Zephaniah is a book that should be read in the context of the exile.
We have Daniel, we have Ezekiel, Obadiah, Habakkuk, Judith, Zephaniah, Nahum, Jeremiah, Joel. We have all kinds of books that should be read in this particular context.
— Episode: Introduction to the Exile (with Jeff Cav...
Episode: Introduction to the Exile (with Jeff Cavins) (2024...
Zephaniah is a book that should be read in the context of the exile.
We have Daniel, we have Ezekiel, Obadiah, Habakkuk, Judith, Zephaniah, Nahum, Jeremiah, Joel. We have all kinds of books that should be read in this particular context.
Episode: Day 281: Good and Evil (2023)
It was discussed as the last book of prophecy before John the Baptist. Fr. Mike highlighted the idea that people challenged God and questioned his love for them.
We also have four chapters of the prophet Malachi, who is the last prophet essentially when it comes to the return, when it comes to the people of Israel.
The book of Malachi chapter 1 Israel preferred to eat him the oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi I have loved you says that the Lord but you say how have you loved us is not Esau Jacob's brother says the Lord yet I have loved Jacob but I hated Esau I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert if Edom says we are shattered but we will rebuild my ruins the Lord of hosts says they may build but I will tear down till they are called the wicked country the people with whom the Lord is angry forever your own eyes shall see this and you shall say great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel
Malachi is just he makes it very very clear it's in chapter two that God says um for I hate divorce says the Lord the God of Israel yeah gosh because here are these people who are turning their back on the covenant and the covenant is ultimately marriage right the covenant is that I'm yours and you're mine that one flesh union between God and his people and it's the one flesh union between a man and a woman and so Malachi you might have caught this by this point in the four short chapters of the book of Malachi that he is writing and he's the messenger in fact his name Malachi means my messenger and it's around the context of Ezra in Nehemiah that's the the time period for Malachi and he is consistently calling out and he's doing what Nehemiah does at the end of this chapter or on the end of the book of Nehemiah where he's basically saying okay here are all the things you're doing and there's at least six points where Malachi with the voice of the Lord utters the words that people will say in rebellion against God for example the very very beginning the first couple words I have loved you says the Lord but you say how have you loved us is not Esau Jacob's brother it's basically God says I declare this I love you and the response is oh yeah how have you done that and God has to say uh maybe because I favored you among all the other nations maybe because others nations I have not blessed in the way I've blessed you maybe because I fought for you maybe because I have fed you maybe because I've led you all of these pieces all these things that the people of Israel would challenge God well how have you done this so example God says I'm a master where's my fear says the Lord of hosts to priests who despise my name and you say how have we despised your name okay well by offering polluted food upon my altar you say how have we polluted it okay maybe by thinking that the Lord's table may be despised you offer blind animals and sacrifice isn't that evil and that's the sense if it's just this this blindness is blindness that they need the corruption of the priesthood that this blindness to God's love for them this defilement of marriage all of these pieces and not only that but in our modern context there is this the word of God in verse chapter 2 verse 17 where God says you have wearied the Lord with your words yet you say how have we wearied him and here is the answer of God that sounds exactly like us in our modern context by saying everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delights in them you know this is a hard word for a lot of us hard word for a lot of us because gosh as Christians so often we emphasize the fact that God loves us 100 yes we so I think also as Christians we forget that God loves us I mean I think that we have this tightrope where we go to one extreme or the other where either we forget that God loves us like for the very first chapter I have loved you well how have you loved us well gosh all these favors but then also that sense of we also on the other hand say well then everyone's good everyone's fine there's nothing really evil in the sight of the Lord and everyone delights the Lord even in their evil I get by saying again everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delights in them or by asking where's the God of justice like he's not he hasn't shown up he hasn't brought justice he hasn't brought judgment and so we just have this what is commonly known as a moralistic therapeutic deism it's a term coined by Christian Smith who was a sociologist out of I think it was at the time he was working in North Carolina and UNC I think Chapel Hill and now he works at Notre Dame but this idea of moralistic therapeutic deism is he said what is the predominant religion of the majority of Americans that while we might say well I'm Jewish I'm Catholic I'm Protestant I'm Muslim whatever I'm atheist most Americans have this view of God that's moralistically therapeutically deistic so moralistic meaning just okay just don't be a jerk is the upshot of that therapeutic is God's there for you when you want him he doesn't really bother you when you don't and he's there to listen to your problems kind of thing and deistic so deism is kind of like they call it the clockmaker God where he's not really really involved in your life he just kind of wound up the world and let it go and so again he's there when you want him but he's not there when you don't want him so it's this God you can take off the shelf and put back on the shelf is basically the idea and and he likes all the things that you like and he hates all the things you hate and he thinks the way you think that's that's the idea behind moralistic therapeutic deism and here in chapter two of Malachi we see it on display and realize again once again the more things change the more things stay the same
Malachi applies to us because yes the day of the Lord came Jesus incarnate here on the earth in the flesh 400 plus years after Malachi wrote these words but he is going to come again and so we ask the Lord to help us be ready um not only hope to celebrate commemorate his first coming to recognize his present coming as he comes into our lives and his holy spirit and power and truth but also his great final coming the last judgment where Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead we ask God to help us be ready for that great day of the Lord
Episode: Introduction to the Return (with Jeff Cavins) - 20...
