READING FOR DECEMBER 8
Haggi; Zechariah 1-3; 7-14
Jonah—Date: 793-753 BC Audience: Northern kingdom of Israel with a proclamation delivered to the city of Nineveh (capital of Assyria) Theme: Jehovah uses Jonah’s actions and words to communicate the fact that his compassion extends beyond Israel.
Micah—Date: 700-650 BC (contemporary to Isaiah) Audience: Israel and Judah, especially the oppressive land-grabbers who supported Israel’s corrupt political and religious leaders Theme: God would judge Israel for covenant breaking by sending them into exile, yet he would restore a remnant of his people.
Nahum—Date: shortly before 612 BC Audience: Judah Theme: God will judge Nineveh for its endless cruelty
Habakuk—Date: 605-580 BC (contemporary to Lehi) Audience: The people of Judah struggling to comprehend the ways of God Theme: In the midst of the evil that exists within both Judah and their enemies, Habakkuk’s strength and joy are found in God alone
Zephaniah—Date: 640-609 BC Audience: Judah Theme: Announcement of the coming day of the Lord, when God will judge and humble the nations including Judah, but will yet be merciful to His people by fully restoring them
JONAH AND HABAKKUK
Read the following with these questions in mind:
2. How do they misjudge Jehovah at points in their lives?
3. What do we learn about Jehovah from these two accounts?
4. How do these messages translate into our lives and current situations?
Jonah 1:1-3; 3:4-5; 3:10, 4:1-10 Habakkuk 1:1-6; 1:12-13; 2:1; 3:16-19
GRACE AND JUSTICE
“According to the logic of original sin, the purpose of the law is punishment. The law’s purpose is to judge what is deserved. The law is a divine mechanism for judging who deserves to suffer or not and to what degree. The point of the law is accusation.”
“The logic of grace, on the other hand, takes the purpose of the law to be love. The law’s purpose is still to judge, but now judge what is needed. The law is a divine mechanism for judging what is needed to relieve suffering and liberate sinners. The point of the law is grace.”
“The contrast between these two logics is sharp. For sin reasons backwards about whether someone’s suffering is deserved, grace reasons forwards as to how best to respond to that suffering. Where sin understands God’s law as a tool of condemnation, grace understand God’s law as a discipline of compassion. Where sin uses the law to command suffering, graces uses the law to command succoring. Sin begins from the original assumption of guilt and concludes that suffering is deserved. Grace begins from the original reality of suffering and concludes that redemption is needed. Sin uses God’s law to ask what is deserved; grace uses God’s law to ask what is needed.”
“Being a sinner harms others and ourselves. The consequences are real and natural. Those things that follow sin are not a moral obligation required by justice. God is not invested in making sure that we suffer. The law requires that we receive whatever good is needed in order to stop harming ourself and others. What we need may be difficult and painful. That difficult process is God giving us what we need to become good.”
Adam Miller, Faith Matters Podcast, 130
NAHUM
“Though the Lord is said to be good and slow to anger in the first chapter, only unrestrained violence and destruction is shown to Nineveh with no call to repentance or chance at redemption. For many Christians, this doesn’t line up with their New Testament view of deity.
Nahum is a perfect illustration of how prophetic literature is in a large part a reflection of emotion. This will help people cope with the reality of the violence of the book of Nahum. These are not the exact words of God. These are the prophet’s words expressing a revelation he has received by unknown means. We don’t know in what form Nahum received this revelation. We only get how he is expressing it. His expression is going to be colored by his emotions and the general emotion of the people. The brutality of Assyria surpassed that of what any other nation had done or seen up to this point. It was unspeakable. And the prophetic literature is an outlet for the extreme fear and oppression that had been laid upon the people. And it reflects the brutality of Assyria back onto them. Even though the revelation may have been an objective view of the eminent future, a tone of celebration and revenge was added in the delivery of the oracle. The point being that a lot of prophetic literature in the Bible are the words of God combined with the feelings of people.”
Truman Cowans, Maxwell Institute Podcast
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