Response to a Question

Zechariah 7-8

            In Zechariah 7:1-3, a delegation from one of the towns comes to Jerusalem to inquire of the Lord whether they should still fast in the fifth month as a remembrance of the destruction of Jerusalem. The Lord’s lengthy answer begins by reminding them that ritual for ritual’s sake is not good. If the ritual inspires a holier life, a life of ‘administering justice and showing mercy and compassion,’ then the ritual is having its proper effect. Then, he reminds them of His promise, that the returnees will prosper (8:3-8), and He calls them to finish the temple (8:9ff.). So, again, the prophecy is on familiar themes: finish the work of the temple, love your God, love your neighbor.

The Rest of the Night Visions

Zechariah 3-6

            Zechariah 1:8-6:15 contains a series of visions that Zechariah saw, presumably on the same night (February 15, 519 BC; 1:7), hence, The Night Visions. I wrote briefly about the first three visions earlier this week. Now for visions four to eight!

            The fourth vision names Satan, standing beside Joshua, the high priest, accusing him, and the Lord rebuking Satan. Not incidentally, Joshua’s robes are filthy (a word which usually has to do with excrement…) Satan’s work has always been to accuse; that’s what the word satan means. It’s not a proper name at all. Sometimes it can simply be translated the prosecutor The accusation here is probably that Joshua, given his uncleanness, is not worthy to be the high priest, which explains the Lord’s response, “I have chosen Jerusalem.” It’s as if the Lord were saying, “Yes, it doesn’t look like much, but it’s what I have chosen.” Ultimately, of course, Jesus puts the great rebuke on Satan by saving humanity in the most ignominious way—dying on a cross. “Now,” as St. Paul says, “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

            Vision five shows a lampstand and two olive trees sustaining it. The lampstand was one of the furnishings in the temple, so the rebuilding of the temple is most likely the subject. The two trees are Zerubbabel, the governor, and Joshua, the high priest. Verses 6 and 10 are the keys: the temple will be completed by the Lord’s Spirit, operating through these two men. No one should look at the humble beginnings and be filled with doubt about the Lord’s desires.

            The vision of the flying scroll seems to be a warning to the returned exiles that their ancestors had been exiled at least in part because of the injustice with which they filled the land. Relatedly, the vision of the woman in a basket is a representation of the wickedness of the people being carried away.

            The last vision takes us back to the first. Here Zechariah sees a vision of four chariots, as God’s messengers go out into the world, watching over and keeping tabs on the dangerous world in which the Lord’s small community dwells.

            The last bit of chapter 6 summarizes things well. The point of the visions is very similar to the point of Haggai’s prophecy: the temple will be built; Israel will be restored.

Introducing Zechariah

Zechariah 1-2

            Zechariah locates himself as a contemporary of Haggai, beginning his prophetic work in 520 BC. As Haggai, Zechariah is also concerned about finishing the temple, but he has a more pronounced interest in general spiritual renewal, too.

            One of the things that makes Zechariah challenging to read is that he often works in visions, as in chapter one when he has a vision of a man among the myrtle trees. My study Bible points out that these are names visions, not dreams. This marks Zechariah as very much in the apocalyptic tradition of Ezekiel, in which the Lord grants visions which are to be understood in symbolic ways. Another clue is the prominence of angels in the visions. It seems as if all eight visions in chapters 1-6 in a single night.

            The visions themselves can be difficult. First, we have a rider on a red horse among the myrtle. I’ve read that the imagery portrays an armed warrior emerging from the portal between heaven and earth, the idea being that the Lord Himself is investigating the condition of Israel in regard to her enemies. This is corroborated by the second vision of horns: the nations have gone too far. They were to be the agents of the Lord’s discipline on Israel, but they have done more than they ought and their power (the horns) is now judged.

            The third vision (2:1-13) uses the image of a measuring line, but flips it from the way that Ezekiel used it. Here it is not a warning of impending judgment; rather it is transformed into a vision of abundance. The gist of the angel’s message is, “Forget the walls! The city will be too big and too glorious!” Compare Zechariah 2 against Revelation 21-22.

Give Careful Thought

Haggai

            Haggai is a prophet in the post-exilic period. He is actually very specific about his ministry. He prophesies over 4-month period in 520 BC. The exiles of Judah were allowed to return to Jerusalem in 538 BC. By 536 BC, they had returned and laid the foundations for a new temple. Then, the work stalled, initially from opposition from neighboring nations, who framed the Jewish returnees as disloyal to Persia. By the time of Haggai, the delay seems to have been caused by the returnees’ own distraction. Haggai points out: they’ve had plenty of time to build their own houses!

            A feature of Haggai’s message that stood out to me was the repeated call, “Give careful thought…” Four times in two chapters. It seems to suggest that Israel knows better and if they just thought about it a little they would come to see the error of their ways. In my line of work, that resonates. I often feel like I don’t say anything particularly new and insightful in a sermon; preaching is really a practice in reminding God’s people what they already know (or already should know). In a famous passage in Galatians 5, St. Paul gives an extensive list of the works of the flesh, and as he often does in those sorts of contexts, the implication is, “You know this already; you know to avoid this.” Then he lists the nine fruits of the Spirit, and he (almost sarcastically) says, “Against such things there is no law,” as if to say, “Come on. This is obvious.”

            Intentionality is a buzzword these days. Even my fitness tracker reminds me to be mindful. It’s hardly a new idea. 2500 years ago, Haggai reminded God’s people, “Give careful attention to your faith.”

Zephaniah

Zephaniah

            Zephaniah identifies himself as a descendant of Hezekiah, part of the nobility of Judah. Isn’t it interesting the various backgrounds from which the Lord calls His messengers—from noble Zephaniah to common Amos, the shepherd and fig farmer!

            Zephaniah also places himself during the reign of Josiah (640-609 BC). My study Bible suggests a date in the 620s, noting that a Scythian invasion (known from history but not in the Bible) as the occasion. If that’s correct, Zephaniah would have been a contemporary of the young Jeremiah.

            Like several of the prophets, Zephaniah’s main theme is the impending judgment of the Lord. If Zephaniah stands out from that pack, it may be in the sweeping way he announces that judgment. He says that in addition to judgment on human wickedness, the non-sentient creation will also be caught up in it (1:3). Most famous is his statement in 1:15, famously embodied in the Requiem Mass. The requiem mass was the medieval name for the service sung at the death of a Christian. It’s been famously set to music by a number of great composers, but if you were to look up the Sequence in Mozart’s requiem, you might well recognize it. “A day of wrath, a day of ashes.” In our hymnal, the judgment is toned down, but the song is adapted in hymn #508, “The Day is Surely Drawing Near.”

            Zephaniah does not get around to good news until chapter 3, where he prophesies the purification of the people of Judah and their return from exile, an event still at least a decade in the future. For all of His frustration with His people, He remains faithful to His promises. Salvation would come from the people of Israel, and that means that a remnant must remain until Jesus arrives.

Habakkuk’s Prayer

Habakkuk 3

            What do you do when you just don’t understand what the Lord is up to? You pray.

            Habakkuk’s prayer begins with praise, that is, the recitation of the Lord’s saving acts. Technically speaking, the only portion of Habakkuk’s prayer that is truly prayer is verse 2, where the prophet asks the Lord to repeat His intervention in terms similar to the Exodus. Most of the chapter (verses 3-15) is tied up in reciting how the Lord saved Israel in the past. While the imagery varies, it remains clear the prophet is alluding to the way the Lord delivered Israel from Egypt. (The language of plagues and the sea strengthens that connection.) Finally, Habakkuk accepts the answer to his prayer, deciding to wait patiently for the God who had so wondrously delivered Israel in the past to do the same in his day.

            I maintain that prayer and praise are two different modes of speech. They are related, but they are different. Praise forms the basis for prayer. As we recount the Lord’s mighty deeds, as we preach the Gospel to ourselves, especially that the Lord has saved us through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus, we are reminded why this God is a God we can count on, from whom we can ask. After all, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things” (Rom. 8:32)? Prayer, then, technically, is the request. Notice that Habakkuk’s confidence is not in his prayer, but in His God who has saved in the past.

