The term “Major Prophets” refers to the relative size of the five books by four likely authors that fit under that category. It is not that major and minor describe their significance, for each prophetic book is equally inspired and vital to the unfolding of God’s will.
Major Prophets (1): Isaiah
a gospel sermon by Jeff S. Smith
Introduction
The first of the major prophets is the longest, “the vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz” (1:1). While we learn a great deal about the identities of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, Isaiah does not say much about himself personally. Some inner thoughts appear in the record of his prophetic call, however (chapter six) and his public ministry is described later, especially as he interacts with King Hezekiah. What astounds about Isaiah, then, is not his personality, but his prolific tenure. Isaiah is quoted dozens of times by New Testament writers and speakers, affording him a modern relevance unparalleled among his peers.
Discussion
I. Background
A. Author
1. Isaiah was the son of Amoz, whom tradition claims was a brother to Judah’s King Amaziah, meaning that Isaiah would be writing from a uniquely royal perspective among the literary prophets; his easy access to the king might be evidence that he was the king’s cousin (see 7:3)
2. while that is uncertain, we do know that Isaiah was a married man and father; his wife was called the prophetess and she bore him two sons (see 7:3, 8:3)
3. Isaiah embraced the Hebrew language in an articulate and symbolic way, casting his arguments and condemnations in thrilling hyperbole, metaphor and alliteration
4. tradition holds that Isaiah was persecuted and executed by Judah’s King Manasseh in the seventh century before Christ, and that it might be he who is described as “sawn in two” in Hebrews 11:372
B. Setting
1. Isaiah apparently lived in the capital city of Jerusalem, where he would have been on the front lines of policy and apostasy
2. it is in the year that King Uzziah died that Isaiah, while in the temple, was called to prophesy (Isaiah 6:1-13)
a. clearly, God was not sending Isaiah to tell the people that all was well and to stay the course; his work would prove to be a difficult one and one that would culminate in the fall of both sides of the divided kingdom
b. it is Isaiah’s response to the call that we admire: “Here am I! Send me,” he replies when God asks whom he could send
3. Isaiah would prophesy from that day in 740 B.C., through the reigns of four kings – Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah – until at least 681 B.C. and the death of Sennacherib (see 37:38)
4. many scholars, however, believe that the book ascribed to Isaiah was written by two or more authors over a much longer period of time
a. differences in style and theme are surely apparent, but not conclusive, and the ancient world universally attributed the book to a single writer, as do the New Testament writers
b. there are sufficient literary similarities throughout the book to tie it together as one work, and the transition between themes is logical considering the duration of its writing
C. Central Theme
1. the unifying theme of Isaiah’s book is the nature of God himself, who seeks proper glory from his creatures (Isaiah 48:9-11)
2. throughout history, that has required mankind – whether in the confines of Abraham’s tribes or the nation of Israel or scattered throughout the globe – to confront the sinful attitudes and behavior that dishonor our maker and sever us from him (Isaiah 45:22-25)
3. Isaiah reminds us of the sovereign glory of our God who nevertheless seeks a relationship with the contrite and lowly among men (Isaiah 57:14-19)
4. perhaps the book is best summarized in its early chapters, where God levels his essential charges against a nation that had taken for granted its special relationship with him (Isaiah 1:2-6)
a. God had called the Hebrews to display true faithfulness for the world, but they had stumbled into apathy and apostasy at every level of society
b. his plan was to purge the sinful chaff from the kingdom and leave behind a smaller, but more capable organism to act as a beacon of hope for the world (Isaiah 1:21-31)
5. Isaiah’s audience changes as the book progresses
a. in chapters 1-39, he addresses a rebellious nation that is bent on finding security in the world by making unwise alliances
b. then, when that has failed, in chapters 40-55, he addresses a defeated population being dominated by the world around them
c. the book closes in chapters 56-66 with a message for those who hold fast to the covenant with God
II. Modern Relevance
A. In Vain They Worship
1. one of the symptoms of religious digression is an ability to go through the motions of great piety without any real emotion or commitment, sometimes engaging thoughtlessly in spiritual acts that do not touch the heart or emanate from the spirit at all (Isaiah 1:10-17)
2. to the untrained eye and even to the worshiper himself, all may seem acceptable, but God has always desired worship in spirit and in truth and he can tell the difference
3. Christians who fall under this spell are often disciples in name only, which is to say, no disciples at all, and if they should learn that God is unimpressed with them, they blindly wonder why (Isaiah 58:1-5)
4. furthermore, vanity shows up in religious works where the carnal and tangible are valued over the spiritual and ephemeral (Isaiah 66:1-4)
5. this entire mindset will be revisited by Malachi centuries later, but we find it as well in the New Testament and modern eras
a. Isaiah wrote, “this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men” (29:13)
b. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for the same attitude (Matthew 15:1-9)
c. our concern must be that we draw near to God with our hearts and never allow our worship to become vain by instituting practices that God has not approved for the church (Ephesians 5:8-10, 17)
B. Thy Kingdom Come
1. Isaiah lived 700 years before the King would come, but he could see a better kingdom than the one in which he lived (Isaiah 2:2-4, 25:6-9)
2. it would be a kingdom, not merely composed of Israelites or Jews, but even of Gentiles and all those from every nation who fear God and keep his commandments (Isaiah 56:3-8, 66:18-23)
3. the coming kingdom is a theme common to his contemporary, Micah, but one that finds fulfillment in the crucifixion of Christ and the establishment of his church, beginning at Jerusalem
a. Jesus said, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).
