Bible in a Year - The Prophets

So, only about 2 weeks left in the Bible in a year.  I’ll write more about the overall as we get closer to the end of the year but a reflection has been stirring for me about the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures.  The prophets can be a tough read in many ways.  While there are beautifully encouraging and poetic parts, there are also plenty of areas where it is pretty difficult to read.  Messages of punishment, purges, overthrows, destruction, and the list goes on.  In a small group where we have been talking through this all year, the question regularly arises, “Why is all this here?” or some variation upon it.  I wonder if maybe these two photos speak to some of an answer for that.

The top panorama was from in November of 2021 and the one below was from just about a week ago from roughly the same location looking the same direction.  One still has the autumn colors and a frosty field on a cold but beautiful morning with the sun rising.  The second is drab - the colors have faded, the leaves have fallen, the sky is cloudy, and the field is empty.  About a week before the second photo, the nature center did a controlled burn of the area in an effort to try to eliminate non-native plants and to provide an opportunity for native plants to begin to grow.

There are many ways non-native plants take root but often it is because someone thought that it looked good somewhere else and brought it home and planted it there and then it spread.  (I’m looking at you whoever brought Kudzu).  And then it takes over.  And then it is really hard to get rid of.  (I’m looking at you honeysuckle).

So as I took in the bottom scene of the burned out field I wondered if the actions attributed to God in the prophets were more simply the end results of the peoples’ actions.  God, through the prophets, warned them that their actions would head down a bad road and that’s exactly what happened.  And then the process to get back to what once was is a hard and painful road as well, much like the ugliness of the controlled burn here.

I’m still wrestling with all of this but there definitely is some resonance for me with these two photos and what has been and continues to be shared through the prophets.