JOE TUNON

STORY 8: The Exiles (2 Kings, 2 Chronicles 10-36, Micah, Jeremiah, Nahum, Habbakuk, Zephaniah, Exekiel, Isaiah 40-55)

The prophets (both in the north and south) relay God’s will to the kings and warn them about breaking the laws of Moses. For example, at one point, orphans and widows are being neglected, and the gap between the rich and the poor grows too wide, so God calls the major prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah to send them messages of doom, first to Israel in the north, who will be taken over and exiled by the Assyrian empire, then to Judah in the south, who will be taken over and exiled by the Babylonian empire. The prophesies that predict this also contain a message of hope, however, predicting that after their exiles, they will return to their promised land and have a king in the line of David to make things right. Living amongst the exiles is a third major prophet, Ezekiel, who also prophesies about their eventual return, and he even envisions a day when the dead rise from their graves and grow new flesh on their dry bones. He further prophesies that one day God himself would shepherd his people. Going back to the prophet Isaiah, there’s a prophecy in the form of a song about a suffering servant that appears to describe the people of Israel but also appears to describe an individual person who will bear the people’s sins and be wounded for their transgressions. In the meantime, the prophets are calling out the people for giving God nothing but lip service, saying yes to him with their words but no to him with their actions. And so as the enemy empires approach and threaten to take over each kingdom, the prophets’ forecast is clear: bad news.