Haggai (Program #1) – The Building of the House of Jehovah in Relation to Israel’s Welfare and Messiah’s Coming

Some of the most penetrating words in all of Scriptures are found in the Old Testament Prophet, Haggai. They are penetrating because they have immediate relevant to every believer. And they touch us in some of the most carefully guarded places in our hearts.

“Is it time for you yourself to dwell in your paneled-up houses?” he writes, “while this house,” God’s House “lies waste?..Consider your ways, you sown much but you bring in little, you eat but there is no satisfaction.”

Haggai was a prophet raised up by the Lord to accompany His people on their return to Judah and Jerusalem following the 70 long years of captivity in Babylon. And when they returned they faced the temple, God’s house in ruin and in desperate need of rebuilding. But they like so many of us today have become completely preoccupied and engrossed with their own needs and situations. And the result as imply by Haggai probing questions is that, in spit of all of their effort and dedication without God’s hand of blessing in their lives, they and we would never be satisfied regardless of how much material wealth or possession we acquired. These are questions that must be asked again and again among God’s people.

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Habakkuk (Program #1) – The Introductory Word and the First and the Second Dialogues Between the Prophet and Jehovah

Habakkuk is one of the twelve Minor Prophets in the Old Testament. And the central thought of Habakkuk is this : the righteous God will judge both the evil Israel and the violent Chaldeans, and only the righteous one shall live by his faith that all the earth may know the glory of Jehovah and be silent before Jehovah who is in His Holy Temple. And that His seekers may sing to Him in prayer, in lauding, and in trusting in Him.

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Nahum (Program #1) – Jehovah’s Judgment on Nineveh

In the Bible story of Jonah, we probably recall, that he was fleeing, running away from Jehovah and the task that God had appointed to Him. That of bringing God’s message of judgment and repentance to the evil city Nineveh.

In the story as Jonah was trying to escape from God, he is thrown into the sea during a raging storm, only to be swallowed up by a giant fish. He remained alive in the belly of the fish for three days until he was spewed out by the fish unto dry land. Well, this is the part of the story that most of us remember and can retell it to our children. But the story continues, for eventually Jonah reached Nineveh, and not only did he proclaimed God’s righteous judgment on that evil city, but he also witness first hand Jehovah’s mercy and salvation upon the people of Nineveh.

Another book in the Old Testament, another book of the Minor Prophets, is that of Nahum. And once again the subject of the book is the city of Nineveh. Only this time we don’t see God’s mercy and compassion resulting in the salvation for the city. Rather we see God’s righteous indignation and judgment upon Nineveh resulting in the city’s ultimate destruction.  What was it about this ancient city that caused it to be the focus and so much attention by the Old Testament prophets?

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Micah (Program #2) – Jehovah’s Comfort to Israel

The Prophet Micah in the Old Testament speaks of God’s reprove and chastisement of Israel in a very poetic language.

Chapter 1:3-4 “For Jehovah is about to come forth from His place, And He will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains will be melted under Him, And the valleys will be cleft, Like wax before fire, Like water poured down a slope.”

These sobering words caused Micah to weep but as with other prophets Micah also speaks of God’s comforting of His people.  Which ultimately comes at the end of this age in what the prophets of all spoke as the restoration. A coming age when there will be no need of weapons for all the enemies will be gone and Christ will rule, shepherd and protect His people while His people feast and rejoice in loving worship of Him for a thousand years.

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Micah (Program #1) – The Introductory Word and Jehovah’s Reproof on Israel

The prophets of the Old Testament all spoke of the same basic things. First, that Israel had departed from Jehovah which resulted in Jehovah use of the Gentile nations around Israel to chastise her with the hope that she would return to Him.

But the nations were excessive in their treatment of Israel which offended the Lord, causing Him to punish the nations. Both of these things work to bring about the manifestation of Christ, which will eventually result in the restoration of all things including the full promise of Israel with the ushering in of the kingdom consummating ultimately in the New heaven and New earth. Though their expression and the angles from which they speak of these different things vary, the basic thought is the same with all of the Old Testament prophets. And with this is the key, all of these books, the prophets, both Major and Minor open up to us.

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Amos (Program #1) – The Introductory Word, Jehovah’s Judgments on the Surrounding Nations, and His Judgments on Judah and Israel, and Jehovah’s Contending with the House of Jacob

There are many ways to look at and interpret human history. But if we study the divine record in the Bible, we can see a clear and on going pattern. And that is that for more than 20 centuries God’s people Israel had been under a kind of suffering, a chastisement at the hands of the surrounding nations.  At the same time God has been judging and punishing those nations for their excessive brutality toward Israel. And during these entire period beginning from the incarnation of the Savior, Christ had been increasingly manifested on the earth. This clear, concise summary of the past centuries is the topic and focus of most of the Old Testament books of the prophets. Amos is one of the Minor Prophets that continues this revelation.

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Hosea (Program #5) – On Hosea (6)—Jehovah’s Unchanging Love Versus Israel’s Stubborn Unchastity (1)

The entire book of Hosea servers as a kind of metaphor showing us how Israel as God’s wife was unfaithful to Him even becoming a harlot. Unfaithfulness in marriage always lead to more and more evil and sinfulness. And the same was true with Israel. She eventually became sinful in her social dealing, that’s in her dealing with man. And also in her relationship with God on every level. Not only was Israel given fully to idolatry and sinfulness, but also she was stubborn refusing to turn back to Jehovah. In Chapter 7 referring to the stubbornness Jehovah says of Israel Ephraim is a cake not turned. By Chapter 11 Israel as this unturned cake refusing the admonition of Hosea and all the prophets eventually losses everything, including the temple, Jerusalem, the sacrifices, and ultimately the priesthood and the prophets.

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Hosea (Program #3) – On Hosea (2)—The Symbol of a Wife of Harlotries (2)

The Lord used the prophet Hosea to signify His own sorrow and anguish over the unfaithfulness of His people Israel. Jehovah commanded Hosea to take Gomer who was a harlot as a wife and to love her in spite of her adultery. This was to show Hosea that the Lord view His people Israel as an unfaithful wife. Well, Hosea obeyed the Lord and married Gomer. But after he had born children to him, she left again to chase other lovers. Once again Jehovah came to Hosea and told him to receive her back, and to love her again. Here we see that the Lord patiently drawing Israel His people back to Himself. With a clear promise that at the end of this age He would restore her. This age of restoration would be at the coming of the Lord Jesus. The Minor Prophet Hosea gives us both a clear window into God’s heart for His people and also an unmistakable prophecy of the coming age of the kingdom.

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Ezekiel (Program #25) – The Holy Land and the Holy City

Clearly the subject and central focus of the last section of the book of Ezekiel is the temple, the house of God. Show the house to the house, the Lord tells Ezekiel and that is exactly what he does in the final chapters. Yet, there’s a very profound postscript to Ezekiel’s vision that is found in the final chapters of the book and that is the land upon which the temple sits. In fact the land and the house are the central focus of the entire Old Testament. Recall Jehovah’s words to Joshua following the death of Moses as the children of Israel were encamped at the border of the good land in Canaan, “Moses My servant is dead; now then arise, and cross over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, to the children of Israel. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads I have given to you, as I promised Moses…Be strong and take courage, for you will cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.” (Joshua 1:2-3,6). Well if the temple typifies the church as the fulfillment of the house of God, what then does this land typify?

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Ezekiel (Program #22) – The Return of God’s Glory to the House

Early in his ministry as recorded in chapters 9 and 10, the prophet Ezekiel had seen the glory of Jehovah depart from the temple and even from the earth. It was the gross sin of the people, the abominations, the whoredom, the carcasses and the degradation that caused the Lord’s glory to depart. But after receiving the vision of the completion of the building of the temple in chapter 43, Ezekiel saw another vision. This time a vision of the glory of Jehovah returning to the earth and filling the temple. This is Ezekiel 43:1-5, “Then He brought me to the gate, that is, the gate that faces toward the east. And the glory of the God of Israel was there … and His voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth was illuminated with His glory. And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, that is, like the vision that I had seen when He came to destroy the city; and the visions were like the vision that I had seen by the river Chebar. And I fell on my face. And the glory of Jehovah came into the house through the gate which faced toward the east. And the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court, and just then the glory of Jehovah filled the house.”

Following the vision of the glory of the Lord filling the house, the Lord had many things to say to Ezekiel as He also does to us concerning His house. Question is, do we have ears to hear and eyes to see the house of God?

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