151 - Judah's Short Lived Revival

Nahum 

"consolation".   Jonah, against his wishes, preached to the Ninevites and they repented of their sins and so judgement did not fall on the city at that time.  

Nahum consoles the people of Judah by telling them that Ninevah (the capital city), and Assyria will be destroyed.  This message, no doubt, gave the Jews a lot to rejoice about.  What they did not realise is that after Babylon had destroyed Assyria, Babylon would also destroy Jerusalem and its environs.

Some students place Nahum as late as 663-645 BCE.  If this is the right time frame, he was speaking of the fall of Assyria just before Judah fell to the Babylonian army.  Some put Nahum much earlier, Mr Whiston places him in the year ... 726 B.C.; and says that he foretold the destruction of Nineveh an hundred fifteen years before it came to pass, so says Josephus. Gill. 

The horseman lifts up both the bright sword and the lightning of the spear. And many are slain, and there are a mass of dead bodies, and no end of corpses; they stumble on their dead bodies.  Shalmaneser V, ruler of the Assyrian army during the defeat of Israel, was known for is extreme violence.  Because of this, Behold, I am against you, says Jehovah of Hosts; 3:3-5.

There is no healing of your fracture; your wound is grievous; Assyria is past hope of recovery, Babylon, the fierce nation, will come and destroy it.

all who hear the news of you shall clap the hands over you; the surrounding nations will rejoice when they hear of the downfall of their enemy.  for upon whom has your wickedness not passed continually? 3:19.

Habakkuk

"He Who Clings" this is a suggested meaning. Guzik.

It is believed that Habakkuk lived through the spiritual revival of Judah, while King Josiah ruled, and then witnessed the moral decline of his people after the fervour of the revival was past.  It was the moral decline that occasioned the book of Habakkuk.

The basic outline of this book is:

1. Habakkuk asks Jehovah why He is not punishing Judah for her moral decadence. 1:1-4.

there is strife, and contention rises up. Therefore the law has become helpless, and justice does not always go forth. 1:4.   I cry out to You of violence, and You do not save! 1:2.  This is my complaint and I think something should be done about it:

2. The Lord answers Habakkuk. 1:5-11.

Look among the nations, and behold and wonder marvelously; for I will work a work in your days which you will not believe, not even if it is declared to you. For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, the bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land to possess homes not their own. 1:5.   Look at what is happening in the world around you. Can't you see that I am already setting Babylon in motion to punish Judah?

3.  Habakkuk complains again. 1:12-2:1.

Will you be silent when the wicked swallows one more righteous than he? 1:13.  Lord you are using a more wicked nation than Judah to punish Judah, that is just not fair.

4.  The Lord answers Habakkuk. 2:2-19.

For the vision is still for an appointed time, but it speaks to the end, and it does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it; because it will surely come. It will not tarry. 2:3.  After Babylon had done her work of destroying Judah, Babylon herself was destroyed by the Medes and Persians.

    

For the vision is still for an appointed time, but it speaks to the end.  The city of Babylon and the kingdom of Babylon may have been destroyed, but Habakkuk says that his prophecy speaks to the end, and John, in The Revelation, had much to say about the lifestyle of the people of Babylon.  Unfortunately, that lifestyle has invaded the Christian Church.

    
5. But Jehovah is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him. 2:20.    

6.  Habakkuk's prayer. 3:1-19.

O Jehovah, I have heard Your report; I am afraid. O Jehovah, give new life to Your work in the midst of years; in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. 3:2. Lord, our God, we know that we deserve condemnation, but while judging us, please look at us in mercy.

Zephaniah 

"Jehovah hath hidden" Easton Bible Dictionary.

It is believed that he prophesied in the days of Josiah, between 642 and 611 B.C.

It sounds as if Zephaniah was an extremist.  According to him the coming destruction, brought by Jehovah, will destroy everything that has ever been created.

I will completely snatch away all from on the face of the ground, says Jehovah. I will snatch away man and beast; I will snatch away the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks, even the wicked; and I will cut off man from the face of the earth, says Jehovah. Zeph. 1:2-3.

Of course, this agrees with Saint Peters words, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. And the earth and the works in it will be burned up. 2 Peter 3:10.

The problem with Zephaniah's prophecy is that after everything has been destroyed the nation of Isreal will again flourish and sin no more.  The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies, and a deceitful tongue shall not be found in their mouth; for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid. Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. 3:13-14. 

