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A Thrill of Hope- Nevi'im

  • Dec 13, 2023
  • 7 min read


 

We talked at length last week about the Torah- it's ins and outs, family history, and beginnings to the people of God: The Israelites. This week we are going to dive into the Nevi’im which is the Hebrew word for the Prophets.  


Y'all the prophets are the hardest part of the bible for me to get through. I think because many of them are laid in such complicated metaphors, my brain struggles with finding the relevance for myself. This last Sunday my pastor talked about how we in the Western world always view the Bible as what does this teach me about myself. Middle Easterners read it as what does this teach me about God.

 

As I shift my mindset in learning about the Bible, my take aways are profound. God loves all people. He went to great lengths to make that known. One of those ways is through the prophets.  


The prophets are laid out into a couple different categories in the Hebrew layout (the Tanak). The original scribes started with the former prophets (Joshua, Judges, 1&2 Samuel, and 1&2 Kings) followed by the later prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah Michah, Naham, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi). Remember, this is not the same layout as your typical American Bible. Here all the prophets were organized one after another, followed by the other stories in the Ketuvim. The first four are historical narrative of the Israel’s kings, priests, and prophets followed by books names after the actual prophet. The books were written after their events were done and completed, allowing the writers to form a seamless vision of Israel’s history through the eyes of prophets. It shows how the people kept in the same cycles as their ancestors, some follow God and are blessed, while others fall away acting in wicked and violet ways. All the while, they constantly reflect how one day God will bring a new king who will restore Israel back to God.  


The later prophets consist of two categories, the major prophets and the minor prophets. The three major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) and the twelve minor (Hosea-Malachai) all performed the same duty for Israel: Call them into repentance and bring them hope of a new Israel, pure and right before with this new king ruling in right relationship with God.  


The job of a prophet was to be the messenger of God. God wanted to be close to his people. He even offered them a way to literally walk into his presence on the Mount of Siani, but as we humans tend to be, they were too afraid of God to draw close to him. Rightfully so in many ways. The Israelites knew their hearts and the potential for each of them to be slain down by God due to their wickedness. This never stopped God though. He still came into their camps instead through the arch of the covenant, constantly calling the people to be near him and talk with him. The prophets were not only close to God, but trying to call God’s people back to him so they could enjoy the benefits of a relationship with God as they did.  


Let’s start with the former prophets 

We left off the story last week with the people finally coming to the promised land. They had made it through the desert place, and now, stood before a land occupied by many great armies. The people vowed to not make the mistakes of their parents, they would follow God, obey him, so that they could dwell with him and gain his blessings and healing. They believed God could do anything- to the point of being willing to defeat a mighty city by walking around it! If you have never read the story of Jericho, I encourage you to do so. Read Joshua chapters 1-7. You will see God perform MANY miracles including another parting of the sea, the walls falling down to trumpets, and a whole territory of kingdoms quacking at the power of the Lord Almighty.  Ya’ll it is amazing. Joshua and Jusdges is filled with countless amazing stories of God being with his people helping them defeat all those in their land. 


Here are just a few: 

 

Unfortunately, the story does not continue like that. For a generation, the Israelites did as they promised. They worshiped God alone and kept (most of) his covenants. They seemed to thrive and win every war facing them, driving out all the wicked nations as God had commanded them. Even though Joshua was like Moses and the only other person willing to go to God on Mount Siani, he also starts to mess up in Joshua 9. He makes a choice without consulting God, ultimately putting him in a bind where no matter what he did, he would break a promise to God. Joshua continued to do as God asked, driving out the people, but in Judges 1, you see others starting to falter on this hard mission. Judges shows where others did not force the Canaanites out of the land as well as other nations.  


I think in my heart, I can sympathize with the Israelites at this point. They have been fighting war after war, and eventually start to want to be lenient with these people they are supposed to be driving out. They start to think that their way of winning over Cannon is better than God’s way. Instead of killing or forcing them out, let's make them our slaves. Instead of making them leave, they seem nice enough, as long as we are in charge, they can still live with us? It all makes sense right? 



God calls out the people’s wrong mindset in Judges 2, but it doesn’t change what had already been done. Evil (in the shape of seemingly ok Canaanites) stayed amongst God’s people. 

Eventually, the Israelites started listening more to these foreigners living among them, than God. They started forgetting the ten commandments, started worshipping other Gods. They allowed the words of the world to overpower the words of God- but he kept trying anyway.  


God kept pursuing Israel.  


God raises up a great prophet Samuel who adores God. The people ask for a King, and eventually God gives them Saul. As always, Saul starts off worshiping and believing in God, but then starts to turn away leading to his downfall. God then raises up David to rule who, although he makes some very sinful decisions, always comes back to God and turns his heart. God blesses him telling him he will raise up a Savior from his lineage. 

“When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Samuel 7:12–13). 


From there his son Solomon takes over who at first is the wisest King ever, hearing from God the best way to rule his nation. He is able to build the best temple in honor of God and the kingdom thrives until he marries multiple women and starts listening to their words over Gods. See a pattern yet? This continues for generations. 


God uses the prophets to try to win back Israel. Did you ever use a friend to send a message to a person you were interested in? Whether that was wanting to know if that person liked you back, or wanting to work out your differences, the messenger’s job was to try to create or fix a relationship. These were the prophets. They had loyalty to both God and people. Sometimes this was in calling Israel to remember the past (Zechariah 1: 3-6) and other times he called out sings the Israelites were committing in present time (Malachai chapters 1,2 &3). Last, he would give prophets a vision of what would come if the Israelites continued to live in sin (Amos). I could list more and more of the words of the prophets, but they all came back to the same message: Repent, turn back to God, or you will be destroyed. Sadly, the Israelites rarely listened.  


There were generations that followed God well. Some generations had more than one prophet speaking over them (Isaiah, Micah, and Hosea lived at the same time). Good kings kept prophets close, wanting to hear from God how to rule (such as Uzziah and Jeremiah- 1 Chronicles 16) When Israel (especially its leaders) listened to the prophets, prosperity and power were within grasp. But when they ignored the prophets and God’s word in the Torah, they were destroyed and even captured and taken into Exile.  


At the end God returned a few of his people to the land they were meant to live on. They built a smaller temple to worship God on, but the people who were old enough to remember how beautiful the original one grieved the kingdom they once had. God uses the prophets to remind the people he is bringing a new king who will be raised up. This king is Jesus. 


Lets see these passages where the prophets spoke about Jesus: 


“The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14) 

 

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,     though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me     one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old,     from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2). 

 

“Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan— 

The people walking in darkness     have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness     a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:1–2). 

 

Christ came as that light for a people who saw their nation rise up and then fall. He is the hope they needed in a time when their people were scattered amongst other nations, captured, and some enslaved. They could only look at the heavens and hope for their God to bless them with a Savior once more.  

I pray this week you are challenged in the stories of the Old Testament to see who God is. This week you get some homework. Choose a few of these stories and read them. See what you can learn about the family history of Christ. See what you can learn about God. Pray to the holy one. 

 

 
 
 

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