Consider three sets of movie quotes. Here is set one. All three should be very familiar to you.
I’ll give you the quote, you provide the name of the movie. First quote: “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” Second quote: “Go ahead, make my day.” Third quote: “There’s no crying in baseball!” If you said, The Godfather, Sudden Impact and A League of their Own, you win the first category. Here is set two. All three of these quotes are related because all three are angry statements. Again, you get to name the movie. Fourth quote: “I’m walking here! I’m walking here!” Fifth quote: “You can’t handle the truth!” Sixth quote: “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!” If you said Midnight Cowboy, A Few Good Men and Wizard of OZ, you have won the second set. Here is the third set. What connects these three is that they are all hopeful, and I hope you can name the three movies. Seventh quote: “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” Eighth quote: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Ninth quote: “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” And number ten: “It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. . . . it is our choices.” You should have named The Lord of the Rings, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Shawshank Redemption, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Congratulations on naming all ten movies. Now, for our bonus question: How does any of this relate to the prophets?
For the past eight weeks we have been looking at Christopher Wright’s book, The Old Testament in Seven Sentences (IVP Academic, Downers Grove, IL, 2019). Last week, I confessed that what Wright was attempting to do was a lot more difficult than what I originally thought it would be. As it turns out, it was close to impossible because any choice you make, there are a dozen more that are equally as good or better. As a result, our choices (those things that show what we truly are) reveal that most of us make our selections based on what stirs us alongside of what we are trying to accomplish in our selections. Wright chose seven verses that gave him a springboard to talk about the whole Old Testament (his purpose was to provide a short introduction to the OT). My choices originated out of a different motivation. I want you to fall in love with these passages and be so excited about them that you will want to read the Old Testament (or at least a section of it). Hence, the movie quotes.
Most people could easily cite the first three movie quotes. They are well known and frequently used. These quotes represent those verses in the Old Testament Prophets that everyone knows (usually because they speak of the promised Messiah and are mentioned in the New Testament.) If you were to ask people to name three verses from the prophetic books, they would probably mention Isaiah 9 (we read it every Christmas), Isaiah 53 (we read it every time we have communion) and Zechariah 9 (we read it every Palm Sunday). They are verses everyone knows. The second set of movie quotes are all angry quotes. If they are directed at you, they are terrifying. If not, they are a bit entertaining or, at least, engaging. This set represents those verses in the prophets where the prophets are railing against the sin of the people (we looked at seven of the most passionate of the angry passages last week). Sadly, most people think the prophetic books are made up of either messianic predictions or prophecies of doom and gloom. But there is a third set of quotes; they are the hopeful quotes, and the Old Testament is filled with passages of great hope and encouragement. Don’t believe me? Here are seven of the best (at least, in my opinion; you get to say if I am mistaken).
Number 1: Isaiah 40:25-31– “Second” Isaiah is Second to None
“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
God gives strength to the weary and comfort to his people in exile. And the best news yet: God never forgets his own.
Number 2: Jeremiah 31:31-36—Jeremiah and the Promise of the New Covenant
“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” This is what the LORD says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD Almighty is his name: “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the LORD, “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.”
When we drink of the cup, this is the covenant of which we are partaking. And as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we remember that God has forgotten our sins. This is the promise we embrace every Communion Sunday.
Number 3: Ezekiel 36:24-28—Ezekiel’s New Covenant Sermon
“For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.”
This is the promise of God, to gather us together, to wash us clean, to give us a new heart and to put his Spirit in us. And we will be his people. Ezekiel knew exactly what we needed and he proclaimed a salvation for sinners; a salvation for us.
Number 4: Hosea 14:1-8—Hosea’s Prayer of Repentance and God’s Promise of Pardon
Return, Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount warhorses. We will never again say ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.” “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. People will dwell again in his shade; they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like the vine—Israel’s fame will be like the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a flourishing juniper; your fruitfulness comes from me.”
Jesus said in Luke 11, “When you pray, say. . . .” Hosea says, “When your repent, say. . . .” Few passages unpack a theology of repentance so powerfully.
Number 5: Joel 2:28-32—Joel’s “Pentecostal” Sermon
“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.” And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.
Long before Acts 2, Joel looked forward to the day when the Spirit would be poured out on men and women alike. Joel’s words are our reality. Do we share in Joel’s joy?
Number 6: Amos 9:11-15—Amos’ Sermon on the Restoration of David’s Fallen Hut
“In that day I will restore David’s fallen shelter—I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins and will rebuild it as it used to be, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name,” declares the LORD, who will do these things. “The days are coming,” declares the LORD “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the LORD your God.
David’s house was now nothing more than a fallen hut. Its walls were broken and its buildings laid in ruins. David’s kingdom had apparently run its course. But Amos had a vision. God was not done with his people. David’s kingdom would once again be restored. The king was coming to claim his throne.
Number 7: Micah 4:1-5—Micah’s Vision of the Kingdom of God
In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken. All the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.
There is coming a day when God will establish his kingdom on earth and peace will flood over the earth. And the world will come to him so that they may learn to walk in his paths. But Israel is already there. They are already walking in the name of their God. The question is: Where will we be?
These are my seven favorite hope-filled passages from the Prophets. My hope is that they will entice you to go the Prophets more often and begin reading them on a regular basis because it will be time well spent. In fact, I hope you will fall in love with the Prophets and, in the words of my favorite movie, Casablanca, that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
