The Father in the Old Testament Prophets

The weeping of the waiting Father
Isarel divided into two kingdoms in 922BC: the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. Both went astray seriously in the following two hundred years. God sent Hos4ea to prophecy a coming judgment through exile. Yet, we even in this we find the pain of the Heavenly Father over his people. Hosea 11: 1-4 reads, "When Israel was a child I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me… Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cord s of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to the cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them."

The father's promise to the returning prodigal.
Following a period of purification through exile, God allowed his people to return. They were slow to take up their responsibilities, but as they did so, the Father prophesied favourably through Haggai { Haggai 3: 20)

The dishonoured father's grief
After the return from exile, and before long, we hear of the Father’s grief over the leadership of the nation. Malachi 1: 6 "A son honours his father, and servants honour their master. If then I am a father, where is the honour due to me, says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name… When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not wrong?"

Sibling rivalry among the Father’s Children
Malachi 2: 7ff " Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?”

Lindsay Johnstone

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