourth, we see the Lord involving Ezekiel in a faith activity, speaking God's word over Israel . Again, so often it seems, the Lord wants us to join in His activities by speaking His will out loud into the situation. Perhaps it is His way in ensuring that this word will be heard and remembered after He has performed it, so we will realise it was truly Him. When it is spoken out beforehand, there can be no mistake of understanding afterwards. It seems the Lord delights in waiting for our faith to rise, so that we become actively involved in Father's business which He then ratifies by doing it.
This last point, I believe, is important for many churches today who are content to perform ritual or ‘services' and utter words of belief, but who rarely step out in faith by declaring or praying for substantial changes. Here is a challenge to lifeless orthodoxy. The ‘body of Christ', the Church, is to be alive and active and achieving the works of God as inspired and empowered by Him. That's what all these words have been about!
|
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 42. Ezekiel (3)
Ezek 40:3,4 I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze; he was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand. The man said to me, "Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the house of Israel everything you see."
When I started off this series it was, I have come to realise, with a sense of naivety when I thought about one or two verses per book. To create meaning we have had to do far more than that, and now, as we find ourselves still in Ezekiel, we are about to embark on the most strange highlight in these studies, that which covers Ezekiel's temple in chapter 40 onwards. Ezekiel I have characterised, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, as a mountain of prophecy, but perhaps a mountain range might be more appropriate and when you come to the end of the range, there you have this further ‘mountain' covered in cloud and with a massive question mark over it.
Indeed this is going to be the strangest ‘meditation' in this series for here is the thing about this part of Ezekiel: First it is clearly dated as having come fourteen years after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple within (40:1), second it is a vision (40:2), third in the vision Ezekiel sees in great detail the measurements of a temple (ch. 40-42), fourth, more than once he is told to take great note of what he sees (40:4, 43:10,11 44:5), fifth, the glory of the Lord comes to this temple (ch.43), sixth the detail includes the priesthood and working within it (43:18-44:31, 45:9-24), seventh, there are details about apportioning the Land, layout and use of it (45:1-8, 47:15-48:35) and eighth, IT WAS NEVER BUILT and these things never followed!
So the question arises, why were these nine chapters written down and never followed? What is the point of them being here? Why bother to read them? Let's answer those in reverse order.
Why read them? We can only make suggestions. First we read then because for one reason or another they have been included in the canon of Scripture, first by the Jews who compiled the Old Testament scriptures, and second by the early church fathers who accepted it. Second, we might also add that within these chapters there are a number of passages with more details that exhort the Israelites of Ezekiel's day to repent from their past and live out a new future, a continuation of the earlier parts of the book, if you like. Third, there is also a sense of holiness as the glory of the Lord is seen again, now filling this visionary temple, and with a general sense of holiness which comes through in these chapters.
What is the point of them being here? Well, we may make several suggestions. First , in the day when the exile is well and truly under way, and the exiles have lost their temple, even though Ezekiel and Jeremiah have both prophesied restoration to the Land, this long, detailed section on the temple declares loud and clear, “God has NOT finished with His temple, His intent is still that He will dwell in the midst of His people.” Second , they continue that sense of ‘heavenly otherness' that is common to parts of Ezekiel, a challenge almost against humanistic thinking. We are left with questions that only God will answer. Third , they open up a whole new area of hope, for the Israelites of Ezekiel's day, and the Jews of today. Why? Because the vision has not yet been fulfilled.
That leads us to think about the different ways these chapters can be seen. Commentators over the years have come up with a number of suggestions. First that this was never meant to be taken literally, that perhaps it is just meant to convey spiritual truths, or that it may even be a description of a heavenly temple. Second, that it should be taken literally which opens up the possibility that the people of Ezra's time simply failed to build to this scale. The alternative is that it will yet be built in the future, maybe in the thousand year ‘millennium' period of Rev 20:4 and you know the fun thing about all this – we just don't know! What a challenge to those who feel insecure in their faith and feel they have to have everything neatly buttoned up and understood.
But let's finish with a fairly brief reference to a beautiful few verses in chapter 47, the vision of the river flowing out of the Temple . It appears first of all flowing out from under the threshold of the temple (47:1). As it flowed it became a deeper and deeper river (47:3-6) and where it flowed down into the Dead Sea , it turned it into fresh water (47:8), and wherever it flows life bursts forth (47:9). On its banks fruit trees grow in abundance providing both food and healing (47:12). No interpretation is give and so we are just left to surmise for ourselves.
Whatever else it might say, it must speak of the life that flows out from the presence of the Lord, life that grows greater and greater the more it flows out, life that brings life, and life that transforms and changes that which is dead into a vibrant living environment. Two observations: first this flows from the presence of God portrayed by this temple in this vision. Second, this is the very life that flows forth from heaven through the Church today and even on a bigger scale through the kingdom of God in whatever form that is expressed – the blessing of God on earth.
And so a final question: does this mean that this long-winded picture of the temple is just God's way of catching our attention to say, “I have a plan, a detailed plan of how I will bring my presence to the earth so that life can flow forth bringing transformation to this sin-weary world”? Does He further say, “I simply make the point that you will not fully understand it, but this plan is there and it will be fulfilled through my Son, Jesus Christ”?
Well, to get the most out of this study you are going to have to read chapters 40 to 48 so if you want to, copy, paste and print this study and keep it beside you as you read those chapters. You'll only need half an hour and who knows what the Lord might pick out to speak to you. Be blessed.
|
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 43. Daniel (1)
Dan 1:8,9 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel,
As we now come to Daniel, we come to the third of God's ‘roving reporters' of the Exile. Daniel was carried away to Babylon in the first of Nebuchadnezzar's raids on Jerusalem but unlike Jeremiah and Ezekiel his role was not to speak God's words to the exiles but was, instead, to speak as God's mouthpiece to the various kings from Nebuchadnezzar on. The first six chapters of his book are historical, telling how this happened, and chapter 7 to 12 are prophecies or visions he received. Because of this we will take one historical incident for our first study in this book and then one from the prophetic section.
We have chosen verses 8 and 9 above because they are ‘turning point verses' that impinge on all that follows. They start, as you can see, with a ‘But' which indicates they flow on from what has gone before, so let's pick that up first, for it is highly significant in Daniel's story.
Nebuchadnezzar had carried off King Jehoiakim of Judah (1:1,2) together with members of the royal family and the nobility, young men who clearly had learning (1:3,4a) with the objective that these young men would be taken to Babylon and, for three years, would be taught and trained in the history and ways of Babylon so that eventually the best of them could serve Nebuchadnezzar in his court (1:4b,5). Daniel was one of these young men.
Now part of the perks, or perhaps part of the brain-washing that would transform these brightest of men into good Babylonians, was to provide them with all the rich food and drink that was available in the royal court. Part of the transformation process was to also give each of these young men a Babylonian god-linked name and so Daniel was renamed Belteshazzar which probably means, “Bel protect his life” (Daniel had meant, “God is my judge”) i.e. everything was being done to change these men from being young Israelite noblemen to good Babylonians.
So we come to the point where this rich food is being presented to Daniel and his three friends (v.5) at which point he determines to resist this transformation process. So note the stating point of his actions: “ Daniel resolved.” He set him mind on resisting this. However he is basically a slave and not in a good position to say what he will or will not do, so he goes in humility and “he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.” Now we come to the God part: “Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel.” Somehow the Lord had spoken into the officials heart and made him feel good towards Daniel, but that isn't enough to sway him; he would like to help Daniel (perhaps he too was an ‘import'!) but he was afraid of what the king would say if they looked worse than the others (v.10).
At this point Daniel is not put off and perseveres and gets what today we would call ‘a word of wisdom' and simply asks the guard, who the chief official had put over them, to let them try out for ten days a menu free from rich food and wine, and then see what they are like at the end of that time. He agrees to this. (v.11-14) At the end of the ten days Daniel and his friends look better than any of the other conscripts (v.15) and so the guard allows them to carry on without the rich food and wine (v.16).
We then see the Lord's blessing on these four young men: “To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.” (1:17) so that “At the end of the time set by the king …. he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king's service. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.” (1:18-20) What a testimony!
The lessons of this little incident are clear and powerful. Note first, Daniel is in an alien environment, not one of his choosing. He is powerless in the situation, except he comes from a godly background. Now this is interesting in that the words that came from Jeremiah, and later from Ezekiel, indicate that the spiritual state of Judah and the occupants of Jerusalem was very low – and yet Daniel clearly stands out as one who resolves to remain one of the people of God. So, lesson no.1 – Daniel resolves to hold on to his heritage. When you or I find ourselves in such a situation, can we too resolve NOT to go the way of the rest of the world and remain true to God (how to do that is the problem that follows and is to be addressed). We may need to persevere, but will we do it?
