OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS
(TOPICAL DETAIL)

 

<---------------------- HISTORY ----------------------> WRITINGS <---------------------PROPHETS--------------------->
     
Genesis Exodus Joshua Job Isaiah Jeremiah Hosea
  Leviticus Judges Psalms   Lamentations Joel
  Numbers Ruth Proverbs   Ezekiel Amos
  Deuteronomy I Samuel Ecclesiastes   Daniel Obadiah
    II Samuel

 Song of Songs

     Jonah
    I Kings       Micah
    II Kings       Nahum
    I Chronicles       Habakkuk
    II Chronicles       Zephaniah
    Babylonian Exile       Babylonian Exile
    Ezra       Haggai
    Nehemiah       Zechariah
    Esther       Malachi

 

Once again, the arrangement of the prophetic books is not chronological. Although Isaiah wrote during the 8th century BC, about 100-150 years before Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel who prophesied at the advent and then through the Babylonian Exile, the first nine of the prophets in the final column lived from Isaiah through that intervening period. In fact, they may be arranged so as to reflect God's progressive prophetic revelation over that entire time period. For example,

 

ISAIAH

The book of Isaiah sets the stage for all of the prophecies to follow. It begins with foundations in the Law but then moves to the end of time when God will create a New Heaven and a New Earth. In this respect, it matches the final chapters in the New Testament book of Revelation.

Isaiah’s prophecies began in a time frame shortly before the Assyrian invasion and destruction of the Northern kingdom of Israel, continued through a time when that Gentile empire troubled the Southern kingdom of Judah, and ended after God had intervened and Assyria was no longer a threat. Though Isaiah witnessed the demise of the Northern kingdom, his prophecies focused on Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah, which he likened to Sodom.

We may organize the book into three main sections.

It has well been recognized that this is a book of contrasts, for the first 39 chapters emphasize God’s judgements against His people and the Gentiles alike, while the final 27 chapters speak of redemption and grace to be dispensed in future times. The dichotomy is so striking that some have opined that these two sections could not have been written by the same person but penned by several individuals then amalgamated at some later time.

However another view is suggested that is more in keeping with our organizational perspective. A thoughtful inspection of the book shows a structure that generally correlates with the entire Bible. The first 39 chapters emphasize judgement while the final 27 chapters highlight redemptive grace. Similarly, the first 39 books of the Old Testament pertain to Law, justice, and judgement, while the final 27 books of the New Testament show us grace, redemption, and eternal life. It is in that second part of Isaiah where Messiah’s sacrifice is detailed (Isaiah 53), and it is surely more than coincidental that the specific text that John the Baptist used to defend his ministry at the beginning of the New Testament also appears at the very beginning of Isaiah’s section on the Messianic redemption to come (Isaiah 40.3-5). Accordingly, the book of Isaiah represents a fitting description for things to come for it moves from the Law, to the coming of Messiah, to the Age that will follow, to the end of time.

 

JEREMIAH
LAMENTATIONS
EZEKIEL
DANIEL

These books are naturally grouped together because they are all prophetic in content and all pertain to the subject of the Exile of the Southern kingdom of Judah. Nonetheless, there are important distinctions to be made that militate for the breakout shown below.

 

JEREMIAH
LAMENTATIONS

Jeremiah is often called the "weeping prophet" because it became his melancholy duty to chronicle the tragic demise of Judah and the end of the Old Covenant upon which National Israel had been conceived. Jeremiah looked forward to God’s imminent judgement to befall Judah, to the Exile of the people, and desolation of the Land. It was the end of an Old Testament era never to be resurrected in its former glory and was a time of heart-rending grief. The book may be organized into six sections without a clear chronological organization.

The book of Lamentations has been termed "an elegy written in a graveyard". It is a memorial dirge eulogizing the destruction and humiliation of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, portraying Jerusalem’s excruciating plight, Jeremiah’s grief, and Jehovah’s unrestrained wrath. It ends with a forlorn prayer for restoration.

 

EZEKIEL

Ezekiel also lived through the time of Judah’s fall, but his focus was on its effect on the Temple by the departure of God, rather than on the people or the desolation of the Land. Like Isaiah, this book is a highly structured book, yet there is no direct mention of the first coming of Messiah or of His sacrifice for sin. Instead his prophecies begin with judgement, then seem to leapfrog past the first coming of Messiah to a time when the entire nation will be restored back in the Land. He prophesies a future time of restoration, a new in-dwelling Spirit to be given to the Hebrew people, and a new Temple where God will once again abide.

The book may be organized in the following way.

 

DANIEL

Both the book of Daniel and the man himself are fascinating subjects. Daniel was a man of exemplary character and ability. He is one of the few persons in the Old Testament against whom there is no suggestion of error or wrong-doing. Even Ezekiel who was his contemporary placed him on a high pedestal when he extolled his wisdom (Ezekiel 28.3). Although Daniel rose to a position of great political power in the Babylonian Empire, his zeal to obey the God of his fathers and his love for his heritage never waned. Daniel was taken into Exile in an alien land at a young age never to return to his beloved Homeland, but the Lord blessed him with incredible prophetic foresight. He looked beyond that Gentile empire to others that would come after, he foresaw the coming of the Messiah, and then was given a glimpse of the final redemption of his people at the time of the end!

