Module; missiology. Name: Theresa .N. Ozoemenam. Date:13/10/07
WE recond that the book of Ezra recounts the efforts of the exiles who have come back to Babylon in order to rebuild the temple of the Lord. During this peroid Jeshua was the high priest who wanted a proper worship and ceremonies which associated with being restored in the city of Jerusalem. After many years God sent Ezra to Jerusalem to teach the people of Israel the statutes of the Mosiac law. Ezra was a very knowledgeable prophet of God. This shows that mission existed in the prophets as God would have it to be among his disobedience people.
The book Nehemiah is said to mean ‘Jehovah comforts’. Nehemiah ’s concern was about the name of the Lord was not being esteemed as it should have been because the city of God was in ruins. These people helpless and cannot defend themselves. Neh.1:3 but as a result, Nehemiah was concerned to take up this task of rebuilding the city and reestablishing civil authority in Jerusalem. However, this book demostrated the very fact that God Almighty can use even individuals who do not acknowledge Him as the one and only true God to accomplish His purpose. Nehemiah served under the heathen king, but still God touched the heart of Artaxerxes so that he was able and willing to supply Nehemiah with the means to build Jerusalem. We also can see this as true in other biblical characters such as in case of Ezra, Esther and Daniel who also served under the umbralla of heathen kings. This also shows of God’s power and authority over all creatures and how God can use any man to fulfill His mission of reconciling Himself to His people.
The theme of this book explains the meaning of the name Isaiah the prophet is ‘the Lord saves’ or the Lord is saviour. It is in this book that we have more prophecies about Messiah than in any other book of the old testament. Because of the plan of the salvation is very comprehensive, revealing in the work of Isaiah that even Augustine called it the fifth Gospel. Even some scholars have referred the book of Isaiah as the bible in miniature. As a prohpet Isaiah’s prophecies were used to riase hope for Israelites who were spiritually destitute. Hos4:1,2, 6-8, Amos2:6-8.
Jeremaiah means whom Jehovah has appointed. This mighty man of God was appointed for a great mission even before his birth. Jer.1:5. His mission and message was cheifly one of judgement upon Judah because of his shameful and persistent sins. Jer. 1:10. Jeremaiah was called as a weeping prophet but he received some great visions of promise, the return from captivity, chapt.25;29 the new covenant chapt.31 and the whole ultimate return of the Messaiah to Jerusalem chapt.23. It was Jeremaiah and Christ that fortold and wept over the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Jer,22:5-7, Matt.23:37-39. And each of them were rejected by his own people. Jer.20:1-3, 36:32 and John 1:11. This shows how God uses mission to justify his peolpe and to plant a solidarity among His nation and the nations of the world.
The book of Ezekiel means God strengthens and contrbutes to endurance that Ezekiel under went. Ezekiel recived visions of both contemporary and future events relating to Jerusalem. Ezekiel’s prophecies are of impeding disaster of Jerusalem’s fall chapt.1-24, the judgements pronounced on surrounding nations chapt.25-32 and the future hopes and trials of God’s people chpt.33-48. Thus, the purpose of Ezekiel’s book isexplained as follows:
(1) to show that Judah and jerusalem were being judged for their sins.
(2) to really encourage the exiles with prophecies of God’s future blessing on Israel, and
(3) to lay emphasis on God’s glory as well as His character which is most important to the people of God.
Daniel meaning ‘my God is judge’ shows the sovereingty of God’s control over all events in the history of humanity. The things which appear in Daniel’s visions such like the great statue, the beasts, the angelic messangers, and the description of God’s glory are also being potrayed in the book of Revelation.
The prophecies of Hosea and Amos are alike. Hosea was asked to solidarise the relationship between God and Israel thruogh his marriage to a prostitute while Amos was asked by God to declare and pronounce judgement on the rebelious people of Israel. As Amos means a burden and his mission to the people of Israel was to repent and follow the ways of God.
Therefore, the mission in the prophets are of justice, solidarity and mysticism of God to restore and rule His people for ever more.
