BibleProject - Prophets as Provokers - Prophets E2

Episode Date: April 22, 2019

Welcome to Episode 2 in our series on How to Read the Prophets. In the introduction, Tim says that the books of the prophets can be set up in different ways, but in most cases they are anthologies. These are the greatest hits or most important points of the prophets. There are five parts to this episode where Tim outlines several buckets or themes that are important to understand when reading the prophets. (6:00-25:00) Introduction (25:00-33:00) Bucket 1: Accusations (33:00-37:00) Bucket 2: Repentance (37:00-52:00) Bucket 3: Day of the Lord Announcements (52:00-end) Conclusion Biblical prophecy frequently deals with the following themes: Accusations that Israel and the nations have rebelled against Yahweh. Israel/Judah has (1) broken the covenant, (2) worshiped other gods, (3) allowed social injustice, and (4) made alliances with the foreign nations. The covenant lawsuit is the key rhetorical device. And the key metaphor is idolatry as adultery. So the nations are accused of injustice, cruelty, and arrogance. A second bucket or theme is the calls for repentance and admonition to turn from wicked ways and return to faithful obedience to Yahweh. The prophets call for religious devotion to Yahweh alone and no other gods. They also call for social justice and care for the most vulnerable (widow, orphan, immigrant). The third theme is the announcements of the Day of the Lord that will address injustice and rebellion. This refers to historical events that God will use to judge evil and vindicate the righteous, all leading up to the great future day when God will do this for all creation—a cosmic “house-cleaning.” The bad news the prophets deliver is that Yahweh will bring his justice against human rebellion. Because of human hard-heartedness, future punishment becomes inevitable. The punishment will be upon Israel and Judah, resulting in disaster, defeat, and exile upon individual nations (especially Assyrian, Babylon, Egypt) and upon all nations. The good news is that Yahweh will bring about the restoration of his covenant people on the other side of exile. This is a hope for a righteous remnant. The prophets say that God will preserve a faithful remnant, an important minority who remain faithful. There is hope for restoration from exile (captivity), and God will restore their “fortunes.” Finally, there is hope for a new covenant. Yahweh will renew his covenant with his people. The prophets say that the Kingdom of God will appear and Yahweh will establish his peaceful, universal Kingdom over all nations, ruled by the future messianic King. They use the imagery of a new temple, new Eden, and new Jerusalem to represent God’s personal presence that will permeate his people in a new cosmic temple. Helpful tips: How to Read the Prophets Look at the first sentence of the book to see when the prophet lived, then go read the corresponding section of 1-2 Kings to get the context of the prophet’s day. Pay attention to the three main themes and how they connect to the book’s design. Some prophets put all their poems of accusation together (as in Ezekiel 3-24), while others weave poems of accusation and of future hope together (see Isaiah 1-2). These books are mostly poetry, so read slowly and thoughtfully. They use tons of metaphors, so pay attention to repeated words and images. Isaiah uses metaphors from the plant world more than any other prophet (vines, trees, branches, stumps, flowers, grass) and often in creative ways to make different points (See Isaiah 11). Key Insights from the prophets: God loves justice. Israel had been called to a higher level of justice than the nations around them, especially in the treatment of their land and the poor (See Isaiah 1:10-20). God gets angry at evil. The prophets give a lot of space to God’s exposure of evil among Israel and the nations. It’s intense, but it reveals how much God cares about the goodness of his world (see Hosea 13). God has hope for our world. He refuses to let Israel’s sin get the last word, and so all the prophetic books contain profound images of future hope and restoration for God’s people and for the entire world (see Isaiah 11:1-9). Show Produced by: Dan Gummel Music: Defender Instrumental, Tents Moonlight Sonata, Beethoven Look, KV Ocean, KV Saturdays, Lakey Inspired Yesterday on Repeat, Vexento Resources: Exploring the Old Testament: A Guide to the Prophets by J. Gordon McConville The Prophets by Abraham Heschel The NIV Compact Bible Commentary by John Sailhamer Read the Bible for a Change by Ray Lubeck

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

This is John at the Bible Project, and today on the podcast we're going to continue our conversation on how to read the prophets. Typically we think of prophets as people who predict the future. But that's a part of what they do. However, that is not what the word prophecy means in the Bible. Nor does that the primary role of prophets in the Bible. Future prediction is something that some prophets do sometimes, but it is not near the heart of the core biblical definition of prophecy.

Profits in the Bible act as covenant watchdogs. Their goal is to make sure that Israel is faithful to Yahweh. And oftentimes, in order to get Israel's attention, they do some crazy things. A huge amount of what's in these books is long, detailed accusations. Often full of sarcasm, often full of offensive, drastic, extreme imagery. These are parts of the Bible that kind of offend many modern religious sensibilities. So today on the show, we dig into the extreme language and the biblical profits, and we learn some tips on how to understand what they're actually talking about.

And we'll see how the role of the profits doesn't stop at the end of the Old Testament. The role that these figures played in ancient Israel is precisely the role that Jesus was playing. He's depicted playing the gospels. There's these kind of public figures who create a popular base outside the institutional system and their poets puzzling. They perform these

public symbolic acts that get them in trouble but that critique the people on the top. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Okay we're talking about how to read the profits it's part of our how to read series. So we're talking about 15 books read the profits. It's part of our how to read series. So we're talking about 15 books in the Hebrew Scriptures. Yep, that's right. They are almost matching in size of the whole New Testament. A lot of material.

