Old Testament Prophehts

The Old Testament ends with the prophets, both major and minor, as God’s messengers to the Israelite people. While each prophet was called individually by God with a distinct message, it is also true some of the same issues confronted the prophets. The three main things the people continually had trouble with were idolatry, social injustice, and religious ritualism. When we read through the Old Testament we see the Israelites followed a cycle of disobedience and repentance. They would wander away from God and the prophets would urge them back.

Idolatry, the worship of any form of false God, was a constant issue throughout Jewish history. God dealt with this sin as early as the book of Exodus, even including it among the commandments given to Moses, “Thou shall not make unto thee any graven images, or any likeness of anything that is in Heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” Exodus 20:4 (The holy Bible NIV). God made it crystal clear he requires complete and total devotion.

The book of Hosea was written almost exclusively to deal with idolatry. Hosea, a prophet of God, was commanded to marry an unfaithful wife to represent Israel’s covenant unfaithfulness towards God (Hindson, 2003). Hosea compared Israel during this time to a bunch of wild grapes, a wild vine, a trained heifer, even a rebellious son. God used Hosea’s marriage to Gomer to show the Israelites that even though they had gone whoring from God, he loved them and sought their return, just as Hosea went to retrieve Gomer. Many of the Jews were slain by God before they finally repented and returned to him. Jeremiah in chapter 11 and Isaiah in chapter 46 talked about the uselessness of idols. Christians today may not have actual graven images but still put things such as jobs, spouses, money, even sports teams before God making them in effect an idol.

Social injustice was also an ongoing problem for the Old Testament saints. Amos was a prophet of...