Questions On The Old Testament
Question 1. I need to know who the book of Zachariah was written for? like what type of audience?
Answer To understand the book of Zechariah, as with almost all the Old Testament prophets, you must have an idea of the historical context in which they were written. In the case of Zechariah, the following facts must b noted:
1. 586 BC - Last stage of Babylonian captivity was competed with the destruction of the Temple and the walls of Jerusalem by the armies of Babylon. Left in Jerusalem, were the poorest of the poor and the rest were either destroyed or carried back to Babylon for serving the Empire.
2. 538 BC - A decree is issued by Cyrus, Persian King who conquered Babylon, that the Jews, along with any of the other conquered peoples, might return to their homelands, rebuild their temples and worship their own gods according to their traditions. Ezra 1:2-4.
3. 536 BC - a small number of Jews return under the leadership of Zerubbabel and begin to rebuild the Temple. But after the foundation is built, they become discouraged and stop the work. Ezra 3:1-13, 5:14-16.
At this point, God raises up two prophets, Haggai
and Zecharia,h, whose missions are to encourage the people to finish the great work that
had been started. According, to Haggai, they do begin trusting in the Lord, work on the
Temple and in just over three weeks, accomplish their goal, the finishing of the Temple.
Question 2. I have heard that in the Old Testament Ruth & Naomi, it states that a man shall take in his brother's wife. Please let me know where I can find this scripture.
Answer To answer
your question, I also will have to give some background to the book of Ruth because it
does provide one of the few examples of this particular law in action. Before doing that
though, let's look at the Law itself.
Question 3. How is the suffering that Job experiences be related to the entire message of God's Word?
Answer First, to
answer, let me try to summarize the book of Job. Then, I will relate Job's suffering to
the New Testament and to us today.
Question 4. What is the application of the book of Malachai to the church today? What is God saying today through Malachai
Answer The name Malachi means "My Messenger". The book was written somewhere around 440 B.C. During this time, the people had been back in Jerusalem for around 100 years after they had been captive in Babylon for 70 years. Malachi addresses great problems of his day that have direct application to us. He also addressed what God would do in the future which has direct application to us.
The two problems he addressing by having an imaginary dialog with the people are corrupted worship and corrupted daily morality.
As to the first, the people had been become indifferent and careless in their worship of God. They were not offering to God what he demanded of them. This is a lesson for us. John 4:23-24, Matt. 15:1-120. We must worship God only in the way He directs, doing what He says from our hearts and not out of careless empty ritual.
Further, the people had become morally corrupt divorcing their wives and marrying idolaters. Mal. 2:11-17. Here, we see God hated unjustified divorce. Is that not a practical lesson for us today? Matt. 19:1-12. Further, we see that their lack of morality was also what corrupted their worship. God did not accept their immoral living and their empty attempts at half-heartedly offering to him whatever they wanted to offer.
Finally, Malachi serves as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments for in the last two verses (4:5-6) he prophesies of one to come who would prepare the way before the Messiah. That one who came was John the Baptist. He preached repentance and obedience to the Jews just as Elijah had done hundreds of years before. See Mark 1 and Matt. 1-3. Contact Gary
Question 5. What is the key verse in the book of Habakkuk? Who wrote the book of Habakkuk?
Answer First, Habakkuk wrote the book and probably around 625 B.C. or so. The primary purpose of his writing was to prepare the people for what was to come, they would be defeated and conquered by the Babylonians. Besides declaring these judgments against Judah (the southern kingdom - Israel being divided in 931 B.C. and northern kingdom being destroyed by Assyria in 722 B.C.), Habakkuk also revealed his perplexities and God's responses to them. Therefore, we learn more about why God deals with His people in the ways that he does along with the actual prophecies themselves.
In chapter one, Habakkuk presents God with his disturbing problem, how long is the wickedness of Judah going to continue? God gave the answer, not long because I (God) will judge the nation by bringing against them the dreaded wicked Babylonian Empire.
This raises another question to the prophet, "How can God use a wicked nation to judge His people?" Bod responds in two parts by saying, first, those who we be pleasing to me will trust me and obey me, even if they do not understand all my judgments. From this, comes the most famous verses from the book, Hab. 2:4. This verse is repeated in the New Testament show us how we should live by trusting and obeying God, not seeking to understand all aspects of God which we can never do. Rom 1:16-17, Gal. Gal. 3:9-29, Heb. 10:35-39.
Then, God says that He will punish the Babylonians because of their pride and wickedness. Hab. 2. God would use the Medes and the Persians to conquer Babylon.
In Habakkuk, we see God judging the nations, including His own people when needed. We see God using wicked nations to judge others and then punishing them when their wickedness reaches an intolerable level. Finally, we see God telling Habakkuk, no matter what comes, put your confidence and obedient trust in Me. Hab. 3, especially verses 16-19. Contact Gary
Answers To Your Bible Questions
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971,
1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."
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