b. Jerusalem is the setting on the first Pentecost after his return to Heaven, where the gospel invitation is first extended in a new era and the church is founded with thousands of charter members
4. the Lord’s house is reestablished, not as a physical structure, a temple on a mountain, but as the church, a kingdom without borders, but with unparalleled reach (Ephesians 2:19-22)
C. God Resists the Proud
1. now, as then, God’s human creatures are apt to reject his will in favor of their own because of an element of foolish pride (Isaiah 2:10-12, 10:33-34)
2. pride has always offended God, because it either expresses a carnal mindset or goes so far as to exalt itself against God himself – arrogance, pride, insolence, boasting are traits of Moab and modern man alike (see Isaiah 16:6)
3. pride happens when people exalt themselves above others for any number of reasons, and especially when people see no more need for God because of their intellect or sophistication
4. God has no way of saving the pride, except if they be humbled (James 4:1-6)
a. preaching is a part of that process (Second Corinthians 10:3-6)
b. but it is ineffectual if modern man is unwilling to be humbled (First Corinthians 1:18-19, 26-31)
D. Keep Yourselves From Idols
1. idolatry was always a problem in Israel; it is what led to the nation’s repeated bouts with apostasy and invasion and eventually its destruction
2. abstinence from idolatry was supposed to distinguish Israel from the heathen, but if God’s people were as guilty as the world around them, there was not much distinction left
3. God’s plan was to eradicate idolatry in Israel once and for all and that mostly happened after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. (Isaiah 2:20-21, 31:6-7)
4. the church, however, is regularly confronted with a world filled with idols, though not of the same sort – wealth, power and beauty are ours, although the icons of Romanism and other religions are very similar to the ones that crushed the spirits of the Jews (Colossians 3:5-7)
a. whether the idols are statues made to resemble men and beasts or are framed with more modern materials, the idolatry is just as evil and silly (Isaiah 44:9-20)
b. in these last days, we find that many are “lovers of themselves … of money … of pleasure rather than lovers of God” and these are the idols that achieve omnipresence and rival God in our hearts
c. John wrote, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (First John 5:21).
E. Their Eyes He Has Closed
1. while all this might sound obvious, a condition exists among men that makes it difficult to understand; where there is no interest in the truth, people are often blinded to the hopelessness and lostness of their own condition (Isaiah 6:9-10)
a. that is a statement that resonates in the ministry of Jesus Christ, who used parables to that effect among his enemies (Matthew 13:10-17)
b. no matter what Jesus did, some people were bound to reject him (John 12:37-43)
c. the apostle Paul experienced it as well (Acts 28:23-28)
2. what happens is a fulfillment of the coming of the lawless one (Second Thessalonians 2:9-12)
3. even the parable that occasioned the Lord’s quotation of Isaiah fits into this category, for it concerned the soils into which the gospel seed was sown and which rejected it because it was too hard or thorny or rocky, and not good, honest, soft and accepting (see Matthew 13:18-23)
4. the key is the softhearted response to rebuke that acknowledges sin and is willing to turn (John 9:39-41)
F. God With Us
1. light and life are summed up in the most prominent prophecies of Isaiah, those that deal with the promise of a messiah to take the reigns of a better version of God’s kingdom
a. to be born of a virgin mother (Isaiah 7:14-15)
b. to be God incarnate (Isaiah 9:2-7)
c. to establish justice (Isaiah 42:1-4)
d. to suffer as an atoning sacrifice (Isaiah 53:4-7)
2. fulfillment began in the homes of Joseph and Mary, a betrothed couple who discovered that they were to raise the son of God as their own, conceived of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:21-23)
3. Jesus laid claim to these prophecies and lived them out before believers and unbelievers, even reading from the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah’s scroll one day in the synagogue (Luke 4:14-21)
4. he preached light to people who had dwelt only in darkness, “so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled” (Matthew 4:14).
