Bible Fiber

This week we are studying the first chapter of Habakkuk. More than any of the other prophetic books, Habakkuk provides a glimpse into the nature of the relationship between Yahweh and his messengers. Habakkuk is not delivering an oracle to the people. His book is not a recording of a sermon with “Thus saith” or “Woe to you.” His book is a prayer dialogue that was once personal and became public. What we find in his back and forth with God is a bold honesty on the part of the prophet and a gentle sincerity emanating from Yahweh.

Superscription

Habakkuk does not provide much in the way of a biographical sketch in his superscription, not his town of origin, his father’s name, or the name of any reigning kings during his ministry. Even his name is of questionable etymology. Habak either stems from the Hebrew word for “embrace” or an Akkadian root for garden flower.

The book begins “the oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw” (1:1). Blink and you will miss an important detail. Habakkuk’s name includes the title “prophet.” He is the only preexilic prophet to have his name associated with the title. And there are only two postexilic books in the Bible that use the title prophet in their superscription: Haggai (1:1) and Zechariah (1:1). Biblical scholars theorize that the inclusion of the prophetic title in Habakkuk indicates that he was a professional prophet at the Jerusalem Temple. Habakkuk is familiar with temple liturgy, as will become apparent in the last section. His inclusion among the elites of Jerusalem stands in contrast to a messenger like Amos who was a shepherd turned prophet operating on the margins.

Despite the short superscription, there are historical hints later in the text that help date the prophet’s ministry. In chapter one, Yahweh announces the rise of the Babylonians and describes their rapid advance across the Ancient Near East. Scholars deduce from this clue that the prophet’s ministry had to date before the Babylonians took on an international superpower status. Habakkuk also has to date before the three successive Babylonian invasions of Jerusalem (605, 597, and 586 BCE). Otherwise, Yahweh’s announcement is more a flash of the obvious than a divine revelation

The book opens with Habakkuk lamenting the poor spiritual health of Judah. It is unlikely the prophet would have complained about Judah’s disobedience to the law if he were writing during the reign of the righteous King Josiah (630-609 BCE). Josiah implemented many religious reforms, including the purging of the Assyrian cult from the land. Josiah also encouraged a return to the covenantal obligations in the Torah, but Habakkuk describes the law in his day as being paralyzed. Habakkuk was most likely a witness to the reversal of Josiah’s reforms during the reign of King Jehoiakim (608-598 BCE). Although Jehoiakim was the son of Josiah, he disregarded the Torah laws and allowed for the return of idol worship.

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Obadiah is only twenty-one verses, the shortest book in all the Hebrew scripture. So, as part of our Bible reading challenge, the length of Obadiah is not the hard part to tackle. But the content of Obadiah requires a history lesson that goes well beyond the twenty-one verses. Obadiah is an oracle of judgement against Edom.

How did a short prophetic book written about the sins and punishment of one neighboring nation make it into the cannon? Well, Edom is not your average ancestral enemy. With this first Bible Fiber on Obadiah, I am going to give you a biblical timeline of the Edomites that stretches from the birth of Jacob and Esau to the birth of Jesus. And that way next week, we put Obadiah’s oracle which seems only to be focused on the Edomite problem in the bigger context it deserves.

Obadiah is rooted in the brotherly feud between Jacob and Esau, the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. As told in Genesis 25, Rebekah understood even during her pregnancy that the two sons in her womb were at odds with each other. The Lord told her: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger” (Gen. 25:23).

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Welcome to Bible Fiber where we are encountering the textures and shades of the prophetic tapestry in a year-long study of the twelve minor prophets, one prophet each month. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel. Joel is our prophet for October.

A slim three-chapter book, you would think the book of Joel hardly makes it into a sermon. But in fact, the prophecies of Joel were critical to the teachings of the apostles, as they tried to make sense of their commission to spread the Good News to all the nations.