A lot of material. And you mentioned once how there being three main big ones and 12 minor profits, is those numbers are no coincidence. Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah, it's for sure mapped onto the three patriarchs and the 12 sons of Jacob, Abraham Isaac Jacob, and then the 12 sons of Israel, totally. Oh, yeah, that's why we have 15.

That's why the collection has been given a three plus 12 shape, almost certainly. Almost certainly. Yeah. Yeah. So in the last episode we talked about how confusing, random, these books seem. Yeah. And then we talked about how they were put together and who the prophets were that made

them, or who were the ones who would speak on behalf of God. And so now we're going to jump in and we're going to talk about what were the things that would speak on behalf of God. And so now we're gonna jump in and we're gonna talk about what were the things that they were most interested in. Yeah, well, that's right. They were God's lawyers, essentially, representing God's interests in the covenant with Israel. And we talked about how these works are anthologies

representing for some of these figures decades worth of speaking and writing on the public stage of Israel. Because we moved to talk about what the main themes of these books are. That has continued to help me understand how the books are put together. In other words, when you read an anthology, an anthology of a public writer or speaker, it can be organized many different ways, actually think about it. You could organize somebody's writings or speeches in terms of oldest to newest. Yeah you could go chronological. You could go thematic, like different speeches around different themes. You could shortest

the longest. Sure. There's many different ways. That's how Pauline pistols are ordered, right? Or the longest of short. Paul's letters are organized out of chronological order from longest to shortest. It's actually, so Romans, which is many ways the capstone document, is the thing you read first. Because it's the longest. It's the culminating one. Yeah, it's the same.

Anyway, so what seems to have happened is that there is a rough chronological shape to some of the books like E Ezekiel's poems and essays, are mostly ordered chronologically by little notes, but some of them are out of that order. For most of the books, they seem to have been ordered thematically. In other words, this poem as next to that poem is next to that poem because they are focusing on the same core themes. So learning how to trace repeated words is really key following the logic of these books and then also learning how they work

cyclically. Often the first few chapters will give you the core themes of that particular prophet and then what the rest of the book will do will be collections of poems and speeches that just develop each of those themes at length. This is the symphonic nature of it. Yeah, that's right. Like a symphony introduces the melody in the first movement. Yeah. And then you go off in all of these other movements and you explore the melody and that key and then in that key and then this one. It's very similar. Right. It's like music. Yeah. You know the clarinet. Yeah, different instruments. That's right. Yeah. That's way more helpful analogy for how these books are compiled. They're not compiled like one of Paul's letters, tracing a set of ideas through a linear kind of argument.

If Beethoven was a lawyer. If Beethoven was a lawyer. Okay, so what I have found, if you can boil almost any passage in the profits down to just a few core main themes, and if you can lock into these themes, remember them, I call them buckets. Okay, just a few buckets. If you know what the buckets are, you can know within just a few lines of the poetry of the speech what theme you're riffing off. Prophetic themes are buckets.

Prophetic themes. Yep. Okay, so let's just talk about the big three. Big three. Okay. And think again, lawyers, covenant lawyers. Okay. If there's a wrong that's been done, they're going to point it out. So the first thing you're going to do, yeah, is name and expose and accuse, form your accusations

about everything that's been done wrong. This is a huge, huge, whole palms, whole speeches. Just accusing. Yeah. So here we're being asked, remember those little editorial introductions, then we're being asked to imaginatively little editorial introductions, then we're being asked to imaginatively enter into... Sorry, I remember, but that was the last episode. And every prophetic book begins with, here's who wrote it, here's when they wrote it, and here's the Kings. Yeah.

Here is the narrative of, from earlier in the Bible, that you're supposed to have read. Yeah. That will help you see the setting out of which all these material arose. So accusations. So there will be accusations pointed towards Israel. And it's actually a pretty short list of the normal things they've done. So breaking the covenant. How? Well, there's like 613 ways they can do this.

This one. But yeah, but they're all. Plus or minus. Plus or minus, that's right. Yeah. But the basic ideas are like worshiping other gods, giving the legions to other gods. Well, yeah, that's one of the,

that's part of the big 10. Big one. Allowing social injustice. Or just injustice. There's a lot in there. Big one. Allowing social injustice. Or just injustice. There's a lot in there. Lot, totally. So much. Treatment of the poor was like a barometer.

The fate of the poor and the orphan in the widow was like a barometer for how. How well they're doing with this kind of relationship. That's right. And then. My wife calls out the love tank. That's how, that's in our marriage, not with the poor, if, you know, the covenant relationship. Oh, sure. That's her barometer. How well she's doing. That's how that's in our marriage not with the poor if you know the covenant relationship. Oh sure

Yeah, that's her brawmater. How well she's doing. It's how how full is how full is the love tank? Wow It's good. It's kind of this I I don't I can't see the love tank, but she feels it and He was that's her brawmater. Yeah, the brawmater for Israel was how well and then they're like concrete ways that you can Fill the tank. Yes, yeah, and then there concrete ways that you can fill the tank. Yes. Yeah. And then there's concrete ways you can drain the tank. Yeah.

So that's the same thing. Allegiance to other gods, letting the poor suffer and being taken advantage of with no advocate in the palace of the king. And then another scene that comes up is forming military alliances with other nations. That's a big no-no. It's big no-no. So again, this all comes back to the Exodus, right? Yahweh, I'm the one who rescued you from Israel. No other gods. Egyptian slavery, not any other gods. You were poor, mistreated, immigrants. So don't ever treat immigrants in the poor like that here in Israel. And then third, I rescued you from the military machine of an ancient empire.

So don't be part of it. Don't you dare become one of those. Wow. And these are all simple God. Those are really easy. Yeah, totally. Yeah. But that's what everyone wants to do.

Yeah. Everyone wants to become the military power. Yeah. And then make our nation into its own God and then take care of ourselves That's right and let everyone else to spend for themselves. Yeah, totally and got yeah Yeah, so again a kingdom of priests a nation that exists in the world Like no other nation had ever done. That was their calling It is interesting that we think of the laws as so barbaric because there are

You know, there's things that were just like in the most part of what you wouldn't do. The ones we pay the most attention to. Yeah, totally. But in reality, as a whole, these were very, I mean, even in modern standards. Yes. We can't, like, pretty progressive.

Yeah, totally, yeah. So yeah, it's why we'll do a whole video on it. Reading biblical laws. Reading the laws of the Bible. Oh, cool. But yeah, totally the law of the King in Deuteronomy is like, don't amass huge amounts of wealth, don't do a lot of political marriages, and don't build a huge army.

Yeah. You're just like, oh, that's... That's like everything I wanted to do. That's like what everything ancient kings ever did. And it's what almost all like everything ancient kings ever did. And it's almost all the kings of Israel mostly did. If I was king, I would probably do those things too. That's, yeah, totally.

OK, so here, just going through as ideas, you just read a sample. You can just see it at work. Yeah, let's see it at work. OK, this is from Hosea, chapter four. I can just read it or pull it out on. Hosea four. It's a classic example of what you call the poetic a lassoot poem. This is shaped like a lassoot accusation. Hosea chapter four. Listen to the word of the Lord, O Sons of Israel, for the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land.

Because there is no truthfulness or covenant loyalty, nor is there knowledge of God in the land. Swerving, lying, murder, stealing, adultery, violence, bloodshed, follows bloodshed, and the land grieves. Everyone who lives in it languishes, along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea. They've all disappeared. Hmm. First stands of the poem. So good. Why are the animals disappearing? Oh, it's a good question. And also, do you notice that list?

Beasts of the field, birds of birds of the sky fish of the sea. It's the three. Yeah, Genesis one. It's the three tiers of the universe. Yeah, the sky of the land is the sky of the land. The sea. Yeah. God Populates them were supposed to rule over them and now they're just going away. So the logic is it's a case against you. There's no truthfulness or covenant loyalty. Yeah. Lying, stealing, murder, adultery. Is that list ringing, any bells? Ten commandment stuff? Seriously, he lists five of the ten commandments.

Yeah. Swearing, lying, murder, stealing adultery. This is like, so we list half the ten commandments. And saying, it's just violence, follows violence, you know, that sounds just like the introduction to the flood narrative. The land is corrupted by violence. So the land grieves, notice the logic here. So you have a whole nation of people. And I've used to the land dries up. Oh, yep, I bet it does. And what's it say in the line after that? All who live in it waste away. Ah, I see. Oh, I see. Yeah, I got it. I bet it's umlaul

I bet it's umlaul the old umlaul Tevalumlaul. Okay. Yeah. What okay? So it's kind of a wordplay. Yeah, the point is the land itself has a negative is Negatively affected by the people's covenant behavior. Mm-hmm. So when humans are Distorted images of God, it results in the land itself. Getting distorted. Getting grieving. Grieving.

Having to put up with all the bloodshed. This is about bloodshed, innocent blood, being spilled on the land. And so if the land's, this can't enable too. Yeah, the blood cries out. Blood crying out. And so if creation itself is being defiled by human corruption, then this

image of all of the animals fleeing. Let's get out of here. Yeah, and it's like the humans are disturbing the cosmic order. They're disrupting, they're creating chaos through their violence. And all of this is in the opening of a poem about Israel isn't being faithful to the covenant. Yeah. faithful to the covenant. Next stands of the poem. But let no one bring a charge. Let no one accuse each other. For your people are like those who bring charges against a priest. You stumble by day and by night

and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you've rejected knowledge, I'll reject you from being my priest and since you've forgotten the Torah of your God, I will forget your children. I'm so lost. I'm a Torah. Never Martin Luther? Yeah. It's just like what, what's happening? Some really lost. So, in this meditation literature, it's just like what what's happening. I'm really lost. So this meditation literature. Okay. Let's meditate on this

Okay, all right, so we've just made this case the land's corrupted because of your bloodshed okay creation itself is suffering New idea but let no one bring a charge let no one accuse each other okay, so so right off the bat He's like listen. Here's my accusation you guys are blowing it yeah, so right off the bat, he's like, listen, here's my accusation, you guys are blowing it. Yeah. And then he's like, but let's not blame each other. Or it could be what he's describing is the fact that no one is actually bringing any charges or accusations for any of this.

Oh. For your people, I like those who bring charges against a priest. Yeah, what does that mean? Well, so priests, priests were the blameless, the symbolic, blameless representatives. And so the point of the poem here seems to be something long lines of you guys are priests. You think you're my priestly representatives to the nations. So you can't be blamed. And you think you're blameless and no one's pointing out what's wrong. Oh, okay. No one's bringing charges and accusing on another. It's almost as if he's quoting them. Got it. Let no one bring a charge. Let no one accuse. Yeah, we're priests. That

would be like, that's like making fun of the priest. Don't do that. He's God's representative. Yeah. Not who we are too, by the way. And then he says, now you're stumbling by day and your prophets, the people you think are representing me to you, they're blowing it. They're a sham. And so I will destroy your mother. That's your turn.

That's your turn. It's not just a strange line. What does he have with their mother? Why it's going on, I'll just try it. Well, keep going. My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you've rejected knowledge, you're not going to be my priests.

You've ignored my Torah, all ignore your children. There's all these layers here of the people of Israel come from one mother, Sarah, the right, the matriarchs. Yeah, they have ignored the laws of the Torah, which means you've disqualified yourself from being my priest to the nations. So in allowing the people to be destroyed, it's as if he's destroying their mother. I'm sure there's actually more going on here.

Sure, like your heritage, your, what makes you important is your family line. Yeah, you know, the logic might be something like announcing the downfall of America, and I'm going to destroy Martha Washington's house. The armies are going to invade and burn Martha Washington's house at the ground, and I'm going to allow it. Got it. I'm'm gonna destroy your mother. Yeah, I'm not just I'm not just destroying you. The whole thing is going down.

Yeah, that's right. And then that destroying is saying, but listen, you're doing it to yourselves. My people destroy themselves by their lack of knowledge, by ignoring the Torah. So you ignore the Torah? I'm gonna ignore you. Yeah. There's all these word plays. This is like the stuff of intense spoken word.

It feels very spoken word. Yeah, totally. Yeah, and it's kind of inigmatic, little puzzling. Yeah. You have to reread it multiple times. Yeah. Jose. Let's keep going.

Verse 7. You know, the more the priests multiplied, there are lots of priests. Go to Jerusalem. Yeah. Tons of them. The more priests they had, the more sin there was. They exchanged their glory for shame.

He's talking about idols in the temple. Yeah, and Ivey says they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful. Because it note here was a say, I will exchange their glory as a Mesoeretic text. Yeah, yeah, their glory. They, yeah, I will exchange their glory for shame. Okay. And their glory is being children of God. The glory is the divine presence in the Holy of Holies.

Yeah. But it's where many of us rely on kings and set up other idols and other gods and so on. So they feed on the sin of my people. So, verse eight, they feed on the sin of my people. That verse 8, they feed on the sin of my people. That's the same in an RV, by the way. They direct their desire toward their iniquity. So the image here is the more Israel multiplies and the more its priests multiplies,

the place that should be the Holy Space becomes the Dan of Iniquity, the greatest place of distortion. So it will be like people, like priest, I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds. They'll eat but not have enough, they'll play the harlot or commit adultery, and that's the key metaphor in the prophets. It's committing adultery. It's a metaphor for idolatry, forgiving their allegiance to other gods. So because they've stopped listening to Yahweh. And then what goes on in the next poem is talking about they start consulting wooden idols.

They're going to sorcerers. The nation's falling apart. And where do they go? They go to sacred mountain tops and burn incense to foreign gods and so there you go. So that's a good example of it's a covenant lawsuit. Yeah. Poem, it's just accusation. I mean this makes up like a full like 50% of what's in these books. Verse 11 says old wine and new wine take away their understanding. Yeah. Is he talking about getting stupid drunk?

Is that what he's talking about? Yeah. Yeah, it's like, yeah, alcohol epidemic. Yeah. An ancient Israel. That's crazy. Yeah. Actually, you know, well, yeah, it's a theme in Jeremiah and Isaiah here, Habakkuk.

Yeah, they nail Israel's leaders for being a drunker. Drunken lot. Yeah. And not being able to lead well because they're just living high on the Sir sloshed. Yeah. So let's just take that on board for a second. A huge amount of what's in these books is long detailed accusations in poetic form. In poetic form, often full of sarcasm, often full of offensive, drastic, extreme imagery. I will destroy your mother. Yeah, totally. Ezekiel writes, what are almost pornographic, some of these scenes? He takes this metaphor of idolatry as adultery. Oh, and this runs with it.

Oh, yeah, I'll depict these scenes, and you're just like, I'm uncomfortable around there. Ezekiel 16, or chapter 23, he retails the whole history of Israel as these metaphorical women. It's really, it makes you uncomfortable. But I guess there's my point, is that these are parts of the Bible that kind of offend many modern religious sensibilities of the like.

Yeah, it seems a little mean spirited, dramatic. Yeah, yeah, so you got to reckon with that. There's a passion to these prophets that you have to just ponder and think about. They didn't read the book how to win friends and influence people. I don't think. Yeah. That was on their Amazon wish list. No.

And it's important to recognize what they are critiquing our social ills. Yeah. The equivalents to this would be, do we use the word profit in this way? I think we still do. Like culture critics. Yeah. You know, we do. And when we do, I'm always like, no, that's interesting, we would say that a profit

because the paradigm of profit is being fortune tellers. That's right. But we do, we call them on a modern day profit. Modern profit. And often what we mean is somebody who's outspoken, social credit, and they'll expose things on leadership level, they'll expose things on community level, policy levels. Yeah, that's totally how these figures are. That's the role they play.

Yeah. Is that of these cultural commentators and critics. I guess interesting. Actually, I had a friend tell me once that they think actually the most similar role that a public voice Like this is in our culture or comedians Yeah, cuz they're creative artists. Yeah, who create short-ish Pieces yeah, they're trying to expose a lot of what they're doing is yeah, they're using humor. They're using humor Yeah, humor goes off a lot better than threatening people's mothers. Hahaha. Hahaha.

