Toward a Practical Theology of Good Works: The Practice and Teaching of Good Works in Old Testament Major Prophets

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When God decided to burn it all down

“It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Hebrews 10:31

Patience, the Bible tells us, is not a permanent attribute of God. His patience can, and does, run out. God is longsuffering, yes, but he is not eternally longsuffering. When it comes to sinners, they eventually reach a point of no return. That tipping point is unstoppable wrath which God pours out on those who incorrigibly reject him, stomp on his holiness, take pleasure in breaking his laws, and revel in worshipping other gods. They provoke God to wrath and love doing so.

Burning Israel and Judah down

For Israel — the northern ten tribes that broke away from Judah and Benjamin to their south and whose kings were unanimously evil — the tipping point came in 722 BC when Shalmaneser V, the king of Assyria, invaded the country, destroyed its capital Samaria, and dispersed the population throughout the civilized world. Never again would “the lost ten tribes of Israel” be reconstituted.

For Judah, God’s wrathful tipping point came 136 years later, largely due to the fact that some of Judah’s kings were good. But some were incredibly evil and so, in 586 BC, God did indeed pour out his wrath on Judah when the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar II, invaded the land (for the third time), destroyed Jerusalem along with the temple, and took almost all of the population captive to Babylon. It would be seventy long years before their descendants returned to Jerusalem, rebuilt its walls, and erected a second temple, later known as Herod’s Temple.

God’s burning wrath was on display

“ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people,

who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” Romans 1:18

But simply recounting these historical facts misses the important point that both of these judgements were devastating. They were so horrific that the Bible dedicates dozens of chapters in the  prophetic books to describing them in hair-raising detail. God showed Israel and Judah no mercy, resulting in desolation, moral debasement, and starvation so extreme that multiple passages describe Jews resorting to eating their own children (Jeremiah 19:9; Lamentations 2:20; 4:10; Ezekiel 5:10).

We must be saved from God’s wrath because of our sin

“Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 

Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?

I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them

—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?

I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Luke 13:1-5

When Christians today talk about having been “saved,” we are referring to this terrifying wrath of God because of our sin. Praise God that he “did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9). My prayer for anyone reading this who has not put their faith in Jesus Christ as God’s provision for our sin is that you do so now and “save yourselves from this corrupt generation” (Acts 2:40).

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world,

but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17

Problem: How did God burn it all down without destroying his people’s faith in him?

However, there was a problem with these judgements on Israel and Judah. God had made certain unbreakable promises to Abraham and David regarding their descendants. God promised Abraham in the Abrahamic Covenant that his descendants would become as numerous as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5, Under ideal conditions, the naked eye can see only 2,500 to 3,000 stars in the sky. Unbeknown to Abraham, the number of stars in the universe is estimated by scientists to be approximately 10,000 billion billion). God also promised King David in the Davidic Covenant that he would have an eternal kingdom, an eternal throne, and an eternal dynasty (2 Samuel 7:12-16).

But now, here we are. In fulfillment of the prophets’ prediction of doom, both the northern and southern kingdoms have been destroyed. The temple has been raided and burned. And the people have either been killed in battle, left destitute, or banished to a foreign country.

How is it that Judaism survived these two debacles? Why didn’t the Jewish race simply lose its identity and disappear the same way the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, and Canaanites disappeared at this time? (All of these were contemporaneous cultures surrounding Judah and all of them also experienced devastating judgements.) No one in today’s world has met a Philistine, a Moabite, an Ammonite, an Edomite, or a Canaanite. But most of us, if not all of us, have met a Jew.

How did this happen? How is it that the Jewish race still exists and Jews still worship this God who judged them so severely?

Solution: Enter the Old Testament prophets

The only reason the Jewish race still exists following these judgements is because of the ministries of the Old Testament prophets as they obeyed the Lord. Here is how it happened.

