Week 7: Prophets to the Southern Kingdom of Judah
Introduction
Last week we read the prophet Micah, who prophesied to the Kingdom of Judah. His prophecies are the longest ones to the Kingdom of Judah of the Minor Prophets. Of course, Isaiah and Jeremiah had much longer prophecies, but for the rest of this week, we will be reading one prophet per day. Starting with Joel's three chapters today, Zephaniah's three chapters tomorrow and Habakkuk's three chapters on Wednesday. On Thursday, we'll get a taste of Jeremiah, and then we'll finish our study by reading the narrative of the Captivity of Jerusalem and the Southern Kingdom of Judah by Babylon.
Joel
The prophet Joel is the one that we know the least about, of all the prophets. His book cannot be dated with certainty - usually it says the word of the Lord that came to the prophet during the reign of kings x y z... but with Joel, we read in verse 1: "The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel." Period. So we aren't sure when exactly he prophesied, but his prophecy is thus understood by the church as being applicable to all generations and all time periods.
Joel is known as the prophet of the day of Pentecost. He prophecies about the pouring down of the Holy Spirit. His prophecies also focus more on the repentance of the nation as a whole, and not just the repentance of individuals.
Chapter 1
He starts with a fearsome message that sounds like a wakeup call to the inhabitants of the land. "Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days? Or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation."
I want to comment on this first part because this is the importance of the upbringing of parents. Many parents these days are leaving their children to be babysat by the TV, the Tablets and the Phones. Or they are expecting the Church to raise their children. But not so, my beloved. If God grants you, you will be parents one day, and you need to know the importance of raising your children. Telling them your experiences and how God has worked in your life. Telling them your mistakes and how you learned from them. Telling them the wisdom that you received from your parents, and your elders and your servants. This theme is consistent throughout the Scripture that this is God's model for the bringing up of children.
What's the wake-up call? Seemingly, there was a plague in the land. A plague of locusts. And he mentions four types of locust: "What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten." (v. 4)
How is this to be understood? Actually, as with much of the Old Testament and especially the prophecies, it can be understood on several different levels.
The first is the literal level - this is a real event that happened and the people are struggling to find food to eat because of this plague. And they need to turn to the Lord.
The second is the prophetic level - these four stages of locusts or these four kinds of insects, are seen by the Fathers of the Church to refer to the major conquests of Israel - the Babylonian, the Persian, the Greek and the Roman. And this is supported of course by the next few verses when the prophet Joel talks about "A nation has come up against My land."
Of course, there is a third level which is the one most important to us, the tropological level - related to moral metaphor. The four stages of locust refer to the four stages of sin. Sin can start small, but then consume us. It might start out as just "a small lie" - "just a thought" - "just a glance" - a chewing locust. It's just chewing... but very quickly can become a consuming locust and consume our minds, our hearts, and our actions. We discussed the four stages of sin when we studied the first two chapters of Amos - we said it starts as "thinking of evil" - then "doing the evil" - then "evil becomes a habit" (continuing to do it without repentance) - and finally even "preaching the evil" and teaching others how to do it.
The rest of the chapter is a call to repentance. The Lord would send certain things like plagues, occupation by a foreign nation, etc. as different ways to bring the people to repentance. I'll mention one more verse which is verse 14 - one of the famous verses of the Scripture: "Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord." One of the very clear things understood in the Scripture and in the Church is the link between fasting and repentance. Fasting is not just a diet change, but a mode of repentance and of turning back from sin and from evil and reorienting my mind and my hear to the Lord. It's also a time to gather with the rest of the Body of Christ - to pray more liturgies together.
Chapter 2
A similar idea is given in chapter 2, verse 12: "Now, therefore," says the Lord, "Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning." So rend your heart, and not your garments" - in those days, someone might mourn or repent with sackcloth and ashes, but on the inside, there is no repenting. It's just an outward symbol. As we do today, I might be fasting from food, but inside there is no change. The Lord says Rend your heart, and not just your garments. And again in verse 15 of this chapter "Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes; let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, and the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar" - it's a call to the whole assembly. Whether you are an elder, a child, a nursing babe, a bride and groom on their wedding day, or even a priest - the time of repentance is here. Blow the trumpet and make sure EVERYONE knows - the time of repentance is here.
And what will the Lord's response be?
In verse 18: "Then the Lord will be zealous for His land, and pity His people. The Lord will answer and say to His people, 'Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, And you will be satisfied with them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations." and now we start to see prophecies about the New Testament. The Lord will save us from our sin and will bind Satan before us - "But I will remove far from you the northern army, and will drive him away into a barren and desolate land, with his face toward the eastern sea and his back toward the western sea; his stench will come up and his foul odor will rise, because he has done monstrous things. Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things!"
And the Lord in this prophecy doesn't stop there, but reveals to us the next step in the economy of Salvation - the pouring of His Spirit upon us. If you're reading the Orthodox Study Bible, this section will be chapter 3. If you're reading New King James, then we're in chapter 2 verse 28:
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
32 And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.
These verses are quoted in Acts 2. When the Holy Spirit comes upon the apostles in the 3rd hour of Pentecost, and they start to speak in tongues, and everyone in the multitude, from many different nations and languages - Parthians and Medes and Elamites and those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and Libya, Romans, Cretans and Arabs - each of them can hear the message of the gospel in his own language. And some of them said "well these people must be drunk" - but St Peter stands up and says "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel" and then he recites these verses.
Chapter 3 (4 in OSB)
If we just take a part of chapter 3 (or in OSB, it's chapter 4), we can read from verse 18: "And it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water; A fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Acacias." and verse 20: "Judah shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation."