Hahaha. I was saying, I tried another tactic. Hahaha. Come on, Jose. Uh, yeah, but comedians, totally. One of my favorite, I don't know about favorite. I just really like it introduction to the prophets Helping you grasp this role of the culture critic is a Hebrew Bible nerd named Walter Brugumon Yeah, but he has a book called the prophetic imagination

Mm-hmm. You know what? I own that book because it's such a cool title. Oh really? I haven't gotten through it Yeah, those books was like I need to know that that sounds awesome. I want a prophetic imagination. You want to. It turned out it wasn't a manual for that one. Yeah. Yeah, so he's really interesting. He's kind of like a, both a philosopher and a biblical scholar.

But what he shows is the role that these figures played in ancient Israel is precisely the role that Jesus was playing. He's depicted playing the Gospels. These kind of public figures who create a popular base outside the institutional system, and their poets, and puzzling, they perform these public, symbolic acts that get them in trouble, but that critique the people on the top. 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1%, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, You know what this is in modern day Sasha Baron Cohen. You know that guy? I don't know who that is. You probably know who that is. He's a comedian.

He's a comedian. I think I said his name right. Sasha Baron Cohen. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Sasha Baron Conan Baron. He has his characters that he plays and One is this like rapper and the other is this oh Borat yeah

Borat Borat he plays Borat and allie G an allie G. Yeah and it's it's this big public stunt and And he's not doing it just to be funny. He's always showing kind of the underbelly of a society while doing it. Whoa. Fascinating. So sorry, he takes on, he becomes these public characters to critique Western culture. Totally fascinating. You know, I remember when, you know what, I think he came out and was really popular when

I was in the thick of my Hebrew. Yeah, he brewed a little bit of the terms. Yeah, the early 2000s. I just tuned out from anything in popular culture. He brewed. He brewed. He brewed over the time. He brewed over the time. Yeah, the early 2000s. Yeah. I just, I was tuned out from anything and popular culture. But I remember when Borat came out because everybody was talking. Wow. Okay, that's interesting.

All right. Uh, you know what? I might, well, I was just thinking that because I was trying to imagine someone who isn't part of the establishment on a public stage gaining a following and critiquing culture. Sure. Some reason his came to mind. Yeah, actually, this is a whole thing.

This isn't in the notes, but there's multiple narratives in the big three where they perform what's come to call sign acts or symbolic acts. They would go out in public and do something crazy that God told them to do. And the God tells the prophet the meaning, but it's not always clear that the prophet went about telling everybody, hey, here's what this means.

He just wants people to be like, you remember when, Yeah, totally. That guy did the thing. So here's my favorite one. You want to know my favorite one? Yeah, I do. Isaiah chapter 20. And the Assyrians who are going to become God's instrument

to bring pain on Israel. Because of all of this stuff, he was not long after Hosea. So Assyria is going through and starting to pick off all of Israel's neighbors that they've been depending on for military help. And so, what he tells Isaiah to do is go loosen the sack cloth from your hips, take off your shoes from your feet, and go about naked and barefoot. These go streaking. And the Lord said, I think Sasha Baron Cohen did this once, probably. As my servant, Isaiah goes about naked and barefoot for three years, what? As a symbol and sign of Egypt and

Kush to nations that Israel was relying on, to prevent themselves from being destroyed by Assyria. So the King of Assyria will lead away the Egyptians and the exiles of Kush naked and barefoot with their buttocks exposed. Three years in the noon. Yeah, so this would be a dedicated streak. So this would be like if America has some key ally, right? And somebody is saying, you know, some public figure is saying, listen, like whatever other nation, nation X is going to take us out. And then they go about naked as an image of how that nation X just took out our allies.

And it's going to happen to us too. That's what he's doing. Wow. And Isaiah lived in Jerusalem. He was like a part of the upper, upper tier. It's so gnarly. It's really gnarly. Ezekiel went out in the streets and built a little Lego model of Jerusalem getting destroyed. That's a little more tame.

But still. Still, yeah. But still, you had to walk by that, you'd be like, come on, be. Tolle. Yeah. This is the role of public art. Yeah, it's like, um, Banksy. Yeah, tolle, yeah.

Yeah, let's go out and you'll figure like that. Yeah, that's right. You'll make a point in public with some spray paint. Tolle. So, yeah, that's the point. These books are doing a lot more than just putting a few predictions for the Messiah out there for the New Testament to come, say they were fulfilled. This is a huge, huge part of these books.

And I think it's a part of being stewards of the scriptures. Jewish and Christian communities means carrying on this voice, carrying the voice. The prophetic voice. Yeah, totally. I don't know, man, I don't wanna see any pastors running around naked. communities means carrying on this voice, carrying the voice. The prophetic voice. Yeah, totally. I don't know, man, I don't want to see any pastors running around naked. Really.

Yeah. No, I totally get your point. Yeah. We should be, we should have a prophetic voice. You know, oftentimes the voice, I, and this is my personal opinion, the voice of the church in America is more about status quo. Sure, the Bible gets appealed to primarily to defend a certain view of culture. Yeah. Yeah. Instead of pointing to this potential future. Yeah, yeah, it's true. These are people taken with, I mean, what they're inspired by is the biblical story of the ideal.

