Loving God and Loving Others

At first glance, it's easy to pass over the prophet books. They aren't “fun” books of the Bible to read, like Esther or Ruth or even Jonah. They're angst filled books. They're about judgement. Frankly, they can be downright depressing. But when one looks deeper within these books, some major themes that are applicable to today become noticeable. The themes of idolatry – who and what we worship, social injustices, and religious ritualism emerge. While we may like to think that these are issues of the past, they are still present and relative in 2013. Another theme emerges too: God's great and deep love for his people and the desire to see them restored. Israel wrestled over worshiping a God they couldn't see. No matter how many times God made himself known to them, they still assimilated into the culture and chose to worship man-made gods over the living God. God used the prophets to call Israel out and to give them fair warning to turn back to himself and to uphold their end of their covenantal responsibility. From the outset of his message on behalf of the Lord, the prophet Zephaniah condemned the people of Judah and their worship of false idols saying, "I will crush Judah and Jerusalem with my fist and destroy every last trace of their Baal worship. I will put an end to all the idolatrous priests, so that even the memory of them will disappear. For they go up to their roofs and bow down to the sun, moon, and stars. They claim to follow the LORD, but then they worship Molech, too. And I will destroy those who used to worship me but now no longer do. They no longer ask for the LORD's guidance or seek my blessings."1 God also gave a prophetic vision to Ezekiel so that he could warn the people that the glory of the Lord would depart from the temple because the people were bringing in idols into the temple area.2 And the Lord