5. his arrest and death upon the cross mirrored the solemnity of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah and thus was a king crowned
Conclusion
Isaiah’s prophecy is timeless in many ways, even as his initial message was for a nation and era far from ours. His messianic promises linger and the principles behind his words are still relevant today.
Major Prophets (2): Jeremiah
a gospel sermon by Jeff S. Smith
Introduction
The books of Jeremiah and Lamentations are usually ascribed to a young Hebrew prophet who labored among his people in the seventh and sixth centuries before Christ. Jeremiah, like Noah and unlike Jonah, was apparently very unsuccessful in his attempts to persuade his audiences to accept God’s will. The “weeping prophet” instead takes a very personal journey through frustration and disappointment, descending into a life of danger and persecution.
His larger prophetic work is difficult to follow because it does not seem to flow chronologically and his Lamentations are painful to read because of the graphic descriptions of Jerusalem’s fall. For those reasons, however, Jeremiah remains relevant to modern readers who must learn to appreciate God’s prior warnings as an indication of things to come.
Discussion
I. Background
A. Author
1. Jeremiah was born and raised in a small Benjamite town called Anathoth, a few miles northeast of the capital city (Jeremiah 1:1-3)
2. he received his prophetic call as a young man in about 627 B.C. and continued in that role until he was forty years older, during the reigns of Kings Josiah the reformer, Jehoiakim the villain, and Zedekiah the tepid monarch (Jeremiah 1:4-10)
3. where Isaiah appears to have been a royal cousin, Jeremiah is a priest, the son of Hilkiah, more of a teacher than a palace insider and thus in an unfavorable position to become such a critic of the throne
4. his life was very difficult as his messages of rebuke were poorly received by an arrogant population that was certain there was nothing to be concerned about
a. Jeremiah endured terrible persecution, made few converts and lived a mostly solitary, completely celibate life
b. although he is called the weeping prophet by commentators, it should not be inferred that he was a weak character; instead, his determination and courage are exemplary, even if he does suffer from the occasional episode of self and divine doubt
5. the theory is that he died in Egypt where he was taken by his countrymen after the fall of Jerusalem he rightly predicted (Jeremiah 43:1-7)
B. Setting
1. Israel had fallen long before Jeremiah’s time and Judah, the smaller southern kingdom was in the throes of its own decline (Jeremiah 1:13-19)
2. so convinced of their own importance, however, the population and its leaders pressed forward with their spiritual apathy, iniquity and foreign entanglements, persuaded that God could not allow Judah to fall
a. Jeremiah walked in from the suburbs and began excoriating the people for their laxness, predicting that Babylon would conquer the nation and even arguing that the only way to survival would be cooperation with them
b. false prophets who promised peace instead led the people to distrust and reject Jeremiah and he spent much of his life as a social and political pariah
3. Jeremiah was called about five years before the vast reforms of good King Josiah in 622 B.C., but fell into massive disfavor during the reign of the nasty Jehoiakim, who hated Jeremiah and made disastrous treaties with Egypt and Babylon that led to heartbreaking deportations of the citizenry; in the end, he advised King Zedekiah, who sought the prophet’s counsel, but rarely followed it
4. the city finally fell to the Babylonians in 587 or 586 B.C. and Jeremiah was vindicated, but his Lamentations reveal that he took little satisfaction in the fall of Judaism
C. Central Theme
1. Jeremiah’s central theme is one of divine judgment, especially when a covenant has been broken by man, but it also comes down to the simple subject of sin (Jeremiah 5:1-3)
2. there is sin that occurs occasionally and is answered with rebuke and repentance, but there are times when sin goes unrebuked or unrepented and that sin becomes systemic and infectious, finally threatening the holistic properties of the organization or individual and that sin praxis can augur total destruction
3. in spite of this doom scenario, God continued to be determined to restore a remnant of the population by which he could gather a people to himself for a new covenant and that remains true today whenever churches and individuals choose to root out the iniquity and make clear a path for wisdom to travel
II. Modern Relevance
A. The Bridegroom
1. Jeremiah spends much ink in telling us about the God we serve, and understand that the God of Jeremiah’s age is the same God we know today
a. his attitudes about hatred and destructive behavior have not changed since the Garden of Eden, even if his plan for dealing with them has matured through the work of Christ
b. Jeremiah presents God consistently with the Pentateuch and Psalms that he would have read as a priest, but he also delivers updated discussions of timeless themes in ways that were innovative and compelling for his era
2. the people in his time were struggling with the idea of God’s sovereignty, for they felt like God needed them so much that he could not possibly punish them in any lasting way
a. they felt insulated against evil, but in our age, people tend to feel insulated only against judgment, free to experiment and invite other gods – false gods – into their hearts
b. Jeremiah wanted to make clear that there were no other gods (Jeremiah 10:1-16)
c. it’s not just that these gods must be false, but that, even if real, they would be so inferior to Jehovah that one would have to be a fool to serve something so selfish and demanding
d. if we are tempted to talk to Allah or follow a Koresh, it is wise to remember the character of the God of the Bible (First Corinthians 8:4-6)
3. the God we serve wants a special relationship with his church and his children, but it is not that he needs us to feed his pride or power
a. “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24-25).