150 - Christ's Birth is Predicted

Micah

 "Who is like God?"  Micah prophesied to both, Israel and Judah at the same time as Isaiah was prophesying to Judah.  Probably more than anyone else in the Old Testament, except maybe for Isaiah, Micah clarified the prophecy of the coming Messiah.  Before the Messiah comes there are more tears for Israel to shed!

For behold, Jehovah is coming out of His place, and will come down and walk on the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall melt under Him (He is coming in judgement). 

All this is for the transgression of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria?  Soon after Israel and Judah separated, in a civil war, the Israelites built a temple of worship in Samaria and in it, they worshipped other Gods. This was the transgression of Jacob.

And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? Micah 1:3-5.  They were so proud of their temple; it was to be the place where Jehovah lived, but the temple Solomon had built had also become a sanctuary in which to worship other Gods.

To fill in the historical information gaps here I suggest:

http://spaceshiptheology.blogspot.com/2016/05/124-wicked-wicked-wicked.html

After the destruction promised in the first three chapters of Micah the recurring theme of the restoration of Jerusalem, in the last days, is again promised. 4:1.  After Christ's return, Jehovah shall reign over them in Mount Zion from now on, even forever. 

Jerusalem, enemy troops have surrounded you; (speaking prophetically, he may have been referring to the Seleucid army). 

they have struck Israel's ruler in the face with a stick. This does not refer to doing any damage to the person, it is just a statement to represent insult.  We might use the phrase, "he spat in his face".  

And this One shall be (bring) peace.  When Assyria shall come into our land; and when he shall walk in our palaces. then we shall raise against him seven shepherds and eight anointed ones from men. 5:5.  

This statement is Supposed to mean the seven Maccabees, Mattathias, and his five sons, and Hyrcanus, the son of Simon. Barnes.  Back then, about 550 years before it happened, Micah was predicting that Assyria would enter Israel and be defeated.  Part of the Seleucid army was based in Assyria at that time.  This piece of history happened when the Maccabees fought the Seleucid army about 160 years before Christ was born.  

Bethlehem Ephrath, you are one of the smallest towns in the nation of Judah. But the LORD will choose one of your people to rule the nation -- someone whose family goes back to ancient times (someone who is the offspring of Ruth and Boaz; namely, Christ). 

The LORD will abandon Israel only until this ruler (Jesus Christ) is born, and the rest of his family returns to Israel.  The Jewish people were scattered all over the globe but in 1948, when Israel again became a nation, the Jews returned home in droves; so this prophecy was fulfilled.  

Yet, Micah, using a few similes, says, not all Jews will return to Israel but the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples as dew, as showers on a blade of grass, (scattered and pervasive) which does not wait for man, nor delay for the sons of men. 

This seems like a fitting portrait of the actual situation.  The Jewish people are ambitious, they will not sit around and wait for things to go their way, they will try to make things go their way.

The remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest.  5:7-8.  Throughout the years the Jews have become scattered across the world.  Sometimes, in their ambition, they are ruthless, like a lion in the forest.

Then, Micah says, Like a shepherd taking care of his sheep, this ruler (Jesus Christ) will lead and care for his people by the power and glorious name of the LORD his God. His people will live securely, and the whole earth will know his true greatness, because he will bring peace. 5:1-5 CEV.  

As we look at the history of Israel since Christ was born we see that Israel has not lived in peace as Micah predicted.  

I repeat what has been said a number of times already, the Old Testament prophets did not comprehend the concept of "the Church Age" which came between Christ's ascension into heaven and His return from heaven.  To their way of thinking, the birth of the Messiah, the one anointed by Jehovah, led immediately to the restoration of Israel, and Jehovah's kingdom on earth. 

Here is an aside note

Back when I was much younger and beginning to become aware of professional sports, I decided that, as a Christian, I could not watch, or in any way support, professional sports because they had become the religion; the players the items of worship; of North America.  

This week in the news, my belief was vindicated.  The Montreal Canadians have a new player and he is "so good" that they call him "God".  But it does not stop there.  I believe it is The Edmonton Eskimos that have an invaluable player and he is called "Jesus Christ'. 

Even though I do appreciate the game of hockey, I, a Christian, can not support the blasphemy involved in professional sports!  

149 - The Whale was a Male

Jonah

"dove".  He was the son of Amittai whose name means the truth.  

Jonah prophesied during the second half of the ministry of Hosea and Amos from about 770-755 BCE.  This is the best-known book of the twelve minor prophets.  

