Delve Into The ProphetsSample

 DAY 2 – PROMISES OF RESTORATION 

Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah prophesied as the empire of Assyria was growing so strong that it threatened and ultimately conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. The southern kingdom of Judah narrowly escaped at that time. 

Nahum, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk spoke to a later situation, when the Assyrian Empire was crumbling, and the Babylonians and Egyptians were jockeying to become rulers of the region. 

Jeremiah, Obadiah, and Ezekiel lived at the time when the Babylonians conquered Judah and deported much of its population. 

And Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi brought their messages to the community that had returned from Babylon to Judea under Persian rule. The prophecies in the second part of the book of Isaiah also speak to this situation of return and restoration. 

The books of Jonah and Joel are difficult to date precisely. In this reading plan, the other prophets will be presented in what is plausibly their historical order, and then Jonah and Joel will be discussed at the end, so they can be understood in light of the prophetic tradition as a whole.

The international intrigues in the region extending from Egypt to Mesopotamia in the eighth through fifth centuries BC provide the background for much what the prophets say. Indeed, even as they explain why God is bringing judgment against Israel and Judah, they also address many of the surrounding nations and explain how God will deal with them as well. But the prophets’ essential message is about the covenant relationship between God and the people he’s chosen. In light of this relationship, they promise that God’s judgment will ultimately issue in restoration. In many books, a prophet’s collected oracles are arranged in this pattern: judgment against Israel, judgment against other nations, restoration of Israel. 

These promises of restoration had a partial fulfillment in the people’s return from exile. But the promises are so grand and universal, envisioning a salvation that will bring people from all nations to know the true God, that their ultimate fulfillment must be seen in later events, in the coming of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world and his future return to rule the earth. Then, as Isaiah and Micah both predict, 

The law will go out from Zion, 

the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 

He will judge between the nations 

and will settle disputes for many peoples. 

They will beat their swords into plowshares 

and their spears into pruning hooks. 

Nation will not take up sword against nation, 

nor will they train for war anymore. 

PRAYER: Teach me about Your ways and reveal to me more about Jesus as I study the words of Your prophets.