We then saw that the Lord was clearly with Daniel in that He made the chief official favourable towards Daniel. Lesson no.2 – recognize that wherever you are the Lord is with you (Heb 13:5b) and He will be working for you (Rom 8:28). In what follows it is clear that Daniel has the wisdom of the Lord. Lesson no.3 – in such times always turn to the Lord and ask Him for His wisdom to know what to do (Jas 1:5) Simple isn't it!
We will see further examples of such things in Daniel as the book unfolds. In chapter 2 Nebuchadnezzar has a dream which he demands his astrologers and wise men to tell him about, and their failure would mean their death (2:1-13) – which includes Daniel and his friends. When Daniel is told about this, he speaks to the commander of the king's guard who has been sent to execute them all: “Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact.” (2;14) This opens up the way for him to ask the king for time (2:16) and then he gets his three friends to intercede before the Lord (2:17,18) and the Lord gives him the answer!
As a result of this Nebuchadnezzar, “placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men.” (2:48) Amazing! And so it carries on. If you are not familiar with Daniel, you must read how in chapter three his three friends make a further declaration of their commitment to God: “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (3:17,18) and there's more to follow. It is an amazing story, this story of this young prophet who became senior counselor to king after king. And why? What were his characteristics? His faithfulness to God, his resolve, his humility, grace, wisdom and tact and his prayer life, a true child of God whose example is to be followed. Wow! Go for it!
|
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 44. Daniel (2)
Dan 1:8,9 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel,
So we come to the prophetic section of Daniel, chapters 7 to 12. If encounters with God are sometimes referred to as mountain top experiences, here we have another mountain range with a few peaks. It is a confusing area of Scripture with a variety of interpretations given by commentators, so let's satisfy ourselves with identifying the sections and picking up some highlights within them.
Vision 1: The Four Beasts (7:1-28 Probably 553BC). Possibly the most spiritually significant one of the visions, Daniel is lying down (v.1) when he sees fours beats, representing four kingdoms (v.2-8) but immediately following he is given a picture of heaven with God ruling over all things, shades of the book of Revelation: “ As I looked, "thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.” (v.9,10) Shortly after, in this vision, is one of the clearest Messianic visions in Scripture: “ In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” (7:13,14) A human figure in heaven, led before God given supreme authority over the world, an everlasting kingdom. None other than the Son of God. Wow! The four beasts represent kingdoms of men on the earth BUT “ the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever--yes, for ever and ever.” (7:18) Yes, kings will come and go, but the rule of the kingdom of God through His people is supreme in importance and significance in God's eyes.
Vision 2: The Ram and Goat and horn (8:1-27 About 551BC) A vision about ‘the time of the end' (v.17)
Daniel's Prayer & Answer: (9:1-27 About 539/8BC) Daniel understands Jeremiah's seventy years (9:2) so prays and fasts for Israel and confesses the sin of his people (9:3-19). That prayer is a highlight. While praying and fasting, the angel Gabriel comes and reveals something of history's future. Within it we may surmise the coming of Jesus (v.25), the anointed one, who will eventually be cut off (v.26) and the ruler of the land (Rome) will destroy Jerusalem and the Temple (v.26b as happened in AD70). Wars and desolations will characterize history of this fallen world (v.26c) until a time of upheaval and change when the Lord will decree the end (v.27). If the talk of ‘sevens' is confusing, rest in the knowledge that the Lord knows how history will pan out.
Prayer & Revelation of Spiritual Warfare: (10:1-21 Probably 539BC) Daniel prays for three weeks (v.1) until a divine figure appears (v.2-9) who reveals that from the moment Daniel started praying he had been heard (v.12), but there had been resistance from the demonic authority of Persia (v.13) until help had arrived to take over from him to release him to go to Daniel (implied in v.20). Although he says he will explain Israel 's future, he says nothing yet beyond he has to go back to continue fighting the power of Persia after which the power of Greece will come. It is an unclear passage but has insights similar to the apostle Paul's, “rulers… authorities …. powers of this dark world and … spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 6:12) and which few but intercessors seem to become aware of.
Vision 3: The Four Kings: (11:2 – 12:4) This is a continuation of chapter ten in as far as it is the explanation by the divine figure of what will happen. There is much detail and some commentators follow it through showing how it corresponds to all that took place in the period from here until the coming of Christ, of which the Scriptures are otherwise silent. Again the message has to be, the Lord knows! It is all according to plan! The final part of the vision – 12:1-4 – some suggest is a reference to the death and resurrection of Christ and the salvation that follows.
Vision 4: The Two Men: (12:5-13) In this final ongoing vision Daniel sees two men who he questions about all this. He is told, “Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.” (v.10) A good description of the period of the Church when many get saved and sanctified while many others continue to do evil.
As I look back over these chapters, I ask myself, where are the highlights? Well, it depends. If you want the wonder of God and of heaven, it is 7:9,10. If you want a vision of the coming Messiah, it is 7:13,14. If you want spiritual warfare it is 10:1-20, but the truth is that as you might meditate on individual verses that come alive to you, they might become your highlight verses.
Again and again throughout it all, with the talk of enigmatic ‘sevens' there filters through this sense that a) God knows all the periods of history and b) He has a program of history. It is a combination of the working of the enemy, the working of powerful people (‘kings') and the working of the Lord Himself. Much of the time the visions spell out orders of events, the unrolling of history, so often focused on rulers, the powerful people who so often appear to influence history, but there are ‘time' or ‘duration' elements in some of them but given in very enigmatic ways, e.g. “a time, times and half a time,” (7:25), “seventy ‘sevens'” (9:24), “seven `sevens,' and sixty-two `sevens.'” (9:25), “a time, times and half a time,” (12:7). Yet, also, there is the occasional sense that everything is happening to a set timetable, for example, “the appointed time of the end,” (8:19, 11:40, 12:4,9) and “an end will still come at the appointed time.” (11:27,29,35) Confusing, yes, but even as the book of Revelation indicates, the supreme authority rests on a throne in heaven. He is the Lord of all, despite the turmoils of history. Perhaps this is THE ‘highlight' truth that shines through in all this strange prophetic and visionary talk.
|
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 45. Hosea
Hos 1:2 When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, "Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD."
Hosea, the first of the minor prophets, presents us with a problem. Are there any highlight verses? It depends what we mean by highlight. We have usually taken it to mean verses that shed light and release faith, and when you read through Hosea there is not much that fits that description. Hosea prophesied in a period somewhere either side of 700BC. Although so much of the time it appears that he is speaking against the northern kingdom, the fact that in the opening verse he is identified by four kings of the south as well as one from the north, you are left wondering if much of what he says is supposed to also be a warning to the south. As a book it is mostly a prophetic tirade against the sins of Israel , calling for repentance.
Chapters 1 to 3 have a unique and amazing personal element to it which, possibly we may suggest, stands out as a highlight in Scripture. The Living Bible puts verse 2 as follows: “ The Lord said to Hosea, “Go and marry a girl who is a prostitute, so that some of her children will be born to you from other men. This will illustrate the way my people have been untrue to me, committing open adultery against me by worshiping other gods .” Now I am not quite sure about that paraphrase which is a commonly understood interpretation of what took place because a) the emphasis of what happened with his wife, Gomer, is on her relationships with a number of ‘lovers' and the word prostitute only occurs in 3:3 and 9:1 as suggesting that this is almost what these relationships are tantamount to, and b) there is indication that only one of her children's father was anyone other than Hosea, although it is of course possible, if not likely (see below).
So adultery (relationship out of wedlock involving at least one who is married) and unfaithfulness (breaking of the marriage covenant) are the charges against Israel and Hosea is told to emphasise that by taking a wife who will prove to be an adulterer. When she has children, the names Hosea is to give them speaks out the Lord's message.
Her first son is to be called “Jezreel” (1:4) which means ‘God scatters', an indication of what He will do with unrepentant Israel . The Lord also explains (v.4) that it is to highlight the wrong massacre that Jehu committed at Jezreel when he killed Joram. (see 2 Kings 9) and He would end that dynasty (which shortly happened).
Gomer's next child (1:6) was a to be called “Lo- Ruhamah” which simply means ‘not loved' for, said the Lord, “I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them.” i.e. He has given up on Israel. She then has a second son (v.8,9) to be called “Lo-Ammi” for, said the Lord, “you are not my people, and I am not your God .” a possible indication that indeed this child was not Hosea's. However, after this, there is one ray of hope which perhaps ought to have been our highlight: “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, `You are not my people,' they will be called `sons of the living God.' The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.” (v.10,11)
Now that is amazing. Note what it says – Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore. Northerner as well as southerners? The two will be reunited? Well, in 2 Chron 30, in Hezekiah's reign (which was shortly AFTER the fall of Samaria in 722) Hezekiah made a remarkable call to Israelite exiles to come and join their revival (v.6-9) and it is clear that they did (v.17-20). Was that the fulfillment of this remarkable promise?
