Summary
Rugged: Flowers in the Harshest Stretch of the Prophets
The most rugged terrain in the prophetic books belongs to Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. These prophets minister in the shadow of the Babylonian crisis, when judgment long foretold finally falls. Yet even here—perhaps especially here—God causes flowers of promise to bloom suddenly amid the desert of wrath. The setting was already announced through Isaiah, who decades before named the destruction, the deportation, and even Cyrus, the Persian king who would release the people in 539 BC, at a time when Persia did not yet exist as a kingdom (Isaiah 39:6; Isaiah 44:24). When Babylon finally came in 586 BC, Judah had no excuse for surprise.
Jeremiah, called to his office before he was even formed in the womb Jeremiah 1:4, is the weeping prophet. The message broke his heart, but he proclaimed it faithfully: pride, idolatry, and rebellion would bring darkness upon Judah Jeremiah 13:15. When the city fell, King Zedekiah's sons were slaughtered before his eyes, his eyes were then put out, and he was dragged in chains to Babylon Jeremiah 39:1. To the stunned exiles who hoped for a quick rescue, Jeremiah wrote to settle in: build houses, plant gardens, marry, and seek the welfare of the city, for the exile would last seventy years Jeremiah 29:4. Embedded in that hard counsel is one of Scripture's brightest flowers: "I know the plans I have for you…plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope." A second flower follows in the promise of a new covenant—not like the broken covenant of Sinai, but one written on the heart, sealed in the forgiveness of sins, and fulfilled, as Hebrews 8 teaches, in Jesus Christ Jeremiah 31:31.
Jeremiah's warning against false prophets in that same letter still speaks. Then and now, there will always be voices eager to tell people what they want to hear. The faithful teacher's task is not to dispense personal opinion but to proclaim "thus says the Lord." This is why confessional Lutheran preaching insists on the Word of God rather than the preferences of the hearer or the speaker. The teacher tells the hearer not what is wanted, but what is needed.
Ezekiel, both priest and prophet, was deported to Babylon and called there in 593 BC. He was sent to a "rebellious house"—a phrase that hammers through his commission—and told to speak God's words whether the people listened or refused Ezekiel 2:1. His message clarified that the exile was not God's abandonment but the just consequence of the people's sin. And yet a great flower opens in the valley of dry bones: scattered Israel, lifeless and hopeless, will hear the Word of the Lord, and God himself will lay sinews on them, cover them with flesh, and breathe life into them again Ezekiel 37:4.
Daniel, a contemporary of Ezekiel, served in the highest levels of the Babylonian government throughout the exile. His theme is that no one should look at present circumstances and conclude that God has lost his throne. The flower in Daniel is the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, receiving everlasting dominion and a kingship that shall never be destroyed Daniel 7:13. Jesus quoted these very words about himself before the Sanhedrin; the leaders understood exactly what he was claiming, and it earned him the death sentence. Habakkuk, likely writing alongside Jeremiah, gives the line that would echo through Paul's letters and the Reformation: "the righteous shall live by his faith" Habakkuk 2:4. And Zephaniah, prophesying as Judah's last days closed in, ends his rugged book with grace, as if God refused to leave his people with the desert as the final word.
This is the pattern across the Rugged 1-20-19 stretch of the prophets: weeping that gives way to a new covenant, dry bones that receive breath, exile that points to the Son of Man, judgment that yields to "the righteous shall live by faith," and a closing word of grace. The desert is real, and so is God's wrath against sin. But the desert is never God's final word to his people. The flower is.
Video citations
- Rugged 1-20-19 — Well, we have been walking these past few weeks in this series of entitled Flowers in the Desert and just to refresh where we were last week, we were taking a look at the book of Isaiah. That is…