To get an interpretation of it, the likes of which you have probably never heard or read, I will use Rashi's Jewish Bible commentary.  (Printed on yellow background).  All the Bible quotations in this post are taken from the Bible Rashi uses.   It is very different than the Protestant Bible.  

Stick with me and I will tell you a "whale of a tale".

And the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying: Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim against it, But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah. 1:1-3  To escape his commission Jonah went to Joppa, modern-day Jaffa, on the shore of the Meditteranean Sea; from there he meant to sail to Tarshish, in Spain, as far West as any ship would take him.  

He wanted to escape from Jehovah's presence; he believed that Jehovah was limited to the promised land.  He said I will flee to the sea, for the Shechinah  (God's glory) does not rest outside the Holy Land.

 to a sea named Tarshish,  according to Bible dictionaries, there is no sea named Tarshish.

Come, let's cast lots, so that we will know because of whom this evil has befallen us. 1:7.  Casting lots, to determine God's will, was common among the Jews, even in religious matters; Non-Jews also used that system to decide on important matters. 

They saw that the other ships were sailing in the sea calmly, and theirs was breaking.  In his Bible, as well as in ours, there is no record of any other ships in the area at that time.

And the Lord appointed a huge fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. 2:11:17. Those sixteen days that Israel was missing the manna, since they did not eat it for a complete forty years - God took this manna and sustained the fish so that Jonah would not be digested in its intestines, and Jonah, too, ate within it from this manna.  

Rashi has Jonah inside the whale for sixteen days!  It is interesting that the Israelites, during their wilderness wanderings, had to go without manna for 16 days so that God would have enough manna to feed the fish for that length of time to protect Jonah from being digested by the whale.  

Jonah, while inside the whale, ate the same manna in the whale's stomach as the whale did.  Oh, yummy!  Note this observation.  The six million (this is a Biblical commentary's calculated estimate) Jews in the wilderness ate as much manna in one day as the whale ate in one day.  I think that that whale had a healthy appetite.

And Jonah prayed to the Lord his God, from the belly of the fish. 2:2. It was a male, and he stood there with room, so that he did not think to pray. The Holy One, ... hinted to the fish, and it spewed him out into the mouth of a female, which was full of embryos, and it was crowded there, and he prayed there. 

The whale was a male and it was big enough for Jonah to stand up inside with room to spare and that is why he did not think to pray.  Why go with the stated facts when you can embellish?  

In this story, the whale did not spew Jonah onto the shore as our Bible says, And the Lord said to the fish, and it spewed Jonah onto the dry land. 2:11, but it spewed Jonah into the mouth of a female whale, among the embryos, embryos in the mouth of the whale.  Go figure.  There, Jonah was so crowded that he thought to pray.

Water has surrounded me even to the soul, the deep encompassed me; the Red Sea hangs over my head.  The Red Sea hangs over my head. For the Holy One, ... showed him the Red ... Sea and how Israel crossed in its midst, for the fish’s two eyes were like two windows, and he would look and see everything in the sea.

  

If Jonah was on a ship going to Tarshish he would not have been in the Red Sea but in the Meditteranean Sea.  Of course, as Rashi tells the story, Jonah was in the whale for sixteen days so maybe the whale swam from the Mediterranean Sea, through the Strait of Gibraltar, around the African continent and back North into the Red Sea.  

Not only was Jonah in the wrong sea but he could look out at the sea through the whale's eyes which acted as windows for Jonah.  How convenient!

Once Rashi gets Jonah planted safely on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea his commentary begins to make some sense.

Reasonable

Jonah preached in the capital of Assyria, to the Ninevites, and the people repented of their sins and Jehovah changed His mind about punishing them.  Jonah was not pleased; Now it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was grieved. 4:1.

He complained to the Lord and said, I knew that if they repented you would spare them and now they will continue to be a threat to Israel's security just like they were before.   (In 723 BCE Israel was taken captive by Assyria and about 110 years later the Assyrian nation fell to the Babylonian empire in 612 BCE.)  Not only that, people will think I am a false prophet because the destruction I promised did not happen. 

To close the Book of Jonah I will end with the same words I used in the story about Balam and his talking donkey.  "Talking animals and illogical contradictions such as are found in this Bible story remind one again of this very pertinent quotation: The recording of history with literal exactness of detail is a fairly modern development. At the time, (the Bible was written), precise fact was far less important than the spiritual message of the stories shared. Jesus and His Times, Readers Digest.  

The writer of this story was making the point that Jehovah will forgive if people will repent.  The method the writer uses to make his point is not the issue.