Yeah. And of the Exodus narrative, which is huge inspiration. It's radically disruptive stuff. Yeah, these are disruptive figures who would be uncomfortable, uncomfortable to run into at a party. They were like, oh, they're always talking about that. It's shame, clayborn. Like that guy. Yeah, she's uncomfortable.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. It's like that kind of stuff. It's shame, Clayborn, like that guy. Yeah, she's uncomfortable. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. It's like that kind of stuff. It's that kind of stuff and Yeah, so we ignore these parts of the Bible to our own detriment. I think that's a really important role So accusation. Yep is a main theme. Yeah, was that all about that? Yep. Okay. Yeah, we've just been we refer not for that and reflecting on that That's a main thing. The first main bucket is when you're reading in the profits The moment you hear lawsuit language descriptions of what's going wrong Yeah, or a guy streak into Jerusalem totally they're accusing you. Yep. That's right. That's one whole bucket accusations for breaking the covenant code. The second big bucket will be calls for repentance.

It's not too late. We can turn the ship around. It doesn't have to be this way. There's still hope if you are. This goes all the way back to Moses. The challenge he gives to the Israelites before they go into the land. Yeah, life and death.

Life and death. Choose life. Be faithful to the covenant. So here's a classic one. You might put, actually, probably, notice one. This is in Isaiah chapter one. So he says, wash yourselves. Make yourselves pure.

Remove the evil of your deeds from my sight, stop doing evil, learn to do good, seek justice, approve the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. All right? So stop being lame, just start being covenant faithful people. Stop it. Then look at this, he says, come now. Let's reason together. Let's be reasonable. Says the Lord.

Your sins are like scarlet. That's premise. Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow. What does that mean? I mean, you hear what it means, but in light of what he just said, you're like, how's that going to happen?

Yeah. Well, I guess why is this reasoning together? Anyways, that's not really a matter, that's not a matter. Come, let me just make this crystal clear to you. There's two options here. Okay. Here's the reality. Your sins? Your sins are a bloody stain. Yeah.

Right? On the land. But here's another potential option. It can be pure white. Could be pure white. Even though the red like crimson. A new snow is very beautifully white. What a great metaphor.

Blood stained dirt, which to be honest, other than my own blood from a cut on the dirt, I've never seen a huge puddle blood on the dirt. I've never really seen a big puddle blood. Yeah. But I've had a blood stain. Okay, yeah. That's right. Though they're red like crimson, they will be like wool.

So you have these two options. Yeah. And then the choice but before you. If you consent and obey, if you listen and are faithful to covenant, you'll eat the best of the land. Garden of Eden around here. But if you refuse and rebel,

you will be eaten by the sword. Mouth of y'all is spoken. This is like Moses says, you have two options, like for death. Yeah, totally. Yeah, that's right. Choose to do good, and things are gonna be rad. That's right.

So a lot of the poetry in the prophets is these persuasive, do the the right thing or beckoning, a call back to covenant faithfulness or forcing the choice, the moment of decision. So this is carried forward right into the New Testament too, where the Apocchezus and the Apostles are going out and they have this message about the day of the Lord, or that the Messianic salvation has taken place, and you need to figure out what you're gonna do in response to it. All of that comes back to this prophetic issue

of the call to decide. So that's next big bucket. Calls for repentance. Calls for repentance. The first one is accusation, itemizing everything. It's going wrong. A call to stop it, a call to change, calling people to make a decision. And then the last is about as big as the first one. Okay, so if accusations is big, yeah, call to decisions. It's pretty easy to spot when you're an upon people to make a choice. Yeah. And then the third one is actually the biggest one, which is announcement of the day of the Lord. This is where future predictions often come into play through.

The Day of the Lord. It can be both light or dark as Amos talks about. The Day of the Lord. It will be good news for some, but it will be bad news for others. And each one kind of has its own little list of images. And we did a whole long conversation on the Day of the Lord. Yeah, that's right. But the quick 30-second summary, what would be your quick 30-second summary? Oh, well there were moments in Israel's history on the horizon of each prophet where they said, God isn't going to allow this to continue. He's going to bring the train crashing down.

That happened in two really significant movements of when the Assyrians came and shut down the Northern Kingdom. It took them into exile. That was called a day of the Lord. There's a lot of poems pointing to that event in the books of the Prophet, but they used cosmic language to talk about it. And then that was eclipsed even by another empire coming about a century after a Babylon. And both of those are talked about in cosmic day of Yahweh, world ending, kind of language. And what they also announce is on the other side of that, God is going to bring about a New Jerusalem, which will be a new garden city temple, about a new Jerusalem which will be a new garden city temple a new Eden which will be ushered in by a new day by ushered

in by this the day of the Lord is brings both judgment and the undoing of the cosmos so to speak yeah but that's an act of purification yeah so that what can emerge out the other side of that destruction is a new covenant people led by a new king and priest who will live in a new Jerusalem and a new creation. So the prophets are particularly interested in talking about this happening. That's right. Whether it is going to be a little de-dave Lord in that it was an event of Babylon or a Syria taking over Israel, which would feel if you were living in Jerusalem at that time,

it would feel like the end of the world. Or if it's then culminating to the big D-Day of the Lord, the recreation of everything, the purification and justification of the whole world. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, so we've talked about this before. We've used different metaphors. For example, here, let me just use an example. This is in Jeremiah chapter 4, let's start in verse 19. Okay.

He says, my innards, my innards. My innards. And then he says, English. My anguish? Yeah. That's all. This innards. And then he says English. My anguish? Yeah. That's all? This is my anguish, my anguish. My anguish, my anguish.

