PART III
NAHUM
OUTLINE OF NAHUM
I.
The coming of the Lord in judgement. Nahum 1:2-15
II.
Details of Niniveh's downfall. Nahum 2:1 to Nahum 3:17 Epitaph of Niniveh. Nahum 3:18-19
CHAPTER XI
PREFACE
NAHUM, THE PROPHET
Little is known about the prophet, Nahum. His name means comforter. He was contemporary with Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Jeremiah. The opening verse of the book which bears his name identifies him as a native of Elkoshite. Unfortunately, modern archeology has thus far been unable to locate Elkoshite. However, strong Jewish tradition places it at Alkosh about thirty miles north of Mosul.
The Galilean city of Capernaum, center of activity during the Roman period and headquarters of Jesus-' ministry, has been suggested as Nahum's home. Capernaum means, literally, village of Nahum. However, there is no proof it is so-called for the prophet Nahum rather than some other with the same name.
The date of Nahum's prophecy is not too difficult to estimate. The capture, of Niniveh by Babylon, which Nahum vividly predicts, took place c. 612 B.C. In Nahum 3:8-10 is the description of the fall of Karnak, or Thebes, (No-Amon) as a fiat accompli. Karnak fell in 633 B.C. Nahum's prophecy, then, must have been written between 633 and 612 B.C.
To be a bit more exact, Nahum probably prophecied between the beginning of josiah's reform, c. 621, and the fall of Nineveh, c. 612. An educated guess places the date at about 614 B.C. Some have dated this work as early as 650 B.C., but this seems unlikely in view of recent information concerning the date of Ashurbanipal's capture of Karnak, as well as the even more recent discovery of a portion of the annals of Nabopolassar, King of Persia at the time Nineveh fell.
According to these annals, Nabopolassar, formerly a vassal of Assyria, and Cyaxares, king of the Medes, were in an allied warfare against Assyria as early as 616 B.C. These allies brought Nineveh down in 612 B.C. Egypt was involved in this struggle on the side of Assyria, Following the fall of Nineveh, the Assyrian capital was moved to Haran, which subsequently fell to the Medo-Persian alliance in 610.
From other sources we learn that the war ended in the final defeat of Pharaoh Necho and the remnant of the Assyrian army in the battle of Carchemish by Nebuchadnezzar.
HISTORIC SITUATION
With this secular record of history at hand, and in light of I Kings 23:29 and 2 Chronicles 35:20-24, we arrive at the following historic situation as prevailing in Nahum's time. By 616 B.C. the Medes and Babylonians on the one hand and the Assyrian-Egyptian alliance on the other had divided the mid-eastern world into two power blocks. The struggle was for the absolute rule of the entire area.
In Judah there were two parties. With the little kingdom caught in the squeeze between the super powers, one party favored the rise of Babylon, hoping thereby to see the demise of Assyria and the guarantee of Judean independence. This party was led by king Josiah and his court.
The other party preached that a pro-Babylonian stance by Judah would only lead to a Babylonian takeover of Judah once the major power struggle was settled. This latter seems to be the position of Jeremiah (cf Jeremiah 13:21), while Nahum, an avowed Assyrophobe, favored an alliance with Babylon lest Judah suffer the same fate as Israel at the hands of Assyria.
This apparent difference of political views on the part of Nahum and Jeremiah does not prevent their agreement concerning the judgements of God against Godless nations.
Nahum is not quoted in the New Testament, but it was included in the specific body of writings which Jesus and the New Testament writers called Scriptures, or the oracles of God. It deals exclusively with the downfall of Nineveh and makes no Messianic predictions. Recent archeology has vindicated Nahum's description of Nineveh's downfall.
THE NATURE OF NAHUM
It is to be remembered that Nahum's prophecy, in the original, was in the form of an incomplete poetic acrostic. As such, it does not easily lend itself to exegetical commentary. To so dissect any poem is to lose much of its esthetic value and, in the case of prophecy, some of its overall impact.
The theme of Nahum is revenge. History has born testimony to the accuracy of the preview of destruction, but there is little to explain Nahum's attitude. Rejoicing at the bloody destruction of a people who had no opportunity to know God seems out of harmony with God's loving concern for all men.
Perhaps we need to separate the facts of the prophecy from the attitude of the prophet. As in the case of Jonah, God may have not been pleased with Nahum's reveling in Nineveh's destruction.
We cannot but recall Jonah's prejudiced refusal to preach to Nineveh at the outset, and his petulant pouting under a gourd vine when it became evident, upon Nineveh's repentance, that God would rather forgive than destroy. (Cp. Jonah, chapter four)
Nahum's prophecy will be appreciated more if two things are kept in mind: (1) the poetic nature of the book and (2) its sequel relationship to Jonah which precedes it by something more than a century.
NINEVEH
Nineveh, as capital of Assyria, was the leader of an empire whose chief aim was aggressive warfare against her neighbors. Asshur, some fifty miles south of Nineveh, had been the original Assyrian capital, but about the time of Sennacherib, (c. 710 B.C.), and for roughly a century thereafter, Nineveh gained the ascendancy and served as capital.
It was about the time Nineveh became capital of Assyria that Jonah was sent to preach repentance to the city. Then Nineveh heeded Jonah's warning but their repentance was apparently short-lived.
Sennacherib built Nineveh's fortifications, aggrandized her temples and installed a remarkably sophisticated water system. It is estimated that as many as 10,000 slaves worked for twelve years just to build the 15,000,000 ton earthen platform upon which the royal palace was set. Exiles from Israel may have formed part of that work force. (Cp. 2 Kings 18:13-16)
Diodorus describes a defensive wall about Nineveh forming a sixty mile circumference. This inner defense wall, whose twin may be viewed today among the remains of Nineveh, formed a 7½ mile circuit broken by fifteen gates.
The present ruins of Nineveh seem to be somewhat farther (some 1500 yards) from the Tigris River than was the city in Nahum's day. A growing Arab village is today slowly covering the site of the ancient city.
The city and the empire she ruled were as cruel as her founder, Nimrod (cf. Genesis 10:11). Her kings, in their official records, made no attempt, as do modern despots, to hide the fact of their fierce atrocities.
However, Nineveh's ability to rule the world did not match her ability to conquer it. No effective administration governed Assyria's conquered territories. Rather, defeated enemies were considered simply the means of gratifying Ninevh's drive for conquest and the spoils of war. Mankind has inherited no positive legacy from the Assyrian empire.
Israel became a vassal of Assyria c. 854 B.C. and was finally destroyed by her in 722 B.C.
Under Ahaz, Judah became vassal to Assyria c. 735 B.C. Jerusalem was threatened by the armies of Assyria under Sargon c. 711 B.C. (cf. Isaiah 20) and Judah was severely punished by her c. 701 B.C. The complete submission of Judah to Nineveh was thwarted by the remarkable destruction of Sennacherib's army, (Cf. 2 Kings 18:13 to 2 Kings 19:36)
After the city of Nineveh was destroyed by the Medo-Persian alliance in 612 B.C., the Assyrian capital moved to Haran where it stayed until destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 605 B.C. at the battle of Carchemish.
Nineveh reached its peak, as did the Assyrian empire of which it was capital, under the reign of Ashurbanipal. When he died c. 626 B.C., the downfall began. There are no Assyrian records of the last twenty-five years of her own existence. The final obliteration of Nineveh was total! Two hundred years later the Greek army passed by the site and gave no indication of knowing it had ever existed!
Chapter XIQuestions
Preface
1.
The name Nahum means _____________.
2.
The name Capernaum means _____________.
3.
Was Capernaum the home of the prophet Nahum?
4.
List and discuss the date of Nahum.
5.
Nineveh was brought down in 612 B.C. by an alliance of _____________.
6.
The war in which Nineveh was destroyed ended with the defeat of Pharaoh Necho at _____________ by _____________.
7.
By 616 B.C. the _____________ and _____________ on the one hand and _____________ and _____________ on the other hand had divided the middle east into two power blocks.
8.
In Judah at this time were two parties, one favored the rise of
while the other was afraid of this.
9.
Nahum favored an alliance with _____________ for Judah.
10.
In his political views, Nahum seems to differ with _____________.
11.
Nahum's prophecy, in the original language, formed an incomplete _____________.
12.
The theme of Nahum is _____________.
13.
It is helpful in studying Nahum to separate the facts of the prophecy from the _____________ of Nahum himself.
14.
Nahum's prophecy is reminiscent of that of _____________.
15.
The chief aim of the Assyrian empire, of which Nineveh was the capital was _____________.
16.
Describe the walls of Nineveh.
17.
Nineveh's ability to rule the world did not match _____________.
18.
Israel became a vassal of Assyria in _____________ and was destroyed by her in _____________.
19.
_____________ was king of Israel at this time and so became her last king.
Minor Prophets Intro
MINOR PROPHETS
BIBLE STUDY TEXTBOOK SERIES
MINOR PROPHETS
A Study of Micah
Through Malachi
by
Clinton R. Gill
College Press, Joplin, Missouri
Copyright 1971
College Press
Second PrintingJuly, 1974
Third PrintingJuly, 1979
Fourth PrintingSeptember, 1988
ISBN 0-89900-000-2
ISBN 0-89900-027-4
THE PROPHETS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS
PROPHET
CONTEMPORARY HISTORIC EVENT
DATE (B.C.)
Elijah
Judah received tribute from Philistines and Arabians
Israel wars with Syria, is victorious. Ahab makes alliance with defeated enemy Ben-Hadad II
Judah in alliance with Ahab
Israel furnishes troops to Syria against Assyria under Salmaneser III
Judah invaded by Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites
c. 869
c. 854
c. 853
Elisha
Moab attacked by kings of Israel, Judah and Edom
Ben-Hadad II lays siege to Samaria
Athaliah usurps throne of Judah
Jehu exterminates house of Ahab, pays tribute to Shalmaneser III of Assyria
c. 852
c. 846
c. 842
Joel
Hazael of Syria attacks Assyria, threatens Jerusalem, keeps Israel in subjection
Israel's three victories over Syrians
Amaziah hires mercenary army to fight against Edom
Jeroboam defeats Judah, enlarges Israel's borders
c. 814
c. 797
c. 785
Amos Hosea
Uzziah conquers Philistines and Arabians
Judah in conflict with Assyria under Tiglath-Pileser
Israel pays tribute to Assyria
c. 780
c. 748
Isaiah
Jotham in Judah keeps Ammonites in subjection, fortifies Judah and Jerusalem
c. 735
Micah
Ahaz, defeated by Syria and Israel, makes alliance with Assyria
Pekah and Rezin (of Syria) enter alliance against Judah
Assyria captures northern and eastern districts of Israel under Tiglath-Pileser
Israel enters alliance with So of Egypt
Assyria, under Shalmaneser V, besieges Samaria
Samaria falls to Sargon II of Assyria, captives carried away to far east
Sargon captures Karkar, defeats Egypt at Raphia
Sargon captures Ashdod
c. 734
c. 727
c. 724
c. 722
c. 720
c. 711
Sennacherib (successor to Sargon) invades Philistia and Judah
Hezekiah submits to Sennacherib, pays tribute. Providential disaster to Assyrian army
Sennacherib defeats Egypt at Eltekeh
Assyria, under Esarhaddon, successor to Sennacherib, conquers Egypt
Tirhakah regains throne and independence of Egypt
Assyrians, under Assurbanipal, invade Egypt, sack Karnak (No-Amon)
c. 701
c. 701
c. 681
c. 670
Nahum
Josiah seeks Jehovah, books of law discovered in temple Temple repaired, covenant renewed
Necho, Pharaoh of Egypt, marches through Palestine
Cyaxares founds Median Empire
Jehoahaz deposed by Necho on his return from Euphrates and carried into Egypt
Nineveh, capital of Assyria, destroyed by Medes and Persians
c. 628
c. 633
c. 610
c. 609
Daniel
Nebuchadnezzar captures Jerusalem carries off sacred vessels to Babylon Daniel taken captive
Necho of Egypt defeated by Nebuchadnezzar.