1. The prophets told their fellow Jews that God was going to judge them for their sin.
2. The prophets told them exactly how God was going to judge them.
3. The prophets explained how God was also going to judge the cultures that surrounded them.
4. The prophets gave the Jews the opportunity to repent (more on this later).
5. The prophets told their people what was going to happen after God judged them and then gave them hope
6. Then it all happened exactly the way the prophets said it would.

In other words, even though Jews at this time experienced these horrible judgements, because of the ministry of the biblical prophets, the Jews who survived them (called the “remnant” in Is 10:20-22; 11:11-12; 37:31-32; Jer 23:3; 31:7; 42:2; Ez 6:8; 14:22; 36:6; Dan 9:16-17; 12:1) understood clearly that what they were experiencing came from God, that they deserved what was happening, and that God still loved them and had a future for them. That is, the Jews and their faith survived because the biblical prophets held their hand and walked with them through their judgements to the other side.

“In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer lean on him who struck them,

but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return.” Isaiah 10:20-22

The Old Testament prophets set the stage for the coming Messiah and the founding of the church

In addition, because of the work of these prophets, many important developments happened following the fall of Israel and Judah, developments that prepared the way for the coming of Jesus and the establishment of the church.

For example, after these two periods of judgement, Jews never again reverted to idolatry. Indeed, during the intertestamental period that followed, many Jews became obsessive about observing the Mosaic Law, especially laws relating to the Sabbath. In the Gentiles towns and cities where they had been dispersed, Jews lived separate lives within these communities and thereby were able to retain their identity.

Furthermore, Jews who had been dispersed throughout the civilized world founded synagogues in their communities for worship. It was in these synagogues that Jesus and Paul would teach and proclaim the gospel. At the same time, those who returned to The Promise Land after the 70 years of captivity in Babylon rebuilt the temple. It was in this temple that Jesus and his disciples ministered. Finally, Jews in the intertestamental period codified the Jewish Testament and translated it into Greek (the Septuagint), which had become the language of the civilized world. This common language, along with a Jewish Bible in Greek, greatly facilitated the propagation of the gospel.

All of these positive things happened even though the Jews had experienced God’s judgement because the prophets had faithfully and fearlessly proclaimed what God had revealed to them; in other words, because of their good works.

In all, there are 16 prophets who wrote 16 prophetic books in the Old Testament: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Naham, Habbakuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachai. In this post, I will look at the first four prophets — commonly known as the Major Prophets because of the length of their writings , which total 136 chapters — to learn what they reveal about good works.

The practice of good works by Old Testament major prophets

Three of the four major prophets had ministries that overlapped each other, while Isaiah’s ministry predated the other three by several decades. Here is a a brief description of each of their ministries.

• Isaiah (Active ministry: 740–700 BC, spanning the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah)

Isaiah lived in Judah and prophesied against the moral decay of both Judah and Samaria (Israel). Isaiah predicted Samaria’s fall, which happened in 722 BC when Shalmaneser V, King of Assyria, conquered it. Later, when Assyrian King Sennacherib laid siege to Jerusalem, Isaiah predicted that the siege would fail, which happened in 701 BC, the events of which are recorded in both the Bible and in Sennacherib’s annals.

• Jeremiah (Active ministry: 627–586 BC, spanning the reign of King Josiah to the fall of Jerusalem)

Jeremiah’s ministry and Daniel’s ministry overlapped each other somewhat, but Jeremiah was much older and he stayed in Jerusalem through its final fall in 586 BC while Daniel was carried off to Babylon in the first Babylonian deportation in 605. Jeremiah ministered during the last Judean reigns and all three Babylonian deportations, including the siege of Jerusalem and its destruction along with the temple. He was eventually taken to Egypt.

• Ezekiel (Active ministry: 597–571 BC, from 2nd deportation to Babylon to the middle of the exilic years)

Following his exile from Jerusalem to Babylon in 597 BC, Ezekiel, a contemporary of both Jeremiah and Daniel, ministered to the exiles where he lived. He prophesied the fall of Jerusalem and predicted a future restoration of the city.

