Reflection:
Our readings from the Old Testament these past three weeks take us into Israel’s history from the end of the exile in Babylon, the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple, to roughly one hundred years before the birth of Christ with the writing of Baruch.
The remnant that returned from Babylon met many obstacles. With opposition from their neighbors, poverty and reduced numbers, their energy and fervor to reconstruct the temple were not up to the task. Things were put on hold. Haggai and the first part of Zachariah recall the hopes of the people while in exile and the promises to rebuild the Temple. Writing fifty years after the exile, these prophets are at work stirring up the people to complete what were the dreams of exiled Israel.
Today, we hear of a totally different problem voiced by Malachi. It is now fifty years after the temple was constructed and dedicated, fervor has lessened, and there are abuses among the priests who serve in the temple!
You have defied me in word, says the Lord…
you will again see the distinction
between the just and the wicked;
Between the one who serves God,
and the one who does not serve him.
But for you who fear my name, there will arise
the sun of justice with its healing rays.
Obadiah and Joel will follow, showing a siege mentality and a narrow nationalism that has arisen in Israel.
Baruch will bring us to the end of the period, calling the people of his time to feel the oneness with their ancestors who went into exile, and to be aware not to follow the mistakes of the past.
How interesting that the lectionary gives us the reading of Jonah. Post-exilic, Jonah sets his story in the early exile under the Assyrians, in Nineveh, their great city. His story criticizes the emerging exclusiveness of Israel following the exile. Jonah will not go to the great enemy of Israel, and once delivered via whale, he is dismayed to see their response to God – they do penance, they turn from their evil ways. In the end, Jonah is angry with God. He wants destruction to rain down from heaven. But how patient God is not only with Nineveh but with his less-than-cooperative prophet, Jonah!
What stands out in these readings? Jonah’s critique of those who are not open to the universal love of God for all, the placing of boundaries around God’s mercy, and the prophetic vocation of Israel as a light to all the nations. We see great perseverance and dedication in Ezra and Nehemiah, true servants of God and the people how the human and divine become entangled, often in knots along history’s way. Israel’s ordinary history eventually flows into ours, the human and the divine meeting in a Savior. We must seek, knock and ask, listening to the Holy Spirit, since the knots of history do repeat themselves! For patience, perseverance and hope, we pray.