Jehoiakim rebels against Babylon
c. 605
c. 602
Ezekiel
Jehoiachin captured by Nebuchadnezzar, Ezekiel taken captive to Babylon
Zedekiah placed on throne of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar
Zedekiah and other petty kings rebel against Babylon
Nebuchadnezzar invades Jerusalem
Jerusalem captured and destroyed Gedaliah appointed by Nebuchadnezzar to govern Judah
c. 598
c. 594
c. 589
c. 587
Jeremiah
Jeremiah carried away to Egypt
Death of Nebuchadnezzar
Cyrus captures Babylon. Darius made ruler, Daniel promoted by Darius
Cyrus becomes sole ruler of Babylon, issues edict to benefit Jews
Jews return home under Zerubbabel, attempt to rebuild temple
c. 562
c. 538
c. 536
c. 535
Haggai
Prophets urge people to rebuild
c. 520
Zechariah
Darius Hystaspis succeeds Cambyses, protects and aids Jews in rebuilding.
Temple dedicated
Battle of Marathon
Accession of Xerxes
Battle of Salamis
Esther becomes queen of Persia
Accession of Artaxerxes
Ezra leads caravan of Jews to Jerusalem
Nehemiah secures appointment as governor of Jews in Palestine.
c. 516
490
486
480
c. 478
c. 465
458
445
Malachi
Nehemiah returns briefly to court of Persia and comes back to correct evils of Jerusalem
Herodotus
Pericles in Athens
433
444
The things written aforetime were written for our learning. Romans 15:4
To
Charlie, Sue Sue, and The Tiger
PREFACE
THE PROPHETS AND THEIR CONTEMPORARIES
KINGS OP ISRAEL
PROPHETS
KINGS OF JUDAH
Jeroboam I
(22 years)
Rehoboam
(17 years)
Nadab
(2 years)
Abijam
(3 years)
Baasha
(24 years)
Asa
(41 years)
Elah
(2 years)
Zimri
(7 days)
Omri
(12 years)
Jehoshaphat
(25 years)
Ahab
(22 years)
Elijah
Ahaziah
(2 years)
Jehoram
(8 years)
Joram
(12 years)
Ahaziah
(1 year)
Athaliah
(7 years)
Jehu
(28 years)
Elisha
Joash
(40 years)
Jehoahaz
(17 years)
Joel
Jehoash
(16 years)
Amaziah
(29 years)
Jeroboam II
(41 years)
Amos
Uzziah
(52 years)
Zachariah
(6 months)
Hosea
Shallum
(1 month)
Jotham
(16 years)
Menahem
(10 years)
Pekahiah
(2 years)
Pekah
(20 years)
Ahaz
Hosea
(9 years)
Isaiah
Hezekiah
(29 years)
Micah
Manasseh
(55 years)
Captivity by Assyria under Sargon 721 B.C.
Fall of Nineveh 612 B.C. during reign of
Jehoiakim
Zephaniah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Jeremiah
Daniel
Amon
Josiah
Jehoahaz
Jehoiakim
Jehoiachin
(2 years)
(31 years)
(3 months)
(11 months)
(3 months)
First captivity, 597
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
Zedekiah
(11 years)
Destruction of Jerusalem. second captivity. 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar
Fall of Babylon 539 B.C. to Cyrus of Persia
Haggai
Zechariali
Obadiali
Malachi
Return from Babylonian captivity led by Zerubabbel and Joshua
CHAPTER I
HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE
In 2 Peter 1:20-21 we are informed; ... no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.
This statement not only flatly affirms the fact of divine inspiration of the scriptures, it gives us a definite clue as to how to study them. It is not the task of the Bible student to interpret but to exegete.
Exegesis is a strange word to most of us. It is from the Greek exegeomai which means literally; to lead out, to unfold. In contrast, to interpret is to explain the meaning of. to have or show one's own understanding, to construe.
To study scripture, by the process of exegesis, is to apply certain scientific principles of investigation in the attempt to arrive at the thought which was in the mind of the inspired writer when he wrote. It is a safe assumption that the Bible means what it says when one has applied these principles and ascertained what it does say.
Interpretation, or explaining the meaning according to one's own understanding, should never be attempted until after the interpretor has made a careful exegesis of the passage to be explained. God did not give us a set of generalities which may be interpreted according to our own pre-conceived theology. Through inspired men (the exact method of inspiration is beside the point), He said something definite. It is the task of the Bible scholar to find out what is said.
To accomplish this, one must learn to carefully apply the principles of exegesis, much the same as they would be applied to any other writing. especially a writing as old as those which make up the sixty-six books of the Christian Scripture. Because of the age of the Biblical writings, exegesis becomes largely a matter of removing the differences in language, circumstance, custom, etc. which divide the ancient from the modern world. The Bible, and especially, the New Testament, was written in the language which was common to those who first read it. The Koine Greek in which the New Testament was written and into which the Old Testament had been translated was the common language of the street and market and household. The mode of self expression, the idioms and figures and allustions used were familiar to those who read. Hence it may be assumed the first readers of Scripture readily understood what may seem a dark saying to the most profound modern English-speaking Bible student. The rules, or principles of exegesis suggested here are the means by which these differences are removed, and the simple yet profound thoughts of God recorded in the Bible made apparent to us.
RULE NO. 1. Use a dictionary. Most Americans are unfamiliar with the Hebrew and Greek of the Bible, and so must rely on English translations. For this reason, it is inadvisable to limit oneself to a single translation. Every translation has its strengths and its weaknesses. By comparing several the student of the English Bible is much more likely to arrive at the thought presented in the original than he is if he uses only one translation.
No matter which translation, or translations one uses, the words in it represent in the opinion of the translator, the best possible transferal of thought from the original scripture text to the language of the reader. It is best not to assume that you know what a particular word means, especially if it is a key word in a verse or passage. An unabridged dictionary will usually give, as the first meaning of a word, the meaning of that word in the language from which we have borrowed it.
For an example; the Greek word baptismo may be defined in general American usage as the application of water in the name of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. (As a matter of fact it is so defined in the MEMBERSHIP MANUAL of the Methodist Church.) WEBSTER'S NEW WORLD DICTIONARY OF THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE, on the other hand, gives the original meaning as a dipping in (Gr. immersion). Since God chose to record His Word in Hebrew and Greek, rather than English, it is never safe to be uncertain of the meaning of key words.
The translators of our English Bibles have used words which they believe best represent the original language. By using an unabridged dictionary as a study aid, you may be sure that the English word means to you what it meant to the translator.
RULE NO. 2. Pay attention to grammar. Grammar is nothing more nor less than the organized presentation of thought. The translators usually do not attempt to follow the grammatical construction of the original, because to do so would result in a translation very difficult for an English speaking person to read.
However, just as in the choice of individual words, so in the grammatical constructions, the translators have attempted to represent the thought of the original.
Many people do not like to study grammar. Even in elementary and high school they found it very tedious. This is unfortunate because it is impossible to understand a written thought without applying the rules of grammar, either consciously or instinctively. In any event, the serious student of the Word of God cannot afford to ignore this basic rule of exegesis. A very helpful tool to refresh yourself on the rules of English grammar is Plain English Handbook, McCormick-Mathers Publishing Company.
RULE NO. 3. Mind the context. Words mean nothing, or rather, they may mean anything out of a specific context. The word context means literally to weave together, The thoughts of various words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, and Chapter s are woven into one complete whole. To take a word or a verse out of context is to cut out a small piece from a plaid garment, It does not accurately represent the whole pattern of thought presented by the Author of the book from which it was taken; and so may be made to say something entirely different than which the Author would have us learn.
A rather humorous illustration of the importance of context comes to mind: A verse of Scripture says muzzle not the oxen that treadeth out the corn. Another verse says for of such is the kingdom of heaven. The logical conclusion from these two verses is that there are oxen in heaven. the Bible says so. Of course the Bible does not say so unless these particular verses are wrenched out of context. The proof texts of every denominational creed and of every religious cult claiming to be Christian are used in just this way, and with much more serious consequences than the ridiculous conclusion that there are oxen in heaven.
Or take for instance the word run. In modern parlance it may mean to move rapidly; it may refer to a score in a baseball game; or it may refer to a snag in a nylon. The words of the Bible are like that. They mean many things out of context. But in a particular subject in a given set of circumstances they mean only one thing.
RULE NO. 4. Study historically. The books of the Bible were written to real people, at a time and place in history. Their lives were lived under conditions very different from those of twentieth century America.
The culture was the culture of the orient, the middle east, the ancient Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans. The language was that of the Partheans and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judea, and Capadocia and Asia (Acts 2:9-10) and dozens of other places and peoples which fall like strange sounds on the ears. They lived in the days of Sargon and Shallamanezer and No-Amon and Caesar and Herod. Their concepts of deity were formed in the crucible of Baalism and Jehovah worship, and all the varying degrees of pantheism which fall between. They pledged allegiance not to The United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, but to Babylonia and Memphis and Athens and Rome. and to the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. David was not a little boy who killed a giant in Sunday School, but the great king of Israel in whose image it was hoped the Messiah would come and establish His kingdom as the final world power in the never ending sequence of world powers.
It is amazing, and thrilling to see the Scriptures come alive with real people in real situations. and it's relatively easy to transport oneself back into Bible times. For a few dollars one can buy HALLEY'S BIBLE HANDBOOK, and for a few more dollars THE WYCLIFFE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF BIBLE LANDS. For what most Christians spend on a few years of vacations and fishing and golf and convention going, one ca actually visit the lands of the Bible. Nothing will add the dimension of history to Bible study quite so quickly and profoundly as a few weeks in the land where it all happened. Short of a college education with a Bible major it is doubtful if anything is more valuable to the Christian who would understand the Bible.
RULE NO. 5. Study analytically. There is no more sure way of being certain of one's understanding of a given passage of Scripture than to compare one's conclusions concerning this passage with what the Bible in general teaches on the same subject. If your conclusions concerning a passage clash with what you have learned from the rest of the Bible about the same subject it is time to review both. Either you have misunderstood this passage, or you have overlooked something in what the rest of the Bible says. The Bible does not contradict itself.
There is an inherent danger in this particular rule of study. To study analytically before having applied the other rules of exegesis is to run the risk of misunderstanding the whole Bible on a given subject. One has a tendency, unless one is on his guard, to ignore the historical circumstances and the context of certain verses and fall into the trap of skipping about looking for proof-texts. This is the fundamental weakness in such mythology as premillenialism, adventism, etc. Such systems are based on grasshopper interpretation, rather than sensible exegesis. So beware the chart and the outline of proof-texts when studying one passage in the light of other passages.
RULE NO. 6. Use the commentaries. This must be done last if one is to be free to draw his own conclusions without being unduly influenced by what others think a passage of Scripture means. However, it is always helpful, once one has made his own investigation of Scripture, to know what others have learned.
