Timeless Truths
The Hebrew Scriptures—what Christians call the Old Testament—have intrigued me since I was a teenager. I first started reading the Bible in high school and the stories of Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph and Moses fascinated me. Their faith stories were so compelling I felt myself being pulled into their adventures with God not as a mere bystander but as one walking with them. I thought the first couple of books in the Bible were page-turners, filled with gripping twists and turns in the storyline.
I was surprised, however, by how much of the Old Testament remained after the death of Moses. As I worked my way through Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, I found myself getting bogged down. And then books like Ezra, Nehemiah, and the prophets seemed like a mysterious maze of incomprehensible writings, at least to a 16-year-old.
That’s not to say I didn’t find a few spiritual oases from time to time. Many of the chapters in the Book of Psalms and a few in Proverbs refreshed me enough to keep me engaged. In particular, I found comfort from the psalms, from the beauty of the language, and from the transparency of the poets’ struggles with faith when they felt God had abandoned them. It was as though some of the psalms were voicing my own frustrations and doubts about what it means to believe in God.
Yet, much, if not the majority of the Old Testament, felt foreign to me. Books like Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Kings, Chronicles, and Samuel, bored me, and I found myself just reading over words that had little meaning to me. I quickly realized that some of these books contained a lot of arcane religious rules and ritual regulations, while other books traced various descendants that played a role in Israel’s development. Then there were still other books that gave historical information about Israel’s kings and whether they were faithful to God or not. Now and then a passage would enthrall me such as the narratives about King David, but overall I struggled to stay focused.
When I came to the so-called prophetic books, I wasn’t sure what to make of them. I was told by a few well-meaning high school Bible study teachers that the prophets predicted the future, but, for the life of me, I couldn’t make heads or tails out of what they were saying. I would try to read a book like Amos or Micah and lose my way. Sure, I understood the words, and there were a few verses that seemed to make some sense, but the prophetic writings were fuzzy and vague because I had no historical context. I felt no connection to these strange men who lived long ago.
It did become clear to me that the prophets were not very popular in their day. And if the prophets were not very well thought of by their own people, how did their writings find their way into the Bible? As I tried to wade through these books, it seemed to me the prophetic messages were filled with condemnations and diatribes that accused Israel of all kinds of evil behavior. No wonder they were so unpopular! No one likes a chronic religious Eeyore. Religion should be upbeat, right? At least the successful modern versions of religion are. Can you imagine an Amos or Isaiah preaching in a modern church? Why, the church would have thumbed their noses at them, if not worse. Maybe in their day God used them to keep Israel on track, but I really didn’t feel like they had much to say for people living in the 21st century.
Why I Changed My Mind
A number of years later, after a little maturity and a lot of hard study, I changed my tune regarding the Old Testament and especially the prophets. Unlike the New Testament, which was written over a span of 50-60 years, the writings of the Old Testament encompass over 1,000 years of religious history. And the writing prophets didn’t even begin their work until after the Patriarchs, the revelation on Sinai, the entry of Israel into the land of Canaan, the period of the Judges and even King David. A thousand years of Hebrew history had passed before the writing prophets began their work.
Wow! The prophets were latecomers on the stage of Israel’s faith journey. The fact is, by the time of the prophets Israel had already risen to its historical highpoint and was in a precipitous decline. The Golden Age of Kings David and Solomon existed only as distant memories.
When the first writing prophet Amos set quill to parchment, Israel was tottering on the brink of extinction. In other words, God called the prophets for a very specific purpose: to breathe life back into a spiritual body that was in the throes of death.
What happened? How did the people of God almost sink into oblivion? How did Israel, anointed by God to be a priestly nation to the world, fall into such ruin? By reading closely the prophetic writings we can discern some of the major problems that were hollowing out the religious vitality of Israel. Interestingly, they bear remarkable similarity to the spiritual hollowing out of our religious culture today.
One, Israel lost spiritual focus. God had chosen Israel out of all the nations of the earth to be his witness. They weren’t chosen because they were more deserving than other nations; they weren’t chosen because they were morally superior to others. God chose the Hebrew people simply as an act of grace, unmerited and unearned, to be a blessing to the whole world and reflect divine presence to all nations. Somewhere along the line Israel forgot that chosenness entailed responsibility more than privilege. Instead of being a blessing to others, Israel began to think more about their own interests and how they could profit from their special relationship with God.
Ruins of Western Wall of Ancient Temple Mount , Jerusalem
Second, Israel put their hopes in political and military power instead of God. The prophetic messages make clear that Israel had turned their backs on the God who had delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Israel lost confidence in God and put their trust in politicians and military strength. The people falsely believed that the thick walls of Jerusalem would protect them from any outside threat.
Three, as Israel prospered economically, they overlooked the poor and the people on the margins of life. Israel’s unique relationship with God was intrinsically tied to social justice—caring for the widow and orphan, the people down on their luck, the sick and the aged, and the lowly immigrants. In fact, the emphasis on what today some people refer to as the “woke” culture (sensitive to racial minorities and the so-called misfits of society) was the major concern of the prophets. Clearly, the prophets were passionate about looking out for the welfare of the less fortunate. God would not honor Israel if the nation turned their backs on the weaker members of society.
Finally, the rise of foreign powers like Assyria and Babylon struck the coup de grace. Israel’s spiritual decline rendered it ill-prepared to fight off foreign invasion. For decades, the nation had ignored the warnings of the prophets and in 587 B.C. the Babylonians smashed the walls of Jerusalem, destroyed the temple of Solomon, and led the people into slavery. The prophets had warned Israel to turn back to God time and time again but their warnings fell on deaf ears. Israel would never again be a great power.
Next week, we’ll drill down in greater detail and look at the message of the prophet Amos, who lived around 750 years before Jesus. We may find his words as timely today as they were 2700 years ago. The question is, will anyone listen?