Literally my guts, my guts. He's sick to a stomach. Yeah, got it. Oh, my heart pounding. I can't be silent. Because, oh, my nefesh, my self, I've heard the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war, Babylon's coming. He's

describing what it's like to hear an army come to set up sea ramps against your city. Frighting. Horrific. Disaster on disaster. The whole land devastated. My tents devastated. My curtains, my own personal little, my tent. It's like an image for my own little home crashing in. I look over the city walls. How long do I have to stare at these Babylonian standards and hear their trumpets? For my people are foolish, they don't know me. They're stupid children, no understanding. You know what, they're really skilled at doing evil. They don't even know how to do good.

That's God quoting them. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So first you have Jeremiah talking about his experience, then you just start talking on behalf of God. Talking on behalf of God, verse 23, I looked at the land and behold. Mm, Tohubahu. Tohubahu.

Formless and empty. I looked up at the skies, no light. Oh, uncreation. I look at the hills, quaking. I looked and no human. I, all the hills, Quaking, I looked and no human. I all the birds gone, all the garden land, Wilderness, all the cities pulled down before Yahweh in a sphere-sanger. So powerful. So for him, this sounds like the book of Revelation. Yeah, this sounds like the end of the world.

And it was literally and symbolically the end of his world. Yeah, everything was undone. His world was being undone. That's right. So he describes the follow Jerusalem as the dissolution of the cosmos. And this is how they talk. I mean, it'd be bad enough if your house caught on fire, right? Yeah.

And you come out barely alive, you're, would be grieving all of your memories, everything. It would feel like the end of the world. That's bad enough. Now imagine like an enemy nation coming in and laying waste your city and your neighborhood and your, your tents. Yeah, let's turn it up even more.

If you lived in a tent. The city that they, that he's living in is the city that has the temple in it. And the temple, you believe, is the place where heaven and earth meet. Yeah. It's the little micro-edin. Yeah. And so when the temple is destroyed, the world is destroyed. Yeah.

It's a little micro-cosmos. That's what the temple represents. And so Genesis 1 language is the only language appropriate if it's the city of Jerusalem being destroyed. This is an example of the day of the Lord that happened in 586 BC. But then, remember how the books of the prophets work though. So for the prophets and the biblical authors who treasured these texts and compiled them into the collection we have, they lived through that and then they continued to suffer under the oppression of more empires afterwards.

And so for them it actually didn't end. And so they see in these words a kind of cosmic disruption that didn't just happen in Jeremiah's day, it kept going. And so their conception of the day of the Lord wasn't just linked to one time in history, it became a way of thinking about many events where God allowed evil to crash in on itself, which kept pitching their hope for the future out even further and further. Until you get, you know, the final shaping the Hebrew Bible, you've just a couple hundred years before Jesus. The biblical authors from that period are still studying these are the texts that they're praying over.

So the flip side of that is then all of the poetic depictions about what comes out the other side of the destruction. Just like if Jeremiah had narrated the undoing of Genesis 1, then what happens when God read us Genesis 1? Because the two things are connected. God isn't going to come with the Lord just to undo things. No. It's to undo things in order to redo things. That's right. To let, if it's actually, this is the logic of the flood story in Genesis. If humans want to sink creation back into chaos and violence,

God will allow it, but he won't allow them to bring history to an end. His covenant commitment is greater than human evil, and so he will rescue out a remnant and deliver them to a new Eden and commission them to start over. That's the image here. So that brings us to the flip side of the day of Yahweh. So there's a whole lot of descriptions of the bad part of it. Yeah, it's just mountains quaking part of it. Yeah, totally. And sometimes it's local, it's talking about the invasion of local armies.

Sometimes it's cosmic, language. The flip side of that is the hope for restoration. And there's just, again, in all the prophetic books, there's a core set of themes here. These are sub-themes within this. Yeah, yeah. What kinds of things fall into the good news of restoration on the other side? So you can kind of anticipate, based on the Co story, you have image bearing, royal priests in the garden, abundance, living with the animals, living long lives, you know, I'm fruitful in multiplying, so it's going to be recapturing all of that.

So just that will populate the list of what the hope for things. So, a faithful, the righteous remnant, the same, returned from Babylon, back into the new Eden promised land. You probably know this one. Here, let's look at Jeremiah 31. Been doing lots of Jeremiah today. Jeremiah 31, 31. But hold, the days are coming.

The Clare's the Lord, when I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant I made with their fathers when I brought them out of Egypt. So a new relationship, new terms, but it's not going to be like that other one when you're like, oh, well, how's it going to be different? Yeah, say more. I'm listening. And the liquidity says, not like the covenant I made with them when I brought them out of Egypt, my covenant that they broke. Even though I was their husband, it says, Lord, you're just like, oh, I get it.

This is the covenant I'll make with the house of Israel after those days. I'll put my Torah inside of them. So I'll put my Torah inside of them. On their heart, I will write it. I will be their God. They'll be my people. That's marriage formula. I am my blevids and he is mine.

But that's not different than the first covenant. Ah, I'll put my Torah in totally. That's right, yeah, that's right. Here's what they won't need. They won't need Torah teachers. They won't need people to teach about the laws and how to be faithful to the covenant. Tim, you're out of a job.

I know. Totally. They won't need teachers. Each person to his brother is saying, hey, you know what? You should acknowledge our way. You should have a covenant relationship with your way. Because they all will.

Mm. They all will. It'll be the norm. Yeah, you step in the quo. From the least of the greatest, and I will forgive them. So there's an intimate knowing and being known with Yahweh, and it's motivated by grateful hearts

that know they've been forgiven. And that will motivate a passion and a faithfulness that you don't actually have to even write down the rules of the relationship nor do you even have to remind someone about it Totally, they just know. It's kind of like breathing at that point. Yeah, that's right. You don't have to go to your friend and be like That's right. Remember. Yeah, breathe today. It's a depiction of the new humanity Yeah, and that's why he says it's a new covenant But it's not like any of those other covenants. A whole point is to write out the rules of the relationship.