b. instead, God is the nation’s bridegroom, just as Christ is to the church, but God had decided to sue for divorce on the grounds that Judah had broken her vows of spiritual monandry (Jeremiah 2:1-3, 9-13, 30-32)
c. even the same thing happening to Israel a century before had done little to alert Judah to her fate (Jeremiah 3:1-14)
4. as God was wed to Israel, so Christ is the bridegroom of the church (see Luke 5:34-35)
a. and our role as the church is to live chastely (Second Corinthians 11:1-4)
b. like a bridegroom, our God is jealous for our affections and will not share them with some other suitor (James 4:1-6)
c. Christ loves the church and looks forward to the day when he “might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27)
B. No More Excuses
1. it might not always seem this way, but God really is in control and that was true in the life of Jeremiah and the circumstances around him, even as he suffered persecution for preaching the truth and the nation that rejected him inched closer to destruction each year
2. God is in control even when good people are suffering and no one is listening and the nation or the church is suffering decline, perhaps of its own making
3. God is in control in spite of how it seems and retrospect usually makes that very clear
4. that does not leave us much room to argue that we are too young like Jeremiah or too old like Caleb or too short like Zacchaeus or too inarticulate like Moses
a. when God tasks us with something – whether it is simple discipleship or carrying the gospel to a particular lost soul, it is not up to us to search out excuses instead (Jeremiah 1:17-19)
b. we live in an age of excuse-making – and although it seems no one is listening, it might be more true that we’re just not talking enough where we might be heard (Luke 14:15-24)
c. Jeremiah was thrown into a dungeon and the king burned up his scroll, but that didn’t mean that Jeremiah could quit
5. God is ready for the church to turn to him and get serious about reaching the lost (First Peter 3:13-16)
C. Sick People
1. Jeremiah’s perspective on his nation was realistic, even unto pessimism that is hard to fault
2. perhaps we think that an age of prophecy must have been more spiritual than ours, but that does not seem to be true; human hearts are made sick by sin and sin is the one constant throughout human history (Jeremiah 17:7-10)
3. the materialism and idolatry of our time is little different from his; then the people trusted in their flimsy goodness and worldly alliances to keep them safe while today people trust in their self-esteem and carnal compacts
4. Jeremiah continues to speak to a modern audience that, deep down, does not take the gospel or the impending day of judgment seriously enough to get busy about it (Jeremiah 7:1-11)
a. Jeremiah stands at the door of the church building and asks the uncomfortable questions about what you did last night and why you think sitting on a padded pew for 45 minutes will balance it out
b. Jeremiah says go back outside and get your life in order and then return (Jeremiah 26:1-11)
5. Christians ponder times of refreshing and the remission of sins but that does no good if we make no real effort to stop sinning (James 4:8-10)
a. “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:14).
b. where is Jeremiah to tell religious people that shallow piety is not the same as heartfelt, life-altering, spirit-enlightening faith?
D. Turn Around
1. repentance is turning around and Jeremiah makes that request over 100 times in this book, promising that when people retreat from wickedness and come back to God, they will know a joy that surpasses every pleasure that sin can offer
2. instead, however, the people bought into the false security of the wicked prophets who proclaimed indulgence and divine indifference (Jeremiah 8:18-9:1)
3. warnings like these fall on deaf ears because people have heard them so frequently and for so long that the urgency has been diluted; we overlook the untimely deaths of wavering souls and discount the potential for Christ’s return in our lifetimes just enough that turning around always seems like a work for tomorrow (Romans 2:1-5)
4. we don’t have that luxury, for every day that we persist in sinning, we sink deeper into a spiritual slumber from which we might never awake
E. A New Covenant
1. Jeremiah administered the last rites of a dying covenant between man and God, wrought by Moses on the mountaintop and in the wilderness, but rejected by every generation until God acknowledged it was lost
2. Jeremiah looked forward to a new covenant, made not with a nation, but with individual believers (Jeremiah 33:14-16)
3. the New Testament letter to Hebrew Christians remarks on the fulfillment of this pledge by quoting from the thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah (Hebrews 8:6-13)
a. we are so blessed to enjoy fellowship in the new covenant of grace and hope, written on our hearts with the blood of Christ, not of the letter, but the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life (see Second Corinthians 3:6)
b. the Levitical priesthood has been replaced with a priesthood of the faithful (Hebrews 10:11-18)
F. Lamentation and Mourning
1. Jeremiah is credited also with writing the Lamentations, a book in Hebrew entitled simply Ekah, or “How” after its first word – “How lonely sits the city that was full of people,” Jeremiah laments
2. the Lamentations are expressions of grief from someone who suffered through a day of the Lord, but emerged with confessional prayer, restored hope and acknowledged dependence on God (Lamentations 1:18-22)
3. the spiritual necessity of lamentation over sin appears in the beatitudes for Christians: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:3-4).
