Prophets Before the Exile BACKGROUND AMOS About 786 BCE, Jeroboam II was king, and Amos was sent from his home in the Southern Kingdom to Jeroboam in the Northern Kingdom. About the same time, Hosea was a prophet in the Northern Kingdom. We don’t know if the two ever met, but they likely knew of each other’s work. Hosea may have been around after Amos was gone. During that time, many kings had very short reigns—some only months long. It was not a good time to be a king. A powerful country known as Assyria was busy conquering other countries and becoming ever more powerful. Amos was an outsider, coming from the Southern Kingdom to preach in the Northern Kingdom (Israel). He brought a strong message. He spoke to the wealthy people who thought they already knew what God wanted—that is, rituals and sac- rifices. But Amos pointed out that God hated what they were doing. God instead wanted justice for everyone. Amos told the people that God wanted righteousness instead of religious prac- tices done without any real feeling. How could a people who truly worshipped God be so ignorant of the plight of the poor? Worse than that, they took advantage of the poor for their own gain. Amos called the people to worship God in their daily lives instead of trying to appear holy in the temple. Amos also gave a bleak picture of Israel’s future. He talked of impending disaster, in which the kingdom would be overthrown. He spoke about God’s condemnation of social sin. Sins of the individuals had risen to such a level that the whole nation was rebelling against God. Sin had become socially acceptable to all the people of Israel. Taking advantage of the plight of the poor was the worst sign of this rebellion. It was part of the social fabric, and the people would pay for it. Amos predicted that the outcome of all this corruption would be the ruin of Israel. Fifty years later, his predictions came true. Assyria attacked Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and after a terrible three-year siege, Israel fell to the conquerors. JEREMIAH In 640 BCE, an important king named Josiah came to power in Judah, the Southern Kingdom. He is known for bringing the people back under God’s laws. For a long time, the people had not had a leader who was truly faithful to God. In fact, the temple in Jerusalem had fallen into disrepair. It was as people were cleaning up the mess in the temple that they found a book of the law, probably the book of Deuteronomy. King Josiah, when he read the book, realized how far the people had strayed from God’s intent. He initiated sweeping religious reforms and got the people back on the right track. Another prophet, Huldah (whom we will study later on), helped in this. Jeremiah was a prophet in Jerusalem from approximately 640-580 BCE. There were other prophets around, too, such as Zephaniah, Nahum, and Habakkuk. Jeremiah, though, is the one who gets the most attention. During this time of political expansion, the people began to prosper and forget about God. King Josiah, it seems, could only be so influential. After Josiah died, things really started falling apart and people began worshipping other gods again. The scenario was similar to what Amos and Hosea faced about 150 years earlier. Have I Got News for You!: Prophets Before the Exile 68 Meanwhile, the Assyrians faded away and the Babylonians became the regional bullies. King Jehoiakim was not too worried, because Egypt, just to the south, was a powerful and friendly neighbor to Judah. In 605, the Babylonians defeated the Egyptians and advanced on Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Jehoiakim had been ter- minated and Jehoiakin took the throne. He was king for three eventful months, during which the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem and replaced him with Zedekiah. Zedekiah did as the Babylonians told him, which is why they chose him to rule. However, whenever they went away for a time to conquer other countries, Zedekiah tried to get away with things, like not paying taxes to the Babylonians, trying to attack them, and so on. Finally, the Babylonians had enough of Zedekiah and his back-stabbing. They destroyed Jerusalem in 587 BCE and took everyone of importance away to Babylon. (The date of 587 BCE will be on the final exam.) All this time, even during the period when people were worshipping God under King Josiah, Jeremiah was prophesying doom and gloom. Jeremiah was apparently a very young man when he was called (Jeremiah 1:6). In a well-known passage at the beginning of the book, Jeremiah receives word that God had appointed him a “prophet to the nations” even before he was born (1:5)! Jeremiah was a prophet who liked to make a statement. He was not as much a show-off as Ezekiel, but he knew how to get people’s attention. His most famous moment was when he wore an ox yoke in the streets of Jerusalem to symbolize what life would be like under the oppressive reign of an enemy power (27:2-11)— the Babylonians. An amazing part of this passage is the statement that God makes about the Babylonian king being one “who is my deputy.” In other words, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was doing what God wanted him to do! We are not sure whether King Neb (as we shall call him) knew this or not. It seems unlikely that Neb would even have known about God. Babylonia, like so many other king- doms at the time, usually had many gods, for wind, rain, crops, and so on. Jeremiah told the people that the coming cataclysm would be God’s punishment to the Hebrews for ignoring God for so long. He was not only a prophet to Judah, his homeland, but to other countries as well. In fact, the countries listed in 27:3 form a ring around Judah. This might have been God’s way of saying to Jeremiah, “Tell it so that even the neighbors hear what you say.” It would also let the people of Judah know that everyone around them was aware of their unfaithfulness. But Jeremiah was not without a hopeful message. Jeremiah relayed God’s message of restoration and revival (30:2-3). All of the current enemies would be made slaves—that is, God would turn the tables and the Hebrew people would be victorious over their enemies. ELIJAH After Solomon died in 922 BCE, his two sons fought over who would be king. The result was that Israel was split into two small countries. The one to the north was called Israel; the one to the south was called Judah. The books of 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles tell the stories of the kings who ruled in each of these kingdoms. About 50 years after this split, a king named Ahab and his evil wife Jezebel ruled the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Ahab worshipped God, but Jezebel did not. Jezebel ruled the country through control of Ahab, who wanted only to please her. Jezebel managed to promote worship of the group of gods known as Baal and to send the worshippers of Yahweh running (1 Kings 18:4). The prophet Elijah Have I Got News for You!: Prophets Before the Exile 69 was active during the reign of Ahab and Jezebel. He stood up against Ahab and Jezebel and quickly became one of Jezebel’s chief enemies. Elijah faced the 950 priests employed by Jezebel, who worshipped foreign gods (Baal and Asherah) in a famous contest. Elijah had the priests build an altar and put an animal offering on it. Then he challenged them to call on Baal to ignite the animal and consume it with fire. When they failed the challenge, Elijah had the whole altar soaked with water until it was absolutely drenched. Then he called down fire from heaven and the animal and the altar were consumed. After this demonstration of God’s power, Elijah had all the priests killed (1 Kings 18). This did not please Jezebel, who felt that he had made fools of her and her god Baal. Elijah also confronted Ahab over the treacherous takeover of some land (1 Kings 21). Jezebel wanted to kill Elijah. Elijah fled to Mt. Horeb and asked God why he, Elijah, was the only voice speaking out in the land. God reassured him and gave him renewed hope to continue. Elijah is credited with the miracle of the oil and flour (1 Kings 17:8-16) He was such an awe-inspiring man that his deeds became legend in the land. “He is depicted as a dour, lonely figure clad with the hair mantle of his aus- tere calling (2 Kings 1:8), possibly a Nazirite in perpetual ritual fitness for war, who haunted waste places to appear as if by magic wherever Yahweh's battles were to be fought . .” (A History of Israel, John Bright. Westminster Press: 1981, p 246) Elijah trained and passed on his duties to Elisha, who became known for having the power of Elijah. Elijah then vanished without a trace, taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot (2 Kings 2:9-12). This mysterious disappearance only added to the legend that was Elijah. His aura of power and authority raised him to such high esteem that he and Moses were the two to appear with Jesus (Mark 9:2-4).