Week #32 | "Reading the Prophets for Fun and (Spiritual) Profit"

 LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

Read Nahum 1-3; Jeremiah 1-6, 25-26, 35-36, 45-47; Daniel 1-2; Habakkuk 1-3; 2 Kings 23-24; 2 Chronicles 36

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Jeremiah, and the Temple, and time. You might have noticed that in the readings for Week #32, the Jeremiah chapters had you bouncing back and forth: first through Jeremiah 1-6, then off to chapters 46-47, then back to Jeremiah 25-26, and then shooting way forward in the book to five verses of Jeremiah 45. What is going on here? The book of Jeremiah unfolds sort of like a Christopher Nolan film, with the chronology all split up and rearranged, in order to make a bigger point. Some messages or events are even related multiple times. So, for example, we first see Jeremiah's Temple Sermon, sequentially, in Jeremiah 7:1-8:3. Then we see it referred to again in Jeremiah 19:14-20:18 where we are told about the resulting capture and beating -and inexplicable release- of Jeremiah by Pashhur the Priest as the result of his preaching that message in the Temple. Finally, in Jeremiah 26:1-24 we see the decision of the officials of Judah, telling the prophets and the priests (like Pashhur) to let Jeremiah go free. This helps to explain why Jeremiah was released. We are also told that this happened at the beginning of the reign of King Jehoiakim. Put together, this all helps to make sense of why, in Jeremiah 36:1-6, during the fourth year of King Jehoiakim, Jeremiah has to send his assistant Baruch to preach in the Temple, because he says "I am banned from going to the house of the LORD" (Jer. 36:5). Now, confusingly, these passages weren't all added together in this week's reading--we only covered Jeremiah 26. But they do all relate the same event, and highlighting that helps us to see an interesting bit about how the book of Jeremiah is organized: it's disorganized, but in an intentional way, clearly highlighting the ministry of Jeremiah as a man on the run, the weeping prophet whose message was despised and rejected by men, and yet whose stature before God was greater than any man of his generation. It makes me wonder whose approval I am living for the most--how about you?

Jesus in the Book of Nahum. The book of Nahum most clearly points to Jesus in its use of material from previous books of the Bible. This is interesting, because many books of the New Testament will go on to do use this same way of writing to assert Jesus' divinity. So for example, (1) we see Nahum 1:3 quote Exodus 34:5-8, where the fuller quote lays out the tension of God's character in relation to sin: God is both "forgiving iniquity" and "will by no means clear the guilty" (Ex. 36:7). How can God do both of these--to forgive iniquity, without clearing the guilty? (2) The answer comes in the next passage that Nahum quotes, where Nahum 1:15 quotes Isaiah 52:7 by saying, "Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace!" This second reference is almost word-for-word to the point in Scripture where God clearly reveals the solution to the tension seen all the way back in the book of Exodus. Because, in Isaiah 52:7, God begins to reveal the plan for how he will resolve this problem through the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 52-53 who will bear the sin of his people and suffer the penalty of guilt on their behalf. The wording here is so exact that Nahum cannot be doing anything except quoting Isaiah 52:7 in his own book. It is subtle, but Nahum's prophesy of judgment lays a sub-text of Gospel hope in its use of material from earlier books of Scripture. It's almost like on the surface it's saying, the time for judgment is at hand--but just under the surface, by the way it uses quotations, it points to God's plan to deal with the problem of sin in a much more significant way: through Jesus.

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean