Prophets & Kings

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Prophets Kings

• OT timetable.
• David Bathsheba story.
• Prophets.

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Israel surrounded by its ancient enemies
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Timeline

• 1300-1250 Exodus
• 1250 BCE Hebrews came to Canaan
• 1250-1020 Judges
• 1020-1000 Saul anointed the first king
• 1000-961 King David
• 961-922 King Solomon First Temple built
• 922 Solomons kingdom divided into Northern
  (Israel) and Southern (Judah)
• 721 Northern kingdom is defeated by the Assyrians
• 626-587 Prophet Jeremiah in Judah.
• 597 Judah defeated by Babylon 587 Temple
  destroyed
• 597-538 Babylonian exile
• 538 Beginning of Persian period. Return from
  exile.
• 520 Temple rebuilt. Second Temple Judaism
  starts.

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Ancient Israel and UN plan for the partition of
Palestine in 1947
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Israel before and after the six-day war of 1967.
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(No Transcript)
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King David

• Who was David?
• What did David plan to do for God in 2 Sam 7 2.
• How did God respond? What did God promise David
  in 2 Sam 7 8-17?
• Sum up the contents of David and Bathsheba story
  in 2 Sam 11.
• Why did Nathan choose to reprimand David by
  telling him a parable? 2 Sam 12.

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The call of the prophet Jeremiah

• Now the word of the LORD came to me saying,
  "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and
  before you were born I consecrated you I
  appointed you a prophet to the nations." Then I
  said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to
  speak, for I am only a boy." But the LORD said to
  me, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy' for you shall
  go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak
  whatever I command you.

Jeremiah lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem.
Rembrandt van Rejn, 1630.
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The task of the prophet

• 2And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into
  me and set me on my feet and I heard him
  speaking to me. 3He said to me, Mortal, I am
  sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation
  of rebels who have rebelled against me they and
  their ancestors have transgressed against me to
  this very day. 4The descendants are impudent and
  stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall
  say to them, "Thus says the Lord GOD." 5Whether
  they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a
  rebellious house), they shall know that there has
  been a prophet among them. (Ezekiel 2 2-5)

Sistine chapel, ceiling.
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True false prophets

• Anyone who does not heed the words that the
  prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will
  hold accountable. But any prophet who speaks in
  the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak
  in my name a word that I have not commanded the
  prophet to speak--that prophet shall die." You
  may say to yourself, "How can we recognize a word
  that the LORD has not spoken?" If a prophet
  speaks in the name of the LORD but the thing does
  not take place or prove true, it is a word that
  the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken
  it presumptuously do not be frightened by it.
  Deuteronomy 1819-22

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Moses the greatest prophet

• And he said, "Hear my words When there are
  prophets among you, I the LORD make myself known
  to them in visions I speak to them in dreams.
  Not so with my servant Moses he is entrusted
  with all my house. With him I speak face to
  face-- clearly, not in riddles and he beholds
  the form of the LORD. Numbers 126-8

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Main features of biblical prophets

• 1. Gods spokesmen Thus says the Lord.
• 2. Mediators between God and Israel.
• 3. Challenge to the power of the kings.
• 4. Message response to situations. Doom,
  reproach, repentance, justice will be vindicated
• 5. Sometimes announce the inevitable, at other
  times future depends upon human choices.
• 6. Rarely successful.