4. Jeremiah’s honest lamentations reaffirm the surety of God’s mercy, even in the face of overwhelming punishment (Lamentations 3:19-24)
Conclusion
The weeping prophet suffered but he never gave up. Some even mistook Jesus for his resurrected character in the first century.
Major Prophets (3): Ezekiel
a gospel sermon by Jeff S. Smith
Introduction
Ezekiel is the name of a sixth-century Hebrew prophet and the book that records his work. The Hebrew translation of his name is literally “God strengthens” and his unbending message of judgment and restoration is rooted in the Lord’s hope for Israel’s remnant population after the fall of Jerusalem.
Discussion
I. Background
A. Author
1. Ezekiel spent his prophetic career among the Jewish exiles in the powerful Babylonian state, and it was there that he received his call to duty (Ezekiel 1:1-3)
2. he belonged to the Hebrew priesthood and was married, but no children are mentioned; his wife’s death is described in chapter twenty-four (see verses 15-24)
3. it could be that he was thirty years old when his prophetic career began and that he worked for twenty years, perfectly matching the active career of a priest back in Jerusalem, but the dating he uses is not that clear (see Ezekiel 1:1, 40:1; Numbers 4)
B. Setting
1. Ezekiel’s oracles are dated more completely, however, than most other prophets, beginning in the summer of 593 B.C., about five years after the initial group of exiles was deported by Nebuchadnezzar and concluding twenty-two years later in April 571
a. it was a time of great consternation among the Hebrews as even their king, Jehoiachin, went into exile after only three months on the throne (Second Kings 24:10-16)
b. Ezekiel was among his fellow exiles and began prophesying as part of God’s effort at encouraging repentance and reform even after the blows of destruction began
2. Ezekiel is not laboring in Jerusalem like Jeremiah, but is on the front lines of the exile in Babylon, addressing a community forced out of its country because they had violated their covenant with God
3. it is possible, however, that part of the goal was to transmit his prophecies back to the motherland to supplement the work that Jeremiah had been doing
C. Central Theme
1. Ezekiel’s boldness is unrelenting as he attempts to vindicate the actions of God in allowing Jerusalem to suffer and eventually fall to heathen invaders (Ezekiel 36:22-23)
2. where God’s glory seemed tarnished to a people who were more comfortable faulting him than themselves, Ezekiel stepped in to augment the message of Jeremiah and his accusations of failure among the people; still it is a message of faint hope (Ezekiel 18:31-32)
3. while his language is stark and sometimes harsh, the grandness of his visions and apocalyptic language drive the reader to ponder the truth of it all and to seek restoration
4. Ezekiel is not above using strange allegories and dramatic behavior to drive home his points
II. Modern Relevance
A. God is Holy
1. because he was of the priests, Ezekiel was very concerned with the holiness of God, the very subject of all the sacrifices and offerings that were made in the temple
2. any behavior that offended God was a matter of deep revulsion to the more sincere priests and offense was defined by the Scriptures that guided them, even if it touched upon unlawful diets or failing to observe holy days and other customs
3. he spends much time reviewing Israel’s history and trying to show his generation their role in the culmination of warnings and events (Ezekiel 20:1-32)
4. today, the church occupies the place that Israel and Judah held so tenuously in history and the message of Ezekiel must be translated as a warning to our generation that our faith might have drifted in similar fashion
a. we need an individual concern for upholding the holiness of God (First Peter 1:13-16)
b. likewise, as the very body of Christ – something greater than fleshly Israel experienced – we are required to uphold that relationship in a consistent and submissive way (Ephesians 3:7-10)
c. the only part of the church, which is the bride of Christ, that will survive to be joined with him in heaven is that which is without spot or blemish; we cannot afford to be blemishes upon the church or to mar it with apostasy, doctrinal compromise or moral backsliding (Revelation 2:19-24)
B. God is Sovereign
1. what Israel forgot over the centuries that she was testing God with her dalliances is that he remains sovereign and in control even as he extends his patience and mercy to a stiff-necked succession of generations; “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Mark 12:29).
