Section 3: Part 4

The Prophetic Books

OBJECTIVES:†Discuss who the Prophets are and what they do.†Learn about the differences between Major and Minor Prophets.†Discuss the live of three of Prophets.

Word of the Week:

Preparation of Gifts

Time in between the Liturgy of the Word and Liturgy of the Eucharist. We prepare the table and take up

the collection to represent our gifts so that others may have what they

need.

The Kingdom Breaks Up (930 BC) Solomon is succeeded by his son Rehoboam

Northern tribes set a condition – don’t oppress us like your father did

Rehoboam calls for more brutality … rejected

Rebel Jeroboam is declared king in the north

Breaks God Laws

•Enshrines 2 golden calves at Dan & Bethel •Raises up non-Levite priests to offer sacrificesPeople of Israel turn away from God

What Is a Prophet?

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The Prophets

From the Hebrew = mouth

Not fortune tellers … no crystal ball

About 16-20 major/minor prophets

Only 1 volunteered for the job (Isaiah) … all the others drafted by God

Prophets and God’s Covenant

At the heart of the message of the biblical prophets is a return to following God’s Covenant. It was not necessarily a return to the

“exact same” practices of the people as in prior days when they were faithful to the Covenant.

The message included a continued honoring of the principles of the Covenant, which were laws that fostered communal identity and practices that brought about God’s desire for peace; justice; human dignity; respect for creation; love of God, neighbor, and self; liberation from sin and bondage; and much more.

This was to be done in “new” ways based on the ways the community had grown and matured over time.

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The Prophets

You wouldn’t want to be a prophet ….

people hated you, don’t want to listen to you, you were starved, beaten up, more likely than not you were killed …

… no profit in being a prophet!

The Prophets

No earthly benefits …

but you can’t beat the long-term life insurance benefits (special place with God)

Remember God spoke through them!

Who are the Prophets?

In the Old Testament, whenever the Israelites would stray from God, he would send down a prophet to send them a message These messages were prophecies, sent on

behalf of God and offering some kind of divine direction or consolation

Awake, O Sleeper

Before the Babylonian Exile, most prophets concentrated on alerting the Israelites that they were straying from God

They tried to make a complacent people start paying attention to their own actions and open their eyes

Sleep No Longer, the Time is at Hand

The prophets challenged people to look at their own lives differently, or to provide comfort to an oppressed people

Most of the time, prophets were disliked for trying to change others' lives, and mistreated or killed for this

A Universal Call and Message

After the Babylonian Exile, the prophets concentrated more on comfort and hope

Those that hear the message of the prophets are no longer enslaved to the

darkness. They are free!!

What Do Prophets Have in Common?

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How Are the Prophets Different From One Another?

How Are the Prophets Different From One Another?

Israel – the Northern Kingdomslides to Destruction

(930BC – 721BC)

Timeline: Kings & Prophets

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Period Prophets Hebrew Kings

Prophets in the North: ElijahKing Ahab married a foreign woman Jezebel and accepted her worship of Baal.

Elijah, whose name means "My God is Yahweh," told Ahab that God would send a drought for 3 years to punish Israel.

God provided a brook for Elijah from which to drink and miraculously, ravens brought him food.

When the brook eventually dried up, God sent Elijah to a poor widow. At first she protested, saying that she hadn’t enough for her and her son. But Elijah told her that God would provide. By a miracle, her meager supplies never ran out. Later her son became sick and died, but Elijah revived him.

Prophets in the North: ElijahAfter 3 years Elijah comes to Ahab to tell him that God will finally provide rain. When the king sees the prophet, he calls him "you troubler of Israel," but Elijah points out that Ahab is the one who brings trouble on Israel because of his idolatry. Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to a contest to see who worships the one true God. They meet on Mount Carmel and build an altar. Despite their pleas, Baal does not send fire down for the sacrifice. Elijah mocks the prophets of Baal, suggesting that their god is asleep. Then Elijah calls on God who sends fire to burn up the sacrifice. The people acknowledge Yahweh as God, and kill the prophets of Baal. Then God sends the much needed rain.

Prophets in the North: ElijahAhab and Jezebel continue to follow Baal. Jezebel orders that Elijah be found and killed. The prophet fears for his life, but God appears to him to reassure him.