Throughout the entire process of study, bear in mind that the things of God are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:10-15). A prayer for guidance will not make your understanding of the Bible infallible, but it will open up the channels through which the thoughts of God must pass if they are to enter your heart as well as your head. The process of Bible study is the process of thinking the thoughts of God after Him. By following these simple rules, one places himself in a much more advantageous position to hear what God has said.
CHAPTER II
WHAT IS A PROPHET?
There is a need at the outset to answer the question what is a prophet? The current atmosphere in America evidences two views of this question which are poles apart and mutually contradictory. The one tends to make of the prophet a clairvoyant mystic with some unexplicable insight into future events. A popular magazine recently ran a feature article listing the amazing predictions of half a dozen of the more popularly known clairvoyants and describing their more sensational predictions, (e.g. the assassination of President Kennedy, the outcome of future presidential elections, etc.)
The mystic insight attributed to these secular seers is closely akin to the powers attributed by certain fundamentalists to the prophets of the Bible. In both there is an exaggerated emphasis upon and concern for the foretelling of future events which makes of the prophet little more than a fortune-teller.
At the opposite extreme is the concept of the Biblical prophet as merely a normal man with above normal insights into moral, spiritual and ethical truth. This concept plays down, denies or ignores the futuristic aspects of prophecy, according to the theology of the commentator.
It would seem that the truth about prophets and prophecy resolves itself to: (1) what did the prophet do, (2) how did he do it, and (3) why did he do it?
We will move a great way toward answering these questions by taking a long look at the word prophet itself. As is often the case with key words of Scripture, the translators have chosen rather to transliterate than to translate. Whether this be because such words are often too pregnant to be done justice by a single English word (English is neither a language of religious expression, as is Hebrew, or of philosophic expression, as is ancient Greek), or because the translators are concerned with selling books to widely diverse audiences, the difficulty remains that the word prophet is merely a transliteration of the Greek prophetes. As such it means nothing to an English speaking reader, excepting as his religious prejudices supply him with a preconceived notion of its meaning.
Since we are presently concerned with the prophets of the Old Testament, who wrote in Hebrew, rather than the New Testament prophets, who wrote in Greek, we must take notice that the Greek prophetes (prophet) is used in the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Old Testament popular in the first century) to represent not one but three Hebrew words. Each of these Hebrew synonyms is used, in various contexts, to refer to what our English versions, both Old and New Testaments, call simply by the transliterated prophet.
First. Prophet is used to translate the Hebrew roeb. When this word is used there seems to be some emphasis upon the means by which God communicates His message to the spokesman. It is frequently rendered seer.
Second. The Hebrew chozeh seems to share with roeh the concern for the means by which the message of God comes to the messenger. It also is translated seer as well as prophet.
Third. and most frequently used is the word nabi. Interestingly, this word means, at its root, to bubble over. It suggests that the prophet is first himself filled with the Spirit and message of God, and that this filling is so complete that it bubbles over as the spiritual message of God spills out for the benefit of God's people. There seems little justification for the association with this word of the idea of emotional ecstasy. More to the point is Jesus-' statement to the woman at the well that ... the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up (literally, bubbling over) unto eternal life.
Far more than it shall come to pass, the watchword of the prophets was THUS SAITH THE LORD! It is claimed for them and by them that the Word of the Lord came unto them. (Isaiah 38:4, Jeremiah 18:1, Ezekiel 20:2, Hosea 1:1, Joel 1:1, Micah 1:1, Zephaniah 1:1, Haggai 1:1,) The prophet was a man possessed by God. (1 Chronicles 16:22, Psalms 105:15), More than merely one who spoke for God, he was one through whom God spoke. (Hosea 12:10, Zechariah 7:7, Hebrews 1:1) His message was not his own. Rather it came directly from God through vision (2 Chronicles 32:32, Isaiah 6, Lamentations 2:9) and without this prophetic vision the people perished (Proverbs 29:18).
It was not the task of the prophet to give counsel and advice. He was rather a bringer of divine command (2 Chronicles 29:25). It was in this sense that Moses spoke both of himself and The Christ as prophets.
The thunderings of the prophets against sin were not merely those of social reformers who would build a better society, but were warnings of disaster to a people whose disobedience of God's commands threatened not only their ethnic existence but God's own purpose in bringing them into being and sustaining them as a people. (Nehemiah 9:30)
It is not surprising that the most succinct statement in the divine record concerning both the prophetic message and its source is to be found in the New Testament. A few moments spent considering this statement in 2 Peter 1:20-21 will prove extremely helpful to our present task of understanding the prophets themselves:
Two words come to special attention in this passage. First. the word prophecy. In light of what has been said concerning the overriding purpose of the prophet, we ought never suppose that the word prophecy can be limited to what the prophet said about future events. A prophecy is any pronouncement made by a prophet. on whatever subject.
The term prophecy is derived from the word prophet, As mentioned, previously, this word is not generally translated in the English versions, but is rather a transliteration, a mere transposing of letters. Its meaning is obscured rather than rendered by such indirectness on the part of the translators.
In the language of both the New Testament and the Septuagint, (from which the New Testament writers quote) prophetes (prophet) is a compound of pro, meaning before in reference primarily to place rather than time, as a speaker stands before his audience, with phemi, meaning to declare or report, especially quoting the words of another. A prophet, then, was one who stood before God's people and spoke God's word. A prophecy is anything the prophet said.
Second. the word Scripture, (Graphes) means simply a writing. any writing. Prophecy of Scripture is simply the written record of the prophet's message.
This recorded message, says Peter, is not a matter of private interpretation. In this context Peter refers to the source of the prophet's message. What he said was not his own interpretation of a given set of historic circumstances and their bearing on the ultimate purpose of God. Rather, men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.
By the same token, our understanding of the written account of the prophet's message can never be according to our own views and opinions. It is just here that the most violence is done to the divine record of prophecy by those who would force prophecy, especially those passages dealing with eschatology, into the molds of their own systems.
To say it briefly, the prophet meant what he said. It is our task, through applying the rules of exegesis, to find out what he said rather than trying to make him say what we want him to mean!
There was no greater danger in Israel than that posed by the false prophet. (Deuteronomy 13:1-5, 1 Kings 22:22-23, Isaiah 9:15) The false prophets taught untruths in the name of God. (Jeremiah 14:14) That which they taught was not of God but was their own deceived notions (Jeremiah 23:26). They saw false and deceptive visions (Lamentations 2:14). Their personal lives were ungodly (Jeremiah 23:11), wanton and faithless (Zephaniah 3:4). Consequently their prophecying led God's people astray. (Micah 3:5).
In brief, the false prophet was the exact antithesis of the true prophet. The true prophet, since he was to be God's spokesman, was first a man through whom God could speak. If the false prophet was faithful, in a sense greater than just being true to God. He was faithful in that he believed God explicitly and trusted Him to do what He promised, or on occasion threatened, to do.
If the false prophet was ungodly, the true prophet was godly. Godliness, as the prophets lived it, was more than mere mortality; it was a constant conscious awareness of a real, contemporary God, which controlled their every thought and act. If the false prophet was wanton, the true prophet was selfless to the point of martyrdom. Indeed, it has been suggested that martyrdom is the identifying mark of the true prophet. It is not true that every genuine prophet was put to death by those to whom he spoke, yet such was so nearly true that Stephen could challenge his tormentors with Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed them that showed before of the coming of the Righteous One. (Acts 7:52)
It may be said, that the primary function, perhaps the sole function, of the prophet at the time of the minor prophets was to turn God's people back to God's covenant. (Nehemiah 9:26) Whatever was said about the future was intended to accomplish this overriding purpose,
Israel, to whom the prophets were sent, were God's people, Ideally they were a theocracy. Though they were headstrong (Stephen would say stiffnecked) to the point of rejecting God's rule over them to clamor for a king, God still endeavored to rule them as His covenant people.
During the period of the judges this rule was direct. In the period of transition from the judges to the kings it was Samuel who acted as kingmaker; and Samuel, the last of the judges, is also called a prophet.
While the kingdom was united, God still spoke to His people through prophets. The king himself was not exempt. It was the prophet who confronted David face to face with his theft of the little ewe lamb.
Prophetic activity, in so far as the writing prophets are concerned, reached its peak during the period of the divided kingdom. There is a note almost of desperation in the voice of God as He tries again and again through His prophets to recall a people who will not be ruled anymore by Him.
Following the return from captivity, the people, and there were pitifully few of them, persisted in their rebellion against the rule of God. The Old Testament closes with a last plaintive warning of the consequences in the message of a prophet.
The sum of the matter is that from Moses to Malachi, the prophets served as the voice of God, first in the giving of the Law and then in the repeated insistence that God must rule, indeed that He could rule only through obedience to His law. Whatever the prophets said about the future was said in the attempt to motivate God's people to obey Him, either by holding forth the glories of God's eternal purpose toward which His rule was leading or by stern warnings of the consequences of failure to cooperate, by obedience, in the accomplishment of that purpose.
It must be born in mind, as noted by Jack P. Lewis, that prophecy is conditional (Jeremiah 18:5-11) (when it speaks of the future). The question must be kept before you: have the conditions of this threat or promise been met?
CHAPTER III
THE COVENENT THEME IN THE PROPHETS
The Blood Red Thread which holds the Bible together is the covenant in which God promised to bless all the nations of the earth through the seed of Abraham. To think of the Judaeo-Christian system as Man's search for God is to think of a mouse in search of a cat! Not that God is playing cat and mouse, but that the search is so obviously in the other direction. It is God who seeks man, not man who seeks God. Redemption is God's idea, not man'S!
The search began with God's cry, Adam, Where art thou? (Genesis 3:9) The answer came back from Calvary; My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46) Both were the cries of anguish from the broken hearts of parent and child.
When the very best Man cried out from the cross it was because He was face to face with the experience of being lost. The ultimate of this experience is death, the wages of sin. When Jesus was made sin on our behalf (2 Corinthians 5:18-19), He experienced, in our behalf the meaning of lost.
Whatever God may have done in the eons of time touched so briefly in the first eleven Chapter s of Genesis, it was the call of Abram in Genesis 12:1-3 which set in motion the Scheme of Redemption that was to climax at Calvary. In the making of the everlasting covenant, established at this call, God revealed to man the only way back to God by virtue of His unmerited favor made effective through obedient faith.
The covenant was proposed by God, not man. Man can only respond on God's terms. (Ephesians 2:8) The heart of the covenant was the promise that through it all the nations of the earth will be blessed in the seed of Abraham. The New Testament identifies that seed as Christ, (Galatians 3:16) and as those baptized into Him. (Galatians 3:27-29)
The theme of the Bible is the history of this covenant, and its fulfillment in Christ, through the new covenant people. It is the record of God's working in the history of His covenant people to reconcile the world unto Himself. (2 Corinthians 5:19). The Covenant of Promise first began to be fulfilled in all that Jesus began to do and to teach (Acts 1:1) and continues to be fulfilled through the new covenant people, the church (Galatians 3:29).
Jesus indicated that two things stand written in the Old Testament Scriptures: (1) that the Christ should suffer and be raised the third day and, (2) that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all the nations beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:44-48) The church thus becomes, under the New Covenant the continuing presence of Christ in the world. His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. (Ephesians 1:23)
It has always been God's intent, ultimately, to offer reconciliation to every man who would respond to Him in obedient faith. In the Old Testament, those descendants of Abraham who remained in the covenant relationship through obedient faith were His people. Those who went off after strange gods were cut off. It was not physical ancestry that maintained this arrangement, but obedient faith. Through the covenant Abraham became the father of the faithful under both the Old and New Covenant. (Galatians 3:6-9)
Since it was the task of the prophets to call a rebellious people back to obedient faith in order to maintain the covenant through which all the families of the earth would be blessed, we must be familiar with the covenant in order to understand the message of the prophets.