Excuse Me?

Habakkuk 1-2

            Poor Habakkuk. He observes and bemoans the wickedness of Judah (1:2-4), and he gets an answer he neither expected nor wanted: the Lord will send the Babylonians as the agents of His divine judgment (1:5-11). Habakkuk can’t believe it! In 1:12-2:1, the prophet objects, “They’re worse than us!” “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil!” The Lord’s answer (2:2-20) demonstrates that He knows the weakness of His instrument, Babylon’s arrogance. The Lord, reigning from His holy temple, will sort things out, including judgment on Babylon.

Good News for Who?

Nahum 1-3

            We sure have seen the nations threatened and condemned—a lot!—in the prophets. Here the victim is Nineveh. (Whatever positive effect Jonah had didn’t last very long!)

            It’s hard to keep on reading these prophecies of judgment. The question is: is this good news or bad news? And the answer is: are you a Ninevite or an Israelite? When the nations are being judged, it is very bad news for them, and if we assume that we occupy the role of Nineveh here it’s very bad news for us! However, for Israel, the fall of Nineveh is very good news, the destruction of their enemies.

            An important consideration in reading the Old Testament—from Exodus on—is that the nations are cast as the enemies of the people of God. So, when we read about the total destruction of the Canaanites or when we read about the impending doom of Nineveh, we New Testament readers need to think of those two groups in the same way that we think of the defeat of sin, Satan, and death—our races truest enemies. As the Lord defends and protects Israel against her all too human and political enemies, so, too, in the death of Jesus does He defend and protect against our all too demonic enemies.

The Rising Again of Israel

Micah 7

            I wonder if Jesus had Micah 7:6 in mind when He said that He didn’t come to bring peace but a sword? NIV punctuates it like it’s a quote (Matthew 10:34-35). Since the end of Micah 7 prophesies the rising again of Israel, what Jesus had in mind might be that His followers were the true remnant of Israel and that the hallmark of His people would be their loyalty to Jesus.

Counterpoint

Micah 5

            Micah 5:1-9 is the completion of Micah 6:8-13, structurally speaking. It’s easiest to show it graphically:

            A The Lord strengthens a remnant (4:6-7a)

                        B Dominion restored (4:7b-8)

                                    C Zion and her king are humiliated (4:9-10)

                                                D Zion saved from the present crisis (4:11-13)

                                    C’ Zion and her king are humiliated (5:1)

                        B’ Dominion restored (5:2-6)

            A’ The Lord strengthens a remnant (5:7-9)—Source, Robert Chisholm, Handbook of the Prophets, p.422)

The message is that the Lord has plans for Israel: they will be restored to the land. The present trouble, including the failure of her kings and the fall of Jerusalem, fit into that plan. Ultimately, those who oppose God and His people will be destroyed, and God’s purposes will be fulfilled.

Offense and Blessing

Micah 3-4

            It’s not much of a title today, but the first part of the reading seems really to focus on things that offend the Lord. First (and third, 3:1-4, 9-12) is a judgment on the oppression of the poor by the rich, described very graphically as “tearing skin off from bone.” In our day, we hear a lot about the growing wealth gap between the very rich and the increasing number of poor, but I suspect most of us never think about that phenomenon in spiritual terms. Let me just suggest that—scratch that, let Micah suggest—Christians should be just as fierce an advocate of curbing CEO pay, limiting corporate profits, and a serious social safety net as they are about any other political issue.

            Second, the Lord is beside Himself about false prophets, prophets who will preach anything as long as they get paid and their bellies are full (3:5-8). Again, a contemporary application: preachers better be preaching Law and Gospel, not self-help—and a lot of contemporary preaching has more to do with that than with the Word of God. The preacher is called to say, with the prophets, “Thus says the Lord!”