Ahab and Jezebel continue in their wicked ways. Despite his great wealth, Ahab desires a vineyard owned by Naboth and Jezebel arranges to have him killed. Elijah confronts him and prophesies that his dynasty will end. He tells Jezebel that she will be eaten by dogs.

Prophets in the North: Elijah

In 1 Kings 19 Elijah chose Elisha to be his successor. At the end of Elijah's life, God chose to take him up in a fiery chariot rather than experience a natural death. Elisha witnesses this miracle and receives Elijah’s mantle. Elisha performs many miracles.

TriviaWhere does Elijah appear in theNew Testament?

Ahab meets his death on the battlefield, and just as Elijah foretold, the dogs licked the blood from his chariot.Jezebel is murdered (thrown out of the window) and just as Elijah foretold, the dogs ate her corpse.

721 BC - Assyria Defeats & Scatters Israel Laid siege to Israel’s capital, Samaria … took

the city … northern kingdom of Israel is finished

Thousands of Israelites (esp. leaders) forced to live in exile in Assyrian Empire Assyrians put their own people

in charge

These foreigners married Israelites (mostly peasants) who stayed in Samaria

Their descendants' are the Samaritans … hated by the Jews

Judah and its king Hezekiah cry out to God … Jerusalem is under siege but an angel strikes down thousands of Assyrians & they retreat

The Assyrian Empire

Judah – the Southern Kingdomslides to Destruction

(930BC – 586BC)

Period Prophets Hebrew Kings

Timeline: Kings & Prophets

Who is Ezekiel?? Challenging Idolatry and Injustice Ezekiel was one of the many prophets of God who

was considered to be a “watchman” of Israel. He was called to speak on behalf of God to a

divided people- some still in Jerusalem and others that had relocated to Babylon-

Israelites praised idols and treated those below them (poor and lowly) like animals.

Ezekiel would speak God’s message to these people, creating an example of himself first and then following God’s instructions to voice the meaning of his actions.

Who was led astray??

Ezekiel’s major themes include the presence of the Lord in the Temple, the power of God, personal responsibility for one’s life and faith, and oracles against enemies of Israel.

Ezekiel also discusses Israel’s leaders, describing them as failing shepherds, unable to keep their fleet on the correct path.

The “shepherd’s” selfishness and misplaced loyalty allowed people to make the wrong choices like idolatry and poor treatment of others (referred to as wild beasts in Ezekiel’s messages.)

Dry Bones??

Ezekiel received a prophecy from God about a field of dry bones. God told Ezekiel to spread the word of God over these dried bones, for these bones are the lifeless, the unjust people of Israel.

Ezekiel is to channel God’s life into the hearts of the bones and fill them with a new life with God.

This is also an analogy for Christ’s role in our lives. Christ came so we can be saved from being lifeless and have abundant life.

Ezekiel acted as the guardian of the Covenant, protector of the truth, and prophet of justice.

Jeremiah Who?

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you. (Jeremiah 1:5)

This is the call of Jeremiah, a reluctant and courageous prophet

Jeremiah is born of a priestly family in 645 BC

As a priest/prophet he struggles with God and his call to be a prophet, but in the end he stays true to God

Who is Jeremiah?… Success in the

Lord Covering the time

period of 626-583 BC the writings and prophecies of Jeremiah are situated on the events leading up to the Babylonian Exile

The theme is the need for the unfaithful Israelites to repent and return to the Lord

Why are the Israel Unfaithful? The book of Jeremiah describes how the

Israelites fall into the idolatrous practices of the surrounding nations and do not keep their promises with God

Jeremiah asks the Israelites to practice fidelity (faithfulness) and repent. If they are truly sorry they will become renewed people bound by the Covenant

He prophesies that the portion of Israelites that remained faithful to God will be safe from the wrath of God

Unfaithful Israelites

Jeremiah preached a message of repentance, sorrow and reconciliation

Who is Isaiah? The Long-Awaited

One It is believed that the book of

Isaiah actually covers three different time periods: before, during, and after the Babylonian Exile.

In every time period a prophet named Isaiah rises to speak about the issues at hand.