The first mention of the covenant between God and Abram is brief and to the point. Recorded in Genesis 12:1-3, this simple statement contains all the essential elements to be found in the expanded records of the covenant seen progressively throughout the rest of the Old Testament. In this sense, Genesis twelve is the beginning of the Bible. The first eleven Chapter s of Genesis are the preface.
The heart of the covenant, indeed the heart of the Bible is, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) This is the Gospel which God preached beforehand unto Abraham, saying In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. (Galatians 3:8)
God's eternal purpose in man, so far as it has been revealed to man, is that God shall rule, as Father, within each man through the obedience of faith. As W. O. Carver has put it, (the purpose of God) is the spiritual ideal wherein all shall know God, from the least to the greatest.
Since man first sinned, it has been God's intent to call, out of the rebellious race, a people for His own possession. a people who will commit themselves to Him as Father so as to allow Him to adopt them as sons. (Ephesians 1:3-5)
The call began with Abraham, when he lived in Ur. All that is necessary to bring sinful man back into divine sonship is implicit in the covenant made with this man. Whom God chooses He calls, whom He calls, He blesses, whom He blesses He commissions. The called continue to receive the blessings of God only so long as they continue to carry out the commission. The commission in every age always moves toward the bringing of men back into God's family by His grace made operative through obedient faith.
In the case of Abraham, the call was direct. God spoke to him personally and called him out of his home, away from his people. The Hebrew writer reminds us that by faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out, not knowing whither he went.-'This is faith expressing itself in obedience. Upon this obedient faith, Abraham was blessed. God said; I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great. (Genesis 12:2 (a)).
As the recipient of these blessings, Abraham was commissioned; Be thou a blessing. (Genesis 12:2 (b)). Being faithful to the commission, he would receive further blessing; I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee. Genesis 2:3 (a)).
The conclusion of this brief first account of the covenant is a simple statement of its purpose; ... in thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
Throughout this passage (Genesis 12:1-3) it is impossible to escape the implication that the call, the blessings, the commission, the continued blessings and the purpose are not intended for Abraham alone, but for all those who by obedient faith were to become the sons of Abraham. This implication is to be found in all the great historical epochs of the Bible. As C. C. Crawford points out, We do not have three religious systems revealed therein. (i.e. patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian). Rather, we have the record of God at work in His covenant people to accomplish His eternal purpose in man by reconciliation of all humanity through the covenant people in general and the Seed (singular) of Abraham (i.e. Christ) in particular. (Galatians 3:16)
The expanded record of the covenant found in Genesis seventeen forcefully reiterates that which is stated in the shorter record of Genesis 12:1-3. Here emphasis is placed upon the multiplication of Abraham's descendants. Abraham was to be multiplied exceedingly. Three times it is said he shall be the father of many nations. His name is changed to Abraham (from Abram) for this season. Kings were to come out of him.
The Covenant is to be established not only between God and Abraham, but between Him and Abraham's descendants in their generations, (i.e. each in its own time for an everlasting covenant. He will be God to these covenant people, beginning with Abraham and continuing through his descendants. His descendants are those who trust and obey God. (Galatians 3:7)
All the land of Canaan is to be given to Abraham and his seed after him for an everlasting covenant on the condition, I will be then God.
Finally comes the stern directive, Thou Shalt Keep My Covenant, Therefore, And Thy Seed After Thee In Their Generations.
Later, the seed had indeed multiplied exceedingly so that a law must be given which would mold the family into a nation. The fundamental condition of the covenant, namely that He would be their God, became the first commandment of the law Thou Shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3) The Law would be given only after the people had sworn to keep the covenant. (Exodus 19:5-8)
The Genesis 17 record of the covenant closes with the giving of the symbol of the covenant, which would later become a command of the Law, i.e. that every male be circumcised. (Leviticus 12:3, Deuteronomy 10:16) It is important that we not miss the symbolism of circumcision.. the uncircumcised manchild whose flesh of his foreskin has not been circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken the covenant. (Genesis 17:14) Circumcision, the symbol of God's agreement with His people was from the beginning intended as a constant warning of the consequences of breaking the covenant. As, in circumcision, flesh was cut off in initiating one into the covenant relationship with God, so a spiritual cutting off from God would result from breaking the covenant. Every Israelite who rejected Jesus, the fulfillment of the covenant, bore in his own body a warning of the consequences! To break the covenant was to forfeit the promise!
Two thousand years after Abraham, the first Christian martyr accused his tormentors of being uncircumcised in heart and ears, (Acts 7:51) and later Paul was to write, We are the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit. and have no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3 compare Deuteronomy 30:6)
-From beginning to end, the covenant depended upon obedient faith, upon worshipping God in spirit and truth, rather than upon physical ancestry alone. Any man who failed in this, though he be a direct descendant of Abraham in the flesh and a citizen of the Commonwealth of Israel, could expect to be cut off in the spirit from God.
The re-statement of the everlasting covenant to Isaac, Abraham's son, and Jacob, Abraham's grandson, did not change the original purpose of God in calling Abraham and his seed into the covenant relationship with Himself. Nor did the re-affirmation of that same covenant with the nation of Israel at the giving of the Law alter the divine purpose. (cf. Galatians 3:17)
It was a re-affirmation which took place when God molded the family of Abraham into a nation by giving them the law. God did not make a new covenant at Sinai. Rather He gave a law which was to govern the nation who had agreed to the covenant. (Exodus 19:5-8) The heart of the covenant was still ... in thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. The covenant relationship still depended upon the obedience of faith. This obedience was now to be expressed in obedience to the law.
So, as Paul informs us, ... the covenant, confirmed beforehand by God, the law. doth not disannul, so as to make the promise of none effect. (Galatians 3:17)
Israel, under the law, was to be a nation of priests. (Exodus 19:6) The primary function of the priest is to mediate between God and man and offer sacrifices. As a nation of priests, Israel should have been vitally concerned for the relationship of all peoples to God. The failure of national Israel which turned her divine priesthood into bigotry and her Messianic hopes into nationalistic ambition did not alter the purpose of God in those faithful covenant people within the nation. Those who were concerned for the obedience of faith rather than nationalism and racial pride were still His people, the real Israel.
It was because the majority of Abraham's descendants forgot the main thrust of the covenant toward the blessing of all men, that Paul was constrained to write, ... they are not all Israel, that are of Israel. (Romans 9:6) In God's eyes, true Israel's primary concern was the covenant and its promise of a divine redeeming Seed. These were a minority among the citizens of the nation of Israel.
The real meaning of the covenant is seen in Genesis 22:22. Isaac (Abraham's seed) was sacrificed, showing that the blessing of all nations promised by the covenant could only come about through the sacrifice of the True Seed Here is also demonstrated the truth that the fulfillment of the covenant depended upon obedient faith on the part of the covenant people and not just upon the seed's being descended from Abraham.
Since the idea of the covenant relationship between Jehovah and His people is the most basic idea in God's dealing with Israel, it profoundly effects the whole moral and ethical outlook of the prophets (e.g., Micah 4:1-3). The Law of Moses simply codified the ethical and moral precepts implicit in the covenant, It spelled out the meaning of obedient faith,
The call of the prophets was a call to moral and ethical repentance, as well as religious obedience to the law. A call to repentance is never the establishment of a new ethic. It is necessarily a plea rather to return to the old. The call of the prophets was a call to keep the everlasting covenant by obeying the law of God.
Whether it be Jeremiah or John or Jesus or the church preaching repentance and remission of sins, (Luke 24:44-47) the call is the same. God's people, who have missed the mark of eternal morality implied in the covenant and spelled out in the law, must turn once more to the eternal ethic of Jehovah,
We, who would come into God's family under the New Covenant, without the necessity of first having been under the Old, cannot escape the necessity of repentance by pleading ignorance. Having never become familiar with the codified ethic of the Covenant as established in the law we must nevertheless repent, for when Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law are the law unto themselves, in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them. (Romans 2:14-15) The eternal morality of God is universal, else the promise of the covenant to bless all men is not valid.
When Jesus opened the eyes of His apostles to understand the Old Covenant Scriptures in terms of His own identity, ministry, suffering and resurrection, He concluded that the end of it all is that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:47) John's comment on Jesus-' conversation with Nicodemus, recognized as the golden text of the Bible states God's love as universal. (John 3:16) God has kept His promise to bless all men in Abraham's Seed.
God's concern that all men should hear of the remission of sins and be challenged to return to Him did not begin in Luke's Gospel. Nor did God begin to love the world the night Jesus was born. In the Old Testament as well as the New, God moves in universal love to redeem all men. God loved the whole world of men from the beginning, else Jesus would never have been born!
From the giving of the law it was the nation formed of Abraham's descendants through whom God moved his purpose forward toward the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4-5), when the promised Seed of Abraham should appear to bless all men. The task of the prophets was to recall the covenant people to the keeping of the law, not only to preserve their physical national identity but, more significantly, to preserve the spiritual genetic of obedient faith. It was this spiritual genetic through which the covenant was to be fulfilled as they that are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand unto Abraham, saying -in thee shall all the nations be blessed. (Galatians 3:7-8)
First century (A.D.) Judaism made the law, which was the means to the greater end of fulfilling the covenant, the end in itself. The nation framed by the law came to be the sole object of God's affection in the mind of the Jew. National ambitions and Jewish welfare as a political kingdom overshadowed the greater purpose of God (ie. the blessing of all men by calling them to a new covenant).
This narrow nationalism is understandable, when one considers the Roman yoke under which first century Israel galled. However, we must avoid the pitfall which prevented Israel from accepting the promised Seed of Abraham when He came, namely the reading of Jewish nationalism into the message of the Old Testament prophets.
Again to quote W. O. Carver, The answer to Jewish narrowness was the Jew's Bible! The task of the prophets was to recall God's covenant people to His law to be used of Him to bless all the nations. Not everyone who could trace his physical ancestry back to Abraham certainly not everyone who was a citizen of the first century Jewish commonwealth, was included. Abraham is the father, not of the Jew per se, but of the faithful. (Galatians 3:7)
THE REMNANT
Faced with the rebellion of both the northern and southern kingdoms and the impending overthrow of each, the 8th century prophets began to realize that most of the physical descendants of Abraham, the children of Israel, were simply not going to make it. Whatever God was going to accomplish through Israel as a covenant people would be accomplished only through those within the commonwealth who remained faithful to the covenant, These the prophets referred to as the remnant.
Several Hebrew synonyms are used to designate these faithful, but the central idea is the same in each. It is the faithful minority who remain aware of the covenant with God who are to form the holy seed for the New Israel (the church) under the new covenant. It is the remnant alone who were truly Israel. The term remnant is used in several passages to refer only to the historic few who returned from the Babylonian captivity, but in many more passages the remnant takes on distinct Messianic overtones. It is the faithful few through whom God will bless all nations in fulfillment of His covenant.
These faithful few are a holy seed, a spiritual kernal within the nation. They were to survive the calamaties which befell the rebellious nation and become the germ of the eternal people of God. They were to be blessed of God and to be a blessing. The number of the physical descendants of Abraham would be as the sands of the sea, but only the remnant would be saved. (Compare Isaiah 10:22 and Romans 9:27; Romans 11:5)
Ahijah is the first prophet to utter this idea (1 Kings 16). Isaiah connects the temnant with the children who keep the covenant (2 Kings 19:34). He recalls the promise to David, (reiterated by the God of the covenant), that the children of the covenant should sit upon the throne, if the children kept the covenant.