• Daniel (Active ministry: 605 BC – after 538 BC, from the 1st deportation to the edict of Cyrus and the first return to Jerusalem)

After being taken captive during Nebuchadnezzar’s first deportation to Babylon, Daniel served as a court official and prophet (he became head of the Magi) to both Babylonian and Persian kings. During this time, Daniel made predictions about the intertestamental period and beyond which were fulfilled so precisely that modern historians assume they were made after the fact and use them as historical source material. The Magi “from the east” who visited Jerusalem hundreds of years later and announced the birth of the “king of the Jews,” may have been utilizing Daniel’s prophecies when they made that announcement in Jerusalem.

Some of the good works that Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel did

• Isaiah 6:1-7 – Isaiah repents of his sin.
• Isaiah 6:8 – Isaiah volunteers himself to be sent by God to Israel and Judah as a prophet.
• Jeremiah 1:1-19 – Though he balks at first, Jeremiah responds to God’s call on his life.
• Jeremiah 7:1 – Jeremiah stands at the gate of the temple and proclaims the Lord’s message.
• Jeremiah 13:1-11 – Jeremiah buys a linen belt, wears it, then hides it as an illustration of God’s judgement.
• Jeremiah 19:1-10 – Jeremiah buys a jar and then breaks it at The Potsherd Gate in front of the elders as an illustration of God’s judgement.
• Jeremiah 32:1-34 – Jeremiah buys a field as an illustration of the Lord’s future restoration of the nation after 70 years in Babylonian captivity.
• Ezekiel 3:1-3 – Ezekiel eats a scroll.
• Ezekiel 4:1-17 – Ezekiel symbolizes the siege of Jerusalem.
• Ezekiel 5:1-17 – Ezekiel shaves his head as a symbol of God’s judgement.
• Ezekiel 12:1-20 – Ezekiel symbolizes the exile.
• Daniel 1:8-16 – Daniel refuses to eat the king’s food and drink his wine.
• Daniel 2:16-30 – Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
• Daniel 2:17-18 – Daniel and his friends pray for an interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
• Daniel 6:10 – Daniel consistently prays three times a day.
• Daniel 5:17-31 – Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall.
• Daniel 6:4 – Daniel maintains an exemplary life.
• Daniel 6:21-22 – Daniel exercises faith while in the lion’s den.

With the exception of Isaiah’s repentance of his sin, which all believers must do, all of these other good works are unique to the individual prophets. Because of their unquestioning obedience to God’s instructions, their good works result in the preservation of a “remnant” of believers in Babylonian captivity who would go on to reestablish their kingdom, temple, and ritual practices.

What is so outstanding about these good works is the circumstances these prophets did them in

These four prophets did their good works while experiencing the disintegration of their entire culture. Kings persecuted them. Their own people turned against them. False prophets prophesied against them. They were tortured and threatened with death. And finally, they had to adapt to an entirely foreign culture.

And yet, because these prophets stood firm, fearlessly proclaimed the word and will of God even when it was a devastating message, and did the good works God called them to do, the Jews and the Jewish faith prevailed and world history has never been the same.

We now come to the teaching about good works in the four Old Testament major prophetic books.

Examples of teaching about good works in Old Testament major prophets

Considering the amount of content (over 130 chapters) in the major prophets, the passages that teach about good works are relatively minor. This dearth of teaching  is not surprising because the main focus of these prophets is on the coming wrath of God in judgement for Israel and Judah’s sin. Consequently, most of the positive passages in these prophetic books look to a future time when God’s judgement has passed, the kingdom will be restored, and the Messiah has come.

But two of the four major prophets — Isaiah and Jeremiah — do hold out a glimmer of hope in their present time for their people. In seven passages, both Isaiah and Jeremiah, using similar language, list certain actions the people can take right at that moment to avoid their imminent judgement. All of these actions are what I have described previously as communal good works. Here is the list.

(For clarity, abstract exhortations to communal good works are in bold and concrete examples of these exhortations are in blue. For example, “Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” are concrete examples of the preceding abstract exhortations “Learn to do good; seek justice.“)

• Isaiah 1:16-20 – “Learn to do good; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” (v. 17)
• Isaiah 55:6-7 – “Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” (v. 7)
• Isaiah 56:1 – ““Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed.”
• Isaiah 58:1-12 – “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”
• Jeremiah 7:1-7 – “This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message: “‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.”
• Jeremiah 17:19–27 – “This is what the LORD says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors.”
• Jeremiah 22:1-5 – “This is what the Lord says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there: ‘Hear the word of the Lord to you, king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you, your officials and your people who come through these gates. This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. For if you are careful to carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by their officials and their people. But if you do not obey these commands, declares the Lord, I swear by myself that this palace will become a ruin.’”’

What, then, are we to make of these passages referencing communal good works in Isaiah and Jeremiah and how do they apply to us today? Here are some observations.

These commands to do communal good works should be understood within the context of God “indicting” Israel and Judah in his “celestial courtroom”

The imagery of God taking Israel and Judah to trial occurs several times in both Isaiah and Jeremiah (Isaiah 1:2-31; 3:13-15; 41:1-7; 43:8-13; 50:8-9; Jeremiah 2:4-13; 25:31-32). In Isaiah 1, for example, God begins by calling the inhabitants of heaven and earth as witnesses against Judah (1:2). Then he lists the charges against Judah (1:3-6). Then he presents his evidence (1:7-15).

The invitation to do these communal good works are an offer from God to “settle out of court” with Israel and Judah and avoid judgement

The trial in Isiah 1 looks dire for Judah until we get to verse 16, where God gives Judah an opportunity to “learn to do good” and avoid judgement (1:16-20). It is in this passage that we encounter the first reference to communal good works in the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and they take the form of “If…Then.” “If you will do x…Then I will do y.”

In Isaiah 1:16-20, this “if…then” formula appears like this: If Judah will “learn to do good” by taking up “the case of the fatherless” and pleading “the cause of the widow,” then God will completely transform their culture by making it “white as snow.” In other words, instead of pouring out his wrath on Judah, God is agreeing to institute a similar cultural reformation to the one that happened after Ruth “pleaded the case of the widow” Naomi and became the great-grandmother of King David, who ushered in spiritual revival and reformation following the cultural degradation of the Judges.

God’s offer of cultural transformation instead of wrathful judgement, repeated seven times in Isaiah and Jeremiah, hinges on Israel and Judah’s obedience to his communal commands

These communal commands, therefore, are “at the top of God’s mind,” so to speak, when he is dealing with Israel and Judah. They are of utmost importance to God and obedience to them is extremely potent spiritual medicine for any nation in decline and in risk of God’s judgement, which is why they are repeated so often in these two prophetic books.

Sadly, both Israel and Judah do not obey these communal commands and so the two nations are found “guilty” and suffer the punishment of God’s wrath

I have already covered the subject of God’s wrathful judgement on Israel and Judah above. Now we also see that God gave them fair warning and specific instructions on how they could avoid the awful judgements they were about to experience. But even then, they refused to settle out of court and remained obstinate and disobedient, leaving God no option but to carry them out.

Some observations

We see, then, that when it comes to the major prophets, the distinction I drew earlier in this series of posts between unique good works that God calls individual believers to do at certain times and places (such as Ezekiel eating a scroll) and communal good works that God calls all believers to do at all times and places (such as pleading the case of a widow) still applies. We also see again that with the major prophets that the purpose of their unique good works is to achieve a goal. In their case, the goal is the preservation of a remnant of believers following their judgement. On the other hand, doing communal good works is God’s end goal itself. Communal good works are believers doing the will of God “on earth as it is in heaven” and as such they reflect what God expects the kingdom of heaven in a fallen world to look like.

In future posts we will see how these passages on communal good works influenced the early church and became the bedrock for moral behavior in Western Civilization.

This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.

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