In Acts 2, Peter interpreted the unusual events of Pentecost as the fulfillment of Joel’s vision for the Day of the Lord. Paul went out into the world to preach the good news of the Gospel under the mantra of Joel 2:32: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” And when John the Apostle was banished to the island of Patmos, he described the apocalypse using Joel’s imagery of an enthroned Yahweh delivering judgement to the guilty nations like a sickle reaping a harvest (Rev. 14:15; Joel 3:13) or treading grapes in a winepress (Rev. 14:19; Joel 3:13).

For our reading challenge, I have been assigning chapters that complement the organization system of our modern Bibles. But as you know, these chapter divisions are arbitrary, especially with the prose of the prophets. Joel more naturally divides into two compositions: Joel 1:1 to 2:27 and Joel 2:28 to 3:21. While the first half speaks to the present wreckage left by a severe invasion of locusts. The second half transforms into eschatological prophecies about the future Day of the Lord. The two sections work as parallel poems.

In the first poem, Yahweh is the commander of an army of locusts set to destroy a disobedient Judah. Joel summons the people to Jerusalem to fast, pray, and repent of their sins. Yahweh is moved by the sincerity of their humbled hearts, and He reverses every curse that was visited upon them by the locust army. In the second poem, Yahweh is the judge of all the nations during a day of judgement that will far overshadow the trials of a locust plague. But the righteous of Judah will be saved, while Judah’s historic enemies will be punished.

Joel’s poetry fluidly goes from past to present to future. The locust plague is the judgement that got Judah’s attention. The Day of Yahweh will still use the forces of nature and cosmic disruptions to alert all the nations of Yahweh’s hand. Joel says that when the Day of the Lord nears, “the sun and the moon are darkened and the stars withdraw their shining” and “the heavens and the earth shake” (3:15).
The turning point in Joel from judgement to deliverance occurs in Joel 2:18. Yahweh heard the prayers of the people as they petitioned them with “their whole hearts” (2:12). The prayers moved Yahweh to compassion and He “became jealous for His land and had pity on His people.” The Hebrew in Joel suddenly makes effective use of the first-person possessive pronoun “My.” The people, the land, the silver and the gold are all Yahweh’s and He will reclaim what belongs to Him. He brought them out of slavery and gave them the land of Canaan. It is not the prerogative of the nations to undo the works of God.

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This week, we are continuing our study of Hosea so be sure to read Hosea chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9 as part of our Bible Reading challenge.

As a refresher, the first three chapters of Hosea are all about the prophet’s marriage to Gomer and how Gomer’s infidelity is an extended metaphor for Israel’s unfaithfulness. Chapters 4 and 5 begin the message of Hosea. Gomer is never mentioned again and the prophet oscillates back and forth between a message of mercy and a message of judgement. Chapters 6 through 9, however, are almost all judgement. Switching between third person and first-person voice, the prophet offers a litany of metaphors, similes, and analogies for the ways Israel has gone wrong and their coming punishment. More than the other minor prophets, Hosea catalogs the sins of the people with his own unique focus on their inner life, the relational aspect of Israel’s approach to God.

As your tour guide through Hosea, I want to go deeper into the chapters and verses to further explain the concepts that I briefly introduced. Consider this the equivalent of actually reading the placards at the museum and not just breezing through the hallways.

Hosea 6:4 to 11:7 is one long decree, written mostly in first person but occasionally slips into third person. The speech begins with Yahweh speaking directly to the people: “When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree” (Hos. 9:10). In verses like these, Yahweh is the obvious speaker. But four verses down, in Hosea 9:14, it is no longer the voice of Yahweh but of Hosea uttering a prayer to the Lord. In Hosea 8:13, the voice changes from first to third person within two sentences: “For the sacrifices of My offerings they sacrifice flesh and eat it, but the Lord does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.” These are abrupt changes in perspective writing and can make reading Hosea disorienting. The book of Daniel is written similarly.

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This week we are studying Nehemiah 4, an extra dramatic passage that is mined more than any other chapter in Nehemiah for application that applies to the lives of believers today.

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