In 2 Kings 21:10-14 is the warning that even the remnant must pass through the captivity because of Baal worship in the land.
Ezra 9:14 expresses concern that the commands of God will again be broken after the return from Babylon and that consequently God would consume them so that there should be no remnant nor escaping.
Isaiah 10:20-22 records the prophetic visions of the preservation of the remnant: The people are as the sands of the sea, yet a remnant shall return.
Isaiah 11:11-12 indicates that the remnant includes even some who are of the ten lost tribes of the northern kingdom who would be assembled together with the dispersed of Judah.
Isaiah 46:3 promises deliverance to all the remnant of the house of Jacob.
Jeremiah 23:3 sets down the promise of God to gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them. This promise is accompanied by another; Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment in the earth. The echo of these promises is found in Acts 2:5 when devout Jews from every nation under heaven gathered together to hear the first apostolic sermon.
Jeremiah also pictures the joy among the chief of nations that was to accompany the deliverance of the remnant. (Jeremiah 31:7 -ff)
Ezekiel is less optimistic. He fears for the full end of the remnant of Israel. (Ezekiel 11:13)
Micah 2:12 looks beyond the captivity to the gathering of the remnant. Micah 4:7 associates the making up of the remnant with the establishment of the Messianic kingdom, and Micah 5:7-8 depicts the remnant to be in the midst of many people. among the Gentile.-' It was to these that Paul would go first in every city.
Micah 7:18 takes into account the necessity of redemption even on the part of the faithful few as he portrays God passing over the transgressions of the remnant.
Zephaniah 3:13 makes note of the righteousness of the redeemed remnant.
The point of all this is, of course, that the threat of disaster to the commonwealth of Israel could never exhaust the whole purpose of God. The nation might be, indeed finally was, cut off, but God's purpose in his people would find fulfillment through the faithful remnant.
The scope of this writing, as the final volume of the BIBLE TEXTBOOK SERIES, is the last seven of the minor prophets. We shall now review the highlights of the covenant theme in each of these books in turn. It is suggested that the reader study carefully Jesus-' approach to the Old Testament by which He opened the eyes of the Twelve that they might understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:44-49), and the unfolding of the covenant promise in Acts.
With this approach clearly in mind, it is further suggested that the reader review all the Old Testament prophets from Jesus-' point of view. It is a rewarding experience to read the Old Testament through His eyes and see the everlasting covenant move forward to its fulfillment in Him and the church, the real Israel of God.
For our present purposes in completing the final volume of the series, we begin with Micah. While the judgments of Micah are leveled against the rebellious covenant people, the universal concern of God is seen at once in Micah 1:2. Micah's exclamation includes not only all ye people, the common term for the children of Israel, but. . hearken, O earth, and all that therein is. All the nations of the earth have a stake in the repentance of God's covenant people!
When Jesus sat at supper with the two downcast disciples in Emmaus and beginning from Moses and from all the prophets He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. (Luke 24:13-35) He no doubt recited such passages as Micah 1:4-5; Micah 5:2-5.
Micah sees Jehovah as the Master of all the nations. In his prophecy, as well as that of other Old Testament writers may be traced the outline of the way by which God's sway over all men is to be brought about. People from all nations are to willingly answer the call when He who is Abraham's Seed is born in Bethlehem Ephratah. little among the thousands of Judah. shall come forth. whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. (and) the remnant of Israel. (Micah 5:2-5)
In Micah 2:12; Micah 4:7; Micah 5:7-8; Micah 7:18, the prophet focuses attention on those few in the nation who were true to the covenant. These are the remnant. The multitudes of Abraham's physical descendants have gone off after strange gods. They have broken the covenant, by disobeying the law, but there is a remnant whose lives of obedient faith are such that God will yet be able to bless all he nations in the Seed of Abraham.
It is the remnant that the Messiah will put together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold. It is they who shall have passed through the gate. and thy King shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them. (Micah 2:12-13)
It is the remnant, that was cast off of a strong nation. (i.e. who actually had little to say about the rebellion of the Jewish commonwealth against God) over whom the Lord shall reign. from henceforth, even for ever. (Micah 4:7)
The universal outreach of this remnant to bless all the nations is seen in Micah 5:7-8. ... the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people. It was the few faithful Jews in the synagogue who formed the nucleus of most of the churches established by Paul.
In Micah 7:18, it is the remnant whose iniquities are pardoned and whose transgressions are passed over. The prophet sees this as the fulfillment of ... the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn to our fathers from the days of old. (Micah 7:20) In other words the pardoning of the remnant is seen by Micah as a fulfillment of the covenant.
Micah's Messianic message is the accomplishment, through the faithful few, of that which God set out to do in the call of Abraham.
Zephaniah makes less direct reference to the covenant theme than does Micah, yet the mention he does make is enough to show that he to is aware of the importance of his message to the fulfilling of God's promise. His instruction is to wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up. that I may assemble the kingdoms. that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent. (Zephaniah 3:8 -F)
The remnant in Zephaniah is more emphatically those who are to return from the captivity (Zephaniah 2:7) but even here there are Messianic overtones. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth; for they shall feed and lie down and none shall make afraid. (Zephaniah 3:13) Here is a people true to the moral and ethical demands of the covenant and of the spirit more than the letter of the law. Here is the unlimited sway of the Lord over the lives of His people. His law is written in their hearts. (cf. Jeremiah 31:33)
Haggai also sees the end of the covenant as the rule of God over all and His people as a blessing to every nation. It was their gravest error that the Jews identified God's dominion over all men with their own national ambition to become the dominant world power. The error did not alter God'S intent that in Abraham's Seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed.
Haggai's statement in behalf of God is according to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you; fear ye not. (Haggai 2:5) His assurance is that despite the appearance of defeat in the overthrow of the nation, the resources are His to do what He promised in the covenant. (Read Haggai 2:5-9)
In Haggai 1:12-14 it is again the remnant through whom the purpose of God moves forward.
Zechariah has much to say on the covenant theme. In Zechariah 2:11 the prophet appeals to Messianic fulfillment as proof of divine origin of His message. Many nations shall join themselves to Jehovah in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of them.
This proof is accompanied by the plea Be silent, all flesh, before Jehovah; for He is waked up out of His holy habitation. (Zechariah 2:13)
Zechariah will have none of the nationalistic exclusiveness which developed among the Jews from David to Christ. Rather he gives voice to the assurance that His kingdom shall rule over all and His people shall bless the whole race of men. The Jews identified God's kingdom more and more with their own hopes of political dominion over the earth, but the fulfilling Seed of Abraham was to say, My kingdom is not of this world. my kingdom is not from hence. (John 18:36)
The Apostle Paul, wrote to non-Jewish Christians in Colosse that God has delivered us ... out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. (Colossians 1:13)
In Zechariah 6:9-15 the fulfilling Seed is called The Branch. (compare Isaiah 4:2; Isaiah 11:1 -ff) Here proof of the divine authenticity of the prophet's message is that He shall build the Temple of Jehovah, and shall sit on His throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both. and they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of Jehovah. (cp. Ephesians 2:19-22)
Paul, who more than any other New Testament writer (except possibly Luke) is aware of the universal outreach of the covenant, echoes these thoughts in the Ephesian letter. In that epistle, which has been called the greatest piece of writing in all history, the eternal purpose of God and its fulfillment in the church is outlined in amazing completeness. It is not surprising, therefore, to find in the Ephesian letter the ultimate fulfilling of the message of the Prophets.
To those who once were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise (Ephesians 2:12) Paul wrote For He is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition. that He might create in Himself of the two (Jew and Gentile) one new man (human kind). (Ephesians 2:14) This is the crescendo of the symphony to which the prophets wrote prelude. Zechariah's statement the counsel of peace shall be between them both (i.e. the throne and the temple) is here fulfilled in the cross through the church.
Nor is this all; Zechariah says the Branch shall build the temple. In the Ephesian letter we learn that this temple is the church. being built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner-stone; in whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom also ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:20 -ff)
In Zechariah 6:15, the prophet writes a reminder that the promise is conditional; And this shall come to pass if ye will diligently obey the voice of Jehovah your God. The nation of Israel did not diligently obey, but the faithful remnant (true Israel) did.
This is vividly demonstrated in the contrast of the first century Jewish priests and authorities with such men and women as Simeon (Luke 2:25-35) and Anna (Luke 2:36-38), and Joseph (Matthew 1-19 -ff) and Nathaniel (John 1:45-47) and some five hundred others (1 Corinthians 15:6) who formed the first Christian fellowship in Jerusalem.
One of the most glaring contrasts between the Kingly Christ and the kingly ambitions of the post-Babylonian Jews is the description of His final entry into Jerusalem. Zechariah wrote Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, even upon a colt, the foal of an ass. (Zechariah 9:9) John sees the fulfillment of this in Jesus-' choice of beasts for His so-called triumphal entry and quotes the prophecy exactly. (John 12:14-15) The king the Jews expected would have been more fittingly mounted on a war horse!
The covenant theme is less obvious in Malachi, so we shall reserve comment upon it until later. Enough has been said to establish the covenant theme, in thee shall-' all the nations of the earth be blessed, as the pole star of the prophets.
CHAPTER IV
BAAL WORSHIP
Much of the Old Testament, certainly much of the message of the prophets, is indiscernible without at least a perfunctory understanding of the worship of Baal. Every reference to idolatry among God's people unless otherwise specified is a reference to Baal worship. Of the seven immediate neighbors of Israel, only Moab worshipped other major deities.
Moab's major deity was Chemosh. It is easily demonstrated that Chemosh was simply Baal with a strong Jeh (Jehovah) influence.
Judah worshipped Jehovah, but the influence of Baal was so great that the Jehovah of Judah during the period of the minor prophets is scarcely discernable from Chemosh of Moab. (e.g. Isaiah 66:17).
Some historians have tried to show that Baal was not one god, but merely a common name ascribed to the local deities of the middle eastern peoples. Careful tracing of the worship performed in his honor, and of the nature ascribed to Baal himself indicates otherwise. The various Baalism worshipped in different localities were one and the same god in various guises and with varying local coloration.
From Babylon to Assyria and Syria, to Egypt, to Greece, and finally to Rome, the evidence points to the goddess-mother herself, the child and the father as the same unholy trinity. The child presented as a full-grown deity is presented under the name of Ninus in Babylon, Baal in Assyria, Syria and Israel, Osiris in Egypt, Dionysus in Greece and Bacchus in Rome are one and the same god. So much so, in fact, that sometimes even the name is the same from place to place.
There are a myriad of other names for Baal. The multiplicity in each locale of worship is multiplied by the far reaching locations of his influence. See the chart at the end of this chapter for a sketchy analysis of some of these names in the locations where they were used.
The roots of Baal worship are buried in the silt of Noah's flood and the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel. Its beginnings were apparently brought about, not through the evolution of religious thought, but deliberately as a device to aid in the building of the early Babylonian empire, Knowing God, they glorified Him not as God. (Romans 1:21) The evolution of thought, traceable in the spread of the Mystery cults, as this worship is known, throughout the ancient middle eastern world and the Mediterranean basin is to be accounted for on the basis of local coloration and custom as they entered the idolatrous religions from place to place.
It was as the originator of false religion that Babylon earned the title mother of harlots. (Revelation 17:5) The prophets frequently allude to this allegory of Baalism, (eg, Micah 1:7)
Wherever the mystery religion spread, there was always to be found three major deities. always a father, a virgin mother and a sacrificed son. These were always accompanied by a host of minor gods and goddesses who were believed to exert varying degrees of influence upon the lives of their worshippers.
