Latter Prophets (using notes) Flashcards
What is the message of the book of Nahum?
- God cares for his own - will stick up for justice and righteousness (on his timing)
- God judges sin - consequences for being inhumane
How is the book of Jeremiah structured?
Four sections:
- 1st person oracles and prose
- 3rd person prose (includes book of consolation)
- Oracles against the nations
- Appendix of God fulfilling his word
- Not chronological order, events of 605 referred to multiple times
What is the message of the book of Obadiah?
- Judgment - God enforces justices (we’re responsible for our own actions)
- God demands righteousness
- Restoration - covenant, connection, relationship
Summarize the book of Micah.
- Consequences of sin: losing the land
- Poor human leadership
- Inability of the people to make things right
- God will grant forgiveness and will gather a remnant back
Which book is in response to the Edomites helping the Babylonians when they destroyed Jerusalem?
Obadiah
Who was the last chronological prophet?
Malachi
Give a summary of the book of Obadiah.
- Edom specifically will be punished
- All nations will be judged (including Judah), but God will be a king of the exiles who will return
Who was Hosea’s audience?
Israel (northern kingdom)
Who was Micah’s audience?
Jerusalem (Judah), especially king Hezekiah
What are the contributions of Isaiah to theology?
- Alludes to the richness of depth of God, many different names for God
- Many pictures of the coming Messiah: Emmanuel born from a virgin, suffering servant, anointed one
Which prophet was a former shepherd and fig nipper?
Amos
Which prophet was the chief interpreter of the faith crisis after the fall of Jerusalem?
Jeremiah
Which prophet was taken into exile as a child and served Nebuchadnezzar?
Daniel
Why did Ezekiel prophesy and act in ways that seem strange?
- Time of people being jaded and disbelieving
- Needed to get a cynical audience’s attention
- Attracts attention, easy to understand and remember
To whom did Amos address his prophesy?
To the Israelites (northern kingdom) at Bethel
Name the major prophets.
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
Daniel
Summarize the book of Isaiah.
- Human attempts at self-sufficiency lead to God’s judgment
- Turning to God leads to salvation and comfort
- Messiah coming
- Calls people to righteousness and justice, to imitate God
What is the message of the book of Zechariah?
- God’s kingdom will triumph even though there is spiritual evil forces
- God will come again and establish a kingdom of righteousness and peace
- Be faithful - obey and don’t give up
What is the message of the book of Jonah?
- God’s compassion
- God’s heart for the nations
- Basis for mission
What is the message of the book of Zephaniah?
- Day of the Lord, aimed at all but especially at Judah
Which is the first of the twelve minor prophets?
Hosea
Summarize the book of Zephaniah.
- On the coming day of the Lord, the surrounding nations and Jerusalem would be severely punished for its sins against God
- However, God would restore a remnant
Which prophet focused on describing how a plague of locusts illustrates how God uses discipline in our lives?
Joel
What is the significance of the ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah?
- People had become jaded spiritually (hence Malachi)
- Ezra returns with the law - worship and the knowledge of the law
- Nehemiah helped rebuild the walls so people could stop worrying about safety
- After wall complete, bring a revival to the people
- People learning again how to do God’s will
What is the message of the book of Micah?
- God puts things back together and will restore where we broke everything with our sin
- Focuses on the grace of God’s forgiveness
What is the message of the book of Haggai?
- Priorities - putting God first (when they were putting time and money into their homes)
- God rewards us for putting him first and protects his people’s leaders
What is the message of the book of Jeremiah?
- Confidence in God’s sovereignty over all history
- Jeremiah as example of personal faith during crisis
- God will bring a new covenant
Which city did God send Jonah to prophesy to?
Nineveh in Assyria
What is the message of the book of Daniel?
- Should always trust God, he protects his own
- Kingdom of God will hold victory over all earthly kingdoms
- Apocalyptic prophesy - God will triumph over all tribulations
- Son of Man and Messiah
What is the message of the book of Ezekiel?
- Visions of God and the glory and presence of God
- New covenant with no idols
- End times
- More information about the Davidic king in the Messiah
Which prophet was a contemporary of Isaiah?
