WHAT THE PROPHETS TELL US ABOUT GOD
Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Sabaoth. His glory fills the whole earth. - Is. 6:5
In this installment I want to point out some of the exciting things some of the prophets say about God, especially noting what these disclosures of the nature of God mean to us. This could be thought of as a listing of some of the great passages of the Old Testament about God, but I intend that it be more than that. I want to show how the prophets' view of God was the basis of the message they preached. That is the lesson for us, for our religion (and our message to our world) will be no more than our view of God.
The above passage from Isaiah illustrates this. Isaiah was not ready to say, "Here I am, Lord, send me" (Is. 6:9) until he saw the holiness of God. This became, his theme: Yahweh is "the Holy One of Israel" (Is. 1:4). And he did not see his own sinfulness until he saw the holiness of God, a timely message for our own time and for the modem church. We should be so awed by God that we tremble in his presence like Isaiah did in the temple.
Isaiah records that he actually saw God in the temple, "seated on a high throne" (Is. 6: 1) He heard angels sing of God's holiness. The temple was filled with smoke and the foundations of the threshold shook. Isaiah was so enraptured by it all that he wrote of being devastated: "I am undone, I am coming apart, for my eyes have seen the Lord." He now sees for the first time how weak and sinful he is: "I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among people of unclean lips" (Is. 6:5).
This is one of the great lessons of the OT: God's holiness points up human kind's sinfulness; we can be cleansed of our sinfulness by turning to "the Holy One of Israel." The prophet puts it succinctly in one of the Bible's great passages: "Come now, let us talk this over, says Yahweh. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Is. 1: 18, Jerusalem Bible).
Of the many things that Jeremiah says about God, the most sobering is that he does not allow sin to go unpunished. Moreover, because of his people's sins he will take away their most treasured security. In the case of Israel this was the temple itself and the city of Jerusalem, which they considered impregnable and forever protected by God. "The temple of God is here!" was their cry of assurance (Jer. 7:4). Nothing could happen to the temple or to the holy city, nothing, sins or no sins! Jeremiah told them they were trusting in delusive words, which brought their wrath.
You know the story of how the Babylonians came and destroyed both temple and city ,just as Jeremiah said. Other prophets also told Israel what it was impossible for her to accept. Ezekiel tells how "Yahweh rose to leave the city," (11:23) and Micah says woefully, "Zion will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble" (3: 12). But all along the people were saying, "Is not Yahweh in our midst? No evil is going to overtake us" (Micah 3: 11). It is a disturbing truth for us modems who are reluctant to take sin seriously.
Jeremiah also pinpoints what repentance really means: "Circumcise yourselves for Yahweh; off with the foreskin of your hearts, lest my wrath should leap out like fire" (Jer. 4:4). The great truth that the real circumcision, which is identified as "the circumcision of Christ" in Col. 2: 11, is first set forth in the OT. It is also Jeremiah that appeals to God's mercy as he prays for his people, "Correct us, Yahweh, gently, not in your anger or you will reduce us to nothing" (10:24).
The prophet Hosea in one short sentence names the point of religion when he hears God say, "What I want is love, not sacrifice" (6:6). That it is one of the great truths of Scripture, stated in only a few words, is evidenced by the fact that it was one of our Lord's favorite passages. Jesus referred to it again and again in his efforts to show the Pharisees what true religion is all about (Mt. 9: 13;12:7). He told the Pharisees to "go and learn" what Hosea meant. Since they would have known the passage by heart already, he must have been telling them to go and do works of mercy, and then they would not be so critical of what he and his disciples were doing.
Amos is unique in that he was but a plain shepherd, and yet he excelled in using word-pictures that drove home his message with telling effect. He is a good example of how the Bible is often as relevant as today's newspaper. The sins Amos points to have a way of being prevalent in every age: luxury of the rich, pride and arrogance, corruption in the courts, deceit in trade, oppression of the poor, deterioration of spiritual values. Amos finds the answer in the character of God, telling the people that the Lord is not interested in the shallow externals of their religion, but "Let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream" (5:24).
