The Holy Trinity - Chapter 7 : Prophets
Today we're going to talk about making prophets. No, I'm not here on behalf of Thrivent or any other financial service to help you make good investments or manage your wealth. Sorry. But I'm also not here to give you a stewardship pitch, either, at least not an overt one. I'm sure you're all glad to hear that!
The topic for this week in our sermon series on the timeline of the Bible is the prophets who were sent to God's people over a period of roughly 300 years, beginning around the middle of the eighth century. This was the period when the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were declining. Assyria destroyed Israel in 721 B.C. A little over a hundred years later, the Babylonians gained power. In 587 B.C., they destroyed Jerusalem, and the people were exiled. They were finally allowed to return to Jerusalem by the Persians in 538 B.C. You'll hear more about that over the next two weeks.
As you can tell from this brief description, the era of these prophets doesn't form a separate, distinct period as we've seen with the patriarchs or the Exodus or the monarchy. It's more of a timespan that runs concurrently with other periods in the Biblical timeline. These men are sometimes called the “written prophets” because their names are associated with the prophetic books of the Old Testament: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. And as an aside, let me warn you that these books aren't in chronological order in our Bible. The longer books Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, come first, followed by the twelve Minor Prophets.
So what is a prophet? Sometimes the word is used to mean “fortune teller” or “seer”, someone who can see what's going to happen in the future. But that's not the primary meaning of the word. In general, a prophet is a spokesman for a god or goddess. In the context of the Bible, we are specifically talking about someone who speaks for the God of Israel, the God we celebrate today as the Triune God.
Prophets are truth-tellers, and the prophet's task, as God told Ezekiel in our second reading today, is to deliver God's message whether the people want to hear it or not; to be the sentinel who sounds the alarm whether the people listen or not. This is a difficult, thankless job that can be downright dangerous. Maybe that explains why some were hesitant to accept God's call.
● In the passage we read from Isaiah, he eagerly accepted the responsibility of being sent. But a few verses later God told him that the people would not listen to him, and Isaiah immediately wanted to know how long he'd have to do such a futile task.
● Jeremiah, who was not yet an adult when God called him, objected that he was too young.
● And Jonah, the most reluctant of all, actually tried to run away from God, and we know how well that worked out!
In addition to spoken oracles, many of the prophets acted out their messages with dramatic and sometimes bizarre behavior, a kind of street theater that conveyed the divine message through symbolic actions that were intended to attract the people's attention. For example,
● Isaiah went around barefoot and, depending on what translation you read, wearing little or no clothing for three years. Why? Because that's the way prisoners of war were led away. It was a warning to the people of Egypt and Ethiopia that they would be conquered by Assyria and become prisoners of war (Isaiah 20).
● Jeremiah smashed an earthenware jug in front of the political and religious leaders of Judah and told them that this was what God would do to them because of their sins (Jeremiah 19).
● For over 14 months, Ezekiel enacted the siege of Jerusalem and the punishment for Judah and Israel with a variety of symbolic actions, including building a model of a city with bricks and lying on the ground first on one side, then the other for days and days (Ezekiel 4).
Sometimes the prophet's family was even involved.
● At God's command, Hosea married a promiscuous wife, and the unfaithfulness in their relationship symbolized the unfaithfulness in the relationship between God and the people of Israel. Their children were given symbolic names. The first was called Jezreel, after a place associated with a promise God made to punish the monarchy. The second was called Lo-ruhamah, which means “not pitied” indicating that God would not have pity on Israel. The third child had an even harsher name, Lo-ammi, meaning “not my people”, and referred to the broken covenant between God and the people (Hosea 1).
● Isaiah's sons also had meaningful names. The first was called Shear-jashub, which means “a remnant shall return”. It suggests that there will be judgment because God's people will be reduced to a remnant; however, there is also grace, because they will return (Isaiah 7:3). Isaiah's second son was named Mahal-shalal-hash-baz which means “the spoil speeds, the prey hastens”, and is a reference to the Assyrian conquest of the kingdoms of Syria and Israel (Isaiah 8:1-4).
Although the preaching of these prophets occurred over hundreds of years and in different countries, they had remarkably similar messages. They all affirmed that God had chosen to be in relationship with Israel. But the majority of the people had sinned against God and broken the covenant that God had established through the laws of Moses by not living up to the responsibilities that came from this special relationship. They pointed this out in many different areas.
