The next prophet in the order of the Old Testament is Zechariah; a book which, like all the preceding, is intimately connected with the Apocalypse of the Anointed Jesus. Zechariah was contemporary with Zerubbabel, Joshua the High Priest, and Haggai, and prophesied about 520 years before the birth of Jesus.
Haggai prophesied about a century after Zephaniah; and was contemporary with Zechariah, and the rebuilding of the Temple after the return from Babylon. He stirred the people up to finish it. Zerub- babel, son of David, and ancestor of Joseph the husband of Mary, and of Mary and Jesus, was Governor of Judah under the Persians; and Joshua, the son of Josedech, high priest.
Zephaniah was contemporary with Jeremiah, and prophesied in the reign of Josiah, king of Judah. Jehovah declared by him, that he would utterly consume all things, constituting Judah’s commonwealth, from off the Holy Land. This was to come to pass, because Jerusalem “obeyed not the voice; received not correction; trusted not in Jehovah; drew not near to her Elohim.
Now while Nahum looked at the latter day deliverance of Israel through the fall of Nineveh, Habakkuk contemplated the same consummation through the typical fall of Nebuchadnezzar’s Dynasty. He saw Babylon in the plenitude of its power.
Nahum saw Israel oppressed by Nineveh; and predicted its overthrow, because its monarch was wicked, and imagined evil against Jehovah. But Israel’s deliverance from the Assyrian by the fall of Nineveh was only the type of a greater deliverance at the apocalypse of Messiah.
Micah was contemporary with the times of Amos and Isaiah.
Edom, in the prophecies concerning the restoration of Israel’s kingdom in “the latter days,” is representative of the enemies of Jacob, banded together under the guardianship of Gog, who is then the Chief of the House of Esau. Obadiah had a vision of this Confederacy, occupying a similar relationship to Israel hereafter, that Edom did in the typical times of the prophet.
Amos, who was contemporary with Isaiah, adds his testimony to a like effect. He says that Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; but that he will do nothing without first revealing it unto his servants the prophets.
Joel, though brief, is very explicit, and coincident with the above. After predicting terrible calamities upon Israel and their country by the lions of Assyria, and others, he consoles the nation with the assurance that after the Gentiles had filled up the measure of their abominations, Jehovah will be jealous for his land and will pity his people; and that they shall no more be made a reproach among the nations.
Hosea declares that Judah shall be saved by Jehovah their Elohim; that is, by Messiah; that in the countries where it is now said to them, “Ye are not the people of Jehovah,” there they shall be called, “The sons of the living God.” He says also, that at that time Judah and Israel shall become a united nation, and agree to place themselves under One Chief; that he shall betroth the nation to himself for the Aion; that they shall