Chapter 2 is a prophetic indictment of the wife – Israel – and yet as it goes on in verses 14 to 17 there are again verses of hope: “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt . "In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me `my husband'; you will no longer call me `my master.' I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.”
That is amazing. Achor, near Jericho , had been where Achan had been stoned for his disobedience (see Josh 7:24-26) and known as a ‘valley of trouble' ever since. Achor, just over the border of the northern kingdom, would yet become a place of hope. Would it be in exile, that the northern kingdom carried away in 722 would, like the southern tribes, learn to worship God again, free from idols, in exile? The remaining verses of chapter 2 are verses of hope.
In the intervening period, Gomer has obviously left Hosea and is living with another, probably as a slave (for he has to pay for her) and when we come to chapter 3 we find he is instructed to go and take her back (3:1-3). Why? Of what was this to be a picture? “For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.” (v.4,5)
Did this refer to the northern kingdom or the south, or both? Whichever, it is a word of hope for whoever would hear. This is not a God who is wiping them out of existence; this is the Lord who presents a picture of hope to His people, the hope of a good future with Him. It is of course conditional upon their repentance and if they wont do it before hand, then it will be repentance that comes out of exile. Confusing times, terrible times, strong words, words of rebuke and yet also words of hope. So a difficult book, in some ways a depressing book, and yet nevertheless there ARE highlights of hope for those who would hear and respond. Tragically it would be the latter course mentioned above – repentance that comes out of exile – that would apply, but the offer was always there and even though the measures taken against both Israel and Judah were strong, the end result was a purged people who came back to the Lord free from idol worship.
|
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 46. Joel
Joel 2:28,29 I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
Commentators are all over the place as to dating Joel but, as I read it, my conclusion is that the date is really irrelevant because he deals with such major issues spanning history. Simply by what is said, here I believe, is a reasonable suggestion to what is in it: Part 1: 1:1-2:11 The plight of Israel Part 2: 2:12-18 That concludes in a call to repentance Part 3: 2:19-27 That flows into an assurance that the Lord will hear and bless. Part 4: 2:28-32 Now a jump to the period of salvation, the period of the Church Part 5: 3:1-21 This flows on to the last days, of judgment on the nations.
Now before we examine the contents of each part, note in v.15 the first reference to “the day of the Lord” which we'll examine in a moment. It is significant in the number of times it appears (5) but it is unclear initially, I would suggest, whether this refers to just one specific day of judgment at the end, or is simply a phrase used to describe the various times God comes to bring judgment. Perhaps we should look more closely:
1:15 “Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.” 2:1b “Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming.” 2:11 “The day of the LORD is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it? 2:31 “the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD .” 3:14,15 “For the day of the LO RD is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine.” The common thing about this day is that it will be terrible and will be accompanied by judgmental destruction. So now let's note how it appears.
Part 1: The Plight of Israel : (1:1-2:11) starts with a call to recognise the plight of the land, having been ravaged by ‘locusts'– an invader from the north (v.6) who has ravished the land. It appears to conclude with the first call to repentance (v.13,14). Yet although that has already happened, there is coming a worse day (v.15), the ‘day of the Lord'. However he then appears to pick up and continue bewailing the present state of the land in the same tone as the earlier verses (v.16-20). It is almost as if the Spirit breaks in on his anguish about the present state, as if to say, yes, but there is a much worse day that will come later in history that makes this present time pall into insignificance.
Continuing the same section, bemoaning the state of the land, in Chapter 2 we find the Spirit seems to break in yet again with this reference to ‘the day of the Lord' (2:1,2) but when he says, “It is close at hand” (v.1c) we should understand that in prophetic language, terms and experience, it so often does NOT mean ‘it's coming shortly' but ‘it's high on my prophetic horizon as of major significance in the world's history'; be aware of this day, pray, repent and adjust your lives in anticipation of it.
I say these verses in chapter 2 are all part of this first section because in v.3 Joel keeps on referring to “them” and “they”, (count the number of times), referring to this invading army from the north (see in v.3 to 11). But then we appear to have a problem, for this description finishes in v.11 with “The day of the LORD is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?” which seems to point back to what has just been written. Again, in prophetic terms, what we find is that this latter part (v.3-11) of the whole section is a description of what is happening in the IMMEDIATE FUTURE, indeed what seems to have already started according to the earlier verses, AND what we might term the END TIME FUTURE.
Part 2: The Call to Repentance: (2:12-18) In the light of this awareness of the state of the land and of the invading army, both now and in the long-term future, together with the reasons for both, the obvious call is for repentance. That is the only way to stop the present disciplinary judgment and to avoid the wrath of the end-time Day.
Part 3: The Lord's Response – Blessing: (2:19-27) Whenever there is repentance, the Lord will always bless. The blessing spelled out is provision, (v.18,19) deliverance from the invader (v.20), abundance of harvest (v.21-24), and restoration after the work of the ‘locusts' (v.25-27). In the light of what follows it seems this could well describe the restoration that followed the Exile.
Part 4: The Period of Salvation: (2:28-32) Although this might be seen as ongoing blessing continuing on from the period of the Lord restorative goodness above, we have separated it out (as our highlight of this book!) because of the words, “And afterward” in v.28 and the application of these verses under the anointing of the Spirit on the apostle Peter on the Day of Pentecost in the light of the outpouring at the beginning of Acts 2 (see Acts 2:16-21). Those verses have just been fulfilled, he says. It was the start of the period of the Church, a period during which “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” (Joel 2:32 & Acts 2:21) and it will end at “the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.” (Joel 2:20)
Part 5: Judgment on the nations: (3:1-21) The “ coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD,” referred to in 2:31 is clearly spelled out in chapter 3, a time of restoration of Israel (all the people of God) and judgment of the (unbelieving) peoples of the nations (v.1 & 2). And why this latter judgment? Because of the way the nations had treated the people of God (v.3-8). OK, get ready for battle, says the Lord, you versus me (v.9-11), just as we see in Rev 19:11-21. This will be a time of great judgment on all who oppose, reject and rebel against the Lord and against His people (v.12-21)
To summarise: the word comes to the people of God in the Promised Land (Judah is not mentioned until chapter 3) to a) take stock of their situation, ravaged by an enemy and b) repent so that God may bring blessing on them. In due time, part of that blessing will be the outpouring of His Holy Spirit, which will usher in a new era, the era of salvation for whoever believes in the Son of God and his work on the Cross. It is an era that will continue until the Lord winds up history on that fateful “Day of the Lord” when He enters into judgment with all who oppose Him, a time of accounting and final judgment. In this short three-chapter book, this amazing prophet catches the sense of the day and puts it in the perspective of the whole of history yet to come, yes a time of trouble that will give way to blessing, a time of trouble that will appear minor in comparison to the end-time judgment that he also senses. What a prophetic spectrum!
|
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 47. Amos
Amos 9:11 In that day I will restore David's fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be,
If we have suggested that a highlight is a high point of faith or hope in a book, when it comes to Amos we have to wait until the last half of the last chapter of this nine-chapter torrent of negative prophetic outpourings. From the first verse we see that t he main part of Amos' ministry was probably about 760-750BC, which is not long before Samaria in the north was destroyed and the people carried away in 722.
Although the vast majority of the book is condemnatory, speaking against the sins of surrounding nations and cities – he has the Lord roaring from Jerusalem (1:2) against Damascus (1:3-5), Gaza (1:6-8), Tyre (1:9-10), Edom (1:11-12), Ammon (1:13-15), Moab (2:1-3), as well as Judah (2:4,5) and Israel (2:6 – 5:27) etc. there is within it a poetic and prophetic symmetry that is almost unique in the Bible and is fascinating to read.
For example in chapters 1 & 2 , where he identifies each of this cities or states or nations, he uses this phrase “For three sins of …., even for four, I will not turn back my wrath.” (v.3,6,9, etc.). I like the way the Message Version puts it: “Because of the three great sins of… – make that four …” It's almost like the prophet says, “For at least three sins, no there are more than that.” It is also a style that is often used in Proverbs, and it is a style that makes it easy to see the divisions and direction of the various prophecies that are coming.
In chapter 3 there is a lovely example of prophetic repetition to illustrate a point. Observe the word ‘do' or ‘does' here in verses 3-5:
These are cause and effect things, i.e. nothing happens without a cause, and so he follows it with the outcome: “Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared-- who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken-- who can but prophesy.” (3:7,8) i.e. prophecies don't come unless God has spoken and when He speaks the prophet can't help but speak and (implied) this is why I am saying all these things!