The similarities shared by the universal triune deities, both in the world of the Bible and throughout the world are too numerous, too obvious and too dominant to be accounted for on the basis of mere coincidence. They point to a common origin of the myths surrounding the father, mother and son.
The scope of this present work will not permit an in-depth study of these phenomena. by which man, at the dawn of history deliberately turned from the worship of the only God to The likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four footed beasts and creeping things. (cf. Romans 1:18-23) throughout the world. We shall limit ourselves to an oversimplified account of the process as it effected the world of the minor prophets.
The abundance of evidence, (though admittedly not conclusive proof,) identifies Nimrod as the founder of the sensuous idolatry which soon became identified with sun worship and spread from the Tigris-Euphrates valley round the fertile crescent to the Nile and thence around the entire Mediterranean world. This son of Cush, grandson of Ham, according to the divine record (Genesis 10:9) was first a mighty hunter, (his name means subduer of the leopard.) who soon began to be mighty upon the earth. (1 Chronicles 1:10) The beginning of his kingdom was Balel. (Genesis 10:10) Modern archeology identifies the tower of Babel with the ruins of Bers Nimroud which means tower of Nimrod.
The first inhabitants of Moab are referred to as mighty ones (Genesis 15:5). Those of Ammon were called crafty, wicked men (Genesis 15:15). The original dwellers in Edom were the same as those in Moab. (Genesis 6:4)
The term rapha (Mighty ones) is the same as that translated crafty or wicked ones. It is also, unfortunately, translated giants in some contexts in the Authorized Version of the Old Testament. (Eg. Deuteronomy 2:20) Matthew Henry, in these contexts, has rightly rendered the term terribles ones in reference to the Emmins in the land of Moab. (cf. Deuteronomy 2:11) The term may be synonymous with nephilium fallen ones of Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33.
It seems likely that Nimrod, or some other mighty hunter, realized that a band of hunters, trained in the use of weapons to subdue animals could be disciplined to act together and as easily subdue humans. There is little doubt that, at this point in history, animals were multiplying far more rapidly than men, and Nimrod's exploits against them would assure him the rank of hero among his fellows. They could be easily persuaded to give up a measure of their personal liberty in exchange for protection by this mighty one. This marked a decisive break with the patriarchal system by which men had theretofore been governed. (Israel followed suit, probably through the influence of her Baal worshipping neighbors when she demanded a king in the place of the judges. 1 Samuel 8:10)
Nimrod, fully entrenched as the eminent benefactor of his people, led them to seek their chief good in sensual pleasure, and convinced them that they could enjoy the delights of sin without fear of recrimination from God. His exploits were always accompanied by troops of women, to the sounds of music, revelings and games. and whatever else fed the desires of the flesh.
Galling under the righteous rule of God, recently enforced by the flood, these mighty ones began to make a deliberate ritual of unrighteousness. Themselves they exalted (Nimrod and his followers, including Simeramis his wife) as leaders of a cult of sensualism. It is quite natural that they be called fallen ones by those who did not participate in their debauchery and who still remembered the lesson of the flood.
Diodorus records: Ninus, the most ancient of the Assyrian kings mentioned in history, performed great actions. Being naturally of a war-like disposition, and ambitious of glory that results from valour, he armed a considerable number of men that were, like himself, brave and vigorous, trained them. Ninus is further described as rising to extraordinary heights and power by bringing the people of Babylon under subjection to him while it was yet a city, There is no room for reasonable doubt that Ninus of secular history and the Nimrod of the Bible are one and the same.
Various legends of the death of Nimrod persist throughout the middle east yet today. One such myth among the Arabs says that Nimrod, vexed at God for sending a prophet to warn him against persistence in ritualized immortality, resolved to attack God in heaven. In order to carry out this threat, he built a great tower. Having ascended to the top of the tower, he found himself no closer to heaven than when he started, The following night the tower collapsed, which incident only served to inflame Nimrod's anger. He then devised a plan to fly into heaven in a car drawn by strong birds. The car crashed on Mt. Hermon, and Nimrod was fatally mutilated in the fall. (The mutilation of the god played a prominent role in the worship of Baal.)
Another version of the death of Nimrod, which is far more important in the development of Baal worship, has him being attacked by a wild boar. In this version also Nimrod dies of mutilation
Yet another version says that he went to the rulers of Bab (Babylon) and endeavored to convince them that they should condone and promote his cult of immorality. Still aware of God's wrath through the flood, they reacted violently and sentenced Nimrod to death by mutilation.
Varied as these legends are, they contain a single common element which forms the heart of Baal worship. Nimrod died violently at the height of his career as a mighty one and he was mutilated.
Nimrod's wife, Semiramis, who had risen to power and influence with her husband through the promotion of religious immorality was faced with a decision. She must either sink back into obscurity or she must devise a way to transfer her husband's influence to herself. She soon resolved that he should be worshipped as a god. The ancient world in general was familiar with God's promise to send a deliverer to crush the head of the serpent. (Genesis 3:15) (Allusions to this promise are found in every major religion.) The followers of Nimrod's cult would be quick to accept Semiramis-' presentation of Nimrod reborn through her: as Zero-ashta (the seed of woman) Mithras the mediator. She was at once his wife and his mother, and is so represented throughout the mystery religions.
The earliest pictures of Baal worship show him crushing the head of the serpent, as do those of his Greek, Indian, Scandinavian and Egyptian counterparts. In all the great idolatrous religions of the world there is the death of a great leader-hero who voluntarily lays down his life for his people, only to be reborn of his wife as alma mater virgin mother. One of the universal titles of this sacrificed son is deliverer. Part of the ritual of his worship, as we shall see later, is the mourning over his death. (See Ezekiel 8:14, where the prophet alludes to the women weeping over Tammuz. Tammuz is one of the early Assyrian titles for Baal.)
Many ancient evidences point to the fact that men shortly after the flood began to picture the heavens pressed close to the earth that one could not stand upright beneath them. This represented God's demands for righteousness and the suppression of physical appetites. Nimrod had led the revolt against this, and now Semiramis could present him as the one who, through his own death, had lifted the burden of righteousness from the backs of his followers. Had not God himself promised a deliverer? By virtue of his death his followers could live for the flesh without fearing the wrath of God.
The Greek version of this pagan emancipation would show Atlas lifting the heavens upon his shoulders, and Homer would write:
From the clear vein the immortal Ichor (precious blood) flowed,
Such stream as issues from a wounded god,
Pure Emanation, uncorruptible flood,
Unlike our gross, debased terrestrial blood.
Having retained her power and prestige through the claim that her hero-husband had actually died as the promised deliverer and been reborn as a god, Semiramis herself soon became elevated above the plain of mortality and venerated as the Queen of Heaven, Mother of God. Just as the early pictures of Ishtar (or Semiramis) have her holding the deified babe and pointing toward heaven.
This marks the beginning of Zorasterism in Babylon. The true God was not entirely forgotten. As the new religion spread westward he was venerated as the great invisible, as the hidden one. He was thought to be unconcerned for the lives of men and was to be worshipped in silence. In Babylon he was known as Belus, Bel (the confounder. cf. Jeremiah 1:3, Chaos (the god of confusion) and Cush (the father of Nimrod) whose symbol was a club. The idea of confounder and confuser are easily understood as references to the experience at the Tower of Babel, and the club is obviously the symbol of his intolerable wrath.
It was the son and the mother who were the chief objects of worship. He was the great deliverer, and she was, after all, his mother and thus, in a sense, even more to be reverenced because without her he would never have been reborn following his death.
Various names for the son in Assyria were Kronos, Ninus, Monis, Tammuz, and Zero-Ashter. The mother was known variously as Semiramis, Reah, Cyble, and Ishtar, terms denoting her various relationships to her husbnd-son and to her devotees.
In Baalbek, the ancient Syrian city of Baal, this worship became refined, more clearly defined and its rituals more stylized. The father was here referred to as Bel. The name Chaos, ascribed to him as the confuser of tongues, lapsed into disuse. The mother became known at Baalbek as Ashtoreth and the son as Baal or Hadaad.
Here also the cult became identified with sun worship. Baal became the god of the sun, and his chief symbol the halo or sunburst.
In Phoenicia the Assyrian names prevailed largely, with some local variation and coloring. It was from Phoenicia that the name of the mother, Astoreth, came into our western languages. The anglicized form is Easter.
In Egypt, the legend of the sacrificed god added a detail concerning his rebirth which made the Egyptian version of his worship distinct. Legend there had it that the god, known to Egyptians as Osiris, had been torn in pieces when he was killed. In the process of his rebirth his mother, known to Egyptians as Isis, or Mut, was required to bring the pieces back together to refashion his body. She was able to locate all but his reproductive organs and his eyes. Hence the son in Egypt became the un-reproductive god of darkness and ruled over the underworld.
The father, identified first with Re and later, in the middle kingdom, with Amon-re rose to a prominence he did not enjoy in Babylon or Baalbek. He ruled the day and produced life through the mother.
The mother, Isis, became the chief object of the sensual ritualism which marked Egyptian sun worship.
The Egyptian symbol of Osiris the son, was a golden calf which retained the spots of the Babylonian leopard skin in which Ninus had been portrayed. The sun burst became the symbol of Amon-re the sun god. and the mother retained her ever-present symbol of fertility, the egg. The single symbol which represented best the cult in Egypt was the egg standing atop a tau cross, thus forming the key of life which was ever held in the hand of Amon-re.
His symbol has been revived in modern times by the Hippie-Yippie movements, whose reutilization of fleshly love, sensual dancing and rhythmic music performed to the accompaniment of narcotic induced hallucinations is hardly discernible from the worship of the Egyptian sun cult.
The Greeks added their own peculiar cultural flavor to the worship of the pagan trinity. The deeds of their ancient heroes were attributed to the son, whom they called variously Bacchus (the lamented one), Plutus, Dionysus, (the sin bearer), Kisos, Adonis, and Mercury (the persuasive speaker.)
The mother was, to the Greeks, Irene, Ceres, Artimus, Aphrodite and Diana. In general, Diana was reverenced as the goddess of chastity and her temple served by vestal virgins. At Ephesus it was a different story. There she was contemplated as the mother of the gods, and her turreted crown was reminiscent of the tower of Babel.
The father was Hephaistis to the Greeks.
The Romans borrowed their religion from the Greeks as they borrowed everything else from the Greeks. The father became Janus, the mother was Venus, and the son retained the Greek titles of Bacchus, Adonis and Mercury.
Throughout the development and spread of the cult, the multiplicity of names for each of the three deities is derived from terms applied to them in their various relationships to one another and to their worshippers.
They appear in various dress and are credited with the heroic deeds of certain local heroes. In every place they maintain the same essential relationship one to the other. The father, for the most part was given little attention, (excepting in Egypt) though the worshippers were careful not to completely ignore him. The son was revered as saviour-deliverer and worshipped for his direct concern with the affairs of men. The mother, in whom resided the wellsprings of life, and to whom the son owed his own life, was the center of the most sensual fertility rites the minds of her depraved priests and priestesses could concoct.
Worshippers were initiated into the cult by ritual which utilized rhythmic music, flashing lights and narcotic potions to induce emotional experiences and physical sensations by which the candidate came to believe he had actually shared, vicariously, in the atoning death and re-birth of the deliverer-god.