Micah
Who was Atraxerxes’ cup bearer?
Nehemiah
Who was a scribe under Atraxerxes?
Ezra
Which prophet preached the coming fall of Nineveh to the Judeans?
Nahum
Which prophet was active during the time that the Babylonians and Assyrians were fighting each other for dominance?
Habakkuk
Who prophesied to Hezekiah after the northern kingdom of Israel fell?
Micah
Summarize Amos’s message.
- Judgment coming for all the nations
- Judgment coming for Israel because of their treatment of the poor and their attempt at manipulative worship
- However, God would preserve and restore the Davidic line
Who was Micah especially concerned for?
The poor, oppressed, and exploited, especially in rural villages
What is the message of the book of Isaiah?
- Richness of God
- Call to righteousness and justice to imitate God’s complete holiness
- Messages about the Messiah to come
Which prophets were active during the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib?
Micah and Isaiah
Is the book of Isaiah entirely the product of Isaiah of the 8th century? Why/why not?
- Dominant writer but may have been later edited (e.g. adding Cyrus)
- Dead Sea Scroll and canon both as one book
- Long ministry (before and after fall of Samaria)
- Fits the geographical and political situation of the times (and other prophets talking about both exile and restoration)
Give the context of the book of Malachi.
- Temple completed, people become jaded spiritually
- Ezra and Nehemiah not back yet
Who was Baruch?
Someone Jeremiah dictated to
Who lived in exile in Babylon for five years before becoming a prophet?
Ezekiel
What is the significance of Hosea’s marriage?
- His grief teaches about God’s - object lesson in unworthiness and abandonment
- Shows how God will still forgive and take his people back
What is the significance of the remnant in Micah?
- Mentioned at end each of each of the four sections
- Israel and Judah will lose the land, but remnant will be gathered back to God
- Covenant not over
What is the message of the book of Hosea?
- Need to respond personally to God’s gracious love
- Consequences for rejecting God
- However, God stays with the covenant and his love is faithful
- God’s love > sin and inconsistency
Which prophet decried the northern kingdom for their treatment against the poor, manipulative worship, and their immorality?
Amos
What is the message of the book of Habakkuk?
- Faith and doubt
- God faithful to those faithful to him, righteous survive
- God can be perplexing - keep seeking God and he will respond and grow closer
Who was Belshazzar?
- Left in charge of Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar’s successor Nabonidus went to worship the moon king
- Babylon fell to Cyrus under him
- Profaned temple objects and saw the writing on the wall
What is the message of the book of Malachi?
- God loves and has chosen his people
- God will send a predecessor to the Messiah to prepare the way
Which latter prophets were active both before and after the exile?
Ezekiel and Jeremiah
Which prophet’s message centered on the day of the Lord?
Zephaniah
Give a summary of the book of Zechariah.
- God calls us to do his work and wants to work through us
- God wants us to want to do his work
- In end, God will right all wrong and redeem his own
What did Jonah prophesy about?
That God would destroy Nineveh in 40 days
Does Jeremiah offer a message of doom, hope, or both?
- Desperate times, end of the kingdom - heavy on repentance
- However, Book of Consolation and promise of new covenant
Who was the audience of Obadiah and what was the message concerned with?
To the Judeans about Edom
How did the ministries of Haggai and Zechariah relate to the scene in Jerusalem around 520?
- Work on the temple had begun but then was abandoned
- Haggai encouraged people specifically to rebuild temple and put God first
- Zechariah more general about doing God’s work
What is the message of the book of Amos?
- Covenant - God faithful to relationship and calls us
- Responsibility to worship appropriately
- Hope for mercy and compassion if repent
Which prophet drew a figurative “noose” around Judah by condemning the behavior of the nations around before zeroing in on Judah?
Amos
Summarize the book of Habakkuk.
- Habakkuk asks God to judge sin, God says Babylonians are coming
- Habakkuk is concerned that the Babylonians are worse than the Jews, God says he will judge them too
- Habakkuk trusts God