2. can this be true even if the nation is being conquered by a godless army and heathen king who does the very things God finds objectionable in his people?
3. that confused Habakkuk as well, but the answer was affirmative as it is in this age (Ezekiel 21:19-23, 30:25)
4. God remains sovereign today even as his church seems to struggle while surrounded by flourishing apostasies and burgeoning ideologies; when the faithful were reduced to seven thousand unbending sets of knees in Elijah’s day, God was still in control, able to use the wicked to challenge the faithful and burnish their convictions
a. Jesus died on a cross and God was still in control
b. the apostles and early believers were persecuted, some to death, and God was still in control
c. the church grew and then drifted, being corrupted by Constantine and subjected to a thousand years of papal digression and now another half-millennium of half-hearted Reformation, and yet God is still in control and his kingdom stands
5. God is sovereign even today (First Corinthians 1:4-9)
a. no principality or power is able to thwart the ultimate will of your God (Romans 8:37-39)
b. and God still has his remnant (Romans 11:1-6)
C. Individual Responsibility
1. perhaps it can be argued that the nation or the church are only as holy as their individual components, that neither can be acceptable to God broadly unless there is passion for him in the homes and hearts of the faithful
2. Ezekiel stresses individual responsibility in a way that reminds the sixth century Jew and the twenty-first century Christian that judgment is ultimately a personal matter (Ezekiel 18:1-4)
a. Ezekiel shows us that sin is not a question of heredity, either from Adam or one’s own father (Ezekiel 18:5-20); Jeremiah had exposed as false the same proverb (see Jeremiah 31:29-30)
b. he even introduces to his prophecy the concept of apostasy and restoration, that sin is not necessarily a permanent impairment, but that neither is an act or habit of righteousness necessarily unchangeable as well (Ezekiel 18:21-24)
3. even as late as the first century, the Hebrews wanted their salvation and relationship with God to be defined by heredity and fleshly circumcision, but God was fulfilling his pledge to embrace the world through his son (Romans 2:28-29, Colossians 2:6-15)
4. the soul that sins – that lives in sin and is never reconciled to God – is the one that dies, not the soul that is born into the wrong race or is destroyed by the iniquity of a distant ancestor (Second Corinthians 5:6-10)
D. True Hope And Judgment
1. like Jeremiah, Ezekiel was charged with persuading his people to accept their fate before God, that they were being judged as a nation, but that each person could still be reconciled both to that concept and to a merciful God (Ezekiel 37:11-14)
2. neither false hope of instant renewal nor cynical defeatism will do anything to restore confidence and fellowship in and with God
3. Ezekiel calls us to accept our fate on this Earth, but with a new spirit of hope and confidence where a hard heart of doubt and doom was (Ezekiel 36:22-32)
a. we must be willing to receive a heart and spirit transplant through Christ and his new covenant, finding hope and salvation in obedience to him and it (Hebrews 10:19-23)
b. this gets past the flesh, to a new spirit (Second Corinthians 5:16-21)
E. Trust in Princes
1. King Jehoiachin had been replaced on Judah’s throne by a puppet ruler, his uncle Zedekiah, and throughout his prophetic book, Ezekiel is reluctant to refer to a king, but instead condemns the nation’s princes (Ezekiel 19:1-9)
2. the hope, even then, was in the promise of future prince who would rule his people with justice in a way that no king had done, from Saul to the end (Ezekiel 34:22-24)
a. hundreds of years later, Jesus would adopt that same image, king as loving shepherd (John 10:1-5), even indicating the acceptance of Gentiles like the Babylonians into the fold (John 10:16-18)
b. today, Jesus is the “chief Shepherd” (see First Peter 5:4)
3. we have learned not to “trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation” (Psalm 146:3)
Conclusion
Ezekiel is a dynamic writer and a bold exposer of everything that is rotten in the nation. His kind is rare today, when pleasantness and tolerance are more highly valued than truth, but Ezekiel reminds us that true restoration depends upon surgical precision in rebuke and repentance.
Major Prophets (4): Daniel
a gospel sermon by Jeff S. Smith
Introduction
Daniel is probably the best known of the so-called major prophets, at least for the first half of the prophetic book that bears his name and tells of his service in Babylon. It is Daniel who introduces us to the fiery furnace, handwriting on the wall, and the lions’ den. More than the other prophets, Daniel is a thoroughly developed personality and character study as well as a prophetic message about the near and distant future.
