He Gave Us Prophets: Dynamics Of The CovenantsSample

Types of Judgments: Haggai 1:9-11

It’s very important to realize that Old Testament prophets did not invent the types of judgments that they threatened. On the contrary, they looked to the Scriptures of the Old Testaments for lists or catalogs of the kinds of judgments that the people of God should expect. The vocabulary of the prophets reveals that they often depended on passages that come from the books of Moses. There are five main passages that guided the prophets as they listed off the kinds of judgments that would come against the people of God: Deuteronomy 4:25-28, Deuteronomy 28:15-68, Deuteronomy 29:16-29, and Deuteronomy 32:15-43, and finally Leviticus 26:14-39 provided information to the prophets as they sought to understand the types of judgments that God would bring against His people. 

The first type of covenant judgment is that God would respond to persistent sin with judgment in nature. God threatens to remove His blessing from the natural order so that the world would become hostile to the people of God. You’ll recall that God brought Israel to a land flowing with milk and honey. The natural order in the Promised Land was going to be a tremendous blessing to the people of God. But the prophets warned that when Israel rebels, He will remove this blessing in judgment. Now, what kinds of natural judgments would come against the visible covenant community? Deuteronomy 4, 28, 29, and 32 as well as Leviticus 26 list at least six major types of natural judgments against the people of God. First, these chapters in the books of Moses tell us that God will sometimes send drought to the land of Israel. This drought would dry up the land so that the people will suffer tremendously, and there will be a pestilence. Famine will also come so that the people will have no food when they rebel flagrantly against the Lord. And disease will come upon them — they will receive fevers and boils and tumors and plagues. Wild animals will threaten human life and there will be a loss of population. Infertility and untimely death will decimate the animal and human population in the Land of Promise. For example, consider what God said in Haggai 1:9-11: 

My house … remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.

God often had His prophets announce that judgment was coming in the natural order. 

Now in addition to judgment in nature, we also find that the prophets announced judgment in warfare. War often brings natural horrors, such as famine and disease, but God also spoke of sending human enemies against his people as a kind of covenant judgment. A number of warfare motifs appear in the writings of Moses. In Deuteronomy 4, 28, 29, 32 and Leviticus 26, we find at least five major categories of judgment in warfare. First, the people of God will suffer defeat. They will not be able to withstand the attacks of their enemies. Second, sieges will be laid against their cities. Cities will be surrounded by enemies and their inhabitants will suffer. Then there will be occupation of the land by enemies. The enemies of God’s people will come into the Land of Promise and take control. Death and destruction is another covenant curse in warfare, because many of God’s people will die at the hands of their enemies. And finally, the worst curse of all — God says that His people will be taken captive and scattered among the nations in exile. In Micah 1:16 we can read these words of exile: 

Shave your heads in mourning for your children in whom you delight; make yourselves as bald as the vulture, for they will go from you in exile. 

Threats of judgment and warfare like these appear throughout the Old Testament prophets.