Prophets of the Old Testament, Volume 3: Prior to the Defeat of Judah (650-586 BC) -- Nahum, Zephani

After Israel's fall, God cried out with strong pleas and warnings for Judah's repentance. Judah had brief periods of spiritual renewal, but always returned to idolatry and rebellion. Finally, her judgment was inevitable and God sent a flurry of prophets to warn the people to repent and return to Him. Four prophets wrote the following five books before and immediately after Jerusalem's destruction and the people's exile to Babylon. It was only 136 years after Israel's destruction that Judah herself was destroyed. NAHUM (662-657 BC) again warned Nineveh, Assyria's capitol, of their impending judgment. They had heeded Jonah's message and repented 125 years earlier, but had returned to wickedness. God graciously gave them another 45-50 years after Nahum preached, but their destruction finally came in 612 BC. ZEPHANIAH (621-612 BC) preached a strong message of righteousness and prophesied judgment for Judah and her enemies. He also spoke of Israel's glorious restoration. HABAKKUK (607-598 BC) reported that God would use the wicked Babylonians to punish Judah. This evoked the discussion of why God would use a nation that was even more wicked than Judah to punish and destroy it. JEREMIAH (628-560 BC) described in detail the destruction of Judah, Egypt, Babylon, and Judah's other neighbors. He was deeply affected by the messages he had to deliver, but wrote little to offer the people hope. LAMENTATIONS (586-581 BC) is a collection of five elegies of Jeremiah expressing great mourning and sorrow for the irrecoverable loss of the temple and Jerusalem.