Page 127 - Advanced OT Survey Revised

Chapter 11: Five Major Prophets (divided into two—
pre-exilic and exilic) (740 BC to 538 BC)

Connect…

Suppose you were driving down a lonely road in a fog, and noticed, just in the nick of time, that the
bridge across a deep river was down. If you had continued any further, you would have been lost. Your
immediate concern now is to stop any unknowing drivers from driving to their death. You would
probably try to put up some sort of barrier to warn drivers to stop their forward progress. In the same
way, God sent the prophets to warn the nations of Israel and Judah that they were going the wrong way
and to stop, lest they fall into judgment.

As we have learned in the introduction to the Prophetic books, one of the primary tasks of a Prophet
was to warn the people of God. Of the three books of Major Prophets, one written by Isaiah and the
other two written by Jeremiah, stand as warnings to the nation of Judah before the exile to Babylon.
They are called pre-exilic because the Prophets ministered before the Assyrian and Babylonian captivity.

Objectives…

1. The student should be able to discuss what these three books of the Major Prophets are all about.

2. The student should be able to discuss the important questions such as: what, when, where, how.

3. The student should be able to discuss the main message and main divisions of each individual pre-
exilic major prophetic book.

4. The student should be able to discuss the applications from these books.

The Lesson ...

Introduction

The Major Prophets are essentially in chronological order and cover a period of over 200 years of Jewish
history starting with Isaiah about 20 years before the fall of Israel through Daniel who ministered to
Judah during the Babylonian Captivity. Three of these Prophetic books were pre-exilic (Isaiah,
Jeremiah/Lamentation) and two were exilic (Ezekiel and Daniel). They are called Major Prophets
because of the length and relative significance of their writings. The Major Prophets have great
theological importance and reveal why God judged his people with Assyrian and Babylonian captivity.
They also reveal God’s redeemed purpose for both Jews and Gentiles and his eternal plan which is being
worked out in human history. The Prophetic books what God is looking for and expects from his people.

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