BIBL105
Essay 4
As we all know the Old Testament is one of the most amazing books in the Bible to learn from life experiences, and to also learn what God’s expectancy of us is. At the end of the Old Testament it ends with the prophets providing great teachings of great values. Their teaching also expressed many of the controversies that the Jews dealt with in desperation to know God. Three main topics that are imbedded in the followers of Christ today are, Idolatry, Social injustice and religious ritualism. These prophets that we read about in the Bible are inspiring teachers to us all. They spread and say so much about God, including the way they lived, all of the social issues they came across and faced, all the religious formalities they were part of, and today all of these important acts, teachings and involvements, are all important to the world today.
It was evident that Idolatry was a conspicuous issue in the midst of the Jews that at some point in the Bible God knew He would have to confront, as He expresses in the Bible, “You should not make for yourself a carved image, 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. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but show steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:4-6, English Standard Version). Many knew that following God required total dedication and full attention, for the prophets saw this was an important factor that had to be done. Dealing with the fact that Hosea was commanded to marry a promiscuous and unfaithful wife, both of these woman and the children were metaphors of Israel’s covenant unfaithfulness towards God.1 It was around this time where Israel was not willing to glorify our one and only true God, and began to search...