Zechariah (Program #8) – The Advice to Israel to Turn from the Vanity of Their Ritualistic Religion to the Reality of a Godly Life and the Desire of Jehovah to Restore Israel

God wants His people to turn from the vanity of their ritualistic religion to the reality of a godly life. Is your religion full of vanity and rituals or are you really in the reality of a godly life?

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Zechariah (Program #7) – The Visions of Consolation and Promise (6)

God cares about His chosen people and God is for His chosen people that through all His judgments He will perfect them and punish those who oppose His people. This is the last program dealing with the eight visions in the book of Zechariah. In chapter 6 we see another vision of God’s judgment on unrighteousness and also His judgment on His people. The judgment on His people is for the purpose of perfecting them so God’s full and eternal purpose may be accomplished. But His judgment on those nations that come against Israel, His people is referred to Israel in this case because we’re talking about the Old Testament prophet Zechariah, but it applies God’s people in every age. God wants to perfect His people so He can accomplish His goal of producing the Body of Christ. But Israel now is under a lot of opposition from a lot of different nations, kingdoms and peoples. So God is judging these people and protecting and perfecting His people in those judgments.

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Zechariah (Program #1) – An Introductory Word

During the days of the degradation of the house of Israel, God’s word was primarily limited to his overcomers, the prophets, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah. But as the people’s hearts began to turn back to the Lord, other prophets were still needed to bear Jehovah’s testimony and to release His speaking for His people in that age to accomplish His purpose and plan. Among these prophets were Haggai and Zechariah who shared in the captivity of Israel in Babylon but who were raised up by the Lord to accompany His people back to Judah and to encourage and exhort them to go back and rebuild the temple of Jehovah within Jerusalem.

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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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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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Joel (Program #4) – On Joel (5)—The Four Factors in the Book of Joel

The Old Testament, Minor Prophet Joel is an interesting book. It was quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost and its’ prophecy concerning both the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the second coming of Christ are of great importance even to us, the New Testament believers.

The book can be summarized into 4 principles. These are the consuming locusts representing the 4 great empires of the human history and how they had been consuming Israel for more than 27 centuries.  The second principle is the suffering, that this is caused to Israel and how Israel had continued to endure under the suffering.  The third principle in Joel is that the Church, that’s us, God’s New Testament people are the beneficiaries of all these consuming and suffering.  And finally, the fourth principle is that of restoration. For all the suffering that Israel has endured there is a day coming when Israel will enjoy God’s full restoration.  This is Joel a wonderful and important book.

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Joel (Program #3) – On Joel (2)—The Content (1)

The Old Testament Prophets Daniel, Zechariah and Joel all speak prophetically of 4 great empires that would come against God’s chosen people Israel to consume and devour. This consuming had been going on for more than 27 centuries now. History tells us that Daniel got it right when he prophesied in Chapter 2 that these 4 empires that would rule the world and wreck havoc upon Israel would be the Babylonian, the Medo Persian, the Greek and the Roman Empires.  Zechariah saw them as 4 horns. And the Prophet Joel described them as 4 kinds of locusts as in Chapter 1 : 4 “What the cutting locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; And what the swarming locust has left, the licking locust has eaten; And what the licking locust has left, the consuming locust has eaten.”

Whatever metaphor we use to depict these 4 great empires, the fact is, Israel had been sustained through this long period of suffering and ultimately will turned back to God, and receive a salvation and a restoration. For us, God’s New Testament people these consuming locusts representing all of human government had also been used by God for His specific purpose and goal, and that is the Christ might be manifested.

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Joel (Program #2) – On Joel (2)—The Content (1)

The book of Joel in the Old Testament contains 3 main points. The first is the plague of the 4 locusts found in Chapter 1. These 4 locusts in Joel 1, the 4 horns in Zechariah, the 4 beasts in Daniel 7 and the great image in Daniel 2 seen in 4 sections all refer to the four great empires of human history. The Babylonians, the Medo Persian, the Greek and the Roman Empires. These 4 empires representing the totality of human government had been consuming Israel for 27 centuries.

The second main point of Joel is the outpouring of the Spirit prophesied in Chapter two, and referred to by the apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost.

The third main point in Joel is the coming restoration, not only of Israel but of the whole universe. Such a short book, a Minor Prophet in the Old Testament, yet such a great content.

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