In chapter 4 there is this same sort of repetitious style as the prophet points out what the Lord has already done in His disciplinary judgment, each one starting with ‘I': “gave you empty stomachs” (4:6), “withheld rain from you” (v.7), “struck your gardens and vineyards” (v.9), “ sent plagues among you” (v.10), “killed your young men” (v.10), “overthrew some of you” (v.11). It is a call to wake up and repent. As I have studied judgments, it is clear that death is only a judgment ‘of the last resort' and so it is clear the depth to which Israel has fallen by the extreme lengths the Lord has had to go to, to seek to get them to come to their senses and return to Him.
Another example of this sense of repetition so often found in Scripture, and especially in prophetic writings, is in chapter 6 where he speaks against the complacency found in both the northern and southern kingdoms (6:1). See the number of time ‘You' is used. You… “put off the evil day” (v.3 in your thinking pretending it won't happen), “lounge on your couches” (v.4a – indifferent to your plight), “dine on choice lambs” (v.4b food becomes a focus – a characteristic of life in the West for so many today), “strum on your harps” (v.5 music – ditto), “drink wine by the bowlful” (v.6a ditto), “use the finest lotions” (v.6b cosmetics – ditto), “do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph” (v.6c indifferent to the plight of God's people – ditto) “will be among the first to go into exile” (v.7 but the judgment WILL come on all this – ditto)
When we come to chapters 7 & 8, we come to a number of very visual warnings: A swarm of locusts (7:1-3), a consuming fire (7:4-6), a plumb line (7:7-17), a basket of ripe fruit (ch. 8). Rather like Jeremiah, he receives opposition from the religious establishment (7:10-17)
In chapter 9 he has a vision: “I saw the Lord standing by the altar,” warning of impending judgment that is all-encompassing (v.1-10) but then remarkably, out of the blue so to speak, comes this final word of hope – to restore the Davidic reign (v.11,12), to bring great fruitfulness and abundance (v.13) and to bring back from exile and restore Israel (v.14) and utterly restore Israel in their own land (v.15). Now whether that last promise was deferred for nearly three thousand years (from then), by Israel 's rejection of their Messiah, or whether it was simply supposed to bring great reassurance in a time of tumult, is unclear. Even this book could not be written without an element of hope for the future. The present required a strong message calling for repentance (which would be rejected in the north resulting in their destruction in 522, and by the south resulting in their destruction in 587), but in the longer-term there was the Lord's knowledge of what would have to happen, eventually resulting in a restoration of a purged and purified people of God. It is a fascinating book!
|
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 48 Obadiah
Obad v.3,4 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, `Who can bring me down to the ground?' Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down," declares the LORD.
The reader who comes to Obadiah for the first time might be excused for reading it and then thinking, “That's it? Where's the rest? Why are these two pages worthy of being included in the canon of Scripture?” These questions are even more pertinent when you realise that verses 1 to 4 at least appear almost as copies of Jeremiah 49:14-16. Did the Lord inspire him? Did Jeremiah inspire him? Did the Lord through Jeremiah inspire him? Questions even arise over the date of his writing. The only clue appears in verses 11 and 12 where Edom is accused of sitting back smugly when Judah and Jerusalem were pillaged. This together with the Jeremiah parallel would suggest some time after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586BC, and yet, it has been suggested before 553BC when Babylon came against Edom .
But then there is the very subject matter of these mere 21 verses – Edom . Edom was a territory in the mountains to the south east of the Dead Sea . Descended from Esau (see Gen 36:1,9,43), these blood relatives of Jacob ( Israel ) had historically opposed Israel , from the earliest days when they refused to let Israel pass through their land (see Num 20). When Judah and Jerusalem were ransacked by Nebuchadnezzar, it would appear that they looked down on them with no compassion and themselves felt they were impregnable in their mountain fortresses.
When the prophet refers to “ The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks ,” (v.3) it may be that he was speaking more specifically than just the fact that they lived in the mountains for Sela was the capital of Edom and perhaps later Petra, and both Sela and Petra mean "rock" or "cliff", It was this pride that the Lord specifically spoke against (v.3,4) and because of that they too would be pillaged with nothing being left (see v.5,6). There in the mountain caves they hid their riches (v.6), but their friends and neighbours will turn against them (v.7). They thought they were so clever, so wise, but all that would be brought to an end (v.8). Their warriors, so adept at coming down from the mountains and marauding others, will be cut down (v.9).
And why is all this happening? “Because of the violence against your brother Jacob.” (v.10) Because, “you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem , you were like one of them.” (v.11) They clearly derided Judah and laughed over that had happened to them: “You should not look down on your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble.” (v.12) Indeed they should not have gone down from their mountain fortresses and traveled up country to join in their downfall: “You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor look down on them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster.” (v.13) But it was worse, for they had picked off random survivors: “You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble.” (v.14)
Yes, the Lord had seen and catalogued all of their activity against His chosen people, and for that reason He was holding them accountable and declares this general principle in respect of His people: “The day of the LORD is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.” (v.15) There it is spelled out so clearly for all history to see: what you do to Israel will be done to you! And if bad was done to Israel , destruction will come to those who bring it (v.16). Jerusalem will be blessed (v.17) and be the cause of the downfall of those who oppose them – starting with Edom ! (v.18) Those who are presently in exile will return and will triumph and this land will be theirs (v.19-21).
So why did we choose v.3 & 4 as highlights in this shortest book of the Bible? Because pride and a false security (not based on the Lord) was at the heart of their actions, which led them to look down on God's people and even work for their destruction, and this the Lord will not tolerate!
For us, it may not be so much that we either look down on or even speak against Israel (although both are wrong), so much as in this materialistic world we can gain a sense of false security from our ‘things' and our affluence (certainly compared to large parts of the world) and even our history, and in so doing we fail to trust the Lord. True security only comes from truly trusting and knowing the Lord. |
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 49. Jonah
Jonah 4:2,3 I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."
Jonah is a delightful little book. It is simple and straight forward and although it is in the middle of a lot of other books filled with prophecy, this one has none as such for us; it is a story about a prophet! It has four parts and four corresponding chapters and each one reads like an episode out of an old fashioned radio drama, ending with a sense of, “Wow! What's next?” I've chosen the two verses above as our highlight verses simply because there is such an inconsistency in them which is seen again and again in the story, that they sum up Jonah and reveal him as the very human and fallible figure that he is.
To see the context of these two verses we need to scan over the story. Chapter 1 might be titled, “Jonah does a runner and rues the day”. In that he hears a prophetic word from the Lord (1:1,2) that he is called to pass on to the occupants of Nineveh , he is a prophet. Nothing else about him or his time-period comes from the book but he is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25 indicating he was a recognized prophet somewhere about 780BC. It is written as historical narrative.
However prophets are just human beings and this one doesn't like the sound of this call. It is a call to go to Nineveh which was on the Tigris in the north east but instead he catches a boat heading West (1:3). Now it is a funny thing about us human beings. We know the truth but somehow we often fly in the face of it. For instance Jonah knew all about God, as we'll see later, and he would know that God is everywhere and you can't escape Him, and yet Jonah tries to do just that. You can't run away from God!
The other thing about God is that He knows best and He loves us and wants the best for us, even if we have to go through tough times to reach it. So he sends a storm, not just any storm, but a perfect storm, so that the ship even threatened to break up (v.4), and each of the pagan sailors start crying out to their pagan gods (v.5). Jonah, however, is down below, sleeping the sleep of the just – or perhaps the sleep of the exhausted escapee! The captain wakes him (v.6) and the superstitious crew start drawing lots to find out who is the cause of this storm (v.7) and, lo and behold, the lot falls on Jonah. Interesting!
They ask him who he is (v.8) and he then confesses his testimony: “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” (v.9) To cut a long story short, Jonah tells them to throw him overboard if they want to save themselves (v.12) which is a remarkably sacrificial approach really. This goes against all their beliefs but they eventually do it and so in the middle of the night, in the middle of the most horrendous storm out at sea, Jonah ends up overboard. End of story. Well, not quite: “the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.” (v.17) End of chapter, end of episode 1 of our radio series. Tune in next week to see what happens!
If episode 1 was filled with action, episode 2 has none except Jonah praying inside the fish, glimpses of which are quite enlightening. Speaking of his plight as a result of what the Lord had done, he declares, “I said, `I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.” (2:4) Now he must have written this down some time after the events and whether it is true that that was what he said, or what he later felt he ought to have said, the fact is that he knew that resurrection, was one of the thing of which the Lord was capable. In the awfulness of the insides of this fish he had prayed: “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.” (2:7) and then added, “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD.” (2:8,9) Great!
