Reading the Bible

Deacon Lee Hunt

7. Prophets arose when culture was destroying people

They challenged false values

We will end the Old Testament with the prophets. Verses from the books of the prophets are read for many of the First Readings during Mass.

 

God rose up prophets when the Hebrews were close to being absorbed by the surrounding culture. Writing prophets spoke to a whole nation and saw their primary tasks as challenging popular but false values while exhorting the people to rediscover the covenant and to reverse their evil ways. The prophets spoke God’s words.

 

One way to better understand the Old Testament prophets is to look at the time frame during which they prophesied. There were prophets before, during, and after the Babylonian exile.

 

Babylonia captured Judah and exiled many of the inhabitants from 587 to 538 BCE. The Hebrews viewed this as God’s retribution for the sinful lives they had been living beforehand.

 

The following prophets preached before the exile: Amos, Habakkuk, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, Nahum, and Zephaniah. There is no society in which Amos’ words would no apply.

 

Hear this, you who trample upon the needy, and bring the poor of the land to an end… (Amos 8:4)

 

During the Exile, Ezekiel and Second Isaiah were prophets. The sadness of the exile is expressed in Psalm 137.

 

How will we sing a song of the Lord in a foreign land?

 

Isaiah prophesied before the Exile and his followers wrote during (Second Isaiah) and after (Third Isaiah) the exile.

 

Other prophets after the exile were Haggai, Malachi, and Zechariah.  Haggai’s message was simple: the land is suffering from drought and hunger, poverty and failure, because the people think only of their own houses and fortunes, and have neglected the house of Yahweh. The land has been defiled and needs to be purified and consecrated by the presence of God in his temple.

 

A prophet’s message may help you understand it if you can place it with respect to the exile.