While Nahum is a short, relatively unknown book, it has much to say about the awesomeness of God. He is wrathful, takes vengeance on his enemies, and will not leave the guilty unpunished. He presides over the storm and whirlwind, rebukes the sea and drains it, and the mountains tremble before him. And he gives us this great line: "The Lord is slow to anger but immense in power" (1:3).
Micah also gives us one of those short summaries of what God expects of his people: "This is what Yahweh asks of you: only this, to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God" (6:6). The context for that statement is unique in that a trial is being conducted with the people the accused, God is the accuser, the prophet the prosecuting attorney, and the surrounding mountains the jury. The verdict is not that God wants animal sacrifices by the thousands or libations of oil, which the people were willing to give to appease God, but he wants the hearts of men and women, that they treat each other justly, show tenderness, and be humble before the God of heaven.
Prophets like Nahum speak with passionate assurance that God is in control of this world, and that he is sure to judge the wicked and reward the righteous. He reassures us with: "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him" (1:7)
Zechariah, who prophesied in the late 6th century B.C., learned basic truths from earlier prophets, such as the demand for morality in religion and strong faith in but one God. But unlike the earlier prophets, except Ezekiel, he gives angels an important role in unfolding events, which include Messianic expectations, including a Messianic Jerusalem. One thing he says about God is especially impressive. When he tells how Jerusalem, whose walls had been destroyed, will remain unwalled because it will need no walls, he has God saying, "I will be a wall of fire for her all around her, and I will be her glory in the midst of her" (2:5)
Habakkuk, like Isaiah, is awed by God, and he sees him as one who acts mightily in history: "I am doing something in your days that you would not believe if you were told of it" (1:5). The prophet sees God as "stirring up the Chaldeans" to perform his purposes (1:6). He gives an impressive metaphor in which he pictures himself as a watchman standing on a watchtower "to see what God will say to me." God tells him to write down what he tells him.
Among the things God told the prophet is another of those one-liners that makes its way into the New Testament, one that had great influence on both Paul and Martin Luther: "The just will live by faith" (2:4). The line probably means that people will survive by faithfully clinging to God rather than relying on their own resources. Habakkuk also gives us that majestic description of God: "Yahweh is in his holy Temple, let all the earth keep silence before him" (2: 18). All these truths have staggering implications for our walk with God.
Malachi may say more about God for its size than any other book in the Bible. It begins with God saying to his people "I have loved you" and it ends with the promise of the coming of Elijah who will usher in the great day of the Lord. In between is the assurance that Yahweh will be the God of all nations, not just of Israel, and "My name shall be feared among the nations" (1:11-14). Unique to Malachi is an appeal for unity based upon the Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man: "Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us?" (2: 10), and "Did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit?" (2: 15)
It is Malachi that challenges the people to give liberally so that "I will open the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it" (2: 10). And it was he that posed the intriguing question, "Can a man rob God?," which he answered by saying one robs God when he withholds tithes and offerings. This too speaks to us, for if we do not learn to give we do not receive.
And it is Malachi who gives us one of the great truths about God, that he listens to us and he is there when we need him most: "Those who feared the Lord spoke one with another, and the Lord listened and heard; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name" (3: 16). With Malachi the OT ends on a note of hope, "But to those who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings" (4:2).
The OT, as Alexander Campbell
pointed out, gave humanity the starlight age (patriarchal) and the moonlight
age (Mosaic and prophetic age). The coming of John the Baptist, the promised
Elijah, gave us the twilight age. But with Jesus Christ came the sunlight
age. He is the Sun of Righteousness, and it is in the healing rays of his
wings that we are made whole. All of the great institutions and wonderful
truths of the OT pointed to the rising of that Sun. - the Editor