Ah, yeah. Right, here's what I'm gonna do. You're almost anticipating that something break it. Totally, yeah. Yeah, the reason you write rules is you anticipate that they're gonna be broken. Or they have been broken. It's kind of like the rules at the pool.

Yeah. It's what you run into a rule that's like, yeah, please do not defecate on this. So it's like, why did they have to write that down? Well, apparently little Jimmy did it one day You don't even have to say what the expectations are because you have such eager people just naturally do it Yeah, totally so yeah such a powerful you get poems like this This is similar to Joel talking about the spirit being poured out on all people. As I wrestle through and think about the story of the Garden of Eden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And I think about what does it mean for humans to live in such a way that they're

not relying on their own ability to discern good and evil, but they can live in a relationship with God in such a way that they just will know from God. So there's no. It'll be natural because they're not them discerning it. It's God. Yeah, or they're submitting God's wisdom. There's submitting God's wisdom about good and evil. And there's a sense of that here of kind of like everyone just just kind of knows. We don't have to write it all down. Feels very relational in a way. Yeah, that's right. I think that's right. Yeah, as intuitive, back to your life's love tank.

Yeah, the love button. That conversation, I don't forget that. I don't know where the last episode is. Ah, yeah, it's very intuitive in any friendship, close friendship relationship. The moment that I have to tell you what I need from you, that's the let down. Where like if we were really close,

you would just know what I need right now. I need you to say this kind of encouraging thing to me because I'm just feeling down. But then when the other person just does it, you don't have to ask them, they just consent what you need and do it without you having to tell them. You think that's powerful?

Those are good people to have in your life. Do you think that was the ideal then for Adam and Eve to be in that kind of relationship where they just know what's the next right thing to do? Well, they know because of the relationship with God and they know what brings some pleasure and not and versus having their own ability to figure that out. Yeah, I mean, I think that's the idea

that the seed of that idea is in the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Not Good and Evil, but what it means to live that way is actually you have to wait for later narratives to flesh that out in design pattern form. So when you get a Solomon saying, I don't know how to lead these people. Give me wisdom.

And so he asked for a wisdom to know good and evil. Or he's a new Adam. Solomon's a new Adam. Setting himself up in a new Eden. And he gets a right answer. And he gets for a couple chapters. And then, yeah, it's actually one of the few places that a phrase, no good and evil is used

outside of the garden narrative. It's Solomon's request. Yeah, it's actually one of the few places that a phrase no good evil is used outside of the Garden narrative. Solomon's request. Yeah, that's a good example. And this is why in the Book of Proverbs, wisdom is about fearing God, shunning evil, and if you fear God and shun evil, you will gain wisdom, which in Proverbs 3 is a tree of life. The way to the tree of life is to submit to God's wisdom of good evil. So the whole book of Proverbs is about

every person sits in front of the tree of knowing good evil on the tree of life. You have your own opportunity to blow out or do it right. So I think that's right submitting to God's wisdom. 1 ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ � And there will be a time where the cover is such that you don't have to explain yourself or write down any rules. Everyone will just know. Humans will know what is good and what is not good intuitively. Yeah, the divine will and the human will have come together. And what are we talking about except Jesus of Nazareth right here? A human whose will is completely joined to the

divine will. I think this is what in the Gospel of John when Jesus talks about I do the will of my father. He's committed everything to me and I do exactly what he tells me to. It's a depiction of Jesus as the true Adam. Yeah. He's listening and he just obeys. Yeah. He has the Torah written on his heart and that he becomes the model for the new humanity who just does God's will. You don't have to be told that. You just do it. Yeah. What a powerful image. And of course, because Israel didn't do that, that's why they're in the situation that they're in. And so for the prophets, everything that's broken has to become fixed.

What is Samwise Gamji? Is that famous line in the Lord of the Rings? Is everything sad going to become untrue? Whoa, I think that's it. It's everything. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. I think they're sitting, it's everything. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. I think they're sitting

It's like when Minas Tarrith is getting besieged by the orc world. Gandalf, I thought you were dead But then I thought I was dead myself is everything sad going to come untrue. Yeah. What's happened to the world? Yeah, that's a cool scene. That's the profits about the good news the day of Yahweh. Everything's sad that they've just itemized in all their accusations. They provide a reversal of in the new creations. They have corrupt humans. They become faithful humans. You have the wilderness and exile. It becomes a new garden of Eden. Babylon falls so that the new Jerusalem could be created. Everything's sad. It becomes untrue. Yeah. Cool.

So that's the themes in the book that they're on. Yeah, those are the themes. We could spend more time looking at different texts, but yes, that's the core idea. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project Podcast. Next week we'll be diving into a new How to Read the Bible Series. We're going to look at how to read the law. The laws have throughout history and Judaism and Christianity have created different crises of biblical authority. Today's episode was produced by Dan Gummel,

we're a nonprofit organization in Portland, Oregon. You can learn more about us at thebibletroject.com. Thanks for being a part of this with us. Hi, this isque de la France. Merci à tous de vous faire un parti avec nous. Salut, c'est Yael, de France. Je suis excited de être une partie de la construction du project du project Bibelome de France. Merci pour votre support et de tous vos amis. Ceux sont les vidéos de la France. Salut, c'est Yael depuis la France.

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