That is quite remarkable for he speaks about God's grace that is available to believers and as a believer in repentance mode, he will know God's salvation. At which point, “the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.” (2:10) End of chapter, end of episode 2. What will happen now?
Now a bedraggled and, no doubt, a wreck of a man who is past caring, goes to Nineveh , proclaims the message of repentance and the city repents. Easy. So, as the previous episodes had concluded with an act of God, so does this one: “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.” (3:10) End of an action packed and highly dramatic episode. End of story.
Well, not quite. Jonah, we said, is a very human prophet and he is now fed up. Come on Lord, you could have wiped out this miserable bunch of pagans in this city (4:1,2). Why did you bother with them? Why did you bother sending me? Because you clown they wouldn't have repented and been saved and been changed if you hadn't brought God's message to them!
Jonah, possibly still a bit overwhelmed by what had happened to him, isn't thinking very clearly. He states what he knows about God from the books of Moses: “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” (4:2b) Well, yes that is true but He only ‘relents' when there has first been repentance and for repentance to come, someone has to face them with the truth.
But Jonah, so often a bit like us, gets caught up in it and forgets the very basics: God IS love and in His compassion isn't looking for destruction. As Ezekiel said, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?” (Ezek 18:23,32) [That ought to have been a highlight verse in Ezekiel, if not in the Bible!]
So the Lord gives Jonah a little lesson as he sits in the shade of a vine outside Nineveh later. The Lord made a worm eat at the roots of the vine and it died – and Jonah got angry. And thus we come to another highlight of this book: “the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?” (4:10,11) i.e. we get upset about really minor issues. We need to get refocused to come in line with God's heart; He gets upset over lost people. “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost .” (Lk 19:10) Us, and the people around us!
|
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 50. Micah
Mic 4:2 Many nations will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion , the word of the LORD from Jerusalem .
After the story telling of Jonah we are back to pure prophecy in Micah. Recently, within a TV gardening programme, I saw a luxurious garden of an apparently famous lady gardener in England , now in her eighties. The buildings in this garden she had created used to be stables and the ground outside occupied for decades by horses. Thus the ground was saturated with horse manure which over the years broke down within the earth making some incredibly fertile soil producing such luxuriant plants. Now I think some of the prophetic books of the Bible are like this and Micah is a classic example. Within this splurge of prophetic condemnation of Israel and Judah, common to so many prophets, (with good cause) this muck, this judgmental prophecy, which has good origins but causes such a stink in the nostrils and unpleasant reading, also manages to be the ground for some incredibly wonderful and beautiful plants that break through in the midst. Words of faith, words of hope, both break through to provide light in the darkness of such prophecy.
God's word comes to Micah in the reigns of “ Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah ,” (1:1) another of the prophets prophesying somewhere either side of 700BC. He predicts the fall of Samaria : “I will make Samaria a heap of rubble,” (1:6 fulfilled 722/1), as well as invasion of Judah (1:9-16) and, even more amazingly, speaks of the Exile some 150 years off: “You will go to Babylon ; there you will be rescued.” (4:10)
We should not be put off by such warnings of such future happenings because in the middle of the book, chapter 4 is a highlight chapter, that starts by speaking about “the last days” (4:1) when the world will turn to Israel for hope (4:2), God will judge all peoples (4:3a) and a time of peace will follow (4:3b), a time of wellbeing where all worship the Lord (4:4,5), a time where the lowly, the rejected, the exiles, are gathered to be the Lord's people (4:6,7), and Israel and Jerusalem be restored (4:8). After this ‘last days' talk, the prophecy comes back to the present centuries where there will be turmoil and eventual exile and subsequent restoration (4:9,10). Coming further back, returning to the very present, other nations are against Israel but will fall because of Israel , because they do not understand the Lord's plans. (4:11-13) It is a spectacular panorama of history! Such are some of the ‘big plants' that grow out of this overall unpleasant ‘horse yard'!
But there some others as well. Although so much is this prophecy denouncing Israel and Judah (e.g. 1:5), there is also the hope of restoration (whether it is after the Exile is unclear but the picture lends itself to that): “I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel . I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture; the place will throng with people. One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out. Their king will pass through before them, the LORD at their head.” (2:12,13) Is the ‘pen' Babylon out of which they will break free at the Lord's leading and return to their own land.
Yet there is much condemnation of the wrongs of His people: “Jacob's transgression …..the sins of the house of Israel ,” (1:5), of Samaria , “she gathered her gifts from the wages of prostitutes.” (1:7) i.e. Israel in the north appeared to prosper by her association with foreigners and not the Lord. They plan iniquity (2:1), they steal from one another (2:2), they prophesy falsely (2:6), violence and injustice is common (2:8,9), their rulers practice injustice (3:1-3), judges and priests take bribes (3:11), there are occult practices and idolatry (5:12-14), they have forgotten the Lord and His goodness to them down through the centuries (6:3-5), there is no one godly and upright left (7:2), and there is family disharmony (7:6),
Because of all this judgment will come: God is coming (1:3), Samaria will fall (1:6), the children of the people of north and south will go into exile (1:16), disaster will come (2:3), what they have will be taken away (2:4), God will distance Himself from them (3:4-6), the land will be ‘ploughed by an enemy' Jerusalem will fall (3:12), Assyria will invade (5:5), the destruction has already started (6:13), they will be further ruined (6:16), such is the ‘muck of this stable yard'.
And yet life springs out of it, there are ‘plants' from the Lord in the mist of this. For example a ‘Messianic glimmer', out of Bethlehem will come a ruler (5:2), a teaching that led the wise men to Jesus in the stable in Bethlehem, (Mt 2:3-8) and this ruler will shepherd his flock and bring peace (5:4,5). Or there is that famous little word of guidance, a summary of what God wants from His people: “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (6:8)
And yet the greatest of the ‘plants' bursting forth in this unlikely place of judgment, comes right at the end – the prophet's declaration of what he knows of the Lord: “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. You will be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers in days long ago.” (7:18-20) He extols the Lord's uniqueness, a God who pardons and forgives and who delights to show mercy, yes, a God who will bring judgment but always does it to purge and purify and bring forth a righteous remnant, and that remnant will know the blessings promised to Abraham. In this midst of all the muck, this is the glorious truth that upholds the prophet and which should also uphold us. God is good, God is love, God is righteous and all He does is with the goal of us experiencing these characteristics of His in our everyday lives. May it be so.
|
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 51. Nahum
Nah 1:3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished.
Trying to find a ‘highlight' in Nahum is hard going. Our verse above might be it! There are echoes here of the Lord's words to Moses: “ the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger , abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished .” (Ex 34:6,7) As we read the three brief chapters of Nahum it is God's power that Nahum has in mind more than anything else. God is going to get Nineveh !!!
Nineveh we've already encountered with Jonah. It was the capital of the Assyrian kingdom (not to be confused with Syria ), originally built by Nimrod (Gen 10:11). Assyria crops up a number of times in Scripture and so it is important that we understand something of this nation against which Nahum prophesies. As a nation it started developing about 800BC and really started expanding in the 700s BC, destroying Samaria and the northern kingdom of Israel in 722BC. As such it had been used as God's tool of judgment. Nineveh had been established as its capital in 705BC and Nahum prophesied about 630BC. As we will come to see, it was destroyed in 612BC, and that is the remarkable feature of this little prophetic book. In the Scriptures we come across a number of Assyrian kings: Tiglath-Pileser invaded the northern kingdom about 740BC (2 Kings 15:19), Shalmaneser attacked the northern kingdom and eventually carried them all off in 722BC (2 Kings 17:3,6). Sennacherib attacked Judah in 710BC (2 Kings 18:13). Jonah had announced its destruction earlier (Jon 3:4), but the people repented and the destruction was temporarily averted. Not long after that, however, Nineveh reverted to its extreme wickedness, brutality and pride. The brutality reached its peak under Ashurbanipal (669-627), the last great ruler of the Assyrian empire. After his death, Assyria's influence and power waned rapidly until 612, when Nineveh was overthrown. So much for history, now the word of the Lord that came some eighteen years beforehand.
We have seen Nahum's starting point is to declare the Lord's greatness and the verse before our one above declares, “The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies.” (v.2) Well, yes, that is true as Ex 34:14 testifies, but only after the words about ‘abounding in love' etc. But Nahum has picked up something in his spirit and it is all about destruction and judgment by the all-powerful Creator God who can make rivers run dry and mountain quake etc. (1:4-6). But he does keep perspective for he then declares, “The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.” (1:7) That is standard Hebrew basic theology, if we may put it like that.
