Instructions: Please read all material assigned from the book and all information

Instructions:

Please read all material assigned from the book and all information provided below (required reading material highlighted in light blue). Questions that need to be answered are highlighted in yellow. Please answer all questions thoroughly and completely. 300 word minimum, APA Format, include citations, and list references.

Read all of listed chapters below (all chapters are attached).

Daniel (entire book)
The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the
Three Jews

Bel and the Dragon from the
Apocrypha)

Hosea (entire book)

Amos (entire book)

Jonah (entire book)

When we think of prophets, we generally think of people who can predict the future. Something that we know from Hosea, Amos, and the rest of the Old Testament prophets is that they spoke for God, and they wrote as a warning to the people of Israel and Judah. They were not writing to predict the future as much as they were writing to warn their political and religious leaders what would happen if they didn’t change their ways and begin seriously obeying God (especially in the way they treated the poor and oppressed). I would point out that there is a distinction between prophets, like Hosea and Amos, and apocalypticists, like Daniel. While prophets were using the present to predict the future that would happen if people didn’t repent, apocalyptic writers were writing to give hope to the faithful that God would soon intervene on their behalf–to end the evils befalling them in the present. Daniel writes of a future where God will bring this world to an end, judging the living and the dead–punishing the evil to eternal damnation and rewarding the faithful with eternal bliss. While prophets like Isaiah seem to predict a coming conquering king anointed by God, Daniel is the only OT prophet to say that God revealed to him a messiah that would be an eternal ruler worshiped by all people for all time.

In contrast to Daniel, Hosea is a typical OT prophetic book. God reveals to Hosea that his relationship with his cheating wife Gomer is a metaphor for God’s relationship with the unfaithful Israel (Ephraim). However, Hosea has a happier ending than many of the prophetic books. The message is that just as Hosea will rescue Gomer from the horrible life she makes for herself, God will do the same for Israel. God’s love endures forever.

I reread Amos the same day I saw the movie “Oppenheimer.” Oppenheimer and other scientists involved in the Manhattan Project were a little concerned that setting off an atomic bomb might cause a nuclear chain reaction that would ignite the earth’s atmosphere, destroying every living thing. I kept thinking that must have been how Amos saw God’s fury when it would come to this sinful world. I asked myself, what would Amos have thought about powerful countries–Israel included–that spend billions and billions of dollars on weapons of mass destruction while millions and millions of people live in abject poverty?

Jonah is the last thing I asked you to read this week. What most Christians know about Jonah is that he was swallowed by a big fish and lived in the fish’s belly for three days. JONAH IS NOT A STORY ABOUT A MAN WHO GETS SWALLOWED BY A FISH AND LIVES THERE FOR THREE DAYS! THAT’S AN INCIDENTAL PART OF THE STORY. Do most Christians appreciate that Jonah is an exquisite satire about our own selfishness and religious bigotry? Probably not. Which is unfortunate since it shows God to be a supremely merciful judge, who has compassion for even the lowliest sinners; a God who also is clearly not happy with pious hypocrites who claim to follow Him but are in fact filled with hatred for their enemies and want only to see them destroyed; who care more about their own personal comfort than the wellbeing of an entire city. The author of Jonah clearly wants us to see in Jonah an overly pious, overly nationalistic prophet who cannot share or appreciate God’s mercy. The conclusion of the story–which is the most important part of the story–has God questioning whether Jonah or the Ninevites are the true servants of God. It was a lesson the author felt all Israelites who prided themselves on their piety and their adoration of Israel needed to hear.

For this week’s discussion, I would like you to consider these two multi-questions:

1) If Daniel or Amos or Hosea lived among us today, what would their prophecies be? Use what you’ve learned about those prophets to talk about what you think their warnings would be. What injustices would they grieve most deeply about? Would they have a message of hope for the world? Or would there only be dire warnings?

2) In your opinion, why do you think the author of Jonah chose to use satire to make their point rather than writing a direct condemnation of hypocritical and judgmental religious figures? In the end, how does God feel about Jonah? What is the message there for us?