Will Vaus

Today in our journey through the 66 books of the Bible we are visiting the book of the minor prophet, Zephaniah. Handling the "waiting rooms" of life is one of the hardest things there is in human experience. Zephaniah speaks to us of "waiting on the Lord". This perspective can transform our waiting experiences...   Author   According to Zephaniah 1:1, the prophet was a descendant of Hezekiah, a notable king of Judah from 715 to 686 BCE. Zephaniah’s utterances suggest a familiarity with court circles and current political issues. Zephaniah was probably familiar with the writings of such prominent eighth-century prophets as Isaiah and Amos, whose utterances he reflects. But for almost a century after Isaiah and Amos, we have no record of any great prophets among God’s people. Then, Zephaniah explodes on the scene.    Date   According to Zephaniah 1:1, Zephaniah prophesied during the reign of Josiah who was King of Judah from 640 to 609 BCE. After Zephaniah there ...

Many years ago, Rev. Ralph Stockman said, "The hinge of history is on the door of a Bethlehem stable." Some have also claimed that the hinge of history is found in one verse in the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk. We will see why in a few moments...  Author   Little is known about Habakkuk as a person. He is not mentioned in any other book of the Bible outside this one that bears his name. Traditionally it was thought that Habakkuk was a contemporary of Jeremiah. There is also a legendary account of Habakkuk ministering to the needs of Daniel in the lions’ den in the Apocryphal book  Bel and the Dragon .   Date   The presumed setting for this book is after the rise of Babylon as a world power in 612 BCE. The prophecy may have been written down a little before or after the battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE, when Egyptian forces, who had earlier gone to the aid of the last Assyrian king, were routed by the Babylonians under Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar and were pu...

Today in our journey through the 66 books of the Bible we come to the minor prophet, Nahum.   Author   The traditional view is that Nahum was a prophet in the time of King Manasseh of Judah and that Nahum himself is the author of this book. Some modern scholars think the book was written later, making both the prophet Nahum and Nineveh symbolic of good vs. evil.    The name “Nahum” is related to the name “Nehemiah” and means “comfort”. Nothing is known about Nahum other than the name of his hometown, Elkosh, whose location remains uncertain.   Whoever the author of this book was, he was, indeed, a poet. Amidst vivid descriptions of fiery judgment, the prophet/poet Nahum has such great lines as this…   His way is in the whirlwind   and the storm,      and clouds   are the dust of his feet. (1:3)   I don’t know about you, but in my canon of great literature, and poetry in particular, I think images such as the clouds being t...