Do the Prophets’ Judgment Oracles Apply Today? – Daniel C. Timmer

The prophets’ judgment oracles are a challenge to read. Many popular and academic discussions of these texts see them as promoting xenophobia and unjustifiable violence. The Old Testament judgment oracles left the stage of history long ago. Do they have any continuing relevance for us?

Thankfully, they do. The prophets present their critiques of the nations with a theological finesse that helps us to understand their significance both then and now. We can blunt the critiques and sharpen our understanding of them by answering two key questions: Who is to be punished and why?

The prophets’ oracles of judgment set up a definitive contrast between God’s kingdom and all competing worldviews.

The prophets’ oracles of judgment set up a definitive contrast between God’s kingdom and all competing worldviews. This article explores two Old Testament texts that show (1) how the prophets often targeted a fraction of a named nation’s population and (2) that this subgroup was condemned because they promoted an ideology that flies in the face of the Lord’s righteousness, revelation, and rule.

Isaiah’s Targeted Condemnation

In Isaiah 10, the oracle against Assyria deals exclusively with the Assyrian king and the army that enacted his imperial vision. The oracle condemns those who promote and enact an idolatrous ideology, one that raises its fists against the Lord as the only Creator and ultimate ruler of the world.

The Lord had sent the Assyrian king Sennacherib to plunder and dominate Judah (v. 6), but his aspirations exceeded God’s mandate. The king intended to destroy (not simply dominate) many nations (and not Judah alone, v. 7). His overreach revealed his immense pride.

Sennacherib thought his own will and power would ultimately determine his future (vv. 8–11). His arrogance (vv. 12–14) was typical of Assyrian kings, and it echoes the self-descriptions we’ve discovered in Sennacherib’s own royal annals. In one of these inscriptions, the monarch boasts about himself as the “great king, strong king, king of Assyria, unrivaled king, pious shepherd who reveres the great gods, . . . perfect man, virile warrior.”

The king also believed that the Lord was like the other gods he knew. The Assyrian monarch imagined he was invincible because he believed his gods had given him universal dominion. In the inscription referenced above, Sennacherib states it explicitly: “The god Aššur . . . granted to me unrivaled sovereignty and made my weapons greater than (those of) all who sit on (royal) daises.”

Who is to be punished according to Isaiah 10? Sennacherib and the army that bought into his idolatrous ideology. Why? Because at the head of his army (vv. 16–19), the king exposed his pride, arrogantly declaring he’s entitled and able to take whatever he wants by force.

Nahum’s Focused Hunt

The book of Nahum has a similar focus. Except for in its opening poem (1:2–8), Nahum focuses exclusively on Assyria’s ruler, his army, and the diplomats who embody Assyria’s imperialism. Sennacherib’s grandson Assurbanipal said,“[I want] monuments bearing an inscription of my name, and of my father, and of my father’s father, eternal seed of kingship,” to endure forever.

Nahum’s first reference to Assyria (1:9–10) directly addresses this plot against the Lord. In 1:14, the Lord speaks directly to the monarch. Despite the king’s efforts to perpetuate his name and dynasty, and regardless of the supposed support of his gods, God will bring him and his imperial mission to nothing.

In Nahum 2, the predicted destruction of Nineveh focuses on military personnel (v. 6), royalty (v. 7), and the empire’s material wealth (v. 9). This judgment mentions the general population only in passing (v. 10) but identifies the king as the lion-like embodiment of Assyria’s military power, announcing that God will do away with the him, his army, and the diplomats who represented his imperial interests abroad (vv. 11–13). This metaphor artfully inverts a key image in Assyria’s royal ideology: In an annual hunt, the king would kill lions that symbolized his enemies. Nahum predicts the opposite. Instead, the Lord will hunt down and kill the Assyrian king.

Nahum 3 continues the book’s focused critique. Who is to be punished and why? The prophet condemns the army’s involvement in violence (vv. 1–3), the diplomats’ role in exploitative diplomacy (v. 4), and the king’s oppressive rule (vv. 17–19).

Some, and Ultimately All

In these examples, oracles of judgment are aimed at wicked leaders and those who accept and enact their wicked ideologies. They aren’t aimed at empires, cities, or populations indiscriminately, and so they don’t promote xenophobia or indiscriminate violence. They’re limited to Assyrians who actively participated in the empire’s project of global domination, served the gods who legitimized it, and espoused the underlying worldview.

It’s this worldview Nahum deconstructs by presenting its antithesis. Against claims like Assurbanipal’s that he was “the great king, the mighty king, king of totality,” the Lord affirms that he alone is God. Legitimate power is God-given and must be used within prescribed limits. True justice and human flourishing find their norm in his character and will. Both Nahum and Isaiah 10 directly condemn those who oppose God and his purposes and seek to glorify themselves, gain power, and legitimize false gods. These people are what they do in relation to God. At the bottom, they’re idolaters.

Because worldview and idolatry are at the heart of these prophetic condemnations, these oracles also condemn contemporary beliefs and behaviors, regardless of their connection to imperialism as a political model. Widespread denial of God’s existence in the West doesn’t mean the West doesn’t worship! No, gods as varied as materialism and secular humanism elicit peoples commitment and fuel their hopes. But though they’re dressed up in contemporary garb, they’re just as idolatrous. Epistemological pride, craving recognition, hope in cultural ideals that lack biblical foundations, and grasping after power all go against God’s absolute primacy and incomparability.

Widespread denial of God’s existence in the West doesn’t mean the West doesn’t worship!

The prophets’ sensitivity to how idolatry conceals itself behind power and self-advancement encourages us to trace our own behaviors and ideologies (and those of our society) back to their roots. Lest we remain under judgment ourselves, we must ruthlessly cut away all that does not grow from and bear fruit to the glory of our triune Creator, Redeemer, and King.

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