But that is immediately followed by the first of three highly significant words: “but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh .” (1:8) i.e. by implication Nineveh does not trust in the Lord and, by further implication, is against the Lord and will therefore reap His judgment. His condemnation is clear: “From you, O Nineveh, has one come forth who plots evil against the LORD and counsels wickedness,” (v.11) and when a few verses later he says, “Although I have afflicted you, O Judah, I will afflict you no more'” (v.12b) we realise and remember that Assyria had been a tool used by the Lord to discipline Israel (northern & southern kingdoms), but that time is over: “Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, O Judah , and fulfill your vows. No more will the wicked invade you; they will be completely destroyed.” (v.15) The Lord is going to bring an end to Assyria which will be a relief to Judah .
In chapter 2 He warns Assyria to prepare to be attacked (2:1) for Israel will be restored, never to be attacked by them again (v.2); soldiers and chariots are on their way (v.3,4) and will lay siege to Nineveh (v.5) but, and watch this, “The river gates are thrown open and the palace collapses.” (2:6) the rest of the book speaks about their downfall. Now let's note the wonder in all this.
Nineveh was a great city with great walls and had the water of rivers surrounding and protecting her. The Medes, Persians and Scythians came against it but the walls were too great for them. After a 3 month siege heavy rains raised the river levels to such an extend they broke into the city and the walls collapsed. Nineveh fell by an act of God – just as He said!
In chapter 3 we read his derision of them: “ Are you better than Thebes , situated on the Nile , with water around her? The river was her defense, the waters her wall.” (3:8) Thebes in Egypt had water as their defence, they had alliances with other nations and felt secure; look at what happed to them! Thebes had fallen in 664/663. The same thing is going to happen to you. You are going to get into a fearful state where you will go into hiding from the enemy. Nineveh was under siege from invaders for three months before she fell but fall she did, exactly as Nahum prophesied in 1:8, 2:6 and then 3:8. There they are, three little indicators of how this mighty city, the capital of this declining nation, is going to fall, never to recover. The Lord spoke it, and it happened exactly as He indicated. That is the glory of this little book.
There are some basic lessons here. First, God IS loving but God will hold the ongoing unrepentant accountable. Second, it doesn't matter who it is or how strong and impregnable they may appear, they are not so before the Lord. Third, don't worry about years passing before words from the Lord are fulfilled; so often He waits until the time is just right and then He acts. Such are the lessons of which Nahum reminds us.
|
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 52. Habakkuk
Hab 3:17,18 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
These two verses of faith declaration by Habakkuk must be two of the best known ‘highlight verses' in the Old Testament, so obvious are they as they beam out like a lighthouse. They are even more remarkable – not only because they are verses of great faith – because of all that goes before in this short 3-chapter book. Habakkuk as a book differs from many of the other prophetic books in that it contains no prophecy spoken out as such but comprises a question from Habakkuk, an answer from God, another question from Habakkuk (chapter 1) and another answer from God (chapter 2) and then simply a prayer (chapter 3). To see the strength of these verses above, we need to see Habakkuk's two questions and, even more, God's answers.
Habakkuk struggles with the problem of evil or, to be more precise, why God tolerates evil. Habakkuk's first question (which comes as four questions) is: “ How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?” (1:2,3) He spells out the wrongs he sees around him: “Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted,” (v.4) or, as the Living Bible sums it up, “ The law is not enforced, and there is no justice given in the courts, for the wicked far outnumber the righteous, and bribes and trickery prevail.” This is not what you would expect of the holy people of God, so why is God tolerating it?
God's first answer comes: “ "Look at the nations and watch-- and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people.” (1:5,6) He doesn't actually say it but it is clearly implied, He is going to use the Babylonians to chastise and purge Judah and Jerusalem .
This provokes Habakkuk's second question : “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” (1:13) i.e. You are a holy God. How can you use evil people to correct your people? Chapter 2 is God's answer but before it comes, we see Habakkuk declaring his intention to just keep on waiting until an answer comes. I wonder how many of us persevere or simply state our intent to persevere until we get an answer from God? “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give when I am rebuked”. (2:1) I have used the alternative given in the footnote here because it rings true. What temerity is shown by this prophet pushing God!
OK, says the Lord, write down what I'm about to tell you (v.2) for it is coming soon (v.3) Yes, I see the Babylonian king and yes, I see he is puffed up and arrogant (v.4,5) and just keeps on invading and taking over more and more nations. Yes, I see all that, (implied) but he is going to get his comeuppance and will be plundered even as he plunders (v.6-8). Woe to anyone who plots the ruin of other people (v.9-11) or use violence to achieve their ends (v.12) for I, the Lord, have decreed their activity is futile (v.13) and my glory will be seen across the earth as (implied) I deal with them! (v.14). Woe to this leader who brings about the downfall of others, for he will be pulled down (v.15-17) They trust in idols which is folly because an idol is just lifeless carved wood (18,19). Instead, you foolish people, recognize that God is supreme and He reigns from His holy temple (v.20). Now in all that, the Lord doesn't directly answer Habakkuk but He does give him the answer, “Yes, I know, but I am God and I will deal with those unrighteous ones who initially I use to chastise my people. I will hold them accountable for their wrong thinking and wrong actions, even though I make use of them.” We see the Lord making use of men's sinful attitudes and actions in bringing about Jesus' death on the Cross (see Acts 2:23). He may make use of such actions but He does not condone them.
Habakkuk's prayer in chapter 3 acknowledges the Lord's greatness, particularly all he knows of their history with the Lord (3:1,2). He remembers all of God's activities in bringing about the Exodus (3:3-13), bringing plagues when needed (v.5), parting waters when it was needed (v.8), He dealt with Pharaoh (v.13), who he killed in the sea (v.14,15).
OK, he now says, I've heard all this and I tremble before the Lord's might and I will wait patiently until He brings this chastising upon Israel to deal with all these wrongs I have seen (v.16). I will trust the Lord so it doesn't matter how bad things seem – lack of fruit from the land, loss of cattle or sheep (v.17), and I will show that trust by praising the Lord, by rejoicing in Him (v.18) knowing that although the means appear hard and sometimes terrible, He does all things well, and this thought makes me leap with joy and I have a sense of security that the deer bounding about on rocky crags shows (v.19).
The first challenge must be over the depth of our relationship with the Lord. Do I know Him and understand His ways in such a way that I can rest secure in whatever He does on the earth, even though at times those things seem ever so slightly incomprehensible?
So, to recap, this is a prophet who has expressed his concern over the sins that he sees around him. He has cried out to the Lord to do something and the Lord answered, “Yes, I am but you may not like it!” And, no, he didn't like the thought of his Holy God using unholy peoples for His ends, the cleansing of His people. But, the Lord explains, in this fallen world there will be wrong attitudes in arrogant men and women, and those attitudes will lead to wrong deeds, but when the occasion calls for it, the Lord will use all of that to bring about, in the long-term, salvation (cleansing) of His people so that they can move back into a good place again with the Lord and receive His blessing – but don't worry, He will hold accountable those He uses with their wrong attitudes and deeds, their time will come!
Which leads us to look at our world today and, here in the West, we see decline in respect for the Church and the rise of unrighteous leaders and we are left wondering. Is it that the Lord is allowing us to be squeezed so that in desperation we will call out to Him, out of our own local houses in order to become the people who truly reflect the teaching in all aspects – righteousness and power and revelation, care and compassion – that is seen in the New Testament? May we learn quickly.
|
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 53. Zephaniah
Zeph 3:14,15 Sing, O Daughter of Zion ; shout aloud, O Israel ! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem ! The LORD has taken away your punishment,
If you want an example of a gory prophet, Zephaniah is it – judgment all the way – until you get to the latter part of chapter 3. We have chosen the above verses because they come in stark contrast to most of what has gone before. Unusually, we are told Zephaniah comes from a royal line (1:1a) and prophesied during Josiah's reign which lasted 640-609 but as he speaks of Nineveh yet to fall (2:13), and as we've seen previously that happened in 612, it seems he was speaking against Judah in the early part of Josiah's reign before his reforms took place.