As with all of the prophets, he ends with a message of hope. The Lord is coming, He will pour out His Spirit, there will be a final Judgment, and all of those who include themselves in His Body and in His Church, shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
Listening to this message isn't a replacement for reading the Scripture. Read these short chapters, and let the word of God fill you, - having put the effort to listen to this introduction, the Lord will bless your time and your understanding even in the verses we have skipped over. I hope you'll read along!
Zephaniah
The prophet Zephaniah is from the tribe of Simeon, but he lived in Jerusalem. His name means "God has hidden" - and it seems like he was from the royal line of King Hezekiah that we read in verse 1. He prophesied during the days of the righteous King Josiah and his prophecies will focus on repentance from pride.
Chapter 1
When we read Chapter 1, it is talking about a difficult time and it's called in verses 7 and 8 "The Day of the Lord." Actually, this phrase or this title was used several times in most of the prophets we have read, and I kept meaning to discuss it, but I kept forgetting, or it was in a chapter that I didn't record a message about it. Anyway, what is the Day of the Lord?
Whenever you see this phrase "The Day of the Lord" - think Judgment day. It's a reference to judgment day. And Zephaniah is giving us here a clear picture of what that day will look like. In the first half of the chapter, who will be judged?
I'll just read some sections from the first several verses: "I will utterly consume everything from the face of the land, I will consume man and beast; I will consume the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, the stumbling blocks [which are the idols] along with the wicked. I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place, the names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests - those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops [remember we mentioned in another prophet that the host of heaven is like the sun, moon and stars];" and listen to this in verse 5: "Those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord, but who also swear by Milcom" - Milcom is an Ammonite god, but you see how the Lord is specifically talking about those who worship God, but have also taken for themselves other gods. There is no shared obedience with the Lord - you are either obedient to the Lord, or not. As the Lord says in Matthew 6: "You cannot worship God and mammon." And He continues: "Those who have turned back from following the Lord, and have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him."
And then near the end of the chapter, Zephaniah gives us a picture of what that great day of the Lord looks like. From verse 14-18: "The great day of the Lord is near; it is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is better; there the mighty men shall cry out. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers. I will bring distress upon men, and they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord; their blood shall be poured out like dust and their flesh like refuse. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy"
The Lord Jesus in Matthew 24 also tells us about the end times. He says "nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places." and "the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken." - "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
I encourage you to read Matthew 24 and see all the similarities with this chapter in Zephaniah.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2 starts with the answer to this Judgment Day. How do I escape the Day of the Lord's wrath? By repentance. Zephaniah says: "Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together,
O undesirable nation,
2 Before the decree is issued,
Or the day passes like chaff,
Before the Lord’s fierce anger comes upon you,
Before the day of the Lord’s anger comes upon you!
3 Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth,
Who have upheld His justice.
Seek righteousness, seek humility.
It may be that you will be hidden
In the day of the Lord’s anger."
So to escape this day, seek righteousness and humility. Seek the Lord. It may be that you will be hidden. And this is where we related back to Zephaniah's name - God has hidden. What does it mean God has hidden? God has hidden my sin because I turned to Him and I repented. God has hidden me from the Judgment Day and hidden His judgment from me.
But those who don't turn to Him will not be hidden. The other nations, who refused the Lord in verse 4: "Gaza shall be forsaken, And Ashkelon desolate; they shall drive out Ashdod at noonday, And Ekron shall be uprooted. Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoats, the nation of the Cherethites! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines: 'I will destroy you; so there shall be no inhabitant.'" from verse 8: "I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the insults of the people of Ammon, with which they have reproached My people, and made arrogant threats against their borders. Therefore, as I live, Surely Moab shall be like Sodom, And the people of Ammon like Gomorrah." and in verse 11: "The Lord will be awesome to them, For He will reduce to nothing all the gods of the earth;" - 13: "And He will stretch out His hand against the north, destroy Assyria and make Nineveh a desolation."
Chapter 3
Then, in chapter 3, the same message extends to Jerusalem: "Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, to the oppressing city! She has not obeyed His voice, She has not received correction; She has not trusted in the Lord, She has not drawn near to her God. Her princes in her midst are roaring lions; Her judges are evening wolves that leave not a bone till morning. Her prophets are insolent, treacherous people; her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the Law."
The Lord seeks the repentance of all, and especially the repentance of Jerusalem - Jerusalem, the people of God had everything! They had a Law, they had a Temple with the presence of God, they had sacrifices to atone for sins and priests to administer those sacrifices. They had prophets to help them turn back when they fell. And yet, they were insolent. In verse 7 the Lord says: "Surely you will fear Me, You will receive instruction' - so that her dwelling would not be cut off, despite everything for which I punished her. But they rose early and corrupted all their deeds."
But where is the message of hope that we always see at the end of the prophets? See here in verse 8: "Therefore wait for Me, " says the Lord, "Until the day I rise up for plunder." - when you read this verse in OSB: "Until the day of My rising up as a testimony". It is a clear prophecy of the Resurrection.
And so we will rejoice in God's faithfulness as we read in versed 14: "Sing, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away your judgments, He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; You shall see disaster no more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: 'Do not fear; Zion, let not your hands be weak. The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One will save; He will rejocie over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing." - We read these verses in Matins of Lazarus Saturday and again in the 9th hour of Palm Sunday, for very obvious reasons: "Rejoice O daughter of Jerusalem the King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst"
The prophet Zephaniah is full of Messianic Prophecy and also Prophecies about the Judgment Day and the Second Coming. I hope you'll read along.