The book of Daniel is highly organized and may be subdivided as follows:

 

HOSEA
JOEL
AMOS
OBADIAH
JONAH
MICAH
NAHUM
HABAKKUK
ZEPHANIAH

These writers are sometimes called the "minor prophets", possibly because the subjects of their prophecies tend to be more restricted in scope. They do not deal directly with future blessings to come to the Gentiles nor stress many details of the first coming of Messiah. Furthermore, their judgements against the Gentile nations tend to be more localized to those powers neighboring Israel. Nonetheless, their prophecies dovetail with statements made by the four "major prophets" just discussed and do contain some unique nuggets of Messianic revelation.

 

HOSEA
JOEL
AMOS
OBADIAH
JONAH

These five prophets are tied together by one common thread; they all lived and prophesied prior to the Assyrian invasion of the Northern kingdom of Israel. Though they deal with a diversity of topics, future Millennial blessings are generally contrasted against Israel’s immediate judgements. It is of singular interest to note that all of the intermediate periods of Israel’s history dealing with the Babylonian Exile, post-Exile, Inter-Testament, Messiah’s first coming, or the Church-Age are omitted, at least overtly. In keeping with this is the fact that the Northern kingdom, partly addressed by these prophecies, will not exist during those intermediate periods, so there would be no reason to prophesy to them of details concerning those times.

The prophecies in these five books may be outlined as follows:

 

MICAH

Micah, like Isaiah, prophesied through that time of destruction by the Assyrians but then continued his warnings to the Southern kingdom. This prophet, along with Isaiah, began to reveal the coming of Messiah and the new Covenant that He would bring, since that would represent the next major event in God’s Redemptive Plan (Micah 5.1-5). Jewish Bible scholars quoted this very text when the location of the Messiah’s birth was questioned in a meeting between king Herod and a group of "magi" who had journeyed from the East (Matthew 2.1-6).

His prophecies are outlined in the following way:

 

NAHUM
HABAKKUK
ZEPHANIAH

Again there is a commonality among these three prophets, for they all lived and prophesied after the Assyrian invasion of the Northern kingdom. Moreover, their messages are quite timely for that period. Nahum prophesies of God’s vengeance to come upon Assyria because they destroyed Israel, while Habakkuk and Zephaniah look forward to the coming destruction of Judah.

Had these Pre-Exilic prophets not given hope of future blessings for national Israel, that time of Exile would have been unbearable even for the most stalwart of faith, for it was far more devastating to the Hebrews than a single venting of God’s wrath. It was actually a systematic curtailment of all aspects of His Covenant with those people. That original Covenant given through Moses had promised they would be a separate and distinct people with individual blessings bestowed upon them if they obeyed. The Covenant also promised safety in a Land flowing with "milk and honey". Finally, it promised the presence of God Himself. They could meet with Him for forgiveness of temporal sins and guidance through the priesthood, as He filled the Temple with His "Shekinah Glory".

The Babylonian judgement ended all of those things.

  1. First, the people were individually delivered into a condition of abject slavery where they no longer had a king, a government, a society, or any rights as a separate and distinct people.

  1. Second, they were physically uprooted from their homeland and families, dragged into an alien heathen nation who neither knew their God nor respected their culture.

  1. Third, the God of their fathers ceremoniously departed from Solomon’s Temple prior to its destruction, signifying His rejection of the entire nation, and summarily abolishing the whole purpose for the Temple as a place where they could meet with Him. Its physical destruction precluded even ritualistically obedience of the commandments to offer animal sacrifices for sins, thereby voiding any assurance that future sins would be forgiven.

Therefore, what happened at the time of this judgement appeared to be the death knell for any future Covenant with the God of their fathers. For these reasons, the promise of hope given by these prophets was vital if these people were to maintain their unique standing as God’s Chosen People.

Here are outlines of these three books:

 

HAGGAI
ZECHARIAH
MALACHI

These three prophets continue that theme of God’s Redemptive Plan as they collectively gave their messages following the Babylonian Exile. The Exile was over, the Babylonian Empire had fallen, and Jeremiah’s prediction that the time of desolation would last only 70 years had come true (Jeremiah 25.11-12). Yet the nation that reformed back in the Land was a mere shadow of the one that had existed at the time of Solomon, and the Temple under construction at the time of Haggai and Zechariah was but a shabby replica of Solomon’s that had been one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The people still needed a prophetic word to assure them that God was not through with them. This was provided by these Post-Exilic prophets.

 

HAGGAI
ZECHARIAH

These two men were contemporaries, prophesying at a time shortly after the initial return of the Remnant under Zerubbabel.

Haggai turned his attention to the present condition of the second Temple whose construction languished. He first urged the people to dedicate themselves to the rebuilding task, then gave them a vision of a future time when its glory would be greater than ever before. In that time the prophecy continued, the strength of the Gentile nations would be overthrown and Israel would be made a "signet ring" in the hands of the Lord as His chosen nation.

Zechariah had little to say of the Temple per se but rather proclaimed a series of prophecies beginning with the Babylonian judgement and ending with Messiah’s apocalyptic return and establishment of His Millennial Kingdom.

These two books may be organized as follows:

 

MALACHI

Malachi was the last of the prophets and wrote the last book in the Old Testament. It was written over 100 years after the previous two Post-Exilic prophets, at a time when the Hebrews in the Land appeared to have relapsed to a state of spiritual lethargy. God reaffirmed His love for His people but admonished them because of their defiled offerings, corrupt priests, marriage infidelities, and slothful giving. He announced that the lord would return suddenly to His Temple and enter into judgement against them, for he promised that the great and terrible day of the Lord was coming.

His prophecies may be outlined as follows:

 

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