Now there is a problem that arises when you read Zephaniah and it is his use of the phrase “the day of the Lord” which he uses 3 times (1:7,14x2) and then refers to this particular day at least a further seventeen times. The question has to be asked, does he intend us to understand that this day is the Final Day of Judgment often referred to in Scripture or does it mean a specific day when He is going to deal with Judah . The fact that he is so close to the coming fall of Jerusalem suggests that it is the latter. (But he doesn't only speak against Judah (e.g. 1;4), he also speaks against the Philistines (2:4,5), against Moab and Ammon (2:8,9), Egypt (2:12) and Assyria (2:13))
The difficulty is the all-encompassing language. For example, “ I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth, " declares the LORD.” (1:2) and “when I cut off man from the face of the earth," declares the LORD.” (1:3c). It is only helped when he refers to Judah in the next verse and we see that this extensive cleansing is coming to Judah in the near future, to come against their idol worship (v.4-6,9). But then again in 1:14-18 there is apocalyptic-sounding, end-time-sounding language that ends, “In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth. ” It is difficult to know if chapter 2 was spoken at the same time or is a separate prophecy that speaks to a “shameful nation” (2:1) but it goes on to speak to all those groups we observed at the end of the previous paragraph. Similarly we read, “The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger.” (3:8)
The judgments of chapter 2 are clearly against specific regional people groups (nations, states, cities) which concluded with a longer warning to Nineveh which was certainly approaching its end in 612, just a few years off. That much was clearly for that time of history and, as we know, was heralding the impending doom of Jerusalem , possibly less than 20 to 30 years off (a small time in God's economy.) It was a confusing time so we should perhaps not be surprised if there is any lack of clarity here. The prophet senses great gloom and doom, and so it would be, for the Exile was possibly the single greatest event in Israel 's Old Testament history after the Exodus. If his words seem extreme it is more likely to be that he catches something of that awfulness that was soon to come, rather than be speaking into the End Times.
Although there is no immediate indication of it, chapter 3 must be against Judah for he could not speak of anyone else with reference to prophets, priests and the sanctuary (3:4) and with the Lord within her (3:5). Although the whole book has its origin in the Lord, in chapter 1 we saw Him say at least seven times “I will,” (1:3-6,8,9) declaring His intent personally. Now when we come to chapter 3 that use of “I” is repeated again and again from verse 6 onwards.
“I have cut off nations …. I have left their streets deserted” (v.6) was supposed to be a warning to Judah , as if to say, ‘Look what I've done to other rebellious nations!' but to no avail: “I said to the city, `Surely you will fear me and accept correction!' …. But they were still eager to act corruptly in all they did.” (v.7) So, “Therefore wait for me.. for the day I will stand up to testify (or plunder them), I have decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms and to pour out my wrath on them.” (v.8) i.e. OK, keep watching what I am about to do to the other nations through Nebuchadnezzar (for that is what happened) – but it will come to you also (see ‘the whole world' v.8c)
Then follow what appears as three reducing stanzas, 9-13 (5 verses), 14-17 (4 verses) and 18-20 (3 verses), about His redemption: v.9-13 the nations will be purified, the scattered remnant restored and Jerusalem purged, v.14-17 the joy of Jerusalem, v.18-20 the Lord's final assurance of His plans for restoration.
If you are like me, you are possibly feeling drunk with information of the impending judgment on Jerusalem through a number of these prophets. Yes, in each case there is this hope that the Lord is working through this impending judgment to bring His people through to the good of knowing Him in an idol-free people. Whenever you read about the Exile remember it is simply a stage before the restoration of Israel to their land as a people purged from centuries of idol worship, a stepping stone, if you like, to a new day, a day through would stretch some four hundred years until the Son of God appeared in their midst. The Exodus had been a prolonged stepping stone from slavery to nationhood within their own land, and now the Exile a stepping stone from an idolatrous nation to a purified nation. Both events are of mega-magnitude so it is not surprising there is so much said in the prophets about this latter event. What does it all say? The Lord is sovereign, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Worship Him.
|
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 54. Haggai
Hag 1:13 Then Haggai, the LORD's messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: "I am with you," declares the LORD.
How different each of these prophetic books are, from Jonah a story about a prophet, to the likes of Micah with strident calls to repent, to Nahum with words against a single city, to Habakkuk with a conversation with God about evil, to Zephaniah, again with strident calls to repent, and now to this little two-chapter book covering four practical, personal prophecies spoken within a three month period to the returning exiles who had started out rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem but who, for a variety of reasons, gave up and needed some motivation. This book is that motivation.
Ezra had summed it up: “ the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia . Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet… prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel , who was over them. Then Zerubbabel …. set to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem .” (Ezra 4:24, 5:1,2)
When you open your Bible to the two pages that cover these two chapters of Haggai, a quick scan over them reveals quite easily that there are four time dates indicating four ‘words' that Haggai brought (1:1, 2:1, 2:10, 2:20)
Haggai's first word is a wakeup call to the governor and the high priest (1:1). Haggai first confronts them with the prevailing attitude: “These people say, `The time has not yet come for the LORD's house to be built.” (1:2) but then challenges them, “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” (1:4) So that is the state at the moment but that in itself is not enough to get them under way again. They need some more motivation, so he brings it: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” (1:5,6) i.e. this life is not working!
But sometimes people argue and debate and question and query, so to make sure there are no doubts about what is going on He elaborates: “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.” (1:9-11) Oh my goodness! The reason it's not all working is because the Lord has blocked off the supply of His blessing on us!!!! So He tells them what to do: “Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD.” (v.8) So the people respond (v.12) and it is followed by a simple follow-on word: “I am with you," declares the LORD.” (v.14)
Haggai's second word is mostly a word of encouragement for the governor, the leader of the people, and the high priest: “now be strong, O Zerubbabel,' declares the LORD. `Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,' declares the LORD, `and work. For I am with you,' declares the LORD Almighty. `This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.'” (2:4,5) Why can these two leaders be strong? Because God reassures them He is with them, and His Spirit is with them, because that's what He said He would do when He first drew them out of Egypt centuries before.
But then comes a word that seems to leap the centuries: “This is what the LORD Almighty says: `In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory ,' says the LORD Almighty. ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,' declares the LORD Almighty. `The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty. `And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the LORD Almighty.” (2:6-9) Now there is no record of the Spirit filling this new Temple as he had done the Tabernacle and Solomon's Temple, but the Lord always fulfils His word, often in ways we did not foresee. This particular temple was not spectacular until Herod the Great added on to it and transformed it into a mighty edifice which even carried Jesus' disciples away. I do so like Mt 24:1 – “Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings.” The temple of God in human form, truly glorious for those who had eyes to see, was walking away from the stone edifice that impressed so many people. Good one! In AD70 that temple was destroyed and now the words of the apostle Paul echo down through the centuries to us: “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?” (1 Cor 3:16) We the Church as a whole are God's Temple , the place where His glory should be revealed.
Haggai's third word reminds them that until now it had been hard going but now, “From this day on I will bless you.” (2:19). Haggai's fourth word is a specific word for the governor, that the Lord will shake nations but He will take Zerubbabel and make him like His signet ring. Now signet rings of rulers were used to create the imprint of a seal and a seal was a guarantee. The Message Version puts it beautifully: “I will set you as a signet ring, the sign of my sovereign presence and authority.” Wow! Zerubbabel, you are God's authority, the sign of God's presence in this new day. What an encouragement to this leader. He concludes, “for I have chosen you.”
What a resource this book is for preachers: “I am with you.” (1:13) “My Spirit remains among you.” (2:5) “From this day on I will bless you.” (2;19) “I have chosen you.” (2:23) The apostle Paul said of personal prophecy, “everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.” (1 Cor 14:3) and these verses certainly conform to that description, and these four words are exactly the four words the Lord says to His children today who are inheritors of all of His blessings through the work of Christ on the Cross, and the indwelling Spirit.
These words should speak to all those who unwisely say, “Spiritual gifts are not for today. We no longer need them now we have the completed canon of scripture.” Oh yes we do. We each need, from time to time strengthening, encouraging and comfort and I would be the first to say that the written word of God does that, but there is nothing like having that ‘now' sense of the Lord God Himself speaking such encouragement directly into your spirit by His now word. Just like with these returning Israelites, it has the power of motivation that words alone does not have. We need both word and the personal Holy Spirit input, and foolish is the person who denies it.
|
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 55. Zechariah
Zech 3:1,2 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem , rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?"
We have chosen the above two verses as highlights because they open up a vision that is so well known. We have commented more than once on how our original intention to pick out just one or two verses as highlights has proved an impossible task with many books that actually have so many ‘highlights', and Zechariah is a classic example of this.
Zechariah was not only a prophet who, we've previously noted in Ezra 5:1, worked alongside Haggai (also see Ezra 6:14) but he was also head of a priestly family (see Neh 12:16) who was probably born in Babylon but returned with one of the groups sent back. To understand his prophecies (at least in the first 6 chapters) we need to remind ourselves that the Lord needed to ensure that the people who returned never sank back into their idolatrous practices of previous centuries, and that they were continually encouraged in the rebuilding works in Jerusalem (Temple and then walls).
The prophecies that come through Zechariah a) work to encourage this, (Ch.1-6), b) give hints of the Messiah, and c) appear to speak of later times in the plans of God (Ch.9 on).
Part A: Ch.1-6 The encouragement of the eight night visions. First, let's first of all pick up some of the highlights in these early chapters: 1. The Horseman among the Myrtle Trees (1:7-17): “My towns will again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem .” (1:17). A promise of future prosperity for Israel , God's chosen. Reminder: we are the chosen of God. 2. The Four Horns and the Four Craftsmen (1:18-21): “These are the horns that scattered Judah …. the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations” (v.21) The four countries that had contributed to Judah 's downfall will themselves be made accountable and pulled down. 3. A Man with a Measuring Line (ch. 2): “ Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it.” (2:4) God's blessing on Jerusalem will be so great boundaries (walls) will not be able to contain it. Reminder: salvation means abundant blessing. 4. Clean Garments for the High Priest (ch. 3): “he said to Joshua, "See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.” (v.4) Joshua, token head of Israel as the high priest, is cleansed and recommissioned, a wonderful picture of what the Lord does for us. 5. The Gold Lampstand and the Two Olive Trees (ch. 4): “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.” (4:6) This is all about God's resourcing of His people by His Spirit. Reminder: we are a Spirit indwelt and empowered and resourced people. 6. The Flying Scroll (5:1-4): “This is the curse that is going out over the whole land; for according to what it says on one side, every thief will be banished, and according to what it says on the other, everyone who swears falsely will be banished.” (5:3) The land will be cleansed of sin. Reminder: we have been cleansed from our sins by the blood of Christ. 7. The Woman in a Basket (5:5-11): “It is a measuring basket….. This is the iniquity of the people throughout the land.” (5:6) The wickedness of Israel would be removed and dumped in Babylon to add to its wickedness. Reminder: we have had the power of sin broken and removed from our lives as we were adopted as God's children. 8. The Four Chariots (6:1-8): “Look, those going toward the north country have given my Spirit rest in the land of the north.” (6:8) The Lord settles the peace of His Spirit on the lands of the north that had caused death in Israel , to at least bring respite for a period. Reminder: peace is our inheritance. The encouragement of these eight visions is rounded off with a final encouraging picture of a crown placed on Joshua's head (6:9-15) to signify his role as a ruler, and he is recommissioned to do that.
Part B: Hints of the Messiah: The following are some of those ‘hints' that are picked up in the New Testament: (i) Christ's coming as ‘the Brach. (6:12), (ii) his kingship (6:13; 9:9; 14:9,16) iii) his priesthood (6:13), (iv) his building of the Lord's temple (6:12-13), (v) his humanity (6:12; 13:7), (vi) his being deserted (13:7), (vii) his rejection and betrayal for 30 pieces of silver (11:12-13), (viii) his crucifixion (struck by the "sword" of the Lord; 13:7), (ix) his coming in glory (14:4), (x) his reign (9:10; 14) (xi) and his establishment of enduring peace and prosperity (3:10; 9:9-10). These Messianic references will find their counterpart in the Gospel accounts, and are there for those with eyes to see.
Part C: Apocalyptic and eschatological prophecy: Again, the following arte some of the things that Zechariah foretold that appear to be end-times revelation: (i) the siege of Jerusalem (12:1-3; 14:1-2), (ii) the initial victory of Judah's enemies (14:2), (iii) the Lord's defense of Jerusalem (14:3-4), (iv) the judgment on the nations (12:9; 14:3), (v) the topographical changes in Judah (14:4-5), (vi) the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles in the Messianic kingdom age (14:16-19) and (vii) the ultimate holiness of Jerusalem and her people (14:20-21).
Put like this it is perhaps wholly inappropriate to speak of ‘highlights'. Perhaps a better analogy is a unique treasure chest of revelation from which the finder will draw out article after article that proves a basis for study and creates wonder after wonder, not only of the revelation of the Lord, but of the wonder of His sovereign plans and purposes that until the coming of Jesus were, as the apostle Paul so often said, ‘mysteries'.
There is so much in this amazing book that it is impossible to do it justice here. We have simply sought to lay out before us, some of the wonders deserving study (which we may yet do one day in a further series). In this book we not only see the wonder of the Lord Himself, the Lord over all things, revealing these things one after another, but we also see the wonder of the way prophecy works, especially the Messianic element, where the truth of the divine plan for His Son, is there in the background all the time, unseen clearly at that time and yet filtering through in the main prophecies, each like a piece of a puzzle, unclear at this stage, and yet with a place in the ultimate picture. Amazing! Worship Him who is the author of this book and of His plan for the world's redemption. Hallelujah!
|
| Contents |
Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 56. Malachi
Mal 4:2,5,6 for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall….. , I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.
And so we come to the last book, the last study in this series. Within Malachi as such, there is no indication of date and so perhaps it is wise to try to piece together a context which matches the things he says. A quick historical recap.
Governor Zerubbabel completed t he temple rebuilding in 516 B.C. In 458BC Ezra the priest came to bring reforms. In 445BC Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the walls (Neh 6:15) and became governor. He introduced reforms to help the poor (Neh 5:2-13), and he convinced the people to shun mixed marriages, to keep the Sabbath (Neh 10:30-31) and to bring their tithes and offerings faithfully (Neh 10:37-39). In 433 BC Nehemiah returned to the service of the Persian king, and during his absence the Jews fell into sin once more. Later, however, Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem to discover that the tithes were ignored, the Sabbath was broken, the people had intermarried with foreigners, and the priests had become corrupt (Neh 13:7-31). Several of these sins are condemned by Malachi (see 1:6-14; 2:14-16; 3:8-11). It appears likely, therefore, that Malachi speaks into the situation in Jerusalem and Judah about 430BC.
His book is essentially a catalogue of the Lord's rebuttals of various excuses for wrong lifestyles that the inhabitants of the Land, after the Exile, some 150 years after Jerusalem had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, had been making. Our verses above are glimmers of hope for the years ahead, the coming of the Messiah and his forerunner, who we know of as John the Baptist, who both appeared on the scene about 460 years later than this time we are looking at now. They are the closing words of the Old Testament. Let's note the setting against which our verses above are revealed.
Wrong Questions: The people questioned various truths: (i) “How have you loved us?” (1:2), (ii) “How have we shown contempt for your name?” (1:6), (iii) “How have we defiled you?” (1:7), (iv) “How have we wearied him?” (2:17a), (v) “How do we rob you?” (3:8), (vi) “What have we said against you?” (3:13).
God's Answers: To these wrong questions the Lord answers and in so doing, reveals the wrong hearts, attitudes and actions of His people at that time: (i) He had loved them by choosing them (1:2-5), (ii) They disdained his name by the way they brought their sacrifices (1:7), (iii) they had brought defective or second-rate offerings, (1:8-14) (iv) they question whether He cared about who did good or evil (2:17b), (v) they neglected the law of Tithes and Offerings (3:8-12) and (vi) had said it was pointless following the Lord for He let evil doers get away with their evil.
In addition to these things, in Chapter 2, He admonished the priests for their lack of diligence and their poor hearts and failure to teach properly (2:1-9). He also challenged the people for their mixed religion (2:11,12) and for their false expressions of concern – tears and weeping (2:13). In reality they have “broken faith” (2:11,14). This is not about mixed marriages, it is about mixed faith (2:14-16), a faith that had originally been pure, a covenant between the Lord and the people He drew out of Egypt .
In Chapter 3 we get a glimmer of the coming of John the Baptist – “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me,” (3:1a) – and in talk of the Lord Himself coming to His temple here – “suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come.” (3:1b). When that day comes, it will be a day of cleansing (3:2-5), no doubt of calls for repentance, just as we see in the ministry of John the Baptist in the Gospels.
He follows this with a principle and a challenge: “I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty.” (3:6,7) His unchanging expectations of His people are that they be holy and faithful to Him, so they need to come back to Him.
But then there is a faithful remnant: “Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard.” (3:16) and the Lord speaks encouragingly about those in the future who will be His (3:17) and who will stand out as righteous (3:18). A day will surely come to remove all the unrighteous (4:1), to reveal those who will greet their coming Saviour (4:2), and the wicked will be dealt with (4:3), condemned by the Law they failed to keep (4:4), as the Lord's ‘Elijah' comes, a prophet to expose and challenge all wrongs, who Jesus identified as John (Mt 17:12).
We are reminded by Malachi that for salvation to come it must be preceded by repentance, a recognition of failure and of sin, and a turning away from it to the Lord. When the power and the word of the Lord comes, Sin is revealed for what it is, and the wise repent quickly. Malachi, like many of the other prophets, is a mixture of challenge against prevailing sin, and an offering of hope for the future for those who will hear, heed and turn to the Lord and away from their self-centred, godless, unrighteous lives.
The “sun of righteousness” is clearly the Son of God who comes to bring forgiveness, cleansing, healing, justification, redemption, sonship and glory for all who will hear and come to him. The New Testament builds out that wonderful hope that he brings, eternal life with God. Hallelujah!
|