The Minor Prophets Audio and Written Bible Commentary


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The Prophecy of Zechariah – Part 8: The Broken and New Covenants

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The Prophecy of Zechariah – Part 8: The Broken and New Covenants

Presenting Zechariah chapter 10, we saw in the reference to the House of Judah that there were apparent near vision prophecies, which can seem to have had a partial fulfillment in the 70-weeks Kingdom. But that is only because the remnant in Jerusalem was also a part of the House of Judah. The purpose of the prophecy of Zechariah is still for “all the tribes of Israel” mentioned at the beginning of chapter 9, and most of Judah was taken into captivity by the Assyrians along with the House of Joseph, which is also mentioned along with Judah in that same chapter 10 of Zechariah.

In the words of Zechariah at the beginning of chapter 10, it is clearly evident that the primary focus of the ensuing prophecy is in the far vision, for the “time of the latter rain”. In ancient Israel, the latter rain was the season which preceded the harvest. But prophetically, this is a reference not to a particular time of the year as Zechariah wrote. Rather it must be a reference to the great harvest so frequently spoken of by Yahshua Christ, and also prophesied by Joel, where the children of Israel may expect those remarkable gifts from God which are promised where Yahweh had said that “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.”

We then saw that the subject of the prophecy in Zechariah chapter 10 could not have been the 70-weeks Kingdom for another reason: because Ephraim, the name which came to stand for the ten northern tribes of the Assyrian captivity, was a subject of the prophecy as well as Judah. The remnant of the 70-weeks kingdom, while it was referred to as the “two tribes” and the “house of Judah”, could not truly stand for all Judah, and certainly did not stand for Ephraim. Going back to Zechariah chapter 9, we see that the subject of the prophecy is “all the tribes of Israel”, and therefore Yahweh God never neglected the Israelites of the ancient dispersions, who ultimately inhabited most of Europe and became the Christian nations. As we explained in the oracle contrasting the sons of Yahweh with the sons of Javan, the proof is in ancient history, that the Christian nations of Europe were “all the tribes of Israel” of Zechariah’s prophecy, because they alone fulfilled the things which Zechariah had said would come of those tribes.

The Prophecy of Zechariah – Part 9: Prophet of the Revelation

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The Prophecy of Zechariah – Part 9: Prophet of the Revelation

Zechariah did not prophecy the Revelation of Yahshua Christ in the sense of revealing its publication or describing it ahead of time, so in that sense our subtitle is purposely in error. What Zechariah did, however, was provide a prophecy through which Yahweh God provided many things that would later also be provided to the apostle John in the Revelation of Yahshua Christ. So the prophecy of Zechariah supplies many parallels to oracles given in the Revelation, and in that manner it acts as a second witness to the Word of God found in the Revelation.

Through eleven chapters of Zechariah we have illustrated the near visions and the far visions of the prophet, the prophecies which seem to apply to the 70-weeks kingdom, and the prophecies which must transcend the 70-weeks Kingdom, and apply instead to the people of God found in the children of Israel who had long been scattered abroad. However the visions share a common purpose. The very existence of the 70-weeks Kingdom was for the preparation of a place for the coming of the Messiah, and it served as the venue for His coming. This made possible His ultimate reconciliation with the children of Israel scattered abroad, which was the objective of His being. As it says in the 114th Psalm, “Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion”, and thus it has been.

So in the last few chapters especially, we see that Zechariah’s prophecy has been focused upon the woman who was taken off into Chaldea for judgment, which stands for the allegorical Babylon where her house would also be built, and this includes “all the tribes of Israel” both of the house of Joseph, or the ten northern tribes, and the house of Judah, the two remaining tribes. Now here in these closing chapters, on the surface it appears as if only Judah falls within the scope of the prophecy, because names such as Joseph and Ephraim are no longer mentioned. But that is not the case….

The Prophecy of Zephaniah

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The Prophecy of Zephaniah

If the editors of the King James Version of the Bible sought to order the minor prophets chronologically, then Zephaniah is probably just a little out of place, as it seems that the book should have preceded Habakkuk in order. This is because Habakkuk had made no mention of Nineveh as a world power while in Zephaniah chapter 2 we read an oracle against Nineveh, where it says: “13 And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.” This indicates that Assyria is about to be judged by Yahweh and therefore Zephaniah wrote his prophecy before 612 BC, which is the generally accepted year of Nineveh's destruction. Zephaniah himself tells us that he prophesied during the reign of the good king Josiah, who likely ruled Judah from about 640 BC down to about 609 BC.

We had argued while presenting the prophecy of Habakkuk that he had probably prophesied after the fall of Nineveh, since he never mentions the city or the Assyrians, and even then after the death of Josiah and before the coming of the Babylonians to Judah, which was between 608 and 601 BC. Therefore Zephaniah is probably the next-to-last of the prophets of the Kingdom of Judah whose writings have survived to us, while Habakkuk is probably the last of the Old Kingdom prophets whom we know.

Most of the Book of Zephaniah was also preserved in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and we may examine readings from that source and from the Septuagint where they may improve our understanding of the words of the prophet.

Zephaniah 1:1 The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

Zephaniah's name may be interpreted to mean “Yahweh had treasured”. The names of Zephaniah's ancestors seem to tell us a story. Hizkiah may be interpreted as “Yahweh is my strength”, Amariah as “Yahweh speaks”, as he does through the prophet, Gedaliah as “Yahweh is great”, but Cushi means only “their blackness”. It seems that the names of Hezekiah and his ancestors tell us a story, that what Yahweh has treasured will emerge from out of the blackness, or metaphorically from out of the disgrace of His people, as they are about to be disgraced. This theme is inferred later in his prophecy.

Malachi - Christogenea on Talkshoe 09-30-2011

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Comments written on January 26th, 2017, as I begin to prepare a more formal presentation of Malachi:

Back in September of 2011 Christogenea had a server crash. At that time we had only 2 servers, the second one was very small, and it took all week to put the main server and websites back together again. We had little sophistication at that early time, and no online backups. So come Friday, whereas we had no time to prepare a program, we did an extemporaneous presentation of Malachi. Now, over six years later, we can finally endeavor to present a fuller commentary for this wonderful book of prophecy.

In our first Malachi presentation, we may have been more specific in some areas, we were not quite as accurate as we would have like to have been in others, especially concerning when it was that Malachi had prophesied. We could have also elaborated to a greater extent on many details. Now we pray that we can atone for at least some of our shortcomings.

When this new commentary is ready, it will be found here: https://christogenea.org/podcasts/malachi-commentary

- William Finck

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