Exams Back[with a significant point adjustment]

• Check grading as always

• Two exams without names – please see me if you do not receive yours back in your mailbox!

• Keys on Blackboard

• Exam Statistics• Distribution of Grades

– A 30– B 26– C 23– D 20– F 19

• Range of scores– 42-100

Important Announcement

• Make-up exams – Friday, 12 December– 3:00-5:30 in Jenks 406– If you have missed an exam, this will be the day to

retake it. It will be in essay format.– If you wish to re-take any exam on which you

have not earned the grade you would like, you may do so on reading day. You must let me know via e-mail by the end of this week (5 December) if you wish to take advantage of this option.

– In order to study for these exams, please use the study questions posted on Blackboard.

O Come, O Come Immanuel,

• And ransom captive Israel,

• That mourns in lonely exile here

• Until the Son of God appear.

• Rejoice, rejoice;

• Immanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O Come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free

• Thine own from Satan’s tyranny

• From depths of hell Thy people save,

• And give them victory o’er the grave.

• Rejoice, rejoice

• Immanuel shall come to Thee, O Israel.

O Come, Thou Key of David, come

• And open wide our heavenly home;

• Make safe the way that leads on high,

• And close the path to misery.

• Rejoice, rejoice;

• Immanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

Prophets of the South:

The Destruction of Jerusalem

Review Questions

• What “super-power” was the major threat during the prophetic ministries of Isaiah and Micah?

• For which good king did Isaiah serve as “advisor”?

• Which king initiated a reform during which the Torah was found?

• Approximately how many years passed between that event and the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians?

Jeremiah“Let the one who has my word

speak it faithfully” (23:28)

The Political Circumstances(Jer 1:2-3)

• From the 13th year of Josiah (627) to the 11th year of Zedekiah (586) – oracles not in chronological order– Jehoahaz– Jehoiakim– Jehoiachin

• Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar were in control of Judah – Jer 34:6-7 – only Lachish and Azekah left

• Israelites were deported to Babylon in 605 and 597 prior to Temple’s destruction (586) – this is why Jeremiah wrote to people already in Babylon

• Egypt was a tempting alternative for some – Jer 42-44 on the flight of the remaining people to Egypt

Exile to Babylon

Jeremiah’s Difficult Calling

• The initial calling as son of Hilkiah (1:1)• Called before he was born (1:5)• Called to stand in opposition to the Religious

Establishment (1:17-19)• Continued opposition:

– From kings (32:3 – Zedekiah; 36:1-32 – Jehoiakim)– From false prophets and priests (20:1-6 – Pashur;

23:9-40; 28:1-17 - Hananiah)– From the people (11:18-22 – plot to kill him)– Jeremiah’s feelings about his ministry: grief and

dismay (4:18-22); despair (20:7-18); apparently ineffective ministry for 23 years (25:3)

The Imagery in Jeremiah’s Messages

• Linen belt (ch 13) – symbolizing binding the people of Israel to God

• Potter’s house (ch 18)• Breaking a jar in Hinnom Valley (ch 19)• Basket of figs (ch 24) – the good figs were those

who had gone to Babylon with Jehoiachin; the bad ones were the ones remaining under Zedekiah

• Wearing a yoke (ch 27) – symbolizing subservience to Nebuchadnezzar of Judah and all the surrounding peoples

The Content of Jeremiah’s Messages

• The disobedience of generation after generation would bring the curses of the covenant (Lev 26)

• Exile and judgment– Captivity in Babylon for 70 years (25:11)– The cup of God’s wrath (25:15-17; see also Jer 13:13;

49:12; 51:7; Isaiah 52:17-23; Ezekiel 23:32-34; Psalm 60:3; and the seven bowls of God’s wrath – Revelation 16-17)

• Promises– Return from exile and restoration (29:10-14)– New covenant (ch 31 quoted in Hebrews 8)

Additional Information about Jeremiah

• Baruch was Jeremiah’s scribe

• Jeremiah’s words contain prophecies for other nations (chs 46-51)

• Lamentations was ascribed to Jeremiah – Chapters 1-4 are acrostics– Chapter 5 is not – representing complete

absence of order– Note 3:21-26

Habakkuk

• Literary forms in the book– Questions (complaint) of the prophet and answers

from God• “How can evil go on unchecked?”• God will raise up the Babylonians!• “How can God use a nation so vile?”• The wicked will not last. Evil is self-destructive but the

righteous must live in faithfulness (note Galatians 3:11)

– Psalm of God’s appearing in judgment (3:1-16) and the prophet’s faith (3:17-19)

• Lessons

Obadiah

• Background and date– probably around the time of the fall of

Jerusalem – Parallels with Jeremiah 49:9

• Messages– Doom on Edom– Day of the Lord for all nations– Restoration for Israel

“Clefts of the rock” (Sela)

Zephaniah

• Background – descendant of Hezekiah; during time of Josiah

• Messages– Comprehensive destruction on the Day of the

Lord in conjunction with specific condemnation of Judah and Jerusalem

– Condemnation of surrounding nations– Restoration