Chapter 25: The Role of the Prophets
What message do the prophets have for God's people in the midst of exile and defeat?
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In the big picture story of the Bible we find ourselves in a really difficult position. If this was a movie, this would be where the hero of the story finds himself beaten by his enemy. He is battered and bruised, and he slinks off into some hole to lick his wounds and reassess his life. Is he really the hero of the story? Will he really defeat the enemy he thought he was going to destroy? It is at this point in the story that the emotional music starts playing, and the hero’s trusted confidant appears on screen. She tells him about how there is some deep inner reservoir of strength, or some aspect of the situation he hasn’t considered. As we watch the scene, swelling emotional music stars playing in the background. This is the moment of deep inner transformation that we have been waiting for. The hero finally lifts his head up, steels himself, gets up and as a transformed person, sets his eyes on the enemy once more. The situation hasn’t changed, but he has changed. Now he is ready for the next phase of his story.
This is where Israel finds itself. Israel had been the bearer of the promise that God would bless the whole world through Israel. However, as we have seen, the hero got beaten down. Israel has been destroyed and dispersed by the kingdom of Assyria. As this happens the promise of God passed to the southern kingdom of Judah, where there were some extraordinarily good kings who promoted the pure worship of God. But even in Judah, things did not go well. In the end, Judah too is handed over to her enemies, and the kingdom of Babylon defeats Judah, and God’s people are carried off into exile. Where is God’s promise now? How would all the nations now be blessed through Abraham’s offspring? What happened to God’s promise that one of King David’s offspring would sit on the throne forever? God’s people are that hero, beaten, bruised, and licking his wounds.
Who would play the part of the trusted confidant, who could frame this tragic defeat and encourage God’s people to keep going? This is where the prophets come in.
Now we need to pause for a moment to think about what prophets were in the Old Testament. Often people mistake prophets as fortune tellers – as people who through some gift or special communication from God mostly foretold the future. It is true that in some places God did tell his prophets to tell kings or nations what was going to happen if they didn’t change their evil ways, foretelling the future really wasn’t the main job of a prophet. A prophet’s task was to give God’s message to people. They often gave their messages to the kings of Israel and Judah as warnings about the direction the nation was going in. Sometimes the kings listened, often they ignored God’s warnings and bore the consequences.
However, the prophetic writings during the time of exile also had another function. They gave the people in exile hope. The prophets functioned as those special friends, who could help the hero, in this case the people in exile, reframe their experience with God’s promises and helps them lift up their heads and look with hope to a future when God’s promises will be fulfilled. There are three specific promises we need to look at.
Future Davidic King
Probably the biggest question the people of Judah had is what had become of God’s promise that one of David’s descendants would forever sit on the throne? If Israel is destroyed and Judah is in exile how was this going to happen? To help answer this question, God sends the prophets with a consistent message, that the Davidic line has not been snuffed out. This promise resonates throughout the prophetic writings.
Isaiah 9:6-7 (CSB):
For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.
Isaiah 11:1–5 (CSB)
Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. His delight will be in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, he will not execute justice by what he hears with his ears, but he will judge the poor righteously and execute justice for the oppressed of the land. He will strike the land with a scepter from his mouth, and he will kill the wicked with a command from his lips. Righteousness will be a belt around his hips; faithfulness will be a belt around his waist.
Hosea 3:4–5 (CSB)
For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or household idols. Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come with awe to the Lord and to his goodness in the last days.
Jeremiah 23:5-6 (CSB):
Look, the days are coming—this is the Lord's declaration—when I will raise up a Righteous Branch for David. He will reign wisely as king and administer justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. This is the name he will be called: The Lord Is Our Righteousness.
Ezekiel 34:23-24 (CSB):
I will appoint over them a single shepherd, My servant David, and he will shepherd them. He will tend them himself and will be their shepherd. I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David will be a prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken.
In each case God promises that after the exile he will one day restore the Davidic kingly line. He will give Israel back their king, and when this king comes, he is going to be even greater than David. He will rid the nation of evil, he will promote justice, and unlike David who fell to wickedness, this king will be eternally righteous and faithful.
This is a reminder to God’s people that he is faithful, that his plans cannot be derailed and that he will work out his promises through the remnant of Israel. He will do this through the Davidic line, even though it seemed to everyone that the Davidic line had come to an end. This is a powerful reminder that God continues to work behind the scenes whether we understand it or not. The people of Judah would not have been able to understand how this would come to pass, but the prophets reminded them that even if they could not understand it, God did. The prophets remind us that even though we don’t understand God’s plans even in our lives, we don’t need to, because he knows what he is doing.