● Toleration of social injustice was condemned. For example, Amos denounced Israel because they “trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way” (Amos 2:7). Isaiah said, “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.” and then went on to point out that the oppressors would have no one to turn to when the day of judgment came. (Isaiah 10:5ff (NIV))
● Leaders were called out for corrupt practices: “Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right; who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness. Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money.” (Micah 3:9-11a)
● The prophets criticized insincere and corrupt religious practices, including hypocritical fasting. Isaiah said, “[On] the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.” (Isaiah 58:3b-4a (NIV)).
● Idolatry was condemned and even ridiculed. In Isaiah 44, the prophet said, “All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame.” He then went on to paint an absurd picture of a man who makes an idol out of wood and worships it, but burns the leftover scraps to cook dinner. Through Ezekiel, the Lord said, “Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices!” (14:6 (NIV))
● Several prophets including Isaiah and Hosea criticized foreign alliances, not only because they would not be beneficial to the country, but also because they indicated a lack of trust in God.
The prophets called for the people to return to a faithful relationship with God and warned that punishment would occur if the people did not shape up. And indeed, judgment came in the form of the destruction of the two kingdoms and the exile of the people. But even then they didn't learn their lesson.
After the return from exile, Malachi warned the people about unacceptable offerings, idolatry, poor worship practices, and apathy about the lack of justice. Through the prophet God said, “I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me.” (Malachi 3:5)
Now although the time period that we've been talking about was perhaps the heyday of prophecy among God's people, it certainly wasn't the first time that prophets had appeared. In the century before these prophets, Elijah and Elisha challenged the kings of Israel about their idolatry and unjust practices. Before that, Nathan served as God's spokesman in the court of King David, whom he confronted after he stole Bathsheba from her husband, Uriah, and then arranged for him to be killed in battle. Last week we heard how the prophet Samuel, who had anointed Saul as Israel's first king. opposed him when he did not obey God's commandments. And earlier in this sermon series we heard how Moses was sent to deliver God's demand to let the children of Israel leave Egypt to Pharaoh. But he also confronted God's people when they strayed from the covenant promises they had made. Others who are identified as prophets include Moses' sister Miriam (Exodus 15:20), Deborah (Judges 4:4), and even Abraham (Genesis 20:7). So God has been making prophets since the earliest days of Israel's history.
Similarly, God didn't stop making prophets after Malachi, the last of the written prophets. Early in the New Testament, we meet John the Baptizer, whose father, Zechariah, declared at his birth that his son would “be called the prophet of the Most High” (Luke 1:76). Jesus referred to John as a prophet (Matthew 11:9). He certainly fit the bill as far as dress and life style are concerned: “John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.” (Mark 1:6) Like the Old Testament prophets before him, John confronted the religious and political leaders about their sin and unjust practices, and called the people to repentance. The people recognized John as a prophet (Mark 11:27-33), but the leaders refused to obey him.
At this point, I hope that you can see where I'm going next – right to Jesus himself, who certainly spoke for God. In fact, he was God incarnate. He brought the good news of the Kingdom of God to all people. This was a message of forgiveness, salvation, and life with God for eternity. But it also meant changes in this life. Love for neighbor, concern for the poor, a striving for justice – all things that the prophets had called for through the ages. As was the case with John, the people recognized Jesus as a prophet, but the leaders refused to see what was right in front of them. In fact, Jesus' truth-telling angered the authorities so much that they decided he had to be silenced.
Jesus certainly was, and is, the prophet par excellence, but that doesn't mean that he was the last prophet. God continued to make prophets, beginning with the apostles. Some of them are listed in the front of our hymnal beginning on page 15. People like Augustine, Martin Luther, William Wilberforce, Harriet Tubman, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Oscar Romero, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mother Teresa. I could go on, but I think you get the point.
In fact, all Christians are prophets, and that includes us. Aren't we God's spokesmen when we share the Gospel with others? Yes, we are, and like the prophets in the Bible, we're sometimes uncomfortable and reluctant to carry out our mission, aren't we? But we continue to do it, even when people don't listen and perhaps even ridicule us.
We also engage in what some might see as bizarre behavior. Many people think that what we're doing right now is crazy when we could be spending our time on Sunday morning at brunch or on the ball field with our kids. And we let a book that's over two thousand years old guide our lives. Often what we do or don't do provides more witness than our words.
Like the Biblical prophets, we are truth-tellers when we advocate for the poor and oppressed and others who cannot speak for themselves. We speak for God when we promote justice and peace.
I think it's appropriate that the topic of prophets falls in the middle of our sermon series on the timeline of the Bible because prophets are in the middle of everything which happens along it. In fact, prophets are in the middle of everything. God is still in the business of making prophets, and right now God is calling us!
May God give us obedient spirits that we may fulfill our call as prophets and speak for God in this world.
Amen!