It was mentioned as a prophetic book that should be read in the context of the Israelites' return and their struggles with selfishness, highlighting its impactful messages.
You've got three more prophets and we'll be done with them. But the prophets are very important during not only the exile, but the return. Prophets will speak to you as you go into exile, but they'll also speak to you as you make your return. And so in this period, we have Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
Like for example, in Haggai, read Haggai in light of they have come back to rebuild the temple and to focus on the work of God, but their own selfishness gets in the way. Okay? So if you read Haggai, listen to it in light of that, it's going to speak to you pretty powerfully.
Episode: Introduction to the Exile (with Jeff Cavins) - 202...
Zephaniah was mentioned as one of the books to read in the context of the exile period, which spans the fall of Judah and its exile into Babylon.
We have Daniel, we have Ezekiel, Obadiah, Habakkuk, Judith, Zephaniah, Nahum, Jeremiah, Joel, we have all kinds of books that should be read in this particular context.
Episode: Day 272: The Call of Nehemiah (2022)
The book of Zechariah, particularly chapters 12 and 13, was discussed, focusing on Jerusalem's victory, God's protection, and the prophecy of mourning for the pierced one, later fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
The book of Zechariah chapter 12, Jerusalem's victory, an oracle.
It says, and the Lord will give victory to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not be exalted over that of Judah.
We also have this, gosh, in the end of chapter 12, mourning for the pierced one. We have it also quoted in the book of, sorry, the gospel of John chapter 19. It says they will look on him whom they have pierced.
Okay, who are we talking about? Well, I think we're talking about the Lord Jesus, the only child, right? The only son of God, the firstborn of all ages, of all creation.
And it's remarkable that that prophecy that is ultimately made complete in Jesus on the cross out of love for you and love for me, which is another thing we know is one thing to hear these and think, wow, that's amazing. Here is Zechariah writing hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus. And he's saying this, that's fascinating.
Episode: Introduction to the Return (with Jeff Cavins) - 20...
It's presented as the last book of the Old Testament prophets, and the speakers discussed its message of the coming Messiah and its connection to John the Baptist's role as Elijah. They also mentioned a passage about healing in its wings, foreshadowing Jesus.
But one of the most interesting things, Father, that I see about this period is how it fits into our own lives.
I really enjoy Father Malachi because Malachi really sets the stage for the Messiah to come when in Malachi chapter three, Malachi says, I'm going to send my messenger to prepare the way before me. And then he says in chapter five, I will send you Elijah the prophet.
Now we know because we've read the rest of the story that in Matthew chapter 11 and verse 13 for all the prophets in the law prophesied until John and if Jesus says, if you're willing to accept it, he is Elijah who was to come.
And he also talks about it more in Matthew 17, nine through 13.
It says in chapter four, verse one, for behold, the day comes burning like an oven when all the arrogant and all the evil doers will be stubble. The day that comes shall burn them, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall and you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.