God’s presence with his people
One of the constant promises God has made throughout the Old Testament period is that he would make Israel his people, and that he would be with them. He constantly promises that “they will be my people, and I will be their God. But now God’s people had been carried off into exile so was he still with them? Were they still his people? To answer these questions God sends the prophets with the promise that he hasn’t abandoned them and that he will still be with them, even in their exile.
Isaiah 41:10 (CSB):
Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 43:2 (CSB):
I will be with you when you pass through the waters, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. You will not be scorched when you walk through the fire, and the flame will not burn you.
Isaiah 43:5 (CSB):
Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west.
Jeremiah 1:8 (CSB):
Do not be afraid of anyone, for I will be with you to rescue you. This is the Lord’s declaration.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 (CSB):
"For I know the plans I have for you"—this is the Lord's declaration—"plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart."
Zephaniah 3:17 (CSB):
The Lord your God is among you, a warrior who saves. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will be quiet in his love. He will delight in you with singing.
Haggai 1:13 (CSB):
Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, delivered the Lord’s message to the people, 'I am with you'—this is the Lord’s declaration.
In each case God reminds his people that he has not abandoned them, his plans haven’t come to nothing and he will still be with them, even in their distress. Passages like these have come to comfort believers over many centuries because, like Israel, we too go through times when we feel as if God is far away, especially in times extreme trial.
God will still bring about a blessing to all nations through the people of Judah
Remember God’s promise to Adam and Eve, that one day someone would come to fix the problem of sin in the world? We saw how this promise is developed into God’s threefold promise to Abraham: that he would make him into a great nation, that he would give him and his descendants a land to call their own, and that he would bless the whole world through his offspring. The first two parts of this promise to Abraham were completed when Israel finally entered the promised land: they were a great nation, and they had a land of their own. But as we have seen Israel failed to be the blessing to the nations they were supposed to be, and Judah had now been carried off into exile. How was this promise now going to come to fruition? Who would deal with the ultimate problem of sin, as the blessing to the world? The prophets also answer this question:
Zechariah 8:6-8 & 13
The Lord of Armies says this: “Though it may seem impossible to the remnant of this people in those days, should it also seem impossible to me?”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies. The Lord of Armies says this: “I will save my people from the land of the east and the land of the west. I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their faithful and righteous God.” As you have been a curse among the nations, house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you will be a blessing. Don’t be afraid; let your hands be strong.
Isaiah 2:1-5
The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. All nations will stream to it,
and many peoples will come and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us about his ways so that we may walk in his paths.” For instruction will go out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will settle disputes among the nations and provide arbitration for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Nation will not take up the sword against nation, and they will never again train for war.
Notice that in both cases Judah is a blessing to all the nations (bolded sections above). It is the nations who stream into Jerusalem, coming to worship God. It is in Jerusalem that the Lord will save people from the east and from the west. It is through Judah that God will bless the whole world and the people of Judah, stuck in Babylon needed to understand that he was still faithful and still had a plan.
A new direction
There is one other aspect of what the prophets do in the big picture story: they introduce a new direction. It is in the prophets that we first start reading that the blessing to all nations might not be the nation of Israel or Judah, but the blessing would come in the form of a miraculous person.
Isaiah 7:14 (CSB): "Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel."
He would be a blessing not by bringing a physical kingdom, but he would bring salvation in the form of dealing with sin. What is different about this person is that he deals with the deeper issues in the human heart, rather than just political problems. What is interesting about this person is that instead of winning physical victories, he actually dies to win. Even though he himself is righteous and perfect (bolded below), yet the Lord was pleased to crush him. It is by his wounds that we are healed. He took the punishment of our sins on himself and through his death he justifies the wicked. To the ancient Israelites this would have been a very strange prophecy. So how would that happen? How could this new figure justify people through death? How would that heal the deeper core issues of sin in the human heart? That is a story for next time… for now, I leave you with these words from Isaiah 53. Meditate on the significance of this person who would finally deal with the issue of sin that has been plaguing humanity since the Garden of Eden. It is my hope that you will appreciate just how significant this prophecy from Isaiah is in the context of the bigger story. May this bless your heart dear reader, as it has mine.
Isaiah 53 (CSB)
Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.
He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him.
Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.
We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth.
He was taken away because of oppression and judgment, and who considered his fate? For he was cut off from the land of the living; he was struck because of my people’s rebellion.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death, because he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully.
Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.
After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.