Discussion
I. Background
A. Author
1. Daniel’s name means “God is my Judge” and there are few Bible character who better exemplify the resignation and pride that Daniel took in serving only Jehovah, even when it meant risking his life and livelihood
2. like Ezekiel, Daniel was an exile in Babylon, although he made the forced journey during the time of Jehoiakim in 605 B.C.
a. Daniel also differs from the other prophets in his background; he was neither a priest nor a member of the royal household, but was a young man of the nobility (Daniel 1:1-7)
b. such men were chosen because they could be useful to the Babylonian state and from the point of his exile, Daniel continued to dwell in the court of the king, rising and diminishing in influence, but never quite disappearing until his death, even when the Medo-Persian empire conquered Babylon
3. Daniel was a young man, but one who exhibited great courage, and as the probable writer of the book, also told of the valor of his three associates, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah
B. Setting
1. many of the chapters in Daniel are dated, ranging from the first year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign in 605 B.C. to Cyrus’s third year, 536, allowing us to know clearly when Daniel was working
2. although he wrote while in the midst of his oppressors, Daniel was addressing his countrymen who would one day read of God’s work among the heathen and especially his sovereignty at a time when it seemed as if everything was suddenly spinning out of God’s hands
3. the audiences for Daniel’s prophecies were initially these oppressing kings and nations who rose and fell as God caused the scheme of salvation to proceed through the empires
4. Daniel’s prophecies are so detailed and precise that modern skeptics and scholars surmise they were not written until the second century B.C., after the fact of many of them
a. the first half of the book of Daniel is composed of narratives about Daniel and his friends as they struggled to hold their faith in a pagan society, where religious freedom was also threatened
b. the second half contains Daniel’s apocalyptic visions, which illustrate God’s sovereignty and awareness of his people’s yearning for relief as the kingdom approaches (Daniel 7:21-28)
C. Central Theme
1. common to many of these prophets, the theme of Daniel is Jehovah’s continued sovereignty over the affairs of men even as his people suffer the results of their apostasy (Daniel 2:21, 4:34-37)
2. earthly kingdoms come and go, as do their rulers, kings and even presidents, but God remains upon his mighty throne and is not swept aside
3. God simply will not be deterred, even by his own people’s reluctance, from establishing his kingdom and rewarding the faithful (Daniel 12:1-3)
II. Modern Relevance
A. Sojourners and Pilgrims
1. as the book opens, Daniel and his friends quickly discover that they will either have to adapt their convictions to the new economy or risk losing their lives (Daniel 1:8-16)
a. the faithful four resolved to avoid the luxurious diet of the king to insulate themselves from the snares of Babylonian culture; they were not willing to go along to get along and their peculiar diet was a way of holding on to their identity as Jews even as Babylonia overwhelmed them otherwise
b. where the king hoped for his new servants to assimilate into his culture, men of deep conviction would not be willing to compromise the essential aspects of their faith
c. surely this meant abstaining from foods that were forbidden by the Law of Moses, but it must have also included a concern about eating meats that had been offered to idols
2. it is probably easy to identify with Daniel in some ways when you travel to distant lands and are confronted by an unfamiliar culture with strange food, laws, customs, language and clothing
a. but the real analogy hits much closer to home in that we should be able to identify with Daniel without going anywhere, for we are already sojourners, pilgrims and exiles on Earth, so long as we are separated from God’s throne (First Peter 2:9-12)
b. we are the heirs of the circumstances that confronted the apostles as they contended for the faith in Palestine and throughout the Roman empire (John 17:9-17)
3. like the faithful four, God’s word is going to require us to risk our popularity and sacrifice fleshly luxuries and enjoyment to be not only faithful, but distinctive as well
a. when we begin sampling items from the devil’s table, perhaps because everyone else is or because it seems to be necessary to avoid conflict, we are losing our pilgrim status and heavenly citizenship (First Peter 4:1-5)
b. our place is with Abraham, Daniel and Jesus, outside the camp of popular acceptance, but inside the arms of an understanding God, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:12-14).