In addition to this universal triad, there was in each locale a multitude of minor deities. gods and goddesses who had originally been local tribal gods and who were included in the hierarchy of heaven when the worship of the sun god trinity became predominant. Mount Olympus reeled with the rhythm of their reveling.
So it was that the prominent male deity of all of Israel's neighbors came to be known and worshipped as Baal. His influence upon the people of God cannot be overstated.
He claimed several titles throughout Assyria and Palestine, all of which are easily applicable to Nimrod to whom may most probably be traced the first use of his blasphemous, title the meaning of Baal is Lord!
The original title of Baal seems to have been Baal-Abarin, lord of the mighty ones. Other titles include Baal-Aph, lord of wrath, Baal-lashon, lord of the tongue, Baal-hatzim, lord of arrows, Baal-Bereth, lord of fir trees, Baal-Berith, lord of the covenant.
Baal-Aph, lord of wrath, depicts the originator of the cult as a man angry against the righteousness of God and His demands, which, as we have seen, were depicted as the oppressive lowering of the heavens. In lifting this oppressive insistence upon righteousness, Baal-Aph became the deliverer of his people.
Bad-Lashon, lord of tongues, depicts the original Baal as persuasive in drawing away a following from the worship of the righteous God. Centuries later his counterpart in Greece and Rome would be known as Mercury, the orator (not messenger) of the gods.
Baal-Hatzim, lord of arrows, depicts Baal as a mighty hunter and warrior. Such prowess in the hunt was the beginning of Nirnrod's power.
Baal-Bereth, lord of fir trees, represents Baal as the great deliverer made immortal through his rebirth. The evergreen became the symbol of immortality.
This concept of everlasting power is also described in another title Baal-Berith, lord of the covenant, describing his everlasting power and indestructible life as giving him authority over men. This title was itself a direct challenge to Jehovah, the covenant God of the Hebrews.
A final title, probably ascribed to the father rather than the son, was Baal-Thalath, the lord of the rib, or husband of the rib. This signifies that he always walked sideways (with a limp). (It is probably the origin of Vulcan's lameness also). Thus the father of the gods was identified with Adam, through an allusion to the creation of his wife from his rib. In memory of this the priests of Baal limped, or walked sideways about the altar. In 1 Kings 18:26 the word rendered leaped means, literally, to limp. It was a side-ways limping dance performed about the altar as the sacrifices were offered to Baal. In performing it, the priests slashed themselves in memory of Baal's sacrifice, after having first numbed themselves with narcotic potions.
It has been said that Baalism was, at its root, the worship of everything immoral. Its beginnings and evolvement are described vividly as Romans 1:18-32. The entire Roman world of Paul's day was permeated with the religious concepts and immoral practices promoted by the Mystery cults. Even the Jews shared them, albeit without associating their concepts with pagan worship per se. (Cf. Romans 1:32)
The worship of Baal, and his various counterparts in other ancient peoples, centered around certain annual feast days, each of which commemorated some momentous event in the sacrifice of the son and the life-giving virtues of the alma mater.
The sacrificial death of Baal for the deliverance of his people was celebrated in connection with the winter solstice, the time when the sun reached its farthest point from the equator. The lengthened period of darkness common to winter months and the abbreviated period of daylight accompanied by the overshadowing of the sun by clouds was taken as commemorative of the death of the sun god.
On December 24, after sun set, a huge log was burned to symbolize his suffering and death. Next morning a fir tree stood in its place, symbolizing his immortality. The tree was trimmed with colored eggs, depicting the fertility of the virgin mother through whom he had been reborn.
December 25th was given over to orgies of immortality and drunkeness. Baalbek's Berosus, later known in Greek and Roman times as the festival of Bacchus or Saturnialia were varied versions of the celebration of the rebirth of the sun god. Slaves were temporarily freed to depict the deliverance of the people by Baal. One slave was chosen and honored as Zoganes, the god of wantonness.
Zoganes found his way to Europe, during the dark ages, in the person of the Lord of Misrule. It was he who there led the Christ Mass festivities on December 25th. There also the fir tree trimmed with eggs commemorated the re-birth of the deliverer and became part of the Christ Mass festivities.
The mistletoe, regarded as a divine branch come down from heaven and growing on the sacred tree which sprang from earth, also figured in the rituals of Baal and became more prominent as the influence of the cult spread through northern Europe. The kiss, symbol of the reconciliation bought by the sacrifice of the sun god signaled the beginning of the sensual rites beneath the mistletoe.
The boar came to figure significantly in the observance of the sacred solstice. He was sacrificed to the god in memory of the legend which said that a wild boar had been the instrument of the death of the sacrificed god. The sacrificed boar then became the main course of the feast in honor of Baal. One cannot but be aware of this practice when reading such passages as Isaiah 66:17 and other Old Testament Scriptures forbidding the eating of pork. The problem in the early church of eating meat sacrificed to idols (e.g., Romans 14) sprang from this and other animals sacrificed to the Greek and Roman versions of the sun god.
In Egypt the symbol of Osiris (the son in the pagan trinity) was the goose, and in Rome sacred geese were always kept in the temple of Jupiter, as at Baalbek.
The traditional English Christmas dinner consisting of a boars head, goose and yule cakes finds its historic origin in Baal worship.
The worship of Astarte, the mother of Baal was always the worship of fertility and fecundity. The letter O, symbol of Zero-Ashta (the seed of woman) in Babylon, came to represent the egg in her fertility rites.
The rite took place in the spring. Its date was determined using the method established by, early Babylonian astrology. Three days after the vernal equinox, when the sun god crossed the equator on his way north for the spring and summer seasons, a feast of forty sacred days began. The period, known in Egypt as Lent and held in honor of Osiris, was later celebrated in Greece and Rome in honor of Adonis. It represented forty days of mourning by Ceres (the mother) over Prosepine her daughter who had been carried away and raped by her husband-son.
During the Greek period at Baalbek, when Baal was worshipped in the temple of Bacchus, the fusion of the Greek variation of sun worship caused little difficulty as it became identified with the fertility rites connected with the egg and observed by Baal worshippers since the time of the divided kingdom and before. The dyed eggs were eaten with barley cakes following the consecration of both to Baal and Ashteroth (Easter). This feast was eaten to the accompaniment of lewd dances and sacred prostitution.
The feast of the eggs marked the end of the forty days of Lent. Its beginning was signaled in Egypt, in the Temple of Karnak, by the sun light streaming through an aperture in the ceiling at just the right angle once each year to strike the head of Mut, the mother of Osiris.
These and other feasts, observed with variations and refinement throughout the ancient world grew out of the Baal worship with which Israel was surrounded, and to which she more than once surrendered.
Elevated places were selected for the worship of Baal. This may explain Elijah's choice of a mountain as the site for the contest with the prophets of Baal. Meeting them on their own ground he made mockery of their counterfeit religion. Baal worship in high places must also be kept in mind in reading the words of the Psalmist: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills. From whence cometh my help? My help cometh from the Lord (the real Lord) which made heaven and earth. (and not from Baal, lord of the hills!)
Perhaps the most vivid description of Baal worship, as it confronted the people of God, is evidenced in the worship conducted by the Ammonites. The local name for Baal at Ammon was Moloch. It is likely that it was from the worship of Moloch that the Phoenician name Baal-Hammam, lord of the heat, originated.
Moloch was made of brass, cast with the head of a calf and seated on a brazen throne. Both the throne and the image were hollow, as were its arms and legs. The idol thus shaped, formed a furnace in which the flames were fanned to incredible fury (seven times hotter than hot) by the draft created as fire swept upward through the limbs to the trunk and through the outstretched arms.
With the arms of Moloch heated red by the flames, the victim, usually a baby girl, was thrown into them where she immediately burned to death. The infant's screams were drowned by the frantic beatings of the drums which signaled the beginning of sensual dances and lewd rituals.
References to this horrendous practice may be found in such Old Testament passages as Ezekiel 16:22, Jeremiah 7:31, and Jeremiah 19:5.
It was from the word hinnom, describing the screams of dying infants that the Jews took the name of the Valley of Hinnom. In expression of their disgust for this unspeakable cruelty they made the valley in which it was practiced the city dump of Jerusalem, It was this valley from which Jesus borrowed the word Gehenna. translated Hell!
Milton's description of the worship of Moloch is vivid and accurate:
First, Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood
of human sacrifice, and parents tears;
Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud
Their children's cries unheard, that passed through fire
To this grim idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain
In Argob and Basan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such
Audacious neighborhood, the wisest heart
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
His temple right against the temple of God
On that opproborious hill; and made his grove
The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thense
And black Gehenna call-'d, the type of Hell-'
The worshippers of the sun, personified in Baal, spiritualized the reproductive powers in the male and female human being. With the image of a virile bull before them, and the egg of fertility as an instrument of worship, they tried to revive the forces of reproduction and life through ritualized fornication. With Baal, at the center of the religion was always the virgin mother. perpetually virgin despite her invention of and dedication to sacred prostitution. It was the corruption of Jehovah worship by Baalism which was the chief cause of the downfall of the northern kingdom and the Babylonian captivity of the southern kingdom. It was the culture produced through a corruption of Jehovah worship by Baal worship against which the prophets spoke. It was a people whose covenant relationship to God was compromised by the sensual worship of idols that the prophets sought to call to repentance. The task was over-whelming, and the result all but inevitable.
From the time of Moses Baalism had been a threat to the faith of the covenant people. The first mention of this influence in Scripture is found in Numbers 22:41, and the first indication of Israelite participation in it in Numbers 25:3.
There can be little doubt that the people from the beginning had been familiar with sun god worship, of which Baalism was one form. Abraham had been called out of the Chaldees, which was the cradle of sun worship. For four hundred years the children of Israel had lived in Egypt, where the worship of Amon-re, Isis, and Osiris, along with a myriad of minor deities literally dominated every facet of life, from the Pharaoh to the lowest slave.
In Judges 2:11; Judges 2:13; Judges 3:7; Judges 8:33; Judges 10:6; Judges 1:10 we learn that the influence of Baal among the people increased rapidly following their occupation of the promised land. From time to time there were periods of repentance (e.g. 1 Samuel 7:4), but the temptation of a religion of sensual experience against the worship of an invisible God who must be served in obedient faith was overwhelming. Modern archeology has unearthed little evidence of graven images among the people at this period of their history, but there is an abundance of amulets and charms depicting Asthoreth, the fertility goddess always associated with Baal, which were worn by Israelite women during pregnancy.
It remained for Solomon to introduce sun god worship into Israel to such an extent that it became an integral part of the daily culture of the people. True, Solomon built the temple to Jehovah in Jerusalem and indulged in lavish patronage of Jehovah worship. But it is is equally true that the kingdom of Solomon was most noted among foreign contemporaries, not for his strict worship of Jehovah but for its crass commercialism. It was in this pursuit that Solomon concluded treaties and entangling alliances with polytheistic states. It was to support this policy of national aggrandizement that he levied taxes and conscripted laborers to the extent that, following his death, his successor son's refusal to abandon the policy brought about the permanent division of the kingdom and the ultimate end of the Davidic dynasty.
Religious exclusiveness such as that demanded of Israel under the law, is never the handmaiden of internationalism and power politics. Solomon's alliances were often sealed by opportunistic marriages to pagan princesses, and strange wives, rather than being required to worship and serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, were encouraged to continue in their native forms of the sun god worship which dominated the ancient near east. The temple itself, although incorporating the divinely given pattern of the tabernacle in its floor plan, was essentially a Canaanite structure, built by Canaanite architects on a Canaanite high place. And in its shadow Solomon himself erected, for his Egyptian wife, another temple to the sun god!
Although Solomon must bear the blame for introducing idolatry, (and idolatry in those days, in that part of the world meant sun god worship, of which Baalism was one form) into Jerusalem and so into what was to become the southern kingdom, this despicable religion found fertile soil in the north also. The champion of Baal there was Jezebel whose name has come to be synonymous with everything immoral.
The civil strife which brought about the division of the kingdom following the death of Solomon was instigated by a prophet of God (1 Kings 11:26-29) who was speaking against the new order in Jerusalem, not only because it demanded unjust levies from the northern tribes but because it had placed paganism in the seat of Jehovah worship. Another prophet warned Rehoboam that the uprising in the north was God's will. (1 Kings 12:21-24).
When Jeroboam erected in Bethel a shrine to rival the temple in Jerusalem, it was a shrine to Jehovah, and golden bulls placed in it were intended simply as symbolic support for the throne of the invisible Jehovah. But the similarity of the golden bulls to the images associated with Baal worship was too obvious. Many who came to the shrine to worship Jehovah remained to worship the golden bulls. There can be little doubt that this marked the beginning of the strange admixture of Baalism and Jehovah worship which came to be the religion of the northern kingdom. It was by confusing these two mutually incompatible faiths that Jeroboam made Israel sin. (1 Kings 15:34).
The attempt of the northern kings to recapture the glories of Solomon led them into an alliance with Phoenician Tyre. Now any student of ancient history is aware that Tyre in particular, and the Phoenesians in general were responsible for bringing Baal worship into the Mediterranean coastlands in the first place. The alliance between Samaria and Tyre was cemented by a marriage of Ahab to the pagan princess Jezebel.
Whatever can be said about Jezebel, and a great deal has been said, both in the Bible and in other writings, she was a woman of deep religious conviction. She was not content -to merely be allowed to serve her foreign god in Israel. She became a missionary, determined to turn the entire northern kingdom from Jehovah to Baal. It is to her credit that, unlike the professing Jehovists among whom she lived, she was not interested in a compromise between the two mutually antagonistic religions. She took every measure at her disposal to bring the issue to a showdown. (1 Kings 18-19).
The gods and goddesses of Phoenecia were thus arrayed against the one true God. Baal the sun god and his wife-mother Astarte (Ashtoreth) represented the most completely carnal forces of fertility. The rituals performed in their names, especially those to Astarte, were concerned with the control of fecundanty of the earth of animals and of man. The most degrading acts imaginable were performed as acts of public worship to curry the favor of the gods.
The contrast between the absolute morality demanded by the law of Jehovah and the absolute immorality of Baal worship cannot be overstated. If Israel were to be God's people, and keep His laws there could be no compromise with such ritualized lewdness. Men take on the character of the gods they worship. If Israel ever took Baal to his bosom in earnest, it would be the end of Israel as a covenant people.
Yet many did turn from Jehovah, with His demands for righteousness to serve Baal and Astarteand their own fleshly desires. Some, clinging to tradition, yet indulging in apostasy actually came to address Jehovah as though He were Baal.
After the death of Jezebel, there were a few feeble attempts at reform. Added to these were the warnings of the prophets of God, which were anything but feeble. But the die was cast. It was all downhillall the way to destruction. When finally the Ashara, high goddess symbol of Baalism, was allowed by Jehu to remain in Samaria, it became apparent that the paganism introduced as a foreign cult now thrived as an Israelite cult. the predominant religion, eventually, of the northern kingdom! The influence of this cult upon the ultimate demise of that kingdom cannot be overstated.
It was against this compromised worship and its resultant sinful society that the prophets of the pre-exilic age thundered, in both the north and the south. The only ray of hope which shown through the storms clouds which the prophets saw on the horizons of both Israel and Judah was the conviction that a remnant of the covenant people would repent and remain faithful to the Covenant of Jehovah.
It is possible, at first casual contact, that the essentials of Baal worship will impress the Christian reader as being remarkably similar to those of Christianity. The belief in a trinity, the sacrifice of the son of a god for the deliverance of his people, the birth of the son through a virgin mother may give one a start.
A closer look will show these similarities, if indeed they can be called similarities at all, to be those of a counterfeit. The trinity of Baalism was composed of a nearly unknown father god who was for the most part ignored by the worshipper, a son sacrificed to save his people FROM RIGHTEOUSNESS, and a mother who was portrayed as the same time as a virgin and the leader of a cult whose priestesses were public prostitutes. The trinity of the Christian (if this term is permissible at all, being unscriptural,) is composed of an all-powerful, loving Father whose will is the overriding purpose of all, including the life of His Son, a Son whose life was given to save His people FROM RIGHTEOUSNESS, and a Holy Spirit whose nature is entirely non-physical and hence as far from the nature of the sun goddess as is possible. The re-birth of the sacrificed Baal was through the powers of the goddess. The resurrection of Jesus was by the power of the Father. The virgin mother of Baal was elevated as Queen of Heaven, while the virgin mother of Jesus is last seen among the humble worshippers of her Son, (Acts 1:14) The purpose of Baalism was to thwart the demands of God, the ideal of the Christian faith is to fulfill His eternal purpose.
THE SEPTUAGINTLXX
We have included in this commentary, instead of the usual paraphrase, a translation of the Septuagint.
This is the earliest version of the Old Testament Scriptures now in existence, or of which modern scholarship possesses any certain knowledge.
Translated from the original Hebrew into Greek in Alexandria, Egypt, beginning under the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus and being completed under Ptolemy Sater (c. 285 B.C.), the Septuagint filled a critical need in its day. The influence of the Greeks upon the Jews living outside Judea was so great that they no longer spoke or read Hebrew. Putting their Scriptures into one common Alexandrian dialect of the day was an event comparable to our translation of the King James Version in 1611.
As with any attempt to bring thought from one language to another, there is some loss, no doubt there is in bringing Hebrew theological forms into the philosophic language of the Greeks.
However, the version is important to the Christian scholar, not only as the oldest Scripture now in existence, but because it is the version quoted and alluded to by Jesus and the Apostles.
The LXX, as it is called for the 70 Jewish scholars who translated it, was the Bible of the New Testament Church.
BABYLON (Assyria)
SYRIA
PHOENICIA
EGYPT
GREECE
ROME
FATHER
Belus
Bel (the confounder)
Chaos (god of
confusion) Cush
Bel
Bel
Amoun
Re
Amoun-re
Hephaitis Saturn
Janus
MOTHER
Cybele
Semiramis
Istar
Rhea
Ashtoreth
Astarte Astoreth
Maut
Isis
Irene
Ceres
Artimis
Aphrodite
Dinah
Venus
SON
Kronos
Zero-ashta
Mithras
Tammuz
Ninus
Monis
Baal
Hadaad
Baal (?)
Osiris Khons
Plutua
Bacchus
Adaonis
Mercury
Kisos
Iacchus
Bacchus Adonis Mercury Jupiter
Chapter IQuestions
How to Study the Bible
1.
What is exegesis? How is it superior to interpretation as an approach to Bible Study?
2.
In the science of exegesis, what is meant by removing the differences?
3.
List and explain the rules of exegesis:
a.
why is a dictionary an important tool to Bible study?
b.
why is an unabridged dictionary preferable?
c.
how do the rules of grammar aid in Bible study?
d.
what is meant by context?
e.
why is it important to study scripture in context?
f.
what is the advantage of studying the Bible in its historical setting?
g.
what is analytical Bible study?
h.
what is the inherent danger of analytical study of scripture?
i.
why should commentaries be used only after the first fives rules of exegesis have been applied to a text?
j.
discuss the importance of prayer as a factor in Bible study.
Chapter IIQuestions
What Is A Prophet?
1.
List two popular views of prophecy and show how each contradicts the other.
2.
What three questions must we answer to arrive at a scriptural view of the prophet?
3.
What is the literal meaning of the Biblical word Prophet?
4.
The watch word of the Biblical prophet is not it shall come to pass but ________?
5.
Explain the Biblical concept of prophecy from 2 Peter 1:20-21.
6.
Compare the characteristics of the false and true prophets in Israel.
7.
The primary function of the prophet in the time of the minor prophets was?
8.
How does the work of the prophet relate to the government of
Israel as a theocracy?
9.
What is meant by the statement Prophecy is conditional?
Chapter IIIQuestions
The Covenant Theme in the Prophets
1.
What is the blood red thread which holds the Bible together.
2.
Discussthe covenant was proposed by God, not man.
3.
The covenant arrangement between God and His prophets was maintained by __________ rather than physical ancestry.
4.
Who first received the covenant from God (Genesis 12:1-3)?
5.
Whom God choses He __________?
6.
Whom God calls He __________?
7.
Whom God blesses He __________?
8.
The called continue to receive God's blessing only as long as they __________.
9.
The historical epochs of the Bible do not record these religious systems. Rather they are the record of __________.
10.
The descendants of Abraham are all who __________. (Galatians 3:7)
11.
How did circumcision constitute a warning concerning the covenant.
12.
How should Israel's position as a nation of priests have effected her attitude toward other peoples?
13.
In God's eyes, true Israel's primary concern was a covenant and its promise of __________.
14.
How does the sacrifice of Isaac show the true meaning of the covenant?
15.
__________ is the most basic idea in God's dealing with Israel.
16.
Jesus understood the Old Covenant Scriptures in terms of His own __________, __________, __________, and __________. And concluded the end of it all to be __________.
17.
What is the relationship of John 3:16 to the covenant theme of the Bible?
18.
The spiritual genetic to be preserved by Israel's obedience of the Law of Moses was __________.
19.
The answer to Jewish narrowness was __________.
20.
It is the __________ (the faithful few) who were truly Israel, according to the minor prophets and the New Testament.
Chapter IVQuestions
Baal Worship
1.
Every reference to idolatry among God's people, unless otherwise specified, is a reference to __________.
2.
The various Baalism worshipped in various localities were __________.
3.
In the trinity of Baalism, the child is variously called __________ in Babylon __________ in Assyria, Syria and Israel __________ in Egypt, __________ in Greek and __________ in Rome.
4.
The beginning of Baal worship was not the result of religious evolution but of __________.
5.
Wherever this false religion spread it centered in three major deities, a __________, a __________, and a __________ son.
6.
The abundance of evidence identifies __________ as the founder of idolatry.
7.
__________ of secular history and __________ of the Bible are one and the same.
8.
all the versions of the death of Nimrod contain a single common element which forms the heart of Baal worship this element is
9.
Simcramus wife of __________ became __________ mother of __________ the mediator who in turn became Baal of the Canaanites.
10. Tammuz was __________.
11.
What was meant by the ancient picture of heaven pressed so close to earth that a man could not stand upright?
12.
What unique element did the Egyptians add on the legend of the sacrificed god.
13.
What devices were used to initiate worshippers into the sun god cults?
14.
Baal had many names, derived from his various actions and relationships:
a.
Baal-Aph Lord of wrath signifies __________.
b.
Baal-Lashon Lord of tongues signifies __________.
c.
Baal-Hatzin Lord of Arrows signifies __________.
d.
Baal-Bereth Lord of Fir Trees signifies __________.
15.
Baalism at its root, is the worship of everything __________.
16.
What is the significance of December 25th in Baal worship?
17.
Who was Moloch?
18.
How did Solomon influence the rise of Baalism in Israel?
19.
The evil queen __________ was a missionary of Baalism.
20.
The pre-exilic prophets thundered against __________ worship and its resultant __________.