The original Isaiah, sometimes called the First Isaiah, challenges the Israelites to put their trust in God alone and eliminate the injustice of the rich against the poor.

First and Second Isaiah

First Isaiah also foretells the coming of Immanuel, while delivering a message both of impending disaster from Babylon and of hope for a kingdom where God’s justice and peace reign supreme.

Second Isaiah, who prophesied during the Babylonian Exile, delivered a message of hope: the eventual fall of Babylon, as well as for a servant of God who will encounter great suffering but eventually receive glorification.

Third Isaiah The Third Isaiah came after the

Babylonian Exile. He cries out against Israel’s return

to unjust and idolatrous practices, and demands that they become a respectful community of equals.

He also challenges the people to work for justice as they rebuild their lives after the Exile, and if they do so, God will glorify their nation.

Isaiah 533 He was despised and rejected by mankind,   a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces   he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

 4 Surely he took up our pain   and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God,   stricken by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,   he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him,   and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,   each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him   the iniquity of us all.  

 7 He was oppressed and afflicted,    yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,    so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away    Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living;    for the transgression of my people he was punished.[b] 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,    and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence,    nor was any deceit in his mouth.  

Isaiah predicted this 700 years before Jesus at a time wheneveryone thought the Messiah would be an earthly king!

Kingdom Splits

God With Us

“The virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

Immanuel comes from the Hebrew word meaning “God with us.”

Christ’s coming was foreshadowed all throughout the Old Testament, but lots of it comes from Isaiah.

Christ is with us in the struggles of everyday life, conquering all that enslaves and divides the family of God.

In the words of Isaiah, he will be known as “Wonderful-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.”

This means he will be wisdom incarnate, a defender of his people, a faithful parent, and an agent of peace.

New Heavens, New Earth

Isaiah prophesies that Immanuel will bring in a new kingdom where “the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, / and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.”

With the arrival of the Promised One, all things will change in the Heavens and on Earth; a new king descended from King David will judge with righteousness, and the old order of infidelity and injustice will be replaced by a new order of trust, reconciliation, and equality.

Isaiah invites the people of the Covenant to prepare their hearts and lives for the coming of Immanuel, and heralds the coming of the Word of God made flesh.

What up with Isaiah?

Jeremiah (“The Weeping Prophet”)

Jeremiah was born into a priestly family, in a village 2–3 miles north of Jerusalem. He came from a landowning family, and had a happy youth.

Josiah was the King of Judah. He had turned the nation toward repentance from the widespread idolatrous practices of his father and grandfather. However, after his death, the nation quickly returned to the gods of the surrounding nations.

God chose Jeremiah to reveal the sins of the people and the coming consequences. But Jeremiah resisted the call by complaining that he was only a child and did not know how to speak. But God insisted that Jeremiah go and speak as commanded, and he touched Jeremiah’s mouth and put the word of the LORD into Jeremiah’s mouth.

“Before I created you in the womb, I selected you; Before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet concerning the nations…See, I appoint you this day over nations and kingdoms: to uproot and pull down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 1)

Jeremiah (“The Weeping Prophet”)

Babylon is the new Empire

595BC – Judahis now a vassalto the BabylonianEmpire … payshigh tribute eachyear

Let’s see what happened!

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Jeremiah (“The Weeping Prophet”)

Jeremiah (“The Weeping Prophet”)

Judah decides to stop paying tribute to Babylon

Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem

Jeremiah keeps warning Judah that it will be destroyed … is imprisoned repeatedly

Let’s see if Jeremiah was right!

(10 & 12)

Jeremiah (“The Weeping Prophet”)

So how long did Solomon’s Temple last?

About 370 Years!

The Bonus Prophet Daniel…

End of the Class Game

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Closing PrayerIt helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fractionof the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of sayingthat the kingdom always lies beyond us.No statement says all that could be said.No prayer fully expresses our faith.No confession brings perfection.No pastoral visit brings wholeness.No program accomplishes the church’s mission.No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.We plant the seeds that one day will grow.We water seeds already planted,knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberationin realizing that. This enables us to do something,and to do it very well. It may be incomplete,but it is a beginning, a step along the way,an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the differencebetween the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.We are prophets of a future not our own.Amen.