B. Fiery Furnace
1. Daniel and his friends are a study in the wisdom and benefits that come from being faithful to God rather than adopting a worldly philosophy that is only effective temporarily (Daniel 1:17-20)
2. prayer, study and providence can lend to the Christian unparalleled insight into the meaning of life and the wisdom of the ages, something not found in psychologies and philosophies that come and go
3. persecution, whether committed by sadistic monarchs or modern bullies, can expose vulnerabilities that were never apparent, but it is just then that faithful people must hold firm, even unto death or mockery (Daniel 3:1-8, 12, 16-30)
4. we see the apostles, especially Peter and John, being plunged into the Jews’ own fiery furnace in first century Jerusalem, and we see a similarly faithful response, but not the same outcome (Acts 4:1-3, 13-20)
a. the Christians refused to be silenced and the Sanhedrin refused to give up threatening them (Acts 5:25-29, 40-42)
b. while an angel released them from prison, it was only temporary relief; eventually the apostles were persecuted to the death, but their martyrdom only intensified interest in their cause and the church grew until it couldn’t be tormented that way any more for a long time
5. what fiery trial awaits you?
a. all Christians who are at least as committed as Daniel’s friends will suffer very real persecution, even if the threats are more emotional than physical (Second Timothy 3:10-13)
b. we are looking for similar resignation and even joy in fellowship with a savior who died for us (First Peter 4:12-19)
c. maybe we are avoiding the fiery furnace because we have subconsciously sought a way to worship God and the devil’s imagery at the same time
C. Thy Kingdom Come
1. one of Daniel’s prophetic themes was the certainty of a restoration of God’s kingdom, not in the same manner as Israel once ruled Palestine, but through an eternal, spiritual, unbreakable kingdom
2. God caused Daniel to see a half-millennium’s worth of world history before it occurred (Daniel 2:31-35)
a. he described each part of the image as representing successive kingdoms, beginning with Babylon and extending historically through Medo-Persia, Greece and into Rome, the last great empire during which the Messiah was to be born and God’s kingdom was to come (Daniel 2:44-45)
b. Daniel could see the church, the spiritually called-out of every nation, serving God on Earth and into Heaven, before the throne of Christ (Daniel 7:9-10)
3. Jesus taught his disciples to pray for the kingdom to come and for things to be done on earth as they are in heaven, promising to give the keys to the kingdom to Peter and the apostles, and that the gates of Hades, which ordinarily prevent the dead from emerging, would not hinder the establishment of his kingdom (see Matthew 6:10, 16:18-19)
a. it was Peter who played a leading role in opening the gates to the everlasting kingdom by preaching that first gospel sermon on Pentecost, ushering in thousands of believing souls (Acts 2:22-24, 29-41, 47)
b. God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13)
c. “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe” (Hebrews 12:28).
4. this kingdom is not earthly, but eternal, not physical, but spiritual, and citizenship belongs to the obedient believer (see Hebrews 5:8-9)
D. Handwriting on the Wall
1. Daniel continued to serve Babylon beyond Nebuchadnezzar, being summoned by King Belshazzar to explain a new mystery (Daniel 5:1-6, 17-28, 30)
2. the phrase, “handwriting on the wall” has become an axiomatic way of announcing that something negative is foreseen and unchangeable
3. the handwriting on Belshazzar’s wall is not exclusive to him, however – so many are doomed because their days are numbered and before God, they are clearly wanting (Acts 24:24-25)
a. righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come – that message terrified Felix sufficiently that he could listen no longer, but not enough to persuade him to act positively and penitently
b. instead, he procrastinated, planning to respond in some more convenient season and way, willing only to seek financial incentives from the preacher to keep coming, until two years had passed and the opportunity was clearly gone
4. how long will you hold the gospel at arms’ length and ignore the handwriting on the wall?
a. righteousness is doing good, self-control is abstaining from evil and both comprise the works by which God will judge all men at the end (see Romans 2:6)
b. that handwriting is on the wall, even if your own fate remains unresolved as you procrastinate; just understand that the stupor the overtook Felix can be borrowed today as well as each day fades into the next (Ephesians 5:15-17)
E. Lions’ Den
1. time and again in the story of Daniel, we see God’s people taking stands and risks and being rewarded with deliverance and the lesson is about trust and courage (Daniel 6:8-24)
2. even brutal Nebuchadnezzar is cast in a positive light at he accepts God here and there, but the truth is also that immediate deliverance from persecution and trial is not guaranteed
3. the devil is like a roaring lion, prowling the earth and examining the church for stragglers that can be devoured while there is time (see First Peter 5:8)
4. it is no surprise that prayer is so key to this passage; it gets Daniel into trouble with men and keeps him in fellowship with God (First Thessalonians 5:16-22)
a. “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” (Romans 12:11-12).
b. there is no fellowship with God and no hope without regular prayer; the lions will eventually shatter your bones and dine on your marrow unless you keep the line open to eternity
Conclusion
Daniel is both prophetic and practical, a character and book that excites the hope of the Christian who sometimes struggles against trial and persecution. God is in control and the kingdom is in his hands.
Questions for Review
Major Prophets (1): Isaiah
Major Prophets (2): Jeremiah
Major Prophets (3): Ezekiel
Major Prophets (4): Daniel