            Slipped into this judgment is a beautiful little prophesy of blessing and restoration, reconciliation with the Lord, and the establishment of His peace. (Micah 4:1-3 is very, very similar to Isaiah 2:1-4.) But it doesn’t last for long, and the chapter continues with a warning that that day of restoration is not yet. The day of restoration is not yet. Israel must go through its purification, but the Lord will give His people the ultimate victory (4:11-13).

Introducing Micah

Micah 1-2

            Micah places himself as a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea. He prophesies in the run-up to the fall of Samaria. Unlike Isaiah, Micah is not from urban Jerusalem; he is a villager from Moresheth, probably in the southern part of Judah.

            Micah’s prophesy runs generally in three cycles of judgment and hope: chapters 1-2, 3-5, and 6-7. In the first of those cycles, our reading for today, Micah condemns idolatry. One of his points is that Judah has been infected with the idolatry that is so prevalent in Samaria. He also condemns social injustice, especially as the rich and powerful defraud the poor. Still, the Lord will not abandon His people entirely, and He will gather a remnant as a flock in a pen.

The Reluctant Prophet

Jonah 1-4

            The story of Jonah has been familiar to many of us since Sunday school. Jonah, called by God to prophesy to Nineveh, flees in the opposite direction. Caught in a life-threatening storm sent by the Lord, the prophet is thrown overboard, swallowed by a huge fish, and spit up on shore to go to Nineveh.

            Two things we don’t often note, though: first, when Jonah gets to Nineveh, he does the barest of minimums. We are told that Nineveh is a huge city, but Jonah’s preaching seems designed to have the smallest impact. In Hebrew, his sermon is literally five words long, “Five days more, Nineveh overturned.” Yet, despite the prophet’s meager efforts, the whole city, all the way to the king, repents. There’s a lesson there about the power of God’s Word.  The power is not in the eloquence or skill of the preacher, but in the Word. As Isaiah tells us, God’s Word accomplishes what He desires.

            The second thing to note is in chapter 4. When the Lord has mercy on Nineveh, Jonah is angry and he tells the Lord, “This is why I didn’t want to come. I knew you would be merciful.” What he means but doesn’t say out loud is, “These people don’t deserve your mercy.” Wow. You’d like to think that we’re better, but guess what… We’re not. I remember in the weeks after 9/11, someone in Bible class got talking about Osama bin Laden along the lines of, “I hope he rots in hell.” When I gently reminded him of Jesus’ words, “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you,” (“Luke 6:27), he did not take it well at all. And there are other examples of the ways that we talk about the other, that tell us we’re not so different.

            The thing that Jonah lost sight of was that Israel didn’t deserve God’s mercy, either. Deuteronomy 7:7-8 reminds, “The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” To steal a line from St. Paul, “It is by grace Israel was saved.” And it’s still the case, “By grace you are saved through faith, and this not of yourselves—it is the gift of God, not by works so that no man can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

            So, neither the prophet nor we should ever lose sight of who God’s grace is for—every single human being, no matter how wicked we judge them—beginning with us.

Obadiah

Obadiah

            Obadiah gives us only his name, so we can only speculate about when he gave his prophecy. On the basis of verses 11-14, which portray Edom as standing by and gloating while an enemy besieges Jerusalem and which condemn Edom for joining in the sack of the city and hunting fugitives—on that basis it seems most likely that Obadiah prophesied around 586 BC, when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem.

            Whatever the occasion of the prophecy, what remains clear is that the Lord regards Edom and Israel as brothers (vv. 10, 12). Edom was descended from Esau, and so, in a historical sense, was exactly Israel’s brother. Edom’s history with Israel was long and checkered, marked by tension, open hostility, and warfare. (Saul and David both made war against Edom.) Of course, the relationship between Jacob and Esau was also rocky, so maybe an ongoing sibling rivalry is not unexpected. Despite this history, Obadiah clearly expected that Edom should have at least stayed out of Israel’s troubles, if not actively helping her. Certainly Edom should not have aided and abetted Israel’s attackers.

            And, so, Edom is treated like just another of the nations: under the Lord’s judgment because of her abuse of God’s holy people.