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History lesson, a backdrop to what is happening with the prophets.
Prophecy is hearing from God and speaking what He tells you to say.
It is forthtelling more than foretelling.
And so the backdrop of what is happening is critical to understanding how God is using the prophets to speak truth to his people… and to give them hope.
So Many Kings
So many kings.
Most of the prophets we have seen so far have been in the Northern Kingdom and focused on the coming destruction of the Northern Kingdom.
In 721 B.C. it does.
Assyria comes in conquers and scatters the Northern Kingdom and makes the Southern Kingdom a vassal state.
You pay us money, we will leave you alone.
And so the southern kingdom rejoices that they are “spared”… in a way.
But the prophets, the true prophets, keep telling the southern kingdoms that judgment is still coming.
The next prophets: Nahum (who we read), Zephaniah, Habbakuk and Jeremiah are all in this time period.
We survived Assyria.
Babylon is coming.
What do we do?
Three of the most influential kings of the Southern Kingdom.
Maybe, arguably, the most influential since David.
Certainly two of them are the BEST kings since David.
First up: Hezekiah!
Hezekiah
Good stuff, right?
Three years into Hezekiah’s rule Assyria destroys the Northern Kingdom (Samaria).
… and conquered all the “fortified cities of Judah” and Hezekiah stripped the country, including the temple, to pay silver and gold to Assyria.
But Hezekiah rules almost 30 years.
Hezekiah almost dies
And Hezekiah lives another 15 years.
God prophesies one thing, Hezekiah repents and prays, God changes his mind and gives a new word.
If you think, in your systematic theology, that God “can’t” change His mind… that’s just wrong.
He does it over and over again in Scripture, always in response to the prayers of His people.
Hezekiah is a GREAT king, none like him before or since.
You would think such a GREAT king would setup his son to follow in righteousness after him, right?
Manasseh
So… just the WORST.
Hezekiah was GREAT!
But Manasseh comes along behind him and undoes any and every good thing his father did.
Wickedness and destruction.
No matter how “good” Hezekiah was, it couldn’t “make up” for the sin that would follow.
And there has to be consequence for sin.
Israel cries out for it when the other nations sin against them and against God.
Now here is Manasseh, leading the nation, bathing the nation in blood… you think people aren’t crying out for God to do something???
Where is God when evil prospers?
Ultimately, He is bringing judgment.
We just don’t often like his timing.
Punishment:
So, the die is cast, Babylon is coming for judgment.
Amon, Manasseh’s son, reigns for like 2 years.
Evil and short-lived, then killed by his servants and they raised up his 8 year old son, Josiah in his place.
Josiah
Then… Josiah becomes King.
And Josiah is AWESOME.
And then, the craziest thing.
18 years into his rule, so now he’s 30, something happens that blows my mind.
Josiah sends someone to get some records from the temple, and they’re digging around in the basement and they “find” the “Book of the Law.”
The implication is that this is the “Book of Moses”, as in the first 5 books, as in the Torah, or the Pentateuch.
Kind of important, yeah?
Would have assumed they kept that around.
Top shelf.
They’ve been winging it this whole time!
Oral tradition, passed down, figuring it out, and mostly getting it wrong!
How long was it lost for?
Some clues:
Passover
There are all sorts of GREAT reforms, but here’s my favorite.
Mind blowing.
HOW LONG?
So… not King Saul, or King David, or the dozen plus kings in between in the intervening centuries.
At least 400 years, longer than we’ve been a country.
What would your reaction be?
We done messed up.
And everyone before us messed up.
So they go to another prophet, Huldah:
I will relent?
I won’t destroy your people?
Sin has consequences.
Always.
Sin has consequences.
Always.
In this case, it is the looming destruction of the entire nation.
Sent into captivity.
And it’s never going to be the same after.
Some great stuff happens in the exile, in the return from exile, but it’s never going to be the same really.
There is no amount of “good” that can make up for the evil that has been done.
You can’t erase it from history.
You can’t “make it right” by striving.
No matter how good Hezekiah was… he couldn’t prevent the evil that was to follow.
No matter how good Josiah was, he couldn’t “make up for” the evil that preceded him.
The very best gift in the gract of God was to postpone it for a minute so Josiah himself could die in peace.
Pretty faint blessing, given that he has family, kids, grandkids who are all going to face this tribulation.
No king could do it.
So in these last few prophets before the exile.
Mostly they are filled with words of the coming destruction at the hands of Babylon.
Habakkuk
The question: Habakkuk 1:2-4
And God tells him he is raising up the Chaldeans (aka Babylon) to bring justice.
Sin has consequence.
Babylon is coming.
And so Habakkuk professes, he is going to trust the Lord even through the coming tribulation.
This profession of faith and expectation in the face of coming judgment:
Zephaniah
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