The Hebrew Prophets

It is written: YHVH says…..

The Hebrew prophets recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible consist of the ‘major’ prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel – labelled as ‘major’ because their writings are quite long; and the ‘minor’ prophets such as Haggai and Zechariah – just as important and authoritative – but labelled as ‘minor’ because their writings are comparatively shorter.

What are their major themes and concerns? They began to emerge at the beginning of the decline of the Kingdom – when the kingdom was split into two, and they continued to prophesy about the further decline of YHVH’s chosen people – the Jews – into conquest by the Assyrians and captivity by the Babylonians, and then some continued to prophesy following the return of some Jews to their own land after seventy years captivity in Babylon.

They wrote that YHVH was going to bring about this decline because of the ‘harlotry’ – the unfaithfulness of the Jews with regards to Covenant laws, couple with their tendency towards idolatry and the worship of other gods. Amongst these themes the prophets speak about YHVH turning away from the Jews, and so questions arose in Jewish minds about their continued status and the promises that YHVH had made to them. The Jews were asking questions such as: Is the kingdom permanently lost? Will YHVH turn away from His promises? Will Jews never inherit the Promised Land? Will they as a people simply be absorbed and lost in the surrounding Gentile nations? Has God’s kingdom failed?

Amongst the declarations of judgment, the prophets also presented a ‘silver lining’ of hope. They declared that YHVH has not completely abandoned His people and that if they will turn back to Him, then He will will turn to them in favour and mercy. Some of the prophets go into considerable detail as to when and how this turning back of God’s chosen people will occur. It will occur on the ‘Day of YHVH’, which is portrayed as a time of severe constraint, pressure and distress in Israel – as Israel’s ‘midnight hour’ – when the cause of godliness, faithfulness and being set apart from the world will be on the point of extinction and the leadership of Israel will be compromising with the world rather than reflecting the honour and praise of God.

The Hebrew prophets, then, are concerned with the future of God’s chosen people and the kingdom, and they ultimately tend to look to the ‘Day of YHVH’ as the time when the restoration of Jews will occur within a crucible of the refining fire of God’s wrath – to purify the land. There are some Christians who insist that these prophecies had to be fulfilled with the emergence of Jesus – during the lifetime of the promised anointed one or Messiah. But it is clear that not all of these prophecies have been brought to completion in a material sense, and so these Christians interpret these outstanding prophecies in a ‘spiritual’ sense – they ‘spiritualise’ them as though they have indeed attained their fulfilment, but in the unseen heavenly realm. However it is clear that Jesus regarded that aspects of these prophecies remained to be fulfilled in the future – he quoted extracts from Daniel’s visions about the ‘abomination that causes desolation’ to this effect. In addition to this as well as a few other select passages in the New Testament Epistles, it is the Book of Revelation that joins with the Hebrew prophets to look at the ‘Day of the Lord’.

For those who insist on ‘spiritualising’ the Hebrew prophets, the Book of Revelation is interpreted as looking at the ‘Final Judgment’ or ‘Great Assizes’ which is understood as coming into effect at the end of the present gospel age when Jesus will return as judge. But the Book of Revelation, like the Hebrew prophets, actually points to the events leading up to the ‘Day of the Lord’ and the pouring out of God’s furious wrath to refine the Promised Land and the leadership of the Kingdom. In other words, it points to advent of Jesus as King of kings, as judge of nations, and to the establishment of a godly, set apart delegated leadership of the Kingdom of God on earth, with Jesus as the primary delegated authority. The ‘Day of the Lord’ will see the establishment of the foothold of God’s Kingdom on earth and the beginning of the ‘Millennium Reign’ that will see the commencement of the restoration of the Jews and their return to the ‘Promised Land’.

The message of the prophets is that God’s promises to the Jews will by no means fail – according to these prophesied events that will most certainly come to happen, Jews will begin to recognize their Messiah and turn back to God, and He will turn back to them such that through them, God’s faithful, pure, obedient, delegated leadership of His Kingdom on earth will be established.