148 - Hypocrisy Upon Hypocrisy

Amos 

 "Burden-bearer".  By his own admission he was no prophet, nor ... a prophet's son. But ... a herdsman and a gatherer from sycamore trees, 7:14. but there was a burden on his heart which he just had to share with the people of Israel.  he was prophesying in Beth-el, 783 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. Clarke.  That is about 50 years after Joel prophesied and about 60 years before Israel was taken captive by Assyria.

The sins that Amos preached against are, of course, the same sins the other prophets spoke against; all of them fit North America as well; 

• laziness, 
• indulging in the pleasures that riches afford, 
• neglecting the needy, 
• failing to worship Jehovah, 
• pretending we are "so spiritual", 

and to us, Jehovah says,  

• Come to Bethel (your house of God) and transgress (that is where you mock Me the most); 
• Come to Gilgal (where you go for special religious meetings). 
• It is there that you bring your sacrifices for the morning, (your empty lip service - you pretend to sing the words but you don't even think of what you are singing).
• your tithes ... and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving from that which is leavened, (money which you gained unjustly) 

For so you love to do, ... says the Lord Jehovah. 4:4-5.

Probably the best-known line in the Book of Amos is, spoken by Jehovah, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.  Amos 4:12.

This statement can be taken in two ways:

1. Prepare to meet God by bowing before Him now and in humility ask Him to forgive your sins, make a new person of you and pledge to obey His rules for the rest of your life.

2. You can wait until you die or until Christ comes back and then, after the rapture of The Church, you will meet your God.  Whether or not you are an atheist now will not change the fact that you will meet Him then.   I saw the dead, ... stand before God. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. Rev. 20:12.

Obadiah 

 "worshipper of Jehovah".   It is believed that he was a contemporary of  Hosea, Joel, and Amos.  It is also conjectured that Jeremiah copied freely from Obadiah.  Compare Obadiah 1:5 with Jer. 49:9; Obadiah 1:6 with Jer. 49:10; Obadiah 1:8 with Jer. 49:7. Fausset.

Judging by how well the prophet's names suit their function or personality it is not to be believed that these were their given names.  Perhaps they are pseudonyms which they got because of their activities or lifestyle.

The prophets, as foretellers of future events, spoke in the past tense as though the future events were already history.  In that style, Obadiah spoke of the destruction of Edom about 800 years before it happened. 

Obadiah did not prophecy against Israel or Judah but against the children of Esau.  The Edomites lived South of Judah and they were continually at odds with the children of Jacob. 

As we look back at the history of the children of Abraham we recall that Isaac, the son of Abraham, was the father of the twins, Esau and Jacob.  Esau left home and his offspring became their own tribe, but the descendants of Esau never did forgive the children of Jacob for the way Jacob swindled their father.  

When the Israelites were fleeing from Egypt, they asked the Edomites permission to pass through their land, but permission was not granted.  This is Obadiah's message: Shame shall cover you from the violence against your brother Jacob, and you shall be cut off forever. Obadiah 1:10.  


Obadiah tells us why Edom will be destroyed; On the day of your standing on the other side, (as non-involved onlookers) on the day that the strangers were capturing his (Judah's) force, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem (the soldiers cast lots for the division of the plunder of the city, as was usual at such times: Gill. 

even you were like one of them.1:11   They stood as a spectator of the ruin of Jerusalem, and that with delight and pleasure; when they should, as brethren and neighbours, have assisted against the common enemy; Gill.

1. nor should you have rejoiced over the sons of Judah in the day of their ruin; 
2. nor should you have enlarged your mouth (boasted) in the day of (Judah's) distress. 
3. You should not have entered into the gate of My people (to pillage) in the day of their calamity;
4. Nor should you have sent out against his force in the day of his calamity. 

Again, the total restoration of Israel is announced and the destruction Esau is declared; the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame. And the house of Esau shall be for stubble. And they shall kindle in them and burn them up. And no survivor shall be to the house of Esau; 1:18.  

Ironically, They (the Edomites) fought side by side with the Jews (in) the rebellion against Rome in 66-70 A.D. and were crushed by Rome, never to be heard of as a people again. The predictions of Obadiah 1:10; Obadiah 1:18 were proven true. Guzik
  
However, the Edomites are not the only nation that will suffer in that manner, all the nations ... shall be as though they had not been.   Any nation that will take up arms against Israel in the battle of Armageddon, which is yet to come, will be destroyed and they will be as though they had not been.