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| Photo by Jim Tracy |
Nine Angry Men
The Pre-Captivity
Minor Prophets
By Mrs. Betty Tracy
Introduction
Just to set the historical context:God calls Abraham to be a people for Him, to carry the written Word, and to be the lineage to Christ. They were also called to evangelize the world, though the Israelites never understood that.
Abraham’s descendants spent time as slaves in Egypt and were led to freedom by Moses, probably about 1533BC.
A time of leadership by judges was followed by the “Age of the Kings” (Saul, David, Solomon…). The kingdom was split into two at the time of Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. The northern kingdom is called Israel and contains ten tribes. The southern kingdom is called Judah and contains the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The Levites were scattered in both.
Though both kingdoms continued to rebel against God, Judah at least occasionally turns to Him.
God has the Assyrians totally destroy Israel and scatter her people in 640BC (their normal procedure when conquering a people. The date is adjusted to accommodate recent archaeological evidence supporting a much shorter timeline which actually agrees with a strict interpretation of the dates in the Bible). Babylon takes over the region, destroying Assyria and taking Judah captive in 526BC.
Jeremiah prophesied that Judah would serve the king of Babylon for seventy years in order to punish them for their rebellion and evil. Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in 526BC and Cyrus of Persia destroyed the last king of Babylon in 457BC; Seventy years of Babylonian rule. (Dates have been adjusted to correlate with the dates given in the Bible and accommodate the most recent archaeological discoveries. See “The Wonders of Biblical Chronology” by Philip Mauro)
Jews began to return to their homeland after a decree issued by Cyrus the Great in 457BC allowing all people to return to their homelands. People from all twelve tribes returned to the region that had been the nation of Judah. They arrived in waves over the course of a number of years.
The Minor Prophets are not generally regarded as the most interesting books of the Bible. Yet they have some very interesting stories within them, as well as direction for our everyday lives. What I found most disturbing when I began studying them, though, was how similar Israel and Judah of the time of the pre-captivity prophets sounds to America today.
If God is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8), then He is just as mad at America today as He was at Israel 2500 years ago.
And He destroyed Israel.
Our nation needs to come back to her roots. She needs to find God again and begin serving Him. I am afraid for the land I love if she doesn’t.