A chastened remnant returns
God, in his mercy, did not destroy Judah completely when he judged her. Seventy years after the final destruction of Jerusalem, he moved in the hearts of his exiled people through his prophets, and even in the hearts of secular kings, to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and also to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls. The purpose of the minor prophetic books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, is to exhort he nation of Judah as they rebuild.
When it comes to the topic of good works, as we saw before, we also see in these books the clear distinction between unique individual good works performed to accomplish this task of rebuilding, and communal good works, which God, through his prophets, once again enjoins the nation as a whole to do. As to the nature of what communal good works are, once again the post exilic prophetical books give us clear teaching on this subject in three specific passages, one of which is of special importance.
The practice of good works in Old Testament post exilic prophetic books
The post exilic prophetic books contain one example of people doing individual good works — building the temple — and one example of people doing communal good works — mass public repentance.
- Haggai 1:12 – Zerubbabel and Joshua begin work on the second temple.
- Zechariah 1:6 – The people repent.
As we have seen universally throughout the Old Testament, all individual good works are unique and teleological. God called Zerubbabel and Joshua to rebuild the temple in order to achieve an end: pure worship by God’s covenant people. On the other hand, when Zechariah tells us that the people repented in a brief spiritual revival, their repentance is communal in nature and represents a people who are ready to do God’s will “on earth as it is in heaven.”
The teaching of good works in Old Testament post exilic prophetic books
The Old Testament post exilic prophetic books are neither didactic nor narrative literature, but hortative in nature. Nevertheless, there are three passages in Zechariah and Malachi that remind his people about what kind of lives God wants his returning remnant to live.
- Zechariah 7:8-12 -“And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’ “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry.”
- Zechariah 8:14-17 – “This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Just as I had determined to bring disaster on you and showed no pity when your ancestors angered me,” says the Lord Almighty, “so now I have determined to do good again to Jerusalem and Judah. Do not be afraid. These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the Lord.”
- Malachi 3:5 – “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.”
A summary of Zechariah and Malachi’s teaching about communal good works
The focus of these passages is on how God’s people are to treat each other in a heaven-influenced society that exists in a Satan-dominated world. Here are the distinctives of a culture where God’s will is done “on earth as it is in heaven.”
- Administer true justice
- Show mercy and compassion to one another
- Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor
- Do not plot evil against each other
- Speak the truth to each other
- Render true and sound judgement in your courts
- Do not plot evil against each other
- Do not love to swear falsely
- God will testify against
- Sorcerers
- Adulters
- Perjurers
- Those who defraud laborers of their wages
- Those who oppress widows, the fatherless
- Those who defraud foreigners of justice
- Those who do not fear God
I want to emphasize one of these three passages in particular, for it serves as a coda for all of the previous Old Testament passages regarding communal good works that we have looked at.. That passage is Zechariah 7:8ff. In it God gives a summary of communal good works and then warns the returning remnant not to make the same mistake their ancestors made: that of not listening to the “earlier prophets” regarding their teaching about communal good works.
Who were the “earlier prophets” God refers back to in Zechariah?
The earlier prophets that God refers to in Zechariah were Isaiah and Jeremiah and here is where we find their communal good work commands that the people ignored:
- Isaiah 1:16-20 – “Take up the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”
- Isaiah 55:6-7 – “Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts.:
- Isaiah 56:1 – “Maintain justice and do what is right.”
- 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.”
- Jeremiah 7:1-7 – “Do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place.”
- Jeremiah 22:1-5 – “Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.”
Thus, by citing “the earlier prophets,” Zechariah 7:8ff, substantiates our emphasis on the distinction in the Old Testament between individual good works that are unique to each person, place and time, as opposed to communal good works that apply to all believers in all places, in all circumstances, and in all times. As such, Zechariah 7:8-12 stands as a reminder to the church not to make the same mistake as our spiritual ancestors did of ignoring these commands to do communal good works.
This post concludes my review of the Old Testament’s teaching about, and practice of, good works. In my next post, I will begin a review